He looked at me worriedly. “Good thing Corey wasn’t here.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I had a difficult time not wiping the floor with him.” I didn’t want to think about what would have happened if I had hit him in plain view of everyone. Our deal with the lamia included a clause that we stay out of legal trouble and not attract attention. Would they help us hide the mess or decide it was safer to keep us on a short leash? I hated the fact that they had so much power over us, but what choice did we have?
“Girls like to have chocolate after a rough day,” I told Kannon. “Let’s stop at the bakery on the way out and see what we can find for Lori.”
“Good idea.” Kannon brightened up and led the way but my heart was heavy. I think I had just made things a lot harder for us. But there was no way I could let that smug bastard walk around town thinking that he could get away with hurting Lori. I just hoped we had some time before this came back to bite us in the ass.
Chapter 23
Lori
I practically skipped into the house, excited for the events that we had planned for tonight. Grayson followed behind me with a smile. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
“Nothing cheers a girl up after an assault like being experimented on in a lab,” I said with a laugh.
Grayson’s eyes filled with horror. “Shit. I should have canceled our meeting with Dr. Green and given you some time.”
I shook my head. “No, I wanted to go. I needed the security of signing the contract - I hate having the unknown hanging over my head. Plus, it was a good distraction.”
“I’m glad to see you bounced back so quickly,” Wyatt said with a smile as we walked into the kitchen.
I shrugged. I didn’t want to tell them that what Mr. Reaven had done was a regular thing in my pack. I was hurt and I was angry, but I wasn’t going to let him ruin a good night. I shoved all the negative feelings deep down and locked them away in a secret compartment. I could deal with all that tomorrow. Tonight was a night of celebration. I was officially becoming a member of the pack.
“Are those mashed potatoes?” I asked Kannon as I wandered over to the stove.
“Yup,” he answered with a smile. “We’re having steak too.”
“Yum,” I said enthusiastically. “What can I do to help?”
“Bring me a baking sheet for the oven?” Kannon requested. “I can only sear one steak at a time in the pan, but I want to put them all in the oven together so we can eat at the same time.”
“We need to get a grill,” Grayson announced. “You haven’t had steak until you’ve had it charcoal grilled, Lori.”
Grayson went to get our steak knives out of a drawer while Kannon turned his attention back to the food. But Wyatt watched me with eyes that were a little too perceptive. “Be careful with burying your past,” he murmured to me. “Things have a way of bubbling back up to the surface.”
I nodded at him. “Just not today.” I raised my voice for the rest of the guys. “Where’s Corey?”
“Upstairs,” Grayson answered distractedly. “He’ll be down in a few.”
“Maybe I should go get him?” I took a step towards the stairs.
“No!” Grayson, Kannon, and Wyatt said at the same time.
I gave them a bewildered look. “He can definitely smell the steak,” Wyatt said. “There’s no need to go after him.”
“Is… he okay?” I asked in confusion. The guys were all acting weird. Why were they so determined that I not go after Corey?
Before I could question them more, I heard footsteps on the metal stairs. “Hey, Corey,” I said cautiously.
“Hey, Lori.” Corey didn’t look upset. He actually looked more pleasant than usual. What on earth was going on?
“Ten minutes until the food is ready,” Kannon called.
“Then let’s get this table set,” Grayson said with a grin.
I wish I could say that I savored every bite of my steak, but I didn’t. I devoured it in record time and actually considered licking my plate. If I had been alone, I probably would have. Instead, I looked longingly at the little bit of mashed potatoes that were still left in the pan.
“Go ahead,” Wyatt said with a smile. “It’s your special night.”
“Is that why we’re having steak?” I asked in surprise.
“That’s your favorite, right?” Kannon asked with a shy smile.
I thought about it for a moment. “Yes, I think steak is my new favorite.”
“What’s your old favorite?” Kannon asked the question but the guys all looked curious.
“My mom would make me brown sugar glazed salmon once a month,” I confided in them.
“Salmon? That’s kind of surprising for a wolf,” Corey said.
I rolled my eyes. “Not really. Plenty of wolves can catch fish. My mom used to say that salmon would keep my coat healthy and shiny.”
“You do have a pretty coat,” Kannon teased me.
I grinned back at him. “I’ll make you some salmon one day so you can be just as pretty.”
Corey snorted. “I doubt that.”
I stopped with a bite halfway to my mouth when I realized what had just happened. I had talked about my mom without tearing up. Once a month, my mom and I would take time away from the rest of the females in our house and have dinner together. We would spend the time talking and laughing as we cooked the salmon to the point of absolute perfection. A faint smile crossed my face as the fond memories flitted through my brain. I would never be ‘over’ my mom’s death, but this was the beginning of healing the gaping wound in my heart.
Grayson cleared his throat. “Lori, tonight you become an official member of the Hollow Crest Wolf Pack.”
