Page 116 of Redemption Road

“Titus?” Benny prompted.

“It’s not all that hard,” Titus said. “Let’s go outside where we’re touching ground — touching pack territory.” They trooped outside, and Titus simply stretched out his hand to Ryder. Ryder took it, somewhat uncertainly.

“Welcome to your pack and territory, Alpha Tom George Garrison,” Titus said simply.

Ryder’s eyes widened. Suddenly, he arched back, looked upward, and howled. A human howl, but it was eerie, nonetheless.

Benny swallowed hard. He was no longer part of this pack, and hadn’t been in a long time, but even he could feel it. The Okanogan welcomed a new Alpha to its hills.

Titus went to the pickup and got a cooler out. “Wasn’t sure what you had here,” he said apologetically. He handed Ryder a roast beef sandwich. “Eat. You’re absorbing 93 of the most psychotic wolves in the region. You’ll need the energy.”

Ryder took the sandwich and ate it in about four bites. Titus fed him another one, then handed sandwiches to Benny and Jessie. “Don’t go looking hangdog at me,” he said with a laugh. “I brought plenty.”

Benny waited until Ryder seemed to be back with them completely. They were sitting on the steps of the front porch — Benny had always liked the view from here. He brought up his visit to Naomi.

“Risky,” Titus said. “She’s a sharp old lady.”

Ryder grimaced. “That’s on the agenda for this trip too. Got to take Jessie out to meet her. And she’s going to go on a tear about robbing the cradle.” Jessie giggled at that.

“Is that why you’ve been worried about me meeting her?” she exclaimed. “I thought you didn’t think she’d like me.”

“Oh she’ll love you,” Ryder assured her. “It’s me, she’ll have words with. Well, maybe if she knows I’m settling in to Penticton, got a new job there, managing a company, she’ll think I’ve finally grown up — settling down, getting a real job, getting married.”

“We’re going to get married?” Jessie said in a small voice. “Really?”

Ryder stared at her. “Of course we’re getting married!” he exclaimed. “I’m tying you to me in all the ways I can. Age difference or no.” He paused. “You will marry me, won’t you?”

Jessie threw her arms around him. “Yes,” she said.

“Bro, we’ve got to talk,” Benny said, laughing so hard he could barely get the words out. “That’s the lamest proposal I have ever heard.”

Ryder shrugged sheepishly. “Well, it’s the only one I ever expect to make, so I guess it will do.” He put his arm around Jessie, and she snuggled up against him. “Didn’t you say you were leaving? My wife-to-be and I might have some celebrating ahead.”

Benny laughed.

“Well, something I wanted to bring up first,” Benny said. He told them about his visit with Naomi George in more detail. “I realized how precious she is to both of us,” he finished. “I don’t want to lose her. And you don’t either. With the serum we don’t have to.”

“You’re saying we should make her a shifter,” Ryder said. Benny couldn’t read him — couldn’t tell what he thought about it. But why would he be anything but on board? “You realize she’d have to uproot herself from here, start over again somewhere else?”

Benny nodded. “In Penticton, or at Hat Island. I’d love her involved in the school.”

“You can’t change her without asking her first!” Jessie protested. “You’ve heard all those women’s stories at Margarite’s! We can’t do that.”

Benny grimaced. “We faced that with Wolf Harbor and the serum project,” he said, uncomfortably. “You can’t ask, because then they know about shifters. And if they say no? You’d have to kill them — first rule. Better not to ask.”

Jessie started to say something more, but Ryder squeezed her hand, and she subsided.

“Dad did ask, in a way,” Ryder said. “After I went through first shift. I heard them talk, although I didn’t understand until much later. But he asked her if she’d go away with him, start over somewhere new. Just the two of them and me. Would she go?”

“What did she say?” Benny asked. That was an interesting way to approach it, he conceded.

“She said no,” Ryder said steadily. “She said her roots here went too deep, and some plants you just couldn’t transplant. That if he needed to go, she would understand. She could see him chafing to fly free. But she couldn’t go with. It would kill her to leave the tribe, her family, the school and the students she loved. To leave the land itself. She couldn’t go, but she wouldn’t try to make him stay.”

“And Dad?” Benny said with difficulty.

“He said he understood,” Ryder said. “And six months later, he had that ‘fatal accident,’ and started over. We talked about it once. He said it was the hardest thing he’d ever done, to let her make that choice and honor it. He fought the temptation to change her anyway and figure she would adjust. But he knew she’d been right. Some people don’t transplant. She would rather die than leave this place behind.”

“We’re losing her,” Benny said, trying not to shout. “You realize that? She’s dying. Oh she’s got years left. But it’s nothing compared to what we could give her.”

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