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He kisses my forehead and pulls me close, covering us with the sheets.

We’re sharing the same pillow when he speaks. “After I left this place, I tried never to think about it.”

And I realize he’s finally going to tell me about how he came to be the Winter Lake Alpha. It’s a story I’ve always wanted to hear, but with what I know about the way the Raleighs self-imploded, I know it’s a story so painful that I never would have asked him to tell me. Because it’s not mine to prompt. It’s his to decide to tell me.

“Is it weird being back?” I whisper.

He shakes his head. “Not really. Mostly because this house isn’t the same, though it’s built in the same place as the old house and it’s made of the same gold wood. Even if they hadn’t burned down the old house, this house would still feel different and strange. Winter Lake is home.”

“What happened to the old house?” I ask, though I think I can guess.

“Almost everything was on fire when I left. Everyone was fighting. At the time, I thought the fire might have been accidental, but the longer time has gone by, the more certain I’ve grown that it couldn’t have been. It was intentional.” His eyes are distant. “That last day, I thought the world was ending.”

Poor Mack.

“I’m sorry.”

His smile is brief. “It was a lifetime ago, back when I stopped thinking of this place as home. I thought everyone was gone. Then my dad showed up in Winter Lake and we all have a family reunion from hell.”

I sigh. “Yeah, my dad didn’t make things easy, did he?”

They had descended on us and had pecked and pecked at each other, sniping at each other like they were kids and not middle-aged men. I had briefly considered living out the rest of my days in the forest with the squirrels if it had meant I no longer had to listen to them. Mack had felt the same way.

“Then there was my fated mate who decided to crash our mating ceremony.”

We smile at each other.

“That was an intense time,” I say.

“It was.” He shakes his head. “I skipped over a big chunk of what happened after I left Michigan.”

“The most painful part?”

“The part that no longer hurts because you healed me. But I still remember it, and I’d like to tell you it, if you want to listen?”

My stomach chooses that moment to growl, and it growlsloud.

I blush and Mack laughs.

He releases me. “Wait here. I’ll grab us some food and be right back.”

He’s stepping into pants and walking out before I can stop him, returning minutes later with food for us. It’s a lunch spread. Bread, olives, salami, sliced fruit, cold chicken, and all to be washed down with fresh, cool water.

We eat in bed again, and between bites of our lunch, Mack tells me the story of how he became the Winter Lake Alpha after his pack imploded.

“I was a wolf for the first few nights. It was cold, and I didn’t have much with me. I thought at the time that I wouldn’t need much when I left, but I could have done with being a little more prepared than I was.”

I stop eating. “Then what did you do?”

He flashes me a brief smile. “I survived. It wasn’t easy, but I survived. So did the rest of them.”

I scrunch my nose. “The rest of who?”

“The rest of the pack. Bennett, Warren, Penny, Tina, Chris, Adela. You. The Winter Lake Pack.”

I shake my head. “I’m sure your version of surviving did not involve sleeping in a filthy toilet one night.”

He takes my hand and squeezes it. “You did what you had to do to get through a difficult thing. We all did. It’s no better or worse. Just different. You know I met Bennett first in New York?”

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