Page 14 of Wolf Found

“And that’s...”

“A sniper rifle,” Ash answered from the direction of the den. “Betsy was Dez’s sniper rifle. Kept us alive more than once.”

Gavin turned back to Amos, who had gone silent. “We didn’t have any idea what you were talking about last night, but that doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. Even then, Sawyer told you, you can’t own people. I don’t care if they’re omegas, betas, or humans. If any adult person came to me and asked for safe haven from your pack, I’d grant it in a heartbeat.”

Gavin went silent, and this time, Amos didn’t have a response.

After a long pause, Gavin nodded. “Okay then. I think we understand each other now, and you have standing orders to vacate my pack’s territory. If you fail to leave Kismet again, I’m not going to ignore it. So get the fuck out.”

With that, Gavin slammed the door in Amos’s face, locked it, and slid a latch closed. It wouldn’t keep out a strong, determined wolf, but the noise alone sounded final and dismissive. It made Graham smile, inappropriate as that was. He’d never seen Amos put so firmly in his place, and something about it was satisfying.

Maybe he should feel guilty for that, but he didn’t. Amos Martingale was a bully. He treated the enclave children terribly, and the alpha never put him in his place.

Graham had always thought the alpha didn’t notice it, but that one little lie about Hannah had put everything in a new light. What if the alpha approved of the behavior? Keeping children sad and scared, like with the threat they could be put out of their pack, was exactly like something Amos would do.

Graham had lain awake at night for weeks after Hannah’s disappearance, wondering if the alpha would put him out for any of the infractions he’d committed against the pack. He used to give the children dinner even when they’d been sent to the children’s building without a meal as punishment. Was that a banishing offense?

He wished Hannah hadn’t been so secretive, had told him she was going to run away, so he’d have had all that extra time to process what he felt about these things. Extra time when he wasn’t in a house with Asher Martingale, still the ultimate distraction after all these years. Beautiful and kind, with the sweetest smile and the broadest shoulders...

It was not the time for that. Graham needed to decide what to do. The Martingales were apparently under orders to leave town, so if he wanted to go with them, he should be grabbing his bag and running for the door.

Distantly, he noted that he was not doing that.

He wasn’t even strongly considering it.

It was more like the time he’d slipped in mop water someone had spilled across the kitchen floor. He’d hit his head so hard his vision had gone black, and even when he’d opened his eyes, instead of getting up, for a while he’d just lay there and thought about how he’d left the oven on, and he ought to turn it off.

Everything around him felt like that incident had: sort of off-center and too bright, like the world around him had changed and he didn’t know how to see it anymore.

Outside, Amos stomped down the steps muttering about fake human alphas.

Inside, Gavin joined Dez and Sawyer in the kitchen, asking what they wanted for breakfast, his treat.

“A restaurant, then,” Sawyer answered. “Since you can’t even make oatmeal, oh wondrous alpha.”

Keys jingled. “A restaurant it is,” Gavin agreed easily. “Everyone coming? I’m in the mood for pancakes.”

Cakes, for breakfast? That, Graham had to try.

8

Good as Hell

On Wednesday mornings, Waylon and their most professional baristas held down the shop, since it wasn’t too busy. Usually, for the pack, that meant they got to sleep in. In this case, with the upheaval of a baby and Asher’s father banging on the door at practically day break, sleeping in hadn’t been an option, so they picked a diner and drove down; most of them in Ash’s sedan and Dez and Sawyer in Dez’s truck, since they were up to seven people in their group.

The whole way, Ash watched Hannah in the rearview mirror, holding baby Paige. She met his eyes, and he couldn’t hold back any longer. “We’ll go get a child seat for the car as soon as we’re done with breakfast. Or I could go while you eat, and—”

Gavin set a hand on Ash’s shoulder. “It’s fine, Ash. We’ll take care of it, but it’s fine for now. Just, you know, don’t get in an accident.”

“That’s not something people choose,” Ash shot back, but he didn’t look at his alpha. He was actually trying not to get in a car accident.

When he glanced back again, Hannah looked amused, so he guessed she didn’t think he was being a crappy caretaker for not already having a car seat.

The diner was nice and quiet, and they were given a set of tables pushed together off to one side. Hannah fed Paige a bottle of the human baby formula they’d gone to buy bright and early that morning, and whispered to Graham to order for her.

Graham, apparently, took that job very seriously. He scoured the menu like it was an actual job, or like he was proofreading the darn thing.

“It’s just standard diner food,” Dez said after everyone but Graham had set their menu aside. “I promise they’re not hiding anything weird under there. No escargot omelet.”

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