Corey scowled. “Is that what we’re calling ourselves?”
“Shut up, Corey,” Wyatt said. “Not important right now.”
Grayson continued as if the twins hadn’t interrupted him. “We wanted to get you something special to mark the occasion.”
My jaw dropped. “More than the steak?”
The guys chuckled. “You might like this better than the steak,” Grayson said with a grin. “Should we go upstairs so you can see it?”
I bounced out of my chair. “You didn’t have to get me anything. But I am really excited to see what it is!”
I was the first one up the stairs, but the other guys weren’t far behind. There wasn’t anything different in the living room so I kept going into the bedroom. My bed looked just the way I left it but my eyes caught on the far wall. Where the guys had their trunks lined up there was something new.
The guys watched as I knelt down and ran my hand over my new wooden chest. It was a simply made box with a lid that lifted up, but it was absolutely beautiful.
“Did you make this?” I asked in awe.
Grayson cleared his throat. “We all made it together.”
“We wanted to make you feel like you belonged,” Kannon said with a smile. “Do you like it?”
“I love it,” I said happily. The fact that they had made me this with their own hands made it even more special. “When did you have time to do this?”
“We worked on it while you were at work,” Wyatt admitted.
“It wasn’t easy keeping it hidden, you almost found it a couple of times,” Grayson laughed.
I thought back over the last week. There had been something covered up in the garage by a drop cloth. I hadn’t paid much attention at the time, but looking back the guys had come up with tasks for me to do every time I got close to that side of the garage.
“And we were worried the stain wouldn’t dry in time,” Corey added. “I was up here putting the hinges on before dinner.”
I laughed and hugged Kannon first since he was the closest. He gave me a squeeze when I murmured a thank you in his ear and then released me so I could hug Grayson next. He and Wyatt took their hugs with grace, but I hesitated when I let go of Wyatt and looked in Corey’s direction.
Corey met my eyes with a rare smile
, so I took that as a sign that operation hug was a go. I was surprised when he held on to me for a heartbeat longer than the other guys, but hoped that this was a sign that he was accepting me into the pack. His body was warm against mine and I inhaled his scent, trying to be inconspicuous. He pulled away and looked uncomfortable so I turned my attention back to Grayson. “Are we ready to head out to the woods?”
Grayson smiled. “Do you want your chocolate cake before or after our run?”
I laughed. I think I was going to fit in just fine with this pack.
Chapter 24
Lori
I ran happily through the woods with my pack surrounding me. Grayson lead the way with Kannon and I close behind. I had challenged Kannon to a race with our new pack bond and he had gladly accepted. I was smaller than the other guys partly because I was a female, but also because I didn’t have the stature that a full-blooded wolf would have. I was stunted because of my human blood. Kannon slowed down once he realized my pace was starting to lag but Wyatt and Corey pushed past us.
“Do you want to take a break?” Kannon asked with the bond. “The other guys will circle back around for us in a few minutes.”
“Sure.” The pack bond was even more glorious than I could have imagined. Not only did it give me a way to communicate with them while we were in wolf form, it also gave me more insight to how they felt about me.
Grayson had formed a bond between him and myself first. I was surprised when his thoughts had burst into my mind. I had known about the wordless communication but I wasn’t expecting to experience being immersed in Grayson’s essence. His energy was strong and steady and his affection for me was clear in the very first moment.
Wyatt had been next. I had expected him to be cool and standoffish, but he was warm and accepting. He was genuinely happy to have me added to their pack. Kannon’s energy was light and joyful, just being close to him had made me smile. Corey had been last but had surprised me the most. What I’d felt from him most strongly was hope. He wanted the darkness that had enshrouded him for so long to lift, and he thought this was the beginning. He had quickly hidden the darker parts of himself once he realized that I was poking around, but he wasn’t angry. I had felt a flash of guilt and shame from him before he had pulled back from me and the intensity of his emotions had faded.
The guys had worked with me for the better part of an hour to teach me everything that our new bond could do. Initially I was just blasting them with an overwhelming swirl of emotions instead of sharing a clear thought. Corey had laughed at the mix of crazy and unintelligible nonsense that I had sent his way. Grayson had been patient in showing me how to focus my thoughts to either send words or images to send a clear message. I had never been so happy; being surrounded by affection and acceptance was the best feeling in the world.
Kannon nuzzled me affectionately when we came to a stop and I lowered the front half of my body in a play bow. He reciprocated so I pounced on him. We happily wrestled and played until the other guys came back into view. I hadn’t had another wolf to play with since I was just a pup. The other males in my old pack had looked down on me and if they wrestled it was for dominance. They didn’t hesitate to hurt me because I was smaller, they enjoyed putting me down. I had quickly learned to stay on the edges of the pack while we were on a run and avoided interaction as much as possible. I had no idea how wonderful a true pack could be until now.
