Chapter 22
Artem wasn’t much of a traveler. Living at a campground his whole life and having the mountains and woods as a playground meant his childhood had been filled with vacations involving tents and campfires with friends and family. Aside from occasionally traveling for work to pick up supplies and of course the fighting he’d participated in, he was pretty much a homebody.
And now that he had Promise in his home, he was even more appreciative of quiet nights in so he could treat her like a queen and make her moan in ecstasy. Despite his homebody leanings, he was looking forward to meeting her family and hanging around a wolf pack.
There was a pack in Little Hope and several members worked for the campground, but he’d never gone on a full moon hunt with them or even spent time in his shift with them.
This was a whole new thing for him.
“What are you thinking about so seriously?” Promised asked him as she pointed to the right for him to take the next exit.
“How I like being home.”
“You mean you didn’t want to come today?”
“Hell no, I just mean I’m a homebody, you know? And I like being home with you even more.”
She rubbed the back of his neck, massaging it lightly. “It must have been really lonely having your beast so aggressive and the illegal fights to deal with.”
“It was. The cabin was a sanctuary.”
“I’m sorry it got turned to ash.”
He put on the blinker and exited the highway. “Me too. Richard said they might move the greenhouse to the space since it’s larger than where they have it now. But we’ve got a great place to live already, and the new cabin definitely feels like home with you in it.”
He glanced at her and she was beaming.
“It feels like home to me too.”
They’d moved into what had once been the owners’ cabin two days earlier. The baro had really come through for them with furniture since everything he’d had was either burned up or too damaged to repair, and whatever they hadn’t been able to get through gifts they’d bought with the money from his fights. He hadn’t really had anything of value in the cabin so he wasn’t mourning the loss of anything.
He was mostly just damn grateful that they were both safe and going to stay that way.
She pointed out landmarks in Allen as they passed through town on the way to her parents’ house.
“So a lot of males work at the garage,” she said when they passed by Pete’s. “It’s named after Alpha Jason’s dad, who was alpha before him. Alpha Jason’s mate Cadence works there. My dad works there, too.”
“That’s cool,” he said.
“My mom works at the community center. Oh, here’s Lonestar! That’s where I worked. Oh crap.”
“What?”
“I forgot to tell Karly that I was going to quit.”
“Didn’t you tell her you were going to search for your mate?”
“Yeah, but she told me she’d hold my job for me when I found him and came home. I never let her know that I was for sure moving to Pennsylvania. But my mom probably did. I’ll have to make sure I check in with her.”
“I’m sure your mom told her. If the pack is anything like the baro, gossip is a hot commodity.”
“Definitely.”
He turned down a quaint street and parked in front of a ranch with tidy flower beds filled with shrubs and colorful flowers. “This was my dad’s place before he met my mom,” she said.
“So how does the ranking work with the pack?” he asked.
They got out of the truck and met at the front, linking hands and walking toward the front door.
“Only the males are ranked and they fight in wolf form on the full moons whenever Alpha Jason sets it up. Everyone starts out as an omega, unranked and low on the totem pole when they shift as a teenager, and they have to fight their way up. The alpha position is hereditary. Jason’s son Bram will take over when he steps down. Once Jason steps down to retire, the high-ranked males will also step down and Bram will have a new set of high-ranked males to help him lead.”
“Can someone try to take over as alpha?”
“Yes and no,” she said. They reached the front door and stopped to face each other. “So within the pack ranking system, technically if someone wanted to take over, they’d have to fight their way up. But if someone just wanted to outright challenge him, they could. But he can turn down the challenge if he wants and kick the wolf out of the pack.”
“Has that happened?”
“It did a little while ago when his niece Jessi and her mates had come for the full moon. A family in the pack conspired to challenge Jason and tried to cheat with a syringe full of drugs, but one of Jessi’s mates saw what was happening and stopped it.”
“That’s wild,” he said.
She opened the front door and he held it while she stepped in and then followed her inside. “I take it that no one has tried to take over the baro?”
“Well to be fair they’d have to fight all the heads of the individual clans and wouldn’t just have one person to challenge.”
“That’s a good point.”
They found her parents in the family room watching TV. Her dad stood and shut off the show and her mom got up and gave her a hug.
“Mom, Dad, this is Artem Connelley. Artem, these are my parents, Bo and Reika Elliot.”
He shook their hands. “It’s nice to meet you in person finally,” he said.
“You too,” Bo said. “Have a seat.”
As they sat on part of the sectional sofa, Reika asked, “Are you thirsty or hungry?”
“We’re good Mom, thanks.”
“So you’ve had quite a crazy week,” Bo said, putting his arm around his mate.
“It definitely felt like the universe was against us,” Promise said. “Just one freaking bad thing after another.”
“You’re definitely safe now though?” Reika asked.
“One hundred percent,” Artem said.
“I had no idea there were shifters who had a curse like you did,” Bo said. “That must have always been on your mind.”
He nodded. “I’m thankful to not have to worry about it anymore, that’s for sure.”
They talked for a while about Promise moving to the campground but being able to remain part of the pack so they could come join in on full moon hunts whenever they wanted.
“Do you need help packing?” Reika asked when they said they needed to get over to the trailer.
“Thanks, but Rio and London already started packing for me, so I think we’ve got it handled. Then we’re going to stop at Alpha Jason and Cades’ to talk to them, then we’ll see you for dinner.”
“Six?” Reika asked.
“That’ll work,” Promise said. “Oh, did you happen to tell Karly that I wasn’t going to come back to Allen?”
“Um, no. Why?”
“I never let her know about my decision to stay in Pennsylvania and she said she’d hold my job for me.”
“I’m sure she’ll understand. She’s sweet that way.”
“We can stop in and talk to her, maybe grab a slice of Zoey’s chocolate cake if she made it today.”
They said goodbye to her parents and headed to the trailer, stopping at Lonestar to speak to Karly. Promise was tickled to get to take a piece of cake with them. The seven-layer chocolate cake was very popular, but Zoey had set aside a piece when she heard Promise was coming to town.
Once they reached her trailer, he met her sister Rio and her friend London who were already packing up her things.
“Will you stay here?” Promise asked her sister while Artem hauled the only piece of furniture Promise wanted—a large bookshelf that doubled as a TV stand.
“I think so,” Rio said. “At least for now. I still don’t know what I want to do with myself.”
“I had to leave home to find my heart,” Promise pointed out.
Rio made a face. “I don’t remember you being so lovey-dovey-romantic before you met Artem.”
Artem grinned as he hefted the now-empty bookshelf on one shoulder and headed for the front door.
“I didn’t have a reason to be lovey-dovey-romantic until I met him.”
He felt the same damn way.
Once he’d secured the bookshelf, he returned to the house to pick up the bags and boxes as they were being filled.
He paused after dropping another box in the back of his truck and stared at the woods around the trailer park.
“It’s nice here,” Promise said as she snuggled up to his side.
“It is,” he said. He kissed the top of her head. “We could stay here if you’d like. You know I’d be anywhere you are without question.”
“I love the campground, though. It feels like home to me and my wolf. Plus, I wanted to be in a place where I could use my healing skills, and there are already plenty of healers in the Tressel Pack.”
“I’m glad we can come here to visit, though.”
“Me too.”
She went onto her toes and kissed him. He was very tempted to chase her lips and kiss her some more, but they still needed to see the alphas before going to her parents for dinner, so kissing would have to wait.
But hopefully not for too long, because he did love to kiss his sweet wolf.