Page 43 of The Dire Legacy

Alpha materializes flanked by his mate and another of the males. “I think you’ll be pleased.” He lopes ahead of the moving wagon.

He’s always so cryptic. A furry Confucius.

I wish the others could talk. Well, Lucky can drop a syllable here and there, but he’s kind of creepy.

It’d make it easier to distract myself from Michael’s brooding silence when I try to talk to him about sticking around. Or his past.

He won’t even tell me why he chooses to live with the wolves. Not that they’re bad company. I’d prefer to stay with them, too.

At least I know if they’re pulling body parts off of me, it’s just because they’re hungry. That’s a motivation I can live with.

“Oh! This place is perfect!” It really is. A cute little house, a barn, a garden.

My god. It even has a white picket fence. Someone tear out my heart, it hurts that this is so much like a story book.

“Yea, Lucky said it hasn’t been empty long. Supposedly there’s still some chickens and whatnot around.” Michael takes off for the barn leaving me free to explore the house.

The door sticks a little when I push it open. Besides being a bit musty inside, it looks untouched and move in ready. Furniture and all.

There’s even food in the pantry.

Holy crap, water comes out of the spigot. After only a few seconds, the darker color fades to crystal clear and cold.

Just past the small living room, complete with woodstove, there’s a few doors.

“Duck, duck, goose!” A bathroom.

“Eenie meenie miney moe!” Damn. It’s a bedroom fit with a crib and toys. Someone had children out here?

What would that be like?

My hands wrap around my lower belly, dark memories clouding my thoughts. Shaking them away helps.

That isn’t my future.

But, this room? Yea, I could have fun in here. A big king bed with a huge headboard and posts on every corner.

Just the type of place I’d need to convince ol’ Mikey to let me hang around for a while.

Funny how confident I am I’d be good at it. Or, how amazing he would be.

He’s the first person to ever look out for me as apersonand not a product. The little horny voice inside of me says he’d “take care of me” in the best kind of way.

Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

My sigh disturbs the dust on the bathroom mirror.

“Hope?” Michael’s voice carries through the house with a weight of comfort. It belongs here.

“Yes, dear?” Doing my best Donna Reed twirl into the main room, I end with a flourished curtsey. “Welcome home. How was work today?”

His ears poke forward as one eyebrow raises, matching the slow curl of one corner of his lip. “Where’d you find the dress? It—” He clears his throat. “—it looks good on you.”

“This old thing?” My speech slows into a deep southern drawl as I spin in a slow circle. “Why, I’ve got an entire closet full of these.” There is a whole wardrobe in the bedroom. I’d have enough clothes to wear for a year without changing.

If I lived here.

“Green is a nice color on you. Matches your eyes.” Red tinges his cheeks as he runs his gloved hand through the dark locksof his hair. “There’s some chickens in the barn still running around. And the back pen is showing signs of hogs. Alpha is taking the dogs out to see if they can find them and bring them back.”

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