Page 42 of Fated to the Feral Wolf

“I really messed it up with her. I don’t… I’m not good with words.” There was a lengthy pause. “But I want you to know that I don’t want to hurt her. She’s just this itch under my skin that I can’t get rid of, even now that she hates me.” He rocked back on heels as I looked up in surprise at the admission.

I whuffed an approving sound.

“We don’t need to be enemies is all I’m saying. You’re Reed’s brother; you’re not feral now. Hell, I don’t think you need me to guard you anymore either. We don’t need division in the pack, with killers out there probably gunning for Kane since his dad’s gone.”

At that, I nodded, in complete agreement. Packs were always strongest when all members worked together. Tiny rifts left unmended turned into chasms over time that you couldn’t later cross.

I wished I could tell him that as long as he treated Leigh well, we’d be square. But he’d have to accept my nod and fill in the details on his own.

He froze and looked off toward the right.

“They’re on the way back. Kane just told me through the pack bond.”

Ahh.

We waited together, and for the first time, I found I didn’t mind Gael’s company all that much.

TWENTY-NINE

Shay

After a night of tossing and turning in an unfamiliar bed with scratchy blankets, I woke up with a deep-seated sense of unease wrapped around my chest like a vise grip. To ward it off, I curled around Dirge like he was my own personal body pillow.

Which, to be fair, he kind of was now.

But other body pillows didn’t lick you in the face before your eyes were fully open.

“Eww! Dirge, that’s gross.”

“Ha! Get her again, Fluffmeister!” Leigh crowed happily from her position on the bottom bunk across from mine.

“You suck too,” I groused as I shoved Dirge’s nose away from me and pointed at her accusingly. “Can’t a girl have five minutes to think before she jumps out of bed? That’s not too much to ask, is it?”

“It is today, because I want out of this place. I’m ready to get to this island, meet some hot poly bears,” she punctuated that statement with a salacious hip wiggle, “and then get back to the pack grounds. Frankly, I want Bri-Belle better and to move on with our lives.”

I wasn’t even going to ask what qualified as ahot poly bear. Nope, not happening, skipping over that like it never happened.

Hell, maybe I would get lucky and this would turn out to be just a sleep-fueled hallucination.

Although, wait.

“You want to stay in Alaska? Not Texas?” I sat up slowly, pondering the question and ignoring the strange feeling of foreboding in my chest. Did I want to go back to Texas? I hadn’t even considered it in the whirlwind that was the gathering, Bri’s bonding ceremony, and then getting shot.

Hell, when had my life gotten so crazy? I hadn’t even composed a new piece since… well, since Texas.

“Heck no. I mean, Gael sometimes makes me pine for the days of PT at the little gym with no psychotic jealous wolf exes, but no. I couldn’t leave Bri to turn into a wolf-cicle without us in the frozen tundra alone.”

“True, and Kane can’t leave his pack.” Bri had married the Alpha of a different pack, which by default meant she was now a member of Pack Blackwater. But Leigh and I still belonged to the Johnson City pack, and it would be paperwork and a headache to officially move to Alaska. “I guess we’re not going back to Texas, then.”

The thought was strange, but deep down, I agreed with Leigh. Bri was family. While, yes, we were part of the Johnson City pack, they weren’t my family. Three single females, we hadn’t really fit in with the rest. All of us had no biological family left, so we’d become that for each other, and as such, we stuck out like sore thumbs.

Bri popped out of the bathroom, looking half-asleep. I needed a few minutes to think when I first woke up, but she tooknot a morning personto a whole different level. “What are you two talking about?” She rubbed her eyes, then wanderedback toward the bed. Leigh grabbed her by the shoulders and gently turned her toward our luggage, piled in the corner.

“Get dressed.”

“Right, right,” she murmured, but still shot us ananswer the questionwave over her shoulder.

“Well, when this is all settled, we’re still going to need to go back to Texas and pack. Also, I’m pretty sure there are transfer forms.”

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