Chapter Three
Brodie
A s the siblings sat on the floor, crying their eyes out and clutching each other, I went upstairs to continue cataloging the damage the house had.
I wasn’t sure what I’d expected when it came to Carys’ big brother, but an angel with black hair wasn’t it. He was easily the most beautiful man I’d ever seen.
When I’d opened the door and he’d stood there, my wolf had gone crazy inside me. At first I thought it was because this was a stranger on a new Alpha’s territory, a stranger coming into its den. Except, it wasn’t that.
The way the wolf acted was like a playful puppy. It also wanted to get as close to Kye as possible. It took me a few minutes to realize what was happening: a mate bond.
It freaked me out. Of course it did. By the time I got to the other end of the long hallway upstairs, I felt like a caged wolf. Meanwhile, the wolf within wanted to go back to the humans, back to the mate.
I let out a choked up sound. One of frustration and disbelief. I couldn’t understand what was going on. Why would the universe do this to me now?
In Seattle, I’d had an easy life. I had been content, even happy on occasion. I didn’t need a pack for that, or a partner. I had a great job working for a contractor wherever he needed me—I was a mix of carpenter, plumber, and electrician by trade—and on the weekends I played hard at my favorite clubs or, if I didn’t feel the craving, stayed at home and binged shows and movies.
I hadn’t tried dating in years, because the men that wanted to date a working class Dom rarely felt right for me. I guess now I knew why. Some part of me must’ve known I had someone out there just for me.
Except, now I couldn’t even begin to entertain the thought of beginning something new with Kye. Or anyone, really. I needed to figure out the pack. The house and the lands. I needed to move my life here for everyone’s sake. Where the two humans currently sitting on the floor downstairs fit, I didn’t know.
I concentrated on the house as much as I could. All the bedrooms were upstairs. The main one had an attached bathroom, and those two were in decent condition. The six other bedrooms and two baths though… not so much.
I opened the door to the room that had been mine and Bella’s once and grimaced at the mess. Not only was there water damage all over, but there was a clear hole in the ceiling that hadn’t really been patched. Who knew how long that must’ve been there.
The window was boarded up, too. The wallpaper was peeling, and the floor was… I didn’t even want to think about it, really. There was so damn much to do here. By here, I meant the whole house.
Bella had been right. Mom would’ve hated to see the house like this.
I checked the other rooms again. I’d done that before, with Sheriff Holden Drumm who had wanted to check the whole place out. He was a deputy, really, but everyone called him the Sheriff because he was the senior deputy at the town’s station. The actual Sheriff, Gerrell, ruled from his throne in the biggest city in the county, which, to be fair, wasn’t that big, either.
Being a bitten wolf, Drumm had more understanding than most humans, at least. He’d been bitten about twenty years ago, and looked to be in his forties where he was, in reality, in his sixties. Werewolves aged differently from humans. Born wolves like me often appeared younger than we were, but we still aged. Our life expectancy was around two hundred and fifty years.
Being bitten, like Sheriff Drumm, would make one age very slowly from the point where they received the bite.
Meanwhile, vampires like Rian were forever the same age they’d been when turned. In his case, he’d always look to be in his early twenties. There weren’t any natural causes that would kill a vampire. They died due to violence, or, more often, by their own hand because being alive for centuries upon centuries got rough, mentally. The oldest vampire I’d ever met had been an owner of a bookstore in Portland. She told me she’d been alive for over nine hundred years.
Rian had explained that more often than not, the really old vampires became kind of numb to life. It was like depression, the older you got. He was still doing well, and I felt confident that my best friend would be around for at least until the end of my lifetime.
While Holden hadn’t told me why he’d been bitten, he’d mentioned that it had been a life or death situation during a regular old workday somewhere in the south.
Being turned into a werewolf or a vampire were usually done for two reasons; either to save a life or for love. Turning people for other reasons was heavily frowned upon by most everyone.
Some people didn’t even want to be turned in an emergency for various reasons. One of the big ones was speciesm. It worked every which way, too, and I was pretty sure that my uncle had gotten sadistic enjoyment over the fact that Carys was a human.
I’d asked her if she needed to see a doctor, and she’d told me no. Then she’d told me my uncle had used condoms because she was a “filthy human.” If I could’ve killed him again, I would’ve. But at least that was better in obvious ways. She didn’t need any repercussions from him not using them after all.
I decided to go back downstairs and face the Rossi siblings.
O nce we’d had our coffee, we realized it was late and we hadn’t really eaten anything all day.
“What do we have in the house?” I asked Carys.
“I’m sure we can scrounge something up. Let’s go check,” she replied with the brightness that had appeared after her brother arrived.
She got off the couch and pulled Kye with her. I followed behind them with our mugs and the creamer. As I put them in the sink, Carys realized she’d forgotten them and quickly hid behind Kye.
“Hey, whatever happened with Rusty, I’m nothing like my uncle,” I said calmly.
I could see her shoulders rise and fall as she took in a deep breath. “Okay.” She stepped around Kye and nudged her head toward the pantry. “Come look, Kye. Let’s figure out what we’re making.”
