Page 19 of Fated to the Feral Wolf

“You’ve already used that one,” I said drily.

“I know. I need to look up some new ones. Who’s a poochy with a bad butt?” she crooned.

After that, serious discussions devolved into long-overdue best-friend chatter, aLeader of the Packhairbrush singing montage, and three pints of ice cream, which extended late into the night. Even after Kane found us and took up a position at Brielle’s side, content to let us enjoy a rare moment of peace.

FOURTEEN

Shay

The next morning found us hastily shoving clothes and toiletries into our smallest suitcases for the road. I peered at my favorite black sneakers with dismay, unwilling to pack them when the silver buckles were coated in blood from my injury, the stale copper tang making my stomach churn.

Leigh walked by and plucked them out of my hands. “I’ll get someone to clean them for you while we’re gone. You know Grace can find someone who won’t mind lending a hand, given everything that went down. Just pack your blue ones.” She pointed to my second-favorite pair, tucked in a corner of the room and forgotten.

With a nod, I tossed them into the bag. Leigh always seemed to know when I was hung up on something. She was going to make an excellent mother one day. The thought gave me pause, and I looked at her a little more closely with my hand still on the suitcase zipper.

She was bustling around the room, tossing things helter-skelter into her own yawning suitcase. But things started to coalesce into a pattern as I thought over the last few days.

She was on edge, her wolf close to the surface. She wasoverprotective of both me and Brielle, which wasn’t unusual in small doses, but this was awhole ’nother levelof protectiveness. She’d been fighting with Gael like shifters and vamps, yet she’d spent a hot night with the man instead of lighting his shorts on fire. But with no heat, it couldn’t be. Shifter pregnancies were rare under the absolute best of circumstances, but a random one-night hookup leading to a pup would be almost unheard of.

Although, just before the wedding, she’d been burning up hot. Could she be pregnant? Without a mate bond?

Surely I was reading too much into it. I shook my head, clearing the ludicrous thought and zipping up the bag.

Leigh tossed a sparkly minidress and a pair of ridiculously high black heels on top of her mountain of clothing before sitting on the case to zip it.

“I don’t think you’re going to need those, Leigh. They said it’s really rural where we’re heading. The pack lives close to the land, and the shaman especially spends most of his time in isolation, communing with nature. That’s why they told us to wear hiking boots.” I pointed to my leather-clad foot, but she ignored me, the sounds of a zipper wrenching under her supernatural strength preceding her crow of triumph.

“Got it! Let’s go. Come on, Cujo.” She clucked her tongue to Dirge, who gave me the most long-suffering look I’d ever seen on a wolf’s face.

“I know, she’s impossible. But I love her, sorry.” I scratched him under the chin before hauling my suitcase off the bed. At least it was light, though I had plenty of energy since my wound had healed. I clammed up as we walked through the halls, wolves from Pack Blackwater milling in and out of the dorms, some cleaning, others moving furniture in the wake of the mass exodus of all the other packs.

I still wasn’t comfortable around strangers—particularly men—and might not ever be. Maybe the silver lining ofmeeting my mate while he was stuck in fur was that I wasn’t self-conscious talking to him.

To my surprise, when we walked out of the dorm, there was a six-seater UTV waiting, with a rack on the back for our luggage.

“Aren’t we going to an airstrip?” I murmured to Leigh, confused.

“Yeah, on the pack grounds. Small plane, hence the luggage limits.” She huffed as she hefted her suitcase and flipped it onto the rack. I picked mine up and placed it next to hers, looking at Dirge, then the utility vehicle, and back again. I hadn’t thought the logistics of all this through.

“Can you run alongside, or do you want to try to get into a seat?” I asked, as if he could answer me. Though in his own way, he did. When I pointed to a seat, he sat next to it, waiting for me to get in. Once I was in, he continued waiting, standing at attention as pack members passed by, talking and laughing.

Okay, run alongside it was.

The airstrip wassmall but tidy. To my surprise, it was paved, with equally spaced lights tracing either side of it for safe night landings and a fairly large hangar off to the side at one end for storing the pack’s small planes. One was already waiting on the tarmac for our trip. Or so Reed told us when we arrived, and he offered us champagne while we waited for Kane and Brielle. Leigh declined for us both.

Sometimes, I forgot that Reed was richer than Solomon and owned dozens of fancy restaurants, but when he was casually drinking fancy French champagne before 10:00 a.m. and wearing an expensive suit while the rest of us wore sweats and tees, I remembered.

“Hey, brother,” he said to Dirge. He was clearly aiming forcasual but missed the mark. His jaw ticked with tension in the silence that followed his greeting. When he sighed in defeat, I decided to speak up despite my anxiety. Reed had gotten a little closer to “safe” in my circle, even if he wasn’t all the way there yet.

“He can’t talk back to you, but it doesn’t mean he can’t communicate at all. If you ask simple questions, he can nod yes and shake his head no.”

“Right. You’re right, he did that in the cell on the video.” Reed rubbed his jaw, even though there was no trace of stubble to be found there.

“Are you looking forward to the flight?” he tried again, then laughed. “This is stupid.”

But I was watching Dirge, who dipped his muzzle once to answer. “See? He said yes.” I scratched him behind the ear, and he leaned tightly into my leg. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something. We were making progress, little by little.

“Yeah, I guess he did.” Reed tipped up his champagne glass and drained it, leaving Dirge and me while he went to pour another, all the way to the rim.

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