Page 34 of Same Rogue
Bridger slipped his hand to her throat and squeezed gently as he leaned in. His lips pressed to hers, and he squared up his entire body to her. He kissed her gently then eased back. Eyes searching hers, he said, “I’m really sorry about last night.”
“No more ghosting me,” she murmured, clinging to his T-shirt with closed fists. “I hate it. It makes me feel empty and unimportant.”
He nodded. “I understand. I won’t do it again now that I know it hurts you. If I have a moment where I need some space, I’ll text you that I’m having a moment. Deal? Be patient with me though, okay? You have taken me completely by surprise.”
A smile consumed her lips, and her cheeks heated with a blush. “I have been surprised by you too.”
“Well, okay. This is guaranteed to be messy, and I can’t promise you that you won’t want to leave here to go back to Alabama in the morning. The day is young and I’m real good at pissing you off. I want you to stay another day.”
“One more day?”
“Sure. We can use that as our motto. One more day.”
Kit liked that.
“Only problem with that is it’s going to get too expensive to live like that for me. I made three hundred dollars last night, but this place has to be what? Two hundred bucks a night? It’s really nice here. There’s free breakfast and it’s the buffet kind. I think I need to switch to somewhere a little less fancy.”
“This hotel is safe. It’s in a good neighborhood.”
“I understand that, but I have other bills to pay, and I need to get food, and gas, and my McIver Pack fees are due.”
“How much are those?”
“A thousand a month.”
“Well, you’re not going to pay those this month. You’re Rogue until further notice.”
“Wait…you don’t have to pay Pack fees?”
“Nope.”
Her mind was blown right now. “But then how does your Pack function.”
“Technically we aren’t allowed to register as a Pack. Plus, where do you think Pack fees go?”
“I don’t know. To Repairs on Pack property?” She frowned, trying to remember a single time the Pack had helped her with anything in her last apartment. “Or paying for Pack meetings?” But that also didn’t make sense because in the McIver Pack, everyone was responsible for buying their own food for Pack meetings. And drinks. Everyone except for the Alpha and Second, who, now that she was thinking about it, didn’t have jobs.
“I can tell from the look on your face that you’re figuring out your Pack fees go to directly lining the upper ranks’ pockets.
“And the twelve hundred dollars in taxes each month,” she murmured.
“Oh yeah, they preach that you are taxed for being a werewolf and using government land and territory. Currently you are Rogue, so you don’t have to pay any of that bullshit.”
“Okay, but the rent for housing?”
“Every payment we make is toward any loan we took out. I don’t live on government land. The loan for the property was taken out by my Alpha’s mate, Nory, and is already paid in full because we pooled our money. All we pay is the property taxes each year now, and that’s a group effort, but the other fees? Nope.”
“So, you just keep your money?”
Bridger nodded, and his smile was stretching just the very corners of his lips. “Yep.”
“You just keep the extra twenty-two hundred dollars a month and just…”
“Keep it and spend it however we like.”
A little part of her felt like she’d won the lottery. But…
“I have to go back to the McIver Pack at some point. I mean once me and you run our course.”