I rinsed the mugs while they were sorting through whatever we had left. I really needed to do a proper grocery run tomorrow after the company the Sheriff had called would come to clean the barn from whatever was left there.
They’d also go through the house, because there was paraphernalia in a few rooms and I hadn’t wanted to touch it.
Carys said she hadn’t been made to use the meth that had been abundant around here. She was having headaches, though, which meant that it still lingered. I could smell it, of course, the chemical smoke that had seeped into everything where the pack had been smoking.
Luckily that was mostly the living room and one of the bedrooms. Uncle Rusty had liked to smoke on the porch where he’d surveyed his kingdom, so at least the main bedroom would be easier to clean.
There was so damn much to renovate. Especially with it already being September.
“Is there any place in town, like a motel?” Kye asked when they emerged from the pantry.
Carys filled a pot with water and put it on the stove for pasta, it seemed.
“I don’t think so. Let me ask Ben and Max.”
“The cousins,” Carys explained to her brother.
“Ah.”
“It’s gonna be some pasta Bolognese, or at least something close to it,” she said, gesturing at their findings.
My phone dinged, and I checked at what the guys were saying. “Nope, nothing but a B I’d catered to his need to feel useful.
He rolled his eyes, a small smile fleetingly playing on his lips.
“Let’s go check upstairs, see if there’s any bedding there.”
“I’ll ask Carys,” Kye said quickly and walked to his sister. I could hear them talk quietly, but blocked the words out, just to be polite.
When he walked back out of the kitchen, the anguish in his eyes was unmistakable. Without saying a word, he followed me up the creaky stairs and into the main bedroom.
As soon as he was inside, he looked almost panicked for a moment, then slapped a hand over his mouth as his eyes filled with tears.
“Hug?” I asked quietly, and he nodded rapidly. I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him close, and let him sob against my chest. He wasn’t short, but I was tall. He fit perfectly in my arms, I could rest my chin on top of his head as I held him. The small sounds of pure suffering he was trying to hide into the fabric of my shirt were heartbreaking.
My wolf felt anxious, but also happy that we could be there for Mate. The wolf couldn’t understand a lot of things, but it understood grief, joy, even love to an extent. It didn’t get anything like the undercurrent of attraction I was feeling toward Kye, or the true meaning of his grief.
Wolves were simple beings, underneath the surface. Sometimes it was harder to remember we were supposed to act human in polite company. The closer to the full moon we got, the harder it was, sometimes. I knew I got shorter with words, more snappy, sometimes more hedonistic.
But now, I tried not to get swept up with the sensation of being whole, no matter how good he felt in my arms. I didn’t have time for any of this. I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring.
A few minutes later, Kye hiccupped one last time and pulled away. He grimaced at the sight of my shirt that was now wet with his tears.
“It’s fine,” I assured him gently, squeezing his shoulder. “Now, what did she say? About the bedding?”
He grimaced again, glancing over at the bed. “She said she wants everything burned, but that there’s a cabinet in the corner where she stashed a few blankets and a couple of new pillows, b-because she hated when b-blood got on them….”
Seeing he was a few seconds from losing it again, I squeezed him tightly, as if I could hold him together like that, then let go.
“Okay, let me see.” I went to the cabinet between the windows and found exactly what I’d expected. The white dress she’d been wearing was in the corner where she’d likely tossed it. I could only recognize it because of the lace around a sleeve that was visible.
Kye had found some sheets from the dresser by the door, so we took everything downstairs and left it all on the couches.
“I’ll go get my stuff from the car,” he said, and ducked out of the house.
As I joined Carys in the kitchen, she seemed surprisingly content for the moment.
“We’ll make a nest in the living room,” I told her and the corner of her mouth lifted as she glanced at me.
“Good. I… Thank you.”
It was clearly the least I could do, but I didn’t say that.
We ate the surprisingly tasty if basic dinner, and talked about everything but the obvious elephants rampaging all over the house.
I volunteered to do the dishes after, and as I was gathering them, Kye reached for the plastic bag he’d put on the side table.
He handed it over to Carys. “Here.”
She was curious, then giggled when she glanced inside. She carefully shook out everything that was in the bag, and then shook her head, appearing absolutely delighted.
“Kye….”
“I stopped at a store and….” He looked away, hiding behind his hair a little like she had done the moment I first saw her.
“It’s awesome. Thank you.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw her reach for his hands across the table, over the pile of candy and some nail polish.
I did the dishes while they ate candy and chatted about using the nail polish.
“Do you want some?” she asked, gesturing at the candy.
“Nah, but thanks,” I replied, smiling. She seemed much younger suddenly, as if something about this was bringing out the carefree girl she’d been before whatever happened to her took place.
“Well I’m gonna do his nails and then he’s gonna make a mess of mine,” she informed me pointedly, grinning as she started to open the nail polish.
“I need to unwind, so I’m going to go do a quick run around the immediate property.”
“Wolfy stuff,” she murmured, attention elsewhere.
