Page 21 of Entering a New World

“I was afraid you’d give me rabies.”

Pinching his lips, a dark look crossed his face. Oh, he didn’t like that. “I do not have rabies.”

“Good to know.”

I wanted to say more, but another coughing fit interrupted me.

Rhett waited patiently until I was finished, then bit his lip. “You wanted me to tell you more about the packhouse?” he asked, picking up an earlier thread of our conversation.

“Tell me everything,” I said, suppressing a yawn. Damn. I must’ve slept for hours upon hours, but I still felt drained.

“I can do that. Uhm… where do I start…” He cleared his throat. “Okay… I’ll try to start at the beginning, alright? When I found you, I was on patrol. You see, I’m part of a pack. Think of regular wolves. We’re a little like that, but our pack doesn’t just consist of wolves. Gray—he’s my best friend and our Alpha—he opened up the pack to other shifter species, too. We’re kind of a safe haven for shifters that have been cast out. Anyway, as a pack, we have a territory, our pack lands. It’s surrounded by a magic barrier.”

“Magic is real?” I croaked. That probably shouldn’t come as a surprise, seeing as Rhett was a wolf… shifter. He’d called himself, and others, shifters. Still, turning into an animal was different from magic.

“It is. There are witches, wizards, and mages. I’ll happily explain more later, okay? The important thing is that the border of our territory is enforced by a magic barrier, but it’s kind of falling apart. It’s a complicated topic. Usually, the barrier is supposed to let us know whenever a shifter or supernatural being who is not part of our pack enters our territory. But with the state our barrier is in, we don’t want to rely on that completely. Also, we’re like forest rangers, we take care of our lands, so we do daily patrols in wolf form. I was on patrol when I found you.”

I nodded. So far, everything sounded logical to me. I mean, I didn’t have a clue about what a forest ranger did—except the whole taking care of the woods part—but it was only natural for a pack to take care of their territory like my parents took care of their garden.

“I immediately knew you were human, which was confusing. You see, hiking season is over and we usually know about hikers because most of the time they start in town.”

“In town?” I asked. “Does your pack have its own town?”

Rhett laughed, shook his head, then furrowed his brows, confusion appearing on his face. “Yes and no…”

“That explains everything,” I quipped, coughing a couple of times to get rid of the damn dry feeling in my throat. It fucking sucked and hurt, and I hated having to hold back because I had questions. A lot of them. And while I appreciated Rhett being so open and telling me about himself and his pack, it certainly didn’t feel like he was thorough enough. I wanted to know more.

Like, what kind of shifter species were there? What supernatural beings were out there? Vampires? Dragons? More obscure things? Did shifting hurt?

At the same time, I didn’t want to interrupt Rhett. It felt rude. Also, I liked listening to him. His voice was like a soft blanket, lulling me in—not in a putting-me-to-sleep kind of way, but in a comforting way.

“I honestly don’t know what came first; the town or our pack. I guess, in theory, the pack came first. Gray’s father has been Alpha, before him his grandfather, and his great-grandmother before him. The pack descends from an indigenous tribe, and unfortunately, their story is not a pretty one. I know Gray’s grandfather relocated here after they had to leave their last territory. I think Balwood already existed as a small settlement. Anyway, today it’s a real town with humans and pack members living there, so it’s not an exclusive shifter town or anything. Our pack just created a lot of jobs around here, and where there are jobs available, people are going to follow.”

Nodding, I tried committing everything he was telling me to memory.

“But we aren’t in Balwood. We’re in your packhouse, right?”

Rhett nodded, opening his mouth to answer my question, when a knock on the door interrupted his plans.

“Come on in,” he shouted, not making any attempt to get up from the bed.

The door swung open, and I had to suppress a gasp as a man taller than the fucking door came in. Seriously, he was huge. And not in a lanky kind of way. He was barrel chested, muscular, overall just… huge. It was more than a little imposing, even though he wore a friendly smile.

“I’m glad you’re awake,” he said, looking directly at me. Slightly raising the tray in his hands, he grinned. “I brought breakfast. If anything’s missing, just let Rhett know.” He walked over and placed the tray on my knees before extending his hand. “By the way, I’m Gray. This one’s best friend.”

Taking his hand, I marvelled at how warm it was. Was I just cold or was he extra warm? Was it a shifter thing?

“Levi Cavanaugh,” I said, then stopped, my brain needing a moment to catch on. “You’re the Alpha.”

A deep chuckle rumbled in his chest, a smirk forming on his face. “I see Rhett already started filling you in. That’s good. He was so worried about his mate being human and you possibly not understanding the ramifications or, you know, freaking out about the whole shifter or fated mates thing.”

What was he talking about? I furrowed my brows in confusion. Rhett hadn’t said anything about mates yet, let alone fated mates. If fate was involved, it had to be important, right? Especially if he was so worried about it.

“What are fated mates?”

Rhett glared at Gray, who turned white as a ghost.

“I… uhm… I think I’ll give the two of you a little space.”

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