“She could be our ticket in anywhere!” Wyatt shouted. “We have to consider all of our options.”
I jerked my head away from the door and backed away in horror. I was right, they were going to try to turn me in. Tears filled my eyes and I couldn’t believe how stupid I had been. I knew male wolves weren’t good guys; I had years of experience that showed me that. And yet I had trusted these guys? What was wrong with me?
I backed away from the door and ran to the other side of the kitchen where there was a door that led outside to the back parking lot. I stopped when I realized I was about to go outside braless and shoeless, but what was my alternative? There was no way I was going to wait here for them to sell me to another pack. I don’t know what they had done with my bag from my den which had my cheap flip flops in it, but I was not staying here to search.
I got lucky, because it looked like one of them had left a muddy pair of sneakers right outside the door. They were huge and I clomped as I walked, but at least I would be allowed in the Y to get the rest of my stuff. I was really grateful that I had kept everything important there instead of in my den, this way I could leave right now.
I clomped my way down the main street, trying not to look too conspicuous as I left a trail of dried dirt clumps behind me. Luckily, it was early enough in the morning that there weren’t many people outside, and those that were out here were too tired to pay any real attention to how weird I was being. I sighed in relief when I made it to the Y without anyone stopping me. I ran up the stairs the best I could in my clown shoes, but still almost fell on my face when they caught on the lip of one of the stairs.
I slipped inside the women’s locker room and entered my combination with shaking hands. Once I got my stuff, what was I going to do? I pulled out my backpack so I could put on my own clothing with the appropriate undergarments. I left the muddy shoes in the locker room after I put on my second-hand sneakers. I thought about tossing Kannon’s clothing into the locker to leave it behind but shoved it in my backpack instead. Maybe having Kannon’s scent with me at night would help with the loneliness.
I strapped my backpack on with determination. I had eaten more in the last two hours than I had eaten in the last week, so I was well-fueled and ready to go. I slammed the locker door shut with a sense of sadness. I liked my little locker and I didn’t want to leave it behind. Why did those stupid wolves have to come along and mess everything up?
I bounded down the stairs, but decided to sneak out the back instead of using the front door. I was hoping that none of the guys would think to check on me until lunch time and by then I should have a good start. The next town over had a bus station, maybe I could try taking a bus instead of walking this time.
I slammed the doors open and covered my eyes from the sudden burst of sunlight. That was why I didn’t see the giant brick wall that stepped out in front of me until I had already crashed into him. Grayson steadied me with a hand on my arm.
“Going somewhere?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
I growled at him. “Away from you,” I spat out angrily, yanking my arm out of his grip. I looked around the back parking lot, but it was empty except for us.
“Whoa, little wolf,” Corey appeared at Grayson’s side. “Why the vinegar all the sudden?”
“Because she was eavesdropping, but didn’t hear the whole conversation,” Grayson murmured. “Right Lori? You heard something that scared you but didn’t stick around long enough to hear the part where we decided to keep you safe.”
I looked at him dubiously. “That’s exactly what someone would say if they wanted me to follow them home so that they could sell me.”
Corey laughed. “Sell you? What is this, the middle ages?”
“Look, Lori.” Grayson sighed. “There is a lot more to this than you know, but you have to give us a chance to explain.”
“Why should I trust you?” I asked angrily.
“Why should we trust you?” Corey asked. “You won’t even tell us where you came from. How do we know that you aren’t here to make trouble for us?”
I looked at him in surprise. It hadn’t occurred to me that they would be worried about my intentions towards them.
“That’s right,” Corey said. “Trust goes both ways. If you want us to be honest with you, then you need to do the same.” Corey and I glared at each other.
“Kannon would never forgive us if anything happened to you,” Grayson said softly. “You can’t possibly believe that he would mean you harm.”
My gaze softened when I thought about Kannon. Grayson was right, there was no way that Kannon would do anything to hurt me. “But Kannon’s not the one that makes the decisions,” I said suspiciously.
“No,” Grayson admitted. “He’s not. We all make the decisions together. And if one person vetoes something then it’s off the table.”
I crossed my arms and glared at him, trying to look tough while I thought about what he said. Deep down, I didn’t want to run, I wanted to stay here. I wanted them to accept me into their pack and I wanted to be able to trust them. But was that realistic? Just because I really wanted them to be good guys, it didn’t make it true. Could I ever trust them?
Kannon rounded the corner along with Wyatt. I barely had enough time to brace myself before he crashed into me and wrapped me in a hug. I inhaled his scent, but glared over his shoulder at Grayson and Corey. This was far from over.
Chapter 9
Lori
I crossed my arms across my chest as the five of us sat awkwardly at the kitchen table. This time there was no bacon to distract from our purpose so I decided to be the one to get this party started. “So why would you think that I was here to cause trouble for you?” I included all the guys in my question, but I really expected Grayson to answer. It seemed like the others trusted him to lead the way when it came to the important stuff.
“Were you sent here after us?” Corey countered. “I find it difficult to believe that you just happened to end up in the same little town in the middle of nowhere as we did,” he said suspiciously.