Officially becoming a part of Hollow Crest Wolf Pack had given me a sense of safety and belonging that I never thought I would have after the death of my mother. I still had a long way to go in forgiving myself for the part I played in her death and I was nowhere near done grieving. But I was starting to be able to think of my memories of her with fondness and not just pain. I hoped that she would approve of what I was doing now, and that she would be proud of me for not giving up.
Grayson, Wyatt, and Corey joined in the play with Kannon and me and the five of us had a great time running and wrestling in the woods. I was so filled with joy that I couldn’t help myself. I paused to raise my head to the sky and expressed my happiness with a blissful howl. The others joined in and our voices melded together in perfect harmony. This was truly the beginning of a wonderful new life.
Epilogue
Baracus
I kept my breathing shallow as I walked through the darkness to the pre-arranged meeting place. Ever since I was shot a couple of weeks ago, I was unable to take a deep breath. The bullet had pierced my lung and left me drowning in my own blood. I had laid unconscious for days while my body healed – but I hadn’t been restored quite right. The injury had left me unable to walk faster than the ambling pace of an old man. It had also left me unable to fight or run with my pack.
I had awoken from my healing sleep to find my pack in shambles and the Stone Creek Pack sniffing around our territory. Losing the most powerful wolves in my pack had left us open for attack, and my weakness was the final nail in our coffin. My own pack had turned on me and let the alpha of the Stone Creek Wolf Pack waltz right into our territory.
I snarled when I thought about how I had been pushed aside and forced to pledge my loyalty to another alpha if I wanted to keep my life. My former collection of females now turned down their noses at me, unwilling to slake my needs without the promise of the favor of the pack master. My home was taken over by wolves from Stone Creek and I was banished to the outskirts of our territory in what could best be described as a shack.
Rage filled me at the memory of the weakest wolves in the pack giving me looks of pity as they dropped off a collection of my personal belongings. Our new alpha didn’t want his home tainted by the remnants of the old regime.
I looked up at the stars in the night sky and tried to get my temper under control. The urge to shift so I could run and hunt was almost too much to resist. But my deformed and dysfunctional lung affected me in even my wolf form. I was unable to find peace in any form.
Footsteps crunched in the gravel as my contact walked up the driveway to my pitiful new home. “Looks like you had quite the reversal of fortune, Baracus.” His mocking voice carried through the night and I clenched my jaw in an effort not to respond. I wouldn’t be able to back up my words with action; he would easily have my face pressed into the dirt and my humiliation would be even worse.
“Do you have the information?” I spat out.
“I do,” he said thoughtfully as he looked me over. “But my price has increased since we last spoke.”
I cursed at him. This asshole was going to try to extort me now?
He smiled as if he found my anger amusing. “I need a little extra to ease my guilt over turning a sweet little girl over to you.”
“That little bitch is anything but sweet,” I snarled. “She destroyed this entire pack. Ruined my life. She’s going to pay.”
He shook his head in false sadness. “And that’s why I need extra. Twenty percent should do it.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “That’s ridiculous.”
He shrugged and waved a folder. “If you don’t want this…”
I sucked in a breath to curse him out again, but it was too much for my lung. I wheezed as it seized up and I couldn’t take in enough air. He watched with a raised eyebrow while I choked and struggled to breathe.
My anger towards him was only outweighed by my hatred for Lori and need for revenge. When I finally caught my breath I nodded in agreement. “It’s in the house.”
He followed my slow pace back into the house but looked derisively at the piece of shit couch in my living room when I offered him a seat. “Suit yourself,” I growled as I went into the tiny box of a room that passed for a bedroom. Stone Creek had seized all the pack assets including bank accounts, but I’d always had kept some money hidden in case of an attempted coup. I pulled out more cash than I wanted to part with, but if it got my hand around that little bitch’s throat then it was well worth it.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Everyone has dark moments in t
heir life that we sometimes wish we could erase or forget. But sometimes it’s the pain and struggle that we have gone through that gave us our inner strength.
For me, writing started as a way to confront some of the demons of my past so that I could put them behind me forever. Most of my characters have a dark or troubled past and my books follow their progress as they emerge from the darkness that has held them down for so long.
As the darkness fades, hope for a better future starts to emerge (like the sun after a storm). A piece of my soul goes into each one of my books, and my hope and faith in a brighter tomorrow is reflected in each one of my characters.
Books have always been a source of escape and enjoyment for me, so I hope that my work can help others in the same way
-C.C. Masters
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
C.C. Masters lives near Virginia Beach with her two furbabies, the inspirations for Tigger and Eeyore. She enjoys long walks on the beach and loves to run through the forest under the light of the full moon
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Books by C.C. Masters
New Beginnings: Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Book 1 Page 17