Page 20 of Wulf's Pack
Ren shoots his hand in the air. “Ooh! If it’s a family emergency, I’m coming too.”
Gorgeous whirls toward him and thrusts a menacing finger in his face. “The hell you are. I’m not answering the damn phones.”
“Stay here, Ren,” Parker orders. “Let the girls go do their thing, and give Skylar a chance to get settled in before you overwhelm her.”
Ren sighs. “Fine.”
Gorgeous swings his finger toward Oliver and Parker next. “You two are on human duty. I’m not doing it.”
Oliver gives him a devilish grin. “We’ll take care of them, if you get your paperwork done tonight.”
Gorgeous glares at him, and we all laugh. There’s nothing the dragon hates more than paperwork.
After the guys give Nora hugs good-bye, I trail behind Nora and Skylar to my car while Nora talks Skylar’s ear off. Yeah, she’s definitely glad to have another girl in the clan. Just when I think I’ve been forgotten, Skylar glances back as if checking to makesure I’m still here, and something squeezes in my chest. I’m in so much trouble.
Chapter
Six
On the way to Nora’s home from the FUA office, she explains a little about how our family came to be together. A master vampire was obsessed with her and once beat her up in front of Terrance. It triggered his troll’s protective instincts, and he claimed her as clan. After that, Nora’s siren’s song grabbed the hearts of the men in her life, and not only did it draw us to her, but it softened our hearts to each other. One by one, we were claimed as clan and moved into the den.
The den is a troll’s den. Trolls are very particular about their living arrangements. They like to live under bridges, or in caves if there is no bridge nearby. I have no idea why they like bridges—it’s probably something about being gatekeepers of their territory—but their magic is earth-based, and living underground soothes them.
Not me. The thought of living somewhere where the roof can collapse and leave me buried beneath feet and feet of dirt gives me the heebie-jeebies. And on top of that, as a lone wolf, I need my space. I need my own territory and lots of privacy. That’s why joining Terrance’s clan was so appealing to me. Aside from the lack of pack females and politics, I could join the family withouthaving to share territory. I don’t live far from the rest of them, but I have my own home, and none of them batted an eyelash when I chose to keep it instead of moving in with them. I have the benefits of a pack family and am still able to cater to the lone nature of my wolf. Of course, that wolf doesn’t seem to want his loner status anymore. The traitor.
Terrance’s den is under the Ambassador Bridge—a beautiful suspension bridge that crosses the Detroit River connecting the United States to Canada. The outside is nothing special to look at. It’s a mostly abandoned area, and the entrance is a door that appears to be a maintenance door on a support pillar of the bridge. The place is glamoured to throw off humans from accidentally stumbling across it, and it’s so heavily warded that the magic makes the hair on the back of my neck stand when I cross through the front door.
Once inside, we head down a long stairway that opens up into a large home. It’s nice and modern with huge, vaulted ceilings and wide hallways that easily accommodate the nearly seven-and-a-half-foot tall troll who built it. It helps with the claustrophobia, but staying the night here is still going to bug me. It’s dimly lit, but very clean and posh. It has a masculine décor with a huge TV, a pool table, and a wet bar in the living room.
Skylar enters the room and stands there for a minute, just taking it in.
“Home sweet home,” Nora says. She chuckles at Skylar’s surprise. “Not what you pictured?”
Skylar shakes her head. “When you said under the bridge, I guess I pictured a dank cave system or something.”
She grins. “It surprised me too. It’s amazing to think that all of this is underground. I’m sure magic was involved in the making of it.”
She heads down the hall, waving for Skylar to follow her. “Come on, I’ll show you my room and find you some towels and clothes to wear to bed. You can sleep in my room, and Wulf can survive on the couch for a night.”
We follow Nora into her bedroom. Skylar hovers near the door, chewing on her bottom lip again. “Some clothes to borrow would be great, but you don’t have to give me your room. I can sleep on the smaller couch or something.”
Nora smirks at her. “I have five mates who already fight over whose room I’ll sleep in every night. Trust me, you’re not inconveniencing me. I hardly ever use it beyond changing and showering. I really just have it because occasionally a girl needs her space. Know what I mean?”
“Not really,” Skylar says absently as she checks out the room. “My alpha forced me to sleep in his bed with him every night. He bought me from my parents when I was fourteen. I haven’t had any privacy in eight years.”
I growl. I can’t help it. She was sold by her parents? And her alpha forced her to sleep with him? At fourteen? My mind automatically jumps to the worst-case scenario. Night after night of being sexually assaulted at such a young age. I want to kill the bastard. “Who is your alpha?” I demand. “What pack are you from?”
Skylar wraps her arms around her middle and shudders. She studies me for a minute, no doubt taking in my rage, and she creases her brow with worry. “It doesn’t matter,” she murmurs. “I escaped, and I’m never going back.”
She’s not going to tell me? “It matters,” I insist, hands clenched in white-knuckled fists.
“If you go after him, you’ll get yourself killed,” she says. “He’s evil and well-connected, and his pack is strong. Please let it go. I’m free of him now. That’s all that matters.”
I disagree, but she looks scared for me, and she’s begging. I can’t fight her. I’ll get her to tell me eventually. Once she learns to trust me and sees how powerful our clan is, she’ll let us take care of him. “Are you free of him?” I ask. “Have you broken your pack bond?”
Skylar gives me a small nod. “It was the first thing I did. I couldn’t escape if he could just give me alpha commands through the bond.”
She turns her back to me and lifts her shirt so I can see her previous pack mark on her left shoulder blade. I cross the room to her to examine the mark.
