Page 15 of Hunted

I raise my eyebrow. “Since when did we start keeping beer in the garden?”

He shrugs. “You looked like you needed a cold one.”

I look at Warren and Chris. “Did you know about this?”

“Nope.” Warren takes a beer Bennett offers him. “But I’m happy to take advantage of it.”

“Me too,” Colton says.

“Me three,” Chris adds.

“I assumed you might want to talk,” Bennett says as he pockets his bottle lid. Nature and the forest is a shifter’s playground, because of that, we’re always careful to pocket our trash and take it inside.

“And the run we’re out here for?” I say, twisting my bottle top off and taking a quick sip before pocketing the lid.

“We can run whenever.” Colton studies me for a beat. “Maybe find something else for her to focus on. Not the baby ‘cause that’s all you’re going to be focusing on when they arrive.”

When Bennett pulls out a bag of nuts from beside him and offers them to me, I know I’ve been played. “You planned all this, didn’t you?” I ask, refusing his offer of nuts. I’m still stuffed from dinner. Apparently Bennett isn’t, because he tears into the packet and pours a generous handful into his palm before passing the bag to Colton.

I’d wondered why he hadn’t seemed surprised by the speed Penny and Tina ushered us out of the house. He just meekly walked out without a single word of complaint. Now we have beer andpeanutsfor our exile?

This was definitely planned.

Bennett claps me on my shoulder. “You’ve been frowning more than ever. Penny decided Aerin needed to relax, so she set up a movie night for the girls. I think they’re doing some spa stuff as well, whatever that means.”

“And what part did you have to play?” I ask, bouncing my gaze between Chris, Colton, and Warren.

“None.” Warren swigs from his bottle. “Just show up, drink beer, and go for a run.”

Chris pulls a piece of folded paper from his pocket and hands it over. “And to show you this.”

I set aside my bottle and reach for the paper. “What is it?”

“A possibility,” Warren says. “Chris found it and we swung by to check it out on our way here. It has potential and we could make it something really special.”

Curious, I unfold the piece of paper and have to squint to make out the real estate listing. “Does this mean you are definitely interested?”

It’s too dark to read it all, but the listing for a five acre old farm shows potential. There are a couple of outbuildings, plenty of land, and even if the buildings are looking a little worn doesn’t matter. We’ll probably want to rip everything down and start from scratch, so we have exactly what we want and exactly where we want it.

But location-wise, it’s perfect. Out of town but not so far out of town that it feels like we’re in the middle of nowhere. We all like nature, but we like grocery stores and regular trips to the diner as well. And Bennett still as his garage in town. He can’t be too far away from it.

“So is Zoe,” Chris says. “She grew up in a pack and was surprised that we live separately. As long as Penny doesn’t hound her with a million questions about her former life, she’s definitely interested.”

We all love Penny. She’s bright, cheerful, and chatty. But she’s also curious about the people who enter our lives and stay, and Zoe, the newest member of our pack, has been quietly recovering from the pain and grief that came with rejecting her abusive mate. Zoe doesn’t need curious questions about her past. She needs time to heal and rebuild a new life for herself.

“How is Zoe settling in?” I ask Chris.

Chris nods. “She’s okay.”

“And you?” I ask.

“More talkative than ever.” Warren grins as he bumps Chris’s shoulder. “I think he’s talked more since Zoe entered his life than in the last five years.”

“Five years?” Chris’s voice is dry. “You’re being dramatic.”

“No, I’m not,” Warren says firmly.

He’s not wrong. Chris was much more of a lone wolf than all the rest of us combined. Zoe has definitely made him open up.

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