New Beginnings: Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Book 1

by C. C. Masters

  I turned bright red and wondered what she had seen. If she was watching when I ran out of the firehouse earlier this morning then it had probably looked pretty incriminating. If she was talking about when I walked out a few minutes ago with Kannon than it was probably safe. “I just went over there this morning to hang out,” I told her cautiously.

  “Uh, huh.” Taylor gave me a knowing look and I blushed.

  “It’s still kind of new,” I tried to explain. “We’re taking things slow so I’m not ready to call it a thing yet, you know?”

  Taylor snapped her gum at me with a disbelieving look.

  “Taylor.” Mr. Reaven turned from where he had been washing his hands at the sink. “What have I told you about the gum?”

  She gave an annoyed sigh but spat it out in her hand before throwing it in the trash. Mr. Reaven watched her with a raised eyebrow until she marched over to the sink to wash her hands.

  “Lori, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to bring your boyfriend here while you’re working,” Mr. Reaven told me seriously.

  “Why not?” I responded automatically without thinking. Taylor and the other girls always had their boyfriends hanging out near the window and at the picnic tables outside. Mr. Reaven had never said anything about it before.

  Mr. Reaven turned bright red. “Are you questioning me?” he asked angrily.

  “No!” I said in surprise. His reaction seemed really out of character; he had always been really nice to me.

  “Taylor, finish washing up. I want you on the window today. Lori, I need your help in the storeroom,” Mr. Reaven said, still looking angry.

  I followed him back into the storeroom with confusion. I had just cleaned this entire room yesterday, there was nothing out of place. The boxes of supplies were neatly stacked on the shelves and clearly labeled. I had swept and dusted in here, too, so it was just about as spotless as a storeroom could get.

  He closed the door behind him as he stepped in after me. That was weird, usually he wanted to be able to see and hear everything that happened in the shop.

  “Lori, I had been planning on talking to you about increasing your hours and maybe giving you a raise, since you have been doing such a good job.” Mr. Reaven hesitated and looked at me sadly. “But I can’t do that if you constantly question my authority.”

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Reaven,” I murmured apologetically. “Kannon was just walking with me since he needed to go to the hardware store across the road, he isn’t staying.”

  I was still baffled at his reaction. Taylor constantly challenged him and he let her get away with it. Of course, she was his niece, but those were still some extreme double standards.

  Mr. Reaven stepped closer to me so that he was standing uncomfortably close. I couldn’t back up any further without bumping into the shelves behind me so I tried to keep a pleasant expression on my face. That was even more difficult to do when he put his hand on my shoulder and my skin crawled. This entire situation was unsettling.

  “Lori, I appreciate how hard you work for me,” Mr. Reaven told me quietly.

  Could this situation get any more uncomfortable? I lowered my eyes to the ground and murmured a thank you. I wasn’t sure if this was normal and if I was being the weird one here. I knew that I had issues with older men in authority because of the way the males in my pack used to treat me. Mr. Reaven was a happily married human male, so he probably didn’t intend to make me uncomfortable. Right?

  I was still waiting for him to reveal the point of this conversation when he took a step back. I gave a sigh of relief.

  “Let’s get back to work,” he suggested with a warm smile. “It’s going to be a hot day, so we should be busy.”

  I nodded and stepped out of the room as he held the door open for me. Out of the corner of my eye I thought that I saw him look at my butt, but when I turned around he was smiling at Taylor. Maybe I had just imagined that because I was so paranoid. It seemed like his mood had already changed from angry back to his more usual pleasantness.

  I sighed, knowing it was going to be a long day. But there was only seven hours left until Kannon came back and my day would get brighter.

  Chapter 11

  Kannon

  I whistled a happy tune as I crossed the street to the hardware store. Meeting Lori in this small town had been the best thing to happen to me in the last year. The best thing to happen to all of us, really. The relationship between the four of us had been strained the last couple of months, and I was already starting to see a difference now that Lori had come into our lives. We had banded together when we were investigating her appearance in the town, just like we used to. It gave me hope that things would eventually go back to normal.

  There had been a few days this week where no one had even spoken to each other outside of ‘hand me a screwdriver’ or ‘I need you to paint that wall.’ Tensions had been high when our pack was taken over, even higher when we were planning our coupe, and off the charts when we were banished. We had nowhere to go and could only take what we could fit in Grayson’s SUV.

  Grayson had to give up surfing and MMA, Wyatt had to give up his budding music career and his band, and Corey… he had become a different person all together. Moving out here to the middle of nowhere had seemed like a terrible punishment, but where else could we go? There weren’t any packs out there that would welcome a group of young males, and four wolves weren’t enough to establish a new pack. We would be easy prey for any other packs that came across us and wanted our territory.

  I had suggested joining the military, but none of the others had been open to that. We wanted to stay together, and the military couldn’t guarantee that. As much as we might fight or give each other the silent treatment, we were still closer than brothers. No matter what, we would always have each other’s backs.

