She giggled, “Not a real unicorn silly, but, you are young and living alone in the woods. That just does not happen around here. My brother said it is as rare as a unicorn. So how old are you anyway?”
“I am twenty.”
“Oh oh, when is your birthday, we could have a big party and invite the whole town and everyone could get to know you and we can be your family. Unless, do you have a family somewhere? I mean, twenty is pretty young to be living alone in the woods.”
Just then the wind shifted and I could smell Stormie, she smelled as fresh and outdoorsy as me but more like I remembered nanny smelling. I looked back to David and saw he was no longer standing by the truck. I was nervous for a minute but then I saw he was sitting on the tailgate working with something that looked greasy, nasty and was causing the smell of grease and all things automotive to drift my way. I wrinkled my nose at the smell.
I looked back at Stormie, “I don’t do well in crowds. I would rather not have a party. It is just another day, nothing special. I have not celebrated a birthday in years. Well, except my eighteenth, that was when I got old enough to buy a car without questions and finally rent a house.” I have no idea what made me tell her that. By the time I managed to shut myself up she had tears in her eyes.
“Oh my gosh, you have lived alone for that long? Where is your family? Did you run away from home? Now I have to throw you a party. Maybe just you and me and David and my brother. So when is your birthday? You know in some cultures you are not an adult till you reach twenty-one and in some barbaric old cultures you were not considered to have reached your majority till you were twenty-five. Can you imagine? So, birthday?”
I could tell she was not going to give up. “Fine, but no party. My birthday is December 25th, yes I was a Christmas baby. My mom use to tell me and my sister we were her gift to our dad.”
Just then Stormie squealed, “You have a twin? Oh my god, seriously? Twins, how rare is that? You really are a unicorn. I have never met a twin. Where is she? Is she, oh wait, oh my god, please no don’t cry. I am so sorry.” She was hugging me by then.
My voice was muffled against her “No, no it is fine. I just miss her so much sometimes. I don’t know where she is.” I wanted to just stay in that hug forever. The last time I had a hug was the day I snuck out of the house, the last day I had seen my sister. I forgot how good hugs could feel. For some reason I felt safe in this hug, I had to push her away.
I wiped my tears, “It is ok, twins are not really rare you know. I have met several twins over the years. I moved around a lot. I lost my parents in a car crash when I was young.”
I wanted to turn around so she could not see my face but I had learned to never turn my back on anyone. Sometimes even the nicest people would stab you in the back. “I don’t mean to be rude but, I need some time alone please. I just moved in today and I am really tired from the move.”
She narrowed her eyes at me for a few seconds, like she did not believe me. But there was no way she could know how little I had to move so it could not be that. She started nibbling her bottom lip and looking between me and David. Finally, just as I was getting worried she said, “Fine, do you have a cell number, cause we are still gonna be best friends. I never had a best friend in this town.”
After we swapped numbers she said something odd, “If you get scared out here for any reason, strangers lurking around, electricity goes out, anything, promise you will call me.”
“Do strangers lurk around these parts regularly?” I was scared now, how would I know a stranger from a local person.
“No, my brother does not allow strangers to stay around here. So if you see one you call me. My brother will make him leave.”
Just about them David called from the truck, “How is she gonna know a stranger from one of ours? She just moved in today.”
“Oh fudge sticks, he has a point. See why I need to take you around and introduce you to everyone. Then you know who is family and who is a stranger.”
“Is your brother gonna let me stay? I mean, I am a stranger? But then again, I rented this place from Sam so your brother can’t make me leave if I don’t want to leave. He is not the boss of me you know.”
“Of course he will let you stay. I told you he said you were a unicorn. He is not happy you living so far from town. But he is not gonna make you leave. Trust me, I know my brother. He is just a squishy teddy bear when you get to know him.”
David hollered, “I am gonna tell him you said that.”
As Stormie went bouncing back to the truck, really you couldn’t call it anything but bouncing, I heard her telling David, “You better not tell him I said that or you will be sleeping in the woods tonight. Eww you stink, why do you smell like grease?”
I watched them drive off. Seeing them was a bit depressing, I wanted that kind of relationship. Unless I could find out why those men were chasing me I couldn’t afford to even date, much less get involved seriously with someone. I sniffed the air around me again, I swear the woods smelled like a mixture of me and those men. I looked fearfully around once more before scooting back into the cabin and locking the door behind me. I installed additional locks on the cabin door when I moved in. Sam had not said anything when he stopped by to check on me so I guess he didn’t mind. I needed to figure out where I was gonna get some groceries from soon. Maybe Stormie would come over and ride with me one day. Just to the grocery store though.
Chapter Four
Trey
My wolf was driving me crazy. I had no idea why though. I had never had this problem before. I had shifted and run from my office to the edge of the property to check on the guards. Usually a good run and my wolf is happy. The last two days nothing has made him happy.
