Page 14 of Reclaiming Home

“Kye….”

“I stopped at a store and….” He looked away, hiding behind his hair a little like she had done the moment I first saw her.

“It’s awesome. Thank you.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw her reach for his hands across the table, over the pile of candy and some nail polish.

I did the dishes while they ate candy and chatted about using the nail polish.

“Do you want some?” she asked, gesturing at the candy.

“Nah, but thanks,” I replied, smiling. She seemed much younger suddenly, as if something about this was bringing out the carefree girl she’d been before whatever happened to her took place.

“Well I’m gonna do his nails and then he’s gonna make a mess of mine,” she informed me pointedly, grinning as she started to open the nail polish.

“I need to unwind, so I’m going to go do a quick run around the immediate property.”

“Wolfy stuff,” she murmured, attention elsewhere.

Kye glanced at me, clearly amused. I was pretty sure he didn’t realize how exactly he was looking at me, though. I’d rolled up my sleeves to do the dishes and I felt his gaze sweep over my body.

“I’ll strip around the corner here and shift. I shouldn’t be gone for long.”

As I ducked into the entrance hall, I tried not to think how good that gaze had felt.

Shifting was always freeing to me. I normally only did it around the full moon, when a bunch of wolves from my friend group gathered in the Wallace Falls State Park for a proper run. Being back on this property, what I realized was now called the McRae Pack’s lands… this felt completely different, and the moon was nowhere near full yet.

As I let the wolf take over my human body and twist its own into the place where I’d just stood, I felt no pain. Something about the Alpha power was making me feel more at ease during the shift, which could be painful. It was especially bad for bittenwolves for a while, and the thought made me think about Sheriff Drumm. I really should invite him to run with me soon. He’d seemed like a good guy, and I could use solid people in my circle here. Hell, maybe, eventually, he’d agree to be pack. I could certainly use a smart, capable man who understood both humans and wolves after all.

I’d forgotten to open the door, so I let out a rumbly sound and went to peer into the kitchen.

“Oh!” Carys blinked at me. When I flicked my gaze toward the hall behind me, she giggled. “Door?”

I rolled my eyes and padded to the door to wait for her. She followed me and opened it, then glanced at the clothes I’d folded and left on the floor.

“How about I put these outside so you can shift and change when you come back?” she asked smartly.

I huffed in agreement, bumped her thigh with my head, and loped down the stairs.

I did a circuit, like I’d said I would. All I could smell were some wild animals having been around, which told me exactly how little Rusty’s betas had cared about patrolling the property. I was pretty sure nobody had done that in ages, given that I could catch the scent of a couple of different predators so close to the house.

Knowing that while the wolf wanted to do a proper patrol run, I also had two vulnerable humans inside the house, I turned back after twenty minutes or so.

I got dressed to the sounds of them laughing at something in the kitchen.

It was late, so I went to use the tiny downstairs bathroom to clean my teeth and take a leak. Both Carys and I had showered during the day after the Sheriff’s people had left. We’d felt dirty for completely different reasons.

I sat on the third couch, scrolling on my phone, when they appeared.

“Hey, I’ll go take a shower upstairs, then we can sleep.” Kye gestured. He had a change of clothes in his arms, and I assumed Carys had told him where to find a towel if there were any clean ones.

“Okay.” I glanced at her. “Wanna make the bed for you guys?”

“Sure.”

As we did our best with the couches, going as far as to put the sheets on top of the blankets, and then spreading the clean blankets on top, she smiled slightly.

“What?” I asked.

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