  I stepped into the hardware store and the door chime caught the attention of the shop owner. I gave him a wave in greeting, but it looked like he was busy putting stock away behind the counter. I shrugged and went in search of what Grayson had sent me here for. After wandering down a couple aisles I found the section with nuts, bolts, and screws. I pulled up the picture that Grayson had sent me as a reference and searched the shelves for what I needed. I didn’t want to come back here a second time if I didn’t get the right thing.

  Actually, I wouldn’t mind coming back again if it meant I got to see Lori again. I smiled to myself; just the thought of being in her presence lifted my spirits.

  I finally found what I needed and made my way through the crowded aisles. The store was pretty small and it looked like the owner tried to cram as much as he could in the limited space that he had.

  “Hello,” I called to the man on the other side of the counter. I was guessing this was Joe since the name of the store was Joe’s Hardware. He turned around slowly with a surly look on his face.

  “You done rifling through my shop?” he grumbled at me.

  I looked at him in surprise. I wasn’t an expert on customer service, but it didn’t seem like he was either. “I just needed some nuts and bolts,” I told him in a friendly tone. Wyatt had told us that we needed to make friends with the other shopkeepers if we wanted to be successful in this town. We couldn’t afford to fail.

  He looked down at what I had sat down on the counter in front of him. “That’s eighty-five dollars.”

  I chuckled nervously. Was he fucking with me? There was no way this stuff was over ten dollars. “The sign said-”

  “The prices on the signs are for locals. You aren’t one of us. So for you, it’s eighty-five dollars.”

  My eyebrows rose at his rude tone and outrageous demand but I tried to stay friendly. “We’re new to town, but we really want to support all of the local businesses here.” I gave him a smile but it didn’t budge the cold look on his face.

  “Pay the eighty-five dollars or get out of my shop,” he told me irately.

  I stared at him for another moment, debating on what I wanted to say, ve
rsus what I should say. “I’ll be going then but thank you for all of your help.” I gave him a broad grin and a wave as I walked out of the store.

  That guy was probably looking for an argument or an excuse to kick me out. Being extra friendly in the face of his rudeness would probably just make him angrier since he couldn’t get the reaction that he wanted. Plus, it was always better to be the better man in the face of adversity. I planned on making sure Corey stayed out of that store, though. We would have probably needed Grayson to drag him out of a fight if he had been the one sent there today.

  I sighed as I walked down the street and shoved my hands in my pockets. I glanced over at the ice cream shop but didn’t see Lori in the window. I wasn’t in a hurry to get back to the firehouse to tell the others about our latest challenge. None of us had expected to get pushback or hostility from locals for starting a business here. In California, there were new businesses opening up every day. From what I had seen, people usually flocked to whatever was new to check it out. If it was good, they kept going there. If not, they went somewhere else. I hadn’t realized how much behind-the-scenes politics were involved in things like this. A part of me wondered if it was just this town. Surely, humans everywhere weren’t like this.

  I kicked at a loose rock before taking a deep breath and opening the side door to the firehouse. Grayson looked up as the door slammed shut behind me and eyed my hands in my pockets. “What happened?” he asked with a sigh.

  I shrugged and glanced at Corey, who was working on setting up work lights. “They didn’t have what we needed.”

  “What really happened?” Grayson asked me with the pack bond.

  “The guy said the price was eight-five dollars for ten dollars of stuff because I wasn’t a local.”

  Grayson sighed and pulled his keys out of his pocket. “Go to the Home Depot a couple towns over. It’s an hour’s drive, but I need that stuff today. I can’t wait a couple days to get it from Amazon.”

  I brightened up; there was a Walmart right next to the Home Depot. “Can I have some extra money to pick up a bed set for Lori?”

  Corey stopped working to scowl at me. “Why are we spending money on her? Doesn’t she have a job? She can buy her own shit.”

  I frowned at him. “She’s one of us now, we need to take care of her.”

  Corey tossed the screwdriver he had been using into the tool chest before taking a step towards me. “She is not one of us. She’s a stray female that you idiots decided to let in here,” he said angrily. “The second she gets a better offer from a real pack she’s going to leave.”

  “Lori’s not like that,” I growled at him. Corey might be a few years older than me, but I wasn’t going to back down from a challenge. Especially not when it was about Lori.

  Corey laughed bitterly. “You’ve only known her for how long? And she’s already gotten you wrapped around her little finger.”

  Grayson stepped in between us. “Enough.” He pointed at Corey. “Back to work.”

  Corey stared at him for a heartbeat before looking away and picking up another tool. He didn’t go back to work as much as stand there and glower at me, but at least we weren’t to the point where he would openly challenge Grayson. I wasn’t sure what would happen if he did.

  “Kannon, walk with me.” Grayson motioned for me to follow him through the door that led back into the kitchen. I trailed behind him as Corey glared at our backs. I made sure to shut the door behind me so that Grayson and I could have some privacy.

  Grayson sighed and leaned on the counter. “Kannon, I know you really like Lori and I do too. But we need to be cautious.”

  “Lori is a good person,” I insisted. “She’s not here to-”

  Grayson held up a hand to stop me. “I know, Kannon,” he said gently. “I just don’t want you to get too attached to her before we can figure everything out. We’re a group of lone wolves, so there’s a chance that her old pack will accuse us of stealing her. What do you think would happen then?”