When I got to the woods surrounding the cabin I eased up to the edge of the woods. I passed dad laying down a bit back from the cabin keeping watch. I could feel and smell some of the other guards spread out around the cabin in the woods.
Stormie and David were still there talking to the young girl. Laying down in the edge of the woods I was able to hear the conversation. What I was hearing made my wolf tear at my insides even more. As if I was not already having enough problems. It was only the first of September and her birthday was not until the end of December. Winter would set in a few weeks and everyone would be able to smell her if the wind was just right and they were anywhere around the area. I could not keep her hidden for almost four months and keep her safe.
Although, I was not actually keeping her hidden, she had done that herself. And a twin, she was one of two females. Twins were rare in the shifter world. And apparently her twin was missing, parents dead and she was on her own and had been on her own for years. I don’t know if my wolf could smell her or if something else was going on but I was going to have to go for a long run and try to get him to ease up, and try to figure out what to do with our newest problem.
And somehow I was going to have to figure out why the girl was here and how to get her to safety. The worse case scenario I could have her forcible taken to the boarding school until her birthday. But if she had been on her own for years, and apparently had money to give Sam rent on the cabin, I didn’t see her taking kindly to being sent to a boarding school no matter how safe.
I called Sam before I left my office to get some more information but he had little more than what David had already reported. He did tell me the girl had asked him to step off the porch and apologized for asking, seeing as he was the owner of the cabin. Said the girl had made mention of being a bit afraid of strangers but clammed up when he asked for more information. She had asked a few questions about how often people came down the road and if anyone hiked in the woods around the cabin. I was getting ready to hang up the phone when he remembered one more vital piece of information. He said she had put more locks on the door than you could imagine one door being able to hold. He said if that did not speak of how skittish and scared she was he didn’t know what would.
So I don’t just have a pos
sible run away. Or someone who has lost their family and is on the run. I have someone frightened of others. I could not see her face when I was in the woods but David said she kept checking his location the entire time. Times like this I am thankful for my alpha powers which allow me to speak with anyone in my pack telepathically while in wolf or human form.
Sound carries in the woods, especially when you are in an isolated area and have the hearing all shifters are blessed with. Everyone guarding the cabin would have heard her story of being alone. Some of these men had single sons who needed a mate. Without a family to speak for her the men would be demanding the chance for their sons to meet the little unicorn.
Just the thought of a bunch of men vying for the chance to meet the girl had my wolf going crazy. He knew as well as I how important the safety of the little one was to the future of our pack. We had all seen what happened when my sister was introduced to the pack the day before her twenty-first birthday. David’s wolf had gone insane wanting to claim her, and when it was determined David was her true mate another wolf had gone crazy. He had kidnapped her from our father’s home later that night. When we finally caught him he had already beaten Stormie trying to force her to accept him the next day when she turned twenty-one and turned. Before I killed him he accused my family of playing favorites to David because of our long term friendship. Loneliness had caused him to become mentally unstable.
We had a pack meeting that night, after David’s wolf had coaxed Stormie’s wolf out. I laid down the law pretty heavy at that pack meeting. Family can not pick a true mate, friends can not help a true mating. If the true mate was found before the twenty-first birthday then the male could coax the female’s wolf out better than her family could. We know, we tried to coax Stormie’s out without David. If the female has not yet met her true mate the family can sometimes coax the she-wolf out. The alpha can call her forth, so the old timers tell us. But even as her alpha Stormie’s wolf would not come until David called her.
We have only had two females mate in my six years as alpha and both time the female had met her mate at the mandatory meeting the day before the twenty-first birthday. Both times the families could not coax the female wolf out. Both times I failed to coax the female out. We are not sure why I could not coax the female out. In times past, when females were not so scarce, the alpha would call the female forth on her twenty-first birthday and the pack all meet the female, rub noses, get to know her.
The old-timers tell us often the mates were not found in the same pack, the female would go to other packs to meet them. Or, the alpha would call upon other packs to send eligible single wolfs to meet the female. The alphas would work out where the couple went based on a variety of things such as skills the two had, position in the pack of the male, whether the male could accept the female’s alpha as his alpha. But over time, as the females became scarce, one traveling without the full protection of pack could end up kidnapped and forced to mate. This did not happen overnight, it took decades of slow decline.
The bonding ceremony for a mating was magical and should be a special occasion to be celebrated by the entire pack. Watching the essence of the two wolves mingle in the air above the mating pair, twining together to become one was something no one wanted to miss. If the pair was not a true mate, the bonding was still a magical thing to watch but the magic was not the same, the bond different somehow. The essence of the two wolves would still twine together, they just never completely joined to become one. In times past this was not an unusual sight to see as older wolves, who had never met their true mate would often pair for companionship. Often the pair loved each other but had never found the true love that comes with a true mate.
