Page 4 of Redeemed Wolf

I would take it.

Following behind him, I did whatever he asked of me. Back and forth, I carried stacks of plates, jugs of water, and heaping dishes of roasted vegetables, all while weaving around the pack members pointedly excluding me from their conversations. I was aware that it should’ve rankled, but there was something… familiar about it all that soothed my rough edges.

When at last the meat was cooked and everyone had gathered around the table on the cut-stump stools, the younger ones on laps, I let myself fully relax.

I felt better than I had all year. For once, I didn’t feel like I needed to watch my back. My guard was down, and I managedto draw a full breath. I couldn’t remember how long it had been since I could do that. My own pack never gathered like this. There were always plenty of walls between us—and not just the physical barriers, but also the emotional ones. We were a bunch of bitter, angry wolves with only the flimsiest of connections between us.

But this… this wasn’t just a pack. It was a family.

Shan sat at the head of the table, with Tristan on his right and Jude on his left, their mates beside them, while Brody, the Alpha Omega, sat at the other end of the table, bracketed by Dawn and Damon. Me, meanwhile, I found myself tucked on side between Mal, the six-year-old, and Sasha, the timid omega. I should’ve felt relieved that they trusted me around their most vulnerable pack members, but instead, I felt a little like I’d been relegated to the children’s table. Like I wasn’t a threat.

Vesta smirked from where she sat across from me, and I swore she was directing it at me, though her eyes were milky white with blindness. It was like she always knew exactly what I was thinking.

Looking up and down the table, I realized there was a lingering tension, but for once, I didn’t think it had anything to do with me. Jude was glaring down at his plate, fork clutched awkwardly in his fist. “Shan, we need to talk about—”

“Not yet,” Shan interrupted sharply, his eyes flicking toward the kids. Forcing a smile, he said, “Eat up, everyone. Food’s getting cold.”

It was simple fare, seasoned with herbs they’d grown themselves, but I devoured it all the same. It helped to fill the hollow that forever lingered inside me.

Conversation was sparse and broken, reinforcing the sense of tension that only seemed to build. I looked around for a clue about what it could be, but it was like trying to guess what a whole puzzle would be while holding only one piece.

By the time the kids had finished eating, Malachi was squirming in his seat. “Can I please be excused, Papa?” he asked.

Shan nodded, but before he could get far, he cleared his throat, and Mal stopped. “What do you say to Silas?” Shan coaxed.

“Thank you for the deer,” he said in a rush before running off to play. Wynn and Pax echoed his words before chasing after Mal. Jesse had fallen asleep in her omega father’s lap.

Jude’s leg was bouncing under the table. “Now?” he asked. “I need to know what he said.” Morgan, his mate, reached under the table to still his fidgeting.

Shan looked down the table and shared a weighted look with Brody. A strange sense of electric anticipation left my body buzzing. What the hell was going on?

Finally, Shan pushed his plate away and leaned his forearms on the table. “We heard from Joe. He got a lead on the lab today.” The table erupted into gasps and murmurs, plus a few outraged curses.

“Are the missing shifters there?”

“When can we go after them?”

“How did Joe find them?”

Joe Caruso was Dylan’s dad, Tristan’s father-in-law. He was the closest thing I’d ever met to a gangster—richer and more powerful than any of the gods—and he was also a badass panther shifter.

Oh, and he was also newly mated to Jude’s omega father, making Tristan and Jude stepbrothers. Talk about an awkward family dynamic.

“That dick Eric Taylor ismine.” That one was from Jude, his claws protruding from his fingertips and leaving gouges in the tabletop.

The balance between man and beast was always tenuous, but I could always sense Jude’s wolf close under the surface. I suspected that had a lot to do with how he’d been raised in one ofthose so-called labs. Not sure what the supposed “doctors” were studying, but it was a safe bet to say that it was nothing good.

Shan held his hands up, waiting for everyone to settle down a bit before he said, “We don’t know a lot yet. He tracked down Dr. Taylor, who has been seen coming and going from the secure complex, and honestly, that’s enough for me.”

The Alpha turned to Jude on his left, placing a hand over his bunched fist in a tender gesture. “Jude, we don’t know for sure if your brothers or sister are in there, but there’s a chance. I don’t want you going in there half-cocked, all vigilante style. We know from experience that they’re well-armed and dangerous, and that while they’d love to catch us alive, they know how to put us down. Promise me that you’ll hold off until we know more.”

Jude’s jaw clenched, but when he nodded, I knew it was a promise he would keep.

Shan reached down to a bag beside his stool and pulled out a tablet. Setting it on the table, he brought the screen to life and brought up a picture. “We have some pictures of the outside, but Joe hasn’t been able to secure the blueprints. It’s all under heavy security.” He slid the tablet to the center of the group so everyone could lean in.

“The lab has put out a job opening for some security personnel, and Joe is planning to put someone on the inside to get more information,” Shan was saying. “The problem is that these guys are on to us, and they likely have measures in place to identify shifters. We’ll need to recruit a human to—”

Morgan, being human, sat forward, raising his hand to volunteer, but Jude snatched his wrist and lowered his hand. “No,” he said firmly, brooking no argument.