  I opened my mouth to answer but he kept going. “We can’t offer a female the protection that she might need. What happens if another pack finds out we have a young female here and attacks? The four of us can’t take on an entire pack.”

  I stared at him glumly. “So, what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that we need to think this through,” Grayson told me. “I’m going to the school tomorrow to see if they will help us get a new identity for her. Because of our affiliation with them, we have some protection. If we get Lori protected under that same umbrella it could help us keep her safe.”

  I nodded slowly. “And if they say no?”

  He grasped my shoulder. “Let’s wait and see what they say first before we start thinking about the worst-case scenarios.”

  “Alright,” I said quietly. “What do we tell Lori, though?”

  Grayson shrugged. “The truth. That we are going to try to get things set up so she can stay here with us. But I think we also need to have a talk with her to make sure that’s what she really wants.”

  “It is,” I insisted. “We were talking about what classes we want to take together earlier. She’s definitely planning on staying with us.”

  “Then we’ll try to make that happen,” Grayson promised me. “Just remember that it’s not a done deal yet.” He tossed the keys to me. “And let’s wait on buying her stuff without her approval until we get to know her a little better. Girls are picky – you don’t want to piss her off by getting her something pink if she hates that color. You know?”

  I gave him a small smile. “That’s true,” I admitted. “She never told me what her favorite color is.”

  “Check in with Wyatt before you leave to see if he needs you to pick up any other supplies while you’re out that way,” Grayson told me as he headed back to the garage. “And be back within a couple of hours, those walls aren’t going to paint themselves.”

  I laughed but headed up to talk to Wyatt. I was hopeful that things would work out for the best.

  Chapter 12

  Lori

  I ducked under another awning as I tried to stay out of the downpour. Today had been cloudy with heavy spurts of rain all afternoon. People weren’t going to come out in the rain for ice cream, so Mr. Reaven had sent me home early. I was trying to stay under the cover that the buildings offered, but that was quickly becoming an impossible task with the way that the wind was picking up.

  I had just made the decision to run through the rain and give up on any attempt to stay dry, when an SUV came to a stop across the street from the building I was huddled against.

  “Lori?” Grayson’s deep voice called as the tinted window rolled down.

  I gave him an embarrassed wave as I tried to tuck any stray hairs back into my bun. “Hey, Grayson,” I called back to him. “Can I get a ride home?”

  “Hop in, I was just heading over to your work.”

  I sprinted around the car to get to the passenger seat as Grayson opened the door for me from the inside. “What happened?” Grayson asked with a frown. “Kannon said you didn’t get done until six.”

  I shrugged and fought the urge to shake all the raindrops off me. “I got sent home early since we didn’t have customers.”

  “I wish you would have called. I would have come to get you sooner,” Grayson told me as I tried to smooth down my frizzy hair.

  “I don’t have your number, or a phone,” I pointed out.

  Grayson grunted in acknowledgement as he pulled back onto the empty street.

  “Besides, I know where you live and I figured at least one of you would be home to let me in,” I explained, probably unnecessarily. We were only on day two of living together and things were awkward. I was nervous about overstepping my bounds and the guys weren’t used to having a girl around. I think they were a little unsure of how to treat me.

  Grayson turned down a side street so we could circle around and head back home. “I was hoping you would be able to leave work a little ear
ly today.”

  “Why’s that?” My curiosity only grew when he drove past the firehouse.

  “I got an unexpected phone call from the college today.” Grayson cleared his throat and looked both ways at the four way stop. “The security manager there asked me to bring you by to meet the professor I’ve been working with.”

  My blood ran cold. “I thought you were going to wait to tell them about me until tonight.” I had thought that I had a few more hours of carefree living until my past slammed into me, but apparently not. I wish Grayson would have given me a heads up. I would have been more on guard if I knew the people at the college were aware of my presence in town.

  Grayson shrugged, but I could see the worry on his face. “That was the plan.”

  I swallowed nervously. “So, how did they know I was here?” I asked softly.

  “I don’t know,” Grayson snapped as he rubbed his face in irritation.

  I sank down in my seat and glanced out the window. Grayson was obeying the twenty five mile per hour speed limit, so it probably wouldn’t kill me to jump out of the car. All my stuff was back at the guys’ house, though. And I had already tried to run yesterday. I didn’t want this to start to become a regular thing.

  “I’m sorry Lori,” he said after a moment’s pause. “I didn’t mean to be an asshole to you, I’m just on edge.”

  “It’s fine,” I murmured, still thinking about jumping ship. There was a stop sign coming up ahead.

  The SUV slowed and my hand twitched, almost reaching for the handle. “Lori,” Grayson said quietly as we came to a full stop. “If you don’t want to go, you don’t have to. I’ll take you home and deal with them on my own.”

  A twinge of guilt wormed its way into my heart. The guys had already done so much for me and were risking a lot to keep me with them. Would it really be so bad to talk to the people at the college? Meeting a professor didn’t seem so scary when I thought about it.