I blinked in surprise and looked around the table. Wyatt was watching me with his unreadable mask on, but Kannon looked at me with a hopeful expression. Grayson looked like he was trying not to be curious.
“It was chance that led me in this direction, but I don’t know what it was that made me want to stop here.” I shrugged. “I definitely would not have stayed here if I picked up on the scents of other wolves.” It was my turn to look at them suspiciously. “Why didn’t I pick up any of your scents? I had been in town and all over the woods out there.” I narrowed my eyes at them. “Are you hiding out here? From who?”
Another thought hit me. They were all young wolves that left their pack, where would they get the thousands of dollars needed to buy this place? To buy all the equipment to turn it into a garage? To start their own business?
I gasped. “Did you steal money from someone? Are they after you?”
Corey laughed but Grayson held up a hand to stop my barrage of questions. “We don’t steal,” he told me seriously.
“It’s far worse than that,” Corey said ominously.
Wyatt rolled his eyes, finally showing some emotion. “We made a mutually beneficial deal to get the start up cash for our business, nothing nefarious.”
“With Hollow Crest University,” Kannon piped up helpfully.
I was a little confused when all the guys looked at me expectantly. “With the college up the road?” I asked in confusion. “Why would they sponsor a garage out in town?”
Grayson frowned at me. “They needed wolves, and not many of our kind will go near the place.”
I inhaled sharply. “They know what you are?”
Wyatt tilted his head. “They aren’t human. It’s a school for witches and a training ground for lamia.”
My eyes widened. Of course, I knew that witches and lamia existed, but I’d never met any of them. I had absolutely no idea that they had a school out here. “Why
would they need wolves?” I asked worriedly.
Grayson sighed. “The lamia want to learn about us and the witches want to use us for our magic.”
My jaw dropped. “And you’re okay with that?” I asked incredulously. “You’re betraying your own kind by teaching them how to fight us!”
Grayson’s jaw flexed and the others stayed silent. “Listen, Lori, this is a lot more complicated than you know. But let me ask you this. What would have happened if a lone wolf tried to trespass on your pack’s territory?”
I answered automatically. “We would drive them away.”
“And what if a lone wolf attacked a human outside your territory? Would your pack get involved?”
“Probably not,” I admitted. “But isn’t that what the council does?”
“Sometimes. But the lamia are much more conscious about keeping everything supernatural under wraps. They are better organized, more equipped, and have their hands on all kinds of tech. The wolves are more of a loose federation of arguing packs, it’s difficult for them to agree on anything. And they don’t really get involved with lone wolves unless it either benefits them or threatens them in some way.”
I frowned in thought. “Huh. Well, it still doesn’t sit well with me.” I needed more time to think this through and decide how I felt about it.
“Me either,” Grayson said quietly. “I just have to hope that I’m doing the right thing.” I searched his eyes, but found only honesty there. I didn’t get the feeling that Grayson was selling out his own kind for money, but I also hadn’t known him for that long. I would have to reserve my judgment for now.
“And we’re not hiding, exactly,” Wyatt added. “We just don’t want to attract the attention of any other packs or the council. We just want to live our lives in peace.”
I could understand that. Being free of all the rules and responsibilities of a pack and the council sounded great right about now.
“We probably didn’t run into you because we’ve been stuck in this building working for almost two weeks now. We’ve only taken breaks for food,” Kannon said mournfully, his hazel eyes sad.
“That sounds rough,” I told him sympathetically. Not as rough as living in the woods alone and on the run for a couple weeks, but still difficult for a bunch of wolves without the freedom to shift.
“And we were making a lot of progress before you showed up,” Corey grumbled. I shot him a dirty look but otherwise ignored his comment. It wasn’t my fault that they decided to stalk and kidnap me. They could have just left me alone and minded their own business.
“And now that we’ve told you our secrets, it’s time for you to return the favor,” Wyatt told me. He held my gaze steadily until I looked down at the floor.
I squirmed in my chair. Was I really going to do this? Tell them everything? I took a deep breath. Where should I even start?
“I…” I looked around at Kannon’s hopeful face, Wyatt’s polite curiosity, Grayson’s impassiveness, and Corey’s trademark scowl. I decided to just bite the bullet and spill everything. If I wanted them to seriously consider letting me into their non-pack, I was going to need to be completely honest with them.
“I’ll tell you everything,” I started. “But you have to promise not to turn me into my old pack. If you don’t like what I have to say, just give me a chance to get out of here and forget you ever saw me.”
The guys exchanged looks and I could tell that they were using their pack bond to communicate. I tapped my fingers on the table and anxiously awaited their decision.
Grayson cleared his throat. “Have you harmed a human?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“One of your pack mates?”
“No.” I thought for second. “I didn’t, but I was a witness to it, so I’m not sure if they blamed me. I didn’t stick around that long.”
Grayson frowned at me. “We can agree not to turn you into your old pack or to the council,” he said seriously. “But we won’t actively fight against the council if you’re a criminal.”
I nodded with relief. “That’s fair. I guess to start, I should tell you that I’ve been on the run for weeks now.” None of the guys looked that surprised, so I took that as a sign to continue.