Kye glanced at me, clearly amused. I was pretty sure he didn’t realize how exactly he was looking at me, though. I’d rolled up my sleeves to do the dishes and I felt his gaze sweep over my body.
“I’ll strip around the corner here and shift. I shouldn’t be gone for long.”
As I ducked into the entrance hall, I tried not to think how good that gaze had felt.
Shifting was always freeing to me. I normally only did it around the full moon, when a bunch of wolves from my friend group gathered in the Wallace Falls State Park for a proper run. Being back on this property, what I realized was now called the McRae Pack’s lands… this felt completely different, and the moon was nowhere near full yet.
As I let the wolf take over my human body and twist its own into the place where I’d just stood, I felt no pain. Something about the Alpha power was making me feel more at ease during the shift, which could be painful. It was especially bad for bitten wolves for a while, and the thought made me think about Sheriff Drumm. I really should invite him to run with me soon. He’d seemed like a good guy, and I could use solid people in my circle here. Hell, maybe, eventually, he’d agree to be pack. I could certainly use a smart, capable man who understood both humans and wolves after all.
I’d forgotten to open the door, so I let out a rumbly sound and went to peer into the kitchen.
“Oh!” Carys blinked at me. When I flicked my gaze toward the hall behind me, she giggled. “Door?”
I rolled my eyes and padded to the door to wait for her. She followed me and opened it, then glanced at the clothes I’d folded and left on the floor.
“How about I put these outside so you can shift and change when you come back?” she asked smartly.
I huffed in agreement, bumped her thigh with my head, and loped down the stairs.
I did a circuit, like I’d said I would. All I could smell were some wild animals having been around, which told me exactly how little Rusty’s betas had cared about patrolling the property. I was pretty sure nobody had done that in ages, given that I could catch the scent of a couple of different predators so close to the house.
Knowing that while the wolf wanted to do a proper patrol run, I also had two vulnerable humans inside the house, I turned back after twenty minutes or so.
I got dressed to the sounds of them laughing at something in the kitchen.
It was late, so I went to use the tiny downstairs bathroom to clean my teeth and take a leak. Both Carys and I had showered during the day after the Sheriff’s people had left. We’d felt dirty for completely different reasons.
I sat on the third couch, scrolling on my phone, when they appeared.
“Hey, I’ll go take a shower upstairs, then we can sleep.” Kye gestured. He had a change of clothes in his arms, and I assumed Carys had told him where to find a towel if there were any clean ones.
“Okay.” I glanced at her. “Wanna make the bed for you guys?”
“Sure.”
As we did our best with the couches, going as far as to put the sheets on top of the blankets, and then spreading the clean blankets on top, she smiled slightly.
“What?” I asked.
“You could shift and sleep in your wolf skin. Would make it more comfortable, I’m sure.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. That way I wouldn’t need to wonder about kinks in my neck and back in the morning.
“You know what, that’s a great idea,” I told her, wanting to give her credit.
She beamed at me, then glanced away as if she caught herself. “Thanks,” she whispered.
“We need to talk tomorrow about where all of this is going,” I told her, gesturing at the house. “I’ll obviously need to move here and we need to talk about what you and Kye are doing and such. My cousins need stability and I think Sheriff Drumm would benefit from a pack.”
He’d briefly mentioned that he went to run with Ramirez pack, but that he didn’t feel at home with them and had told the Alpha he wouldn’t be taking her offer of joining them officially. There was nothing wrong with the pack, apparently, but sometimes your instinct told you where you did or didn’t belong.
She nodded thoughtfully. “I don’t know what Kye has planned. We also need to call our Dad tomorrow.”
Right, they hadn’t done that yet. I wondered why. There had to be a story there.
“Well I’m in no rush with anything. Other than getting this house proofed for the winter, because holy shit is it in a bad condition.” My eyes caught some scorch marks on the carpet by the fireplace.
“It wasn’t the fireplace,” she said matter of factly when she noticed where I was looking. “It was a pipe.”
I grunted. I fucking hated my uncle.
“I bet this was a lovely house once,” Kye said, coming back into the room after the quickest shower known to mankind.
His whole being smelled so damn good that I wanted to devour him. The wolf inside me wanted closer, and I ignored it the best I could. Whatever shower gel he used was something woodsy in a way close to a werewolf’s natural scent. It seemed like wolfnip to me.
“It was,” I answered after a pause that went on a moment too long. “My mom loved it. She grew up here too. It’s been in her family for generations.”
“Huh.” Kye looked around again, taking in details. “I guess I can see it.” Carys’s yawn interrupted whatever he was going to say next. “Okay, bedtime.”
They decided they wanted to sleep with their heads toward the fireplace, and feet toward the door. I could understand the urge.
I stepped into the hallway and padded back in my wolf skin. I jumped on the third couch and curled up. None of us wanted to turn the lights off, so we fell asleep in a fully lit house.
When I woke up in the early morning hours, it was only to realize that I’d migrated to the end of their couches, sleeping by their feet, as if my wolf had made a decision to protect them during the night.
Sighing, I put my head back down and went back to sleep. There was time for human nonsense later.