Page 56 of Nugget

He drew back and winked before stepping outside and onto the deck.

The wind brushed over his naked form as Gavin stood peering out at the property in front of him. Another reminder that he wasn’t alone. His chosen family was there.

Gavin had kept the nightmares to himself although according to Levi, the family was worried about him. He hadn’t wanted to share with them his past trauma but maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to talk about it with Stryker. His mate.

Decision made, Gavin turned.

Stryker sat on the arm of the chair, watching Gavin with a sweet look on his face.

Gavin walked over and sat in the chair that Bo had custom made for all the cabins. “Bo made this chair,” he informed his boy.

“The hellhound alpha?”

“He makes custom furniture,” Gavin shared. He pulled Stryker into his lap and fixed the blanket to make sure that Stryker was covered. “These chairs are special though.”

Stryker ran his hand over the arm he’d been sitting on. Bo had carved the image of a thunderbird into the wood. “What makes these so special?”

“The wood is from hell. It looks like the oaks of our world, thanks to Adam’s abilities, but it originated from hell.”

“That’s pretty cool,” Stryker commented.

“It means that it’s fireproof.”

Stryker’s eyes widened. “Really?” He looked back at the chair with renewed interest.

“All the cabins have been made with the same material. Add in a little magic and we never have to worry about being burned out of our homes.”

“Is that a concern?” Stryker asked.

“It was when I was a kid,” Gavin told him. “The hunters would set fire to the homes of the paranormal creatures they were hunting. Once the paranormals tried to escape, they would run right to the people trying to kill them.”

“Fuck,” Stryker spat.

“It didn’t matter if it was women or children. Predator or prey. The paranormal weren’t people to the hunters.”

“And you went through this? I remember you saying something about the hunters when we were tracking the coven,” Stryker said.

“I was young but yes. My family was small, but we were close. When rumors began to spread about the attacks, my parents moved all of us from our homes. We hid out in an old farmhouse in a town that was close to some woods.”

“You had to leave your homes?”

Gavin nodded. “It was good that we did. When I went back, there was nothing left.” His entire childhood house had been burned to the ground. Gavin had tried to scavenge and luckily his grandma had a cellar of canned food, but it had nearly broken Gavin. It had been about a year after he’d been the sole survivor.

“You had to see that?” Stryker asked. “I’m sorry.” He kissed Gavin’s chin.

“Thanks.” Gavin did not want to reflect on that time in his life. He was trying to explain without falling into a flashback. “It was only material things, but it hurt. To see my childhood toys burned to ashes. The pictures of my family. The pillows my grandma made. I didn’t understand how anyone could be so cruel. Why they would do that. Even after it was a fire that had taken us out.”

“Not all of you,” Stryker pointed out.

“My father made an escape path under the floorboards that was only big enough for me,” Gavin explained. “I could hide there and if need be crawl out to an exit into the woods.”

“By yourself?”

“I was the only one unable to shift. I hadn’t hit puberty yet. They needed a way for me to hide.”

“Huh, I hadn’t even thought about if you could shift from birth or not.”

“It’s different per shifter species.”

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