Page 123 of The Wolf in My Tavern

Gray’s lips tug up.

I swallow, knowing what is coming and suddenly feeling fucking nervous. I am not a man who particularly enjoys attention being brought upon him. Having ginger hair, I get plenty of that.

“Do you forget your lore, lad?” Gray asks. “He is a shifter, and his eyes are green.”

One woman gasps before clamping her hands over her lips. She takes a deep bow.

“Goddess, be praised,” she says. “Is it true?”

There is a babble of conversation, gasps, and more deep bows as the rest of those gathered catch up to the news.

“Callum,” Gray announces, his voice full of pride, “is the last shifter with royal blood.”

His pride surprises me.

The open adoration of the pack members makes me deeply uncomfortable.

I can avoid neither as I am catapulted into the role of a lost royal shifter returned from hiding.

Gray

There is a sudden parting of the crowd, and a group of shifters I recognize from the Canis pack step forward.

“We want to pledge,” the man at their head announces, his wary eyes shifting from me to Callum and back again. His throat works. “We despised Rufus and everything he stood for. Lower shifters like us were worthless in his eyes. Please, there is nothing for us here. We cannot hope to hold any of this territory without alphas. And, to be blunt, none of us wants to stay. We have considered trying for one of the barbarian villages, but we are pack members at heart. All of us are hard-working and not afraid to graft and to prove ourselves.”

“They helped us,” a young beta woman from my pack says. She has a babe in her arms while a young alpha stands attentively close. “Snuck us food and blankets for the babes. I would vouch for them.”

“And me,” another voice adds, this one a young woman with a toddler and no mate in evidence. “They were kind to us and at great risk.”

“How many of you are there?” I ask.

“All of us,” the Canis man says. “Thirty-two in total… and all the supplies.” He flushes. “Many of which were stolen from your pack.”

“They aided our escape,” Ada says, adding her voice.

Chapter Forty-Six

Callum

The beta Canis pack members are accepted into Gray’s pack, and we set out on a journey, passing through lands and villages, gathering the scattered Ludstone pack members as we go—an opportunity to put events behind us and renew our bond.

I feel like I am caught up in a great wheel that carries me away to a place unknown—not the kind of place reached by the passage of hooves—or paws—but the kind of place that is found within.

The fastest shifters are sent ahead of us, taking the word far and wide.

With every village and family we meet, more lost pack members rejoin us.

With each iteration, I become more accepting of who I am.

They ask me questions.

Seek my guidance and want me to talk.

Me, who knows fuck all about anything save blacksmithing.

They do not seem to care. They are curious about Bleakness, where I lived, the Blighten, and my Ma and Pa. You would think my life was an adventure, the way they hang on to every word. The children particularly enjoy hearing about the sea adventure and me challenging Gray for Ada on the deck of a ship while surrounded by bloodthirsty pirates.

I have tried explaining that they were simple sailors and not pirates. They have selective hearing, and no matter how I protest, it will forever be remembered as a pirate horde.

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