Page 84 of The Wolf in My Tavern

Her arm lowers, and her hand captures mine, giving a gentle squeeze.

A sudden thought crosses my mind. “Are you going to get into trouble for being down here?”

She shrugs. “Maybe. Arlo helped me with the rope. He will cover for me and signal if I need to go. Drake and Gray are going to be busy for a while, I expect, given that they are going to tell Callum the way things will be once we reach the pack.”

Pack? My mind had not stretched to consider where we were going. I should have realized he was returning to his pack. “And how will things be?” I ask.

She glances at me and frowns. “Did Gray not tell you aught?”

When I shake my head in confusion, she only chuckles.

“Oh my, this is going to be so good. I’m guessing he was too busy rutting you to talk. Plus, his wolf would be driving him to stake a thorough claim, knowing what was coming; marking his territory, so to speak. Not that it will do him any good.”

Her grin is positively gleeful.

I am still baffled.

“How the mighty Gray has fallen. In more ways than one. You will be the talk of the pack for years, nay, lifetimes, and other packs, too.”

“Goodness,” I mutter.

“Shifters love to gossip. And he is the pack leader’s son. Now, he must share you with another male. And what a male!”

This conversation is like a riddle that I cannot hope to unravel.

“You being an omega and a human will cause ripples, and that is not even taking Callum into account.”

Callum is a blacksmith’s lad. He has always been more than ordinary to me, but I am struggling to imagine how he is special to a pack.

“Oh yes, Gray is due for serious adjustment,” she carries out with nary a breath, oblivious to my attempt to find a gap in her words so that I can ask questions. “He is so impossibly bossy. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving male.”

“Lizbeth,” I say sharply, lest she continue. “What exactly is coming?”

The rope outside the window suddenly dances about.

“Damn it,” she says. “That’s my signal! I need to go.” She is already off the bed and dashing toward the window.

“You haven’t told me what is coming!” I say, hastening after her.

She nimbly hops onto the window ledge and sits, hanging half out, the rope in her hands. “I’ll try to sneak down and talk to you again, although it’s unlikely I shall get a chance. We are only a day away from shore.” She swings out, using her legs to push up from the ledge before she wraps them around the rope.

I poke my head out the window and look up after her. “But what is coming?!” I demand.

She pauses her climb to grin down at me. “Fun,” she says. “Messy, glorious, life-changing fun!”

A young man peers over the deck rail above—Arlo. “Lizbeth, get your ass up here!” he hisses in a loud whisper.

“Good luck, Ada!” she says, scrambling up the rope and disappearing over the rail’s top.

The rope follows before her face appears. She bestows a saucy grin upon me, then waves, and she is gone.

I snap the window shut and turn toward the door, my brows pinching together.

They have been gone a long time. Something is happening. Something I am not involved in, and yet ultimately involves me.

Change.

I do not believe it will be fun, glorious or messy, notwithstanding Lizbeth’s pronouncement. Life-changing? Yes, I sense it might be. But that is not my now, and I am assuredly sick of males who think only they know what is best for me. I am determined that Gray will not keep me locked in here anymore.

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