Page 60 of A Wolf's Wound
“Shadow,what’swrong?”Iask, kneeling down and putting my hands on his front paws.“Is it your cut?”I take a close look at the scratch but don’t see any blood or new bruising.
“Is he all right?”Lori asks, looking concerned.
“I don’t know,” I tell her.Shadow clutches my hands and moves closer to me.I pick him up and hold him tightly.He burrows his nose into my neck as I stand up.
“Can I help?”Ryder’s father asks.At the sound of his voice Shadow squeaks again and begins to chatter as he squirms against me.
“No, thanks, he’ll be okay,” I stammer, taking a step back.I don’t understand; Shadow’s been around wolf shifters before, plenty of times.But this time I can’t calm him down.
Maybe the events of the evening are catching up to him too.I rub his back and scratch his ears, both of which usually relax him immediately.Not this time.
Then Ryder appears, back from wherever he and his brothers went.Shadow jumps out of my arms and into Ryder’s, who catches him easily.“Hey, little guy,” Ryder says and Shadow chatters back happily.
“You have the magic touch.”I laugh as Shadow relaxes against Ryder.
“I guess so,” he says with a smile.“With raccoons, at least.”
“You might be helping me to relax too,” I admit.
“Oh, yeah?”Ryder says, his smile growing.
“Yeah.Your parents are really nice,” I tell him.His mother and father had drifted away once Ryder approached, but I catch Lori’s eyes and see the kindness in them.
“I can tell they like you,” Ryder says, also looking at his mother.Then he looks back at me.“And I’m glad that you’re relaxing.”
“Thanks for not saying ‘I told you so.’”
“Hey, a gentleman never gloats.”
“But does a gentleman disclose his whereabouts?”I ask.
“Oh, me and my brothers?We just had to talk about some stuff.”
“You mean what happened at my apartment,” I say, and Ryder nods.“Did they have any ideas?”
“Not really,” he says.“We all have a lot of theories, but unfortunately that’s about all we have right now.”
“Me too.”
Ryder’s father comes back over.“Hannah, you look quite comfortable here,” he says.“Sometimes newcomers aren’t as relaxed around a pack.”
“Dad, you forget that Hannah’s been around packs before,” Ryder points out.
I wonder if his father really did forget, or was just trying to avoid what he thinks could be an awkward topic.In case it’s the latter I smile, feeling as though I need to reassure them both that I’m okay.“It’s true that I grew up in the Blackwood pack although we didn’t have a brood of brothers leading the charge,” I say.
Ryder’s father chuckles.“‘Brood of brothers,’ I like that,” he says.
“Although if you ask Gavin, he’d insist he’s the only one leading anything,” Ryder adds.
“And he’d be wrong because this woman here is our true leader,” Ryder’s father says as his wife joins us too.He puts an arm around Lori’s shoulders and kisses her cheek.
Lori smiles modestly.“Oh, I don’t know about that,” she says.
Gavin, Michael, and Evan wander over, all holding plates of food.“What?You’re not even getting your date dinner?”Evan asks Ryder.
Ryder blushes.“Sorry, Hannah, do you want anything to eat?”
“I’m okay, but maybe grab a burger for Shadow?”I ask.Shadow nods enthusiastically, and he and Ryder go to fix a plate.