Some of the old-timers had theories about what happened. Some suggested when the females would go to another pack the pack would not be as strong as the pack she came from and therefore she did not feel as safe. The stronger packs were very secretive about their females, for that matter all packs became secretive over time. But anyone visiting some of the strongest packs, and you had to have a very clear invite, found many females in those packs. If you visited some of the weaker packs you found few females. It was mainly this which enabled the council to begin to figure out safe females produced females.
We lived in crazy times. I guess it was time to call a pack meeting with only the oldest members of the pack in attendance. Maybe I needed to call the council and find out what to do. Though that too could prove a bad idea. They might want to take her, and my wolf was protesting her leaving. Even though we had not met her yet. Maybe I needed to have another talk with David about how his wolf knew Stormie was his mate. I don’t think the little unicorn can be my mate. I have not even met her yet.
***
I can not get my wolf to leave the edge of the woods no matter how much I try. And I have been trying for several minutes. I have work to do but he insist on staying to watch over the little one. Finally I convince him to go lay beside dad.
My dad turned his head to look at me when I lay beside him. After a minute of silence I hear him talking in my mind, Don’t you have work to do? Do you not trust us to watch over the little one and keep her safe until you decide what do to?
Reluctantly I tell him, My wolf refuses to leave. He wants her safe, we both want her safe.
Your wolf refuses? Or you refuse to take the chance after what we just heard?
No, I want to march up there and make her move into town. I need her safe so our pack can flourish. But my wolf refuses to leave. I barely managed to get him to move back this far. I struggled to keep him from getting closer. I can’t make plans if I can’t leave here, he doesn’t appear to care about my plans. I am confused.
Son, if your wolf will not leave, she is his mate, your mate. Is your wolf tearing at your insides when you shift to human form? You feel the need to run even if you just went on a run?
Dad, I have not even gotten close enough to smell her. How can you think she is my mate? Gods yes, he is clawing me up inside every time I shift back.
Ah, Trey, you should talk to David. Ask him how long his wolf was tearing at his insides before he even met Stormie. You know I did not approve of the mating, even though I have always liked David. The betrayal of his father was too close. I feared he was declaring he was her mate just because he realized the likely hood of finding a mate was rare. I thought he was using his relationship and position as pack beta to claim her. He was able to tell me to the day when I brought Stormie home from the school. His wolf felt his mate before he even knew Stormie was here. We did not tell anyone she was here until the night you called the pack meeting. Very few people even knew she existed, David was not one of the people. He did not realize why his wolf was tearing at him until he was close enough to smell her. The night he met her and claimed her his wolf calmed down. How long has your wolf been tearing at your insides?
Two days, I did some thinking, since the day Sam said she drove through and stopped and asked about the cabin. What should I do? This is not good.
Son, never think finding your mate is not good.
It is not that dad, my wolf will not let me leave. How do I keep her safe if I can not leave to make plans? When I finished saying this to my dad something happened I never thought would happen. I shifted without trying. Suddenly finding myself laying naked on the ground in the woods was not high on my list of things to do today. Explaining why I was naked in the woods laying on the ground was definitely not on my list of things to do today. I reminded my wolf the distance back to the office was long and I shifted back to wolf form just as dad was demanding to know what I was doing. Embarrassed I told him I had finally gotten the wolf under control. I had no intention of telling him the wolf gave up his form when I said I could keep the female safe by making plans in my human form. Getting to my feet again I trotted to the edge of the woods to stare at the cabin one last time before turning to head back to the office. I had plans to make.
Chapter Five
Gabriella
/> I only moved in yesterday but I feel like this is home. I can’t explain why I feel safe here but for the first time since I snuck out of my house so many years ago, I feel like I am finally home. I woke up this morning feeling marvelous. Stormie called me first thing, before I was even out of bed good. She said she just wanted to check on me and make sure I was doing good. I agree with her, I think we are going to become the best of friends.
When she asked me if I needed anything I told her about my grocery situation. She offered to ride over and pick me up but I told her I would much rather she came over and let me drive my car around. I think I covered myself pretty good when I told her I would learn the area better if I was driving than if I was sitting in the passenger seat. I didn’t want to alarm her by telling her I never know when I will have to run. She lives here, if I have to leave her someone will be able to drive her back to my cabin for her car.
I look out the window when I hear a car. I don’t walk outside until I see Stormie get out of the car and head for the door. By the time I finish unlocking all the locks and open the door she is standing there open mouthed staring at the door in awe. “I have never seen so many locks on one door in my life. So are you ready to go shopping?” She started bouncing on her toes as I grabbed my back pack from beside the door. She looked so exited to be going shopping. I was dreading going shopping. I always dreaded going anywhere strangers lurked. Although, I guess since this was their town technically I was the stranger. I paused to lock the door, just one lock though, not all of them. I could do that without turning my back on Stormie.
Gabby (Safe Haven Wolves Book 1) Page 3