I pulled my legs up so I could sit cross-legged in the uncomfortable wooden chair. “It all started the night before my eighteenth birthday.” I glanced around the table and everyone, even Corey, looked interested.
“My mom…” I cleared my throat and blinked away the tears that started to come up. I hadn’t talked about my mom to anyone since she had died, and this wasn’t the time to lose control of my emotions. I needed to convince these guys that I would be a good addition to their pack, not show them that I was emotionally unstable.
“My mom woke me up that night.” This time my voice was steadier. “She had packed a bag for us and was ready to escape. I didn’t know that she had made plans for us to run, I thought that I was going to be…”
I paused, not even sure what the right words to describe my situation were. Most of the males in my pack wouldn’t have considered what they had planned for me to be rape, they just felt entitled to use the females as they pleased. Obviously, I disagreed with that attitude quite strongly.
These guys seemed nice enough, but I wasn’t sure where they stood on issues like that. Accusing my pack mates of planning to rape me might not be the best approach here. I didn’t want them to think I was being overdramatic if they didn’t believe me. But in my mind? It was rape, plain and simple. I hadn’t wanted any of them to touch me and I would have never agreed to it.
“The males in my pack were no longer forbidden to touch me once I turned eighteen.” There, that was a nice way of putting it. I stared down at the table, wanting to avoid making eye contact with anyone.
“They would have forced you to mate with one of them?” Disgust colored Grayson’s voice.
“Not just one,” I said quietly. “The pack master only limits it to one male when a female is in heat so we know who the father is.” Females wouldn’t get pregnant unless they went into heat, and that only happened twice a year for a week at a time. So that left plenty of time during the rest of the year.
I peeked up through my lashes to see their reactions. Disgust and horror were on everyone’s faces. A part of me was grateful that they recognized how wrong the situation had been. I don’t know what I would have done if they had thought my pack was justified in how they treated females. Run for the door?
I was glad that my intuition had been right, these were good guys. But another part of me was embarrassed. I didn’t want them to think that I was just a helpless female that needed rescuing. I hated myself for being a victim, for not being able to protect myself. But even more than that, I hated myself for not being able to protect my mom.
“I don’t blame you for wanting to run,” Corey said quietly.
I gave him a small smile. They were taking this better than I had hoped, but the most difficult part was still to come. “My mom and I had almost made it out, but…”
Tears came to my eyes again and I brushed them away angrily. Now was not the time for this. I sat up straighter in my chair and tried to be as matter of fact as I could. “The pack master brought a group of males to stop us.” I cleared my throat. “I made it out, but my mom didn’t.” My words ended on a whisper, but I was proud that I had managed to get them out at all. My hands were shaking with the effort of holding myself together.
Kannon got up out of his chair to wrap his arms around me. He didn’t say a word, but he didn’t have to. His warmth and scent were enough to comfort me. “So when we surrounded you last night…”
“Yeah,” I murmured. “That’s why I went psycho on you. I didn’t mean to, but when all of you boxed me in like that it brought everything back.” I hid my red face in the crook of his shoulder and he gave me another squeeze, letting me hide there for a minute.
Wyatt cleared his throat. “I know it’s difficult to talk about, but we
have to know what happened. Is the rest of your pack coming after you?”
Kannon reluctantly released me but pulled his chair close enough that he could keep an arm around my shoulders. I leaned into him, grateful for his support. “My mom had a gun,” I told them. “One of the wolves had me pinned down and the pack master went after her. I didn’t even realize that she had it until I heard her start to shoot.”
Tears streamed down my face as I spoke and the image of my mom in her last moments appeared in my mind. Kannon rubbed my shoulder and I did my best to continue. “She took out three of them, but the fourth made it to her before she shot him in the chest. I was too late to do anything,” I said in a quivering voice.
All of my self-control evaporated and I broke down into sobs. I could see the life fading from my mom’s eyes just as clearly as the night it had happened. “I thought they might catch us and I wouldn’t be allowed to finish high school.” I paused and took a shuddering breath; the weight of my grief was almost too much to bear. “I never thought she would die,” I whispered in a broken voice.
Grayson handed a stack of napkins over to Kannon cautiously. I tried to give him a grateful smile as I took one, but I’m sure it came out as more of a grimace. “If I thought there was any chance that she would get hurt, I would have refused to leave the house. I would have just accepted my fate and let them do whatever they wanted to me.”
I broke down into wordless sobs again and Kannon held me tighter to him. “None of this is your fault,” he murmured to me. “You did everything you could.”
“Did I?” I asked angrily. I rubbed my eyes and gave an embarrassingly loud hiccup. “I’m a wolf, she couldn’t even shift. It was my job to take care of her!” My entire body was shaking now and I had never hated myself as much as I did in that moment. My mom died because of me, there was no avoiding that or getting around it. It might have been another wolf’s jaws that closed around her throat, but it had been my actions that sealed her fate.
“Your mom made a choice,” Grayson said quietly. “You can’t take that away from her and you need to respect her decision.”
New Beginnings: Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Book 1 Page 7