Page 20 of Defeated

He didn’t find ordering what sounded like every side they sold overkill?

I nod instead, not unhappy at all the food about to come my way.

I came within seconds of ripping his throat out, and he makes it his mission to feed me more food than I’ve eaten in years.

As he tucks his cell phone into his back pocket, I’m utterly convinced that if he were alone, there is no way he’d have ordered that much food. Same with the steak sandwiches. He ordered way more food than he could have eaten for me. I’m certain of it.

“Have you thought about what you’ll do once we’ve finished packing?” he asks.

“No.”

Yes.

I turn around and look for something else to pack. My options are limited. Extremely limited. With the bookcase now emptied, and almost every bit of décor packed away, it’s time we moved to another room.

I desperately hope Colton is hiding hoarder tendencies, so I can draw out this packing long enough for me to decide what I intend to do next, since the shifters are probably ransacking my apartment. Colton might arrive soon, and I can take him up on his offer to leave town with him.

I’d be a lot more confident about that last option if things weren’t so different now. He sounds like he has a new life and a new pack. If trouble followed him to Winter Lake, there’s no reason it won’t follow him again.

And he has a mate.

Why would he want to put her at risk by inviting trouble he could so easily avoid?

“We have a small pack, and Winter Lake is quiet. If you don’t mind the quiet, I don’t think our alpha would have a problem with you joining us.”

I put down the cushion I was pretending to pack, though I don’t turn around. “It’s nice of you to offer, but that’s a decision for your alpha.”

“I can?—”

“And for me,” I interrupt.

I’ve spent years running. Now I’m finally out of options. To keep going, I need money I don’t have. All my belongings are potentially trashed, and now, for the first time since I left my pack, I might have to go back.

It would be absolutely soul destroying. I’d be going back to having my identity ground beneath the boot of the man I ran from. My packmates would stand by, doing nothing, saying even less.

And then I’d be just like the other women, smiling faintly, happily accepting their lot in life because I’d have nowhere to go and no hope of changing anything.

“Well, the offer still stands. And I think you’ll like Mack.”

I turn around. “Who’s Mack?”

Chris is studying me closely, a line between his brow. Like he can see through my pretense to the quiet panic simmering beneath the surface. “Our alpha. He’s very good at collecting people who don’t have a place to call home and giving them one.”

I feel the impact of those soft words like a fist clenched around my heart.

That’s me. That’s what I want.

Chris looks at me, waiting for a reaction.

I stare at him, hoping he isn’t using kindness to trap me in a life even worse than the one I ran from.

It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him yes.

Yes, I’d like to go to a quiet, out of the way, retirement town and see if it can be the sort of home I’ve always wanted.

Yes, I’d like to be around people who give a damn whether I eat and will take the couch so I can take the bed. Even though I’m a stranger.

Yes to all that and more.

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