Chase #2
“This place is nice, but I like our pond better,” I say with a sigh as I scrub my body. Bain steps through the waterfall to the cave-like place underneath. I follow him in and look around. It isn’t huge, but we can all stand under here, out of the spray.
“I can’t wait to sleep in a real bed,” Hunter says, stepping beside me to observe the cave.
“Do you think she’ll like our home?” I ask nobody in particular as I glance back at the waterfall. I can’t see through it to spot her, but I know she’s not going to move from where she’s lying until we make her walk back with us.
“It’s hard to say. We don’t know anything about her human side. We barely know her wolf side,” Gage mutters.
“I wonder what she looks like.” I haven’t really considered it before because it doesn’t matter. If she’s my mate, I’ll think she’s the most beautiful woman in the world.
“She probably has bright red hair,” Maddox says as he joins us. Our wolf’s color doesn’t always transfer to our human form, but in strong colors like black or red, it often shows in some way.
“It doesn’t matter what she looks like,” Gage says, shaking his head. “The first thing I want to know is her name.”
How is it possible we still don’t know that? I wonder if it’ll suit her.
“We could probably figure it out by asking her to respond to guessing letters,” Gage adds thoughtfully.
“I would have agreed with you a day ago, but I have a feeling we won’t get much from her right now,” Maddox says with a sigh. “On that note, how do you all feel about asking her to come back home with us today?” He looks at each of us as we all glance at one another.
Hunter replies first. “I think it’s a good idea. Things aren’t going great as they are right now, and I do think it will help her connect more with her human side.”
“But it’s not like her human side is… missing,” Gage adds. “If anything, her human side is more present than her wolf side.”
“What do you mean?” Bain asks, leaning back against the side wall.
“Think about it. Her actions and reactions have all been purely human. She only eats cooked meat, like a human. She’s skittish and scared most of the time, like a human.
She doesn’t growl or show teeth at all. She gets emotional and she cries…
actual tears.” Yeah, none of us are going to forget the sight of her wolf shedding tears anytime soon.
“I see what you’re saying…” Maddox starts. “But what does that mean?”
“I’m not sure. But I don’t think the issue is that her human side can’t get out. I think her two sides may have merged. She can’t push her human side to the front because it’s already there. To shift, she’s going to have to tap into something else,” Gage answers thoughtfully.
“What?” I ask, unsure what it could be.
“I don’t know.” He sighs, scrubbing a hand over his head in frustration. “Maybe when we get back, I can consult with some shifter doctors to see what they think?”
Bain lets out a growl. “I don’t like the idea of other males being around her.”
“Well, what do we do, leave her as she is?” Gage asks, throwing his arms out in exasperation.
“Okay, this is getting us nowhere,” Maddox says, taking control of the conversation. “The question right now is, should we ask her to come back to our house? Hands up for yes.”
Hunter and I throw our hands up first. Slowly, Maddox and Gage follow, then we all turn to Bain. He glares at each of us for a moment before he lets out a sigh and raises his hand.
“Okay, as soon as we’re back at the campsite, I’ll ask her,” Maddox says with a determined glint in his eyes.
“What do you think your uncle will say?” Hunter asks, making him frown as he looks away.
“I don’t know, we’ll have to be careful what we tell him. He’s going to label her as a rogue.”
“Shit,” Hunter swears. “We can’t let that happen.”
Gage nods. “I think it will be easy to show that she isn’t feral. The question is, if he allows her to stay on pack lands, can we convince him to let her stay with us?”
My eyes widen in realization. “Shit, he’s going to make her live with the other unmated wolves, isn’t he?” I ask in fear.
“No fucking way is she living in a house with unbonded males,” Bain says as red creeps up his neck and a vein in his forehead starts to pulse.
“Uhh… Isn’t that what we want her to do? Stay in our home, with us?” I ask, pointing out the obvious. “We’re all unbonded males.”
He lets go of some of the tension in his body and rolls his eyes at me. “You know what I mean. She’s safe with us. We couldn’t protect her there.”
“Just because Alpha Kane is Maddox’s uncle doesn’t mean he’ll agree with us,” I tell them.
“It shouldn’t be up to him anyway,” Bain grumbles. When Maddox looks at him, he adds, “You should be alpha of the Westgrove Pack.”
Maddox should be alpha. He’s definitely stronger than his uncle, but since his parents died when he was young and his uncle stepped up as alpha, Maddox hasn’t felt the need to take over the pack for some reason.
“It doesn’t matter,” Maddox says with a shake of his head. “I’m not going to ask permission for her to be part of the Westgrove pack.”
His statement stuns everyone into silence. “Why not?” I ask in confusion.
“Because she’s part of our pack, the Silverstorm Pack.”
My eyes widen in shock. The five of us had unofficially made our own pack within the Westgrove Pack. It was completely unheard of, but when each of us joined with Maddox, he claimed us as part of his pack, the Silverstorm Pack.
His uncle, Marcus Kane, the current alpha, knows that if Maddox challenged him to be alpha of the Westgrove Pack, he’d win in a heartbeat, so he let Maddox create his own pack of alphas within the pack. It doesn’t hurt that we help as enforcers with Westgrove.
Nobody else has been added to our pack since Maddox took Hunter and me in six years ago. Many have tried, but he maintained the claim that it was only the five of us. None of us questioned his decision; nobody felt like family like the four of my brothers did.
Until now.
So, the fact that Maddox wants to add our little wolf to our pack says a lot.
“He’s not gonna like that,” Hunter says after we all take in the ramifications of what adding her to our pack could mean.
Maddox lets out a sigh as he stares at the fire. “Maybe we should look for Starfall Haven,” he whispers so quietly, I’m not sure if he wanted us to hear.
“Uh, Mad… You know that place is just a myth, right? A town for supernaturals that’s so safe and secluded that humans can’t find it?” I ask with a raised eyebrow. Maddox just replies with a non-committal grunt.
“None of this matters if she doesn’t want to go back yet,” Gage reminds us.
“Well then, let’s head back now!” I say in exasperation.
I can’t wait to get back to a real washroom and clean clothes.
As much as I love it out here, I’m ready to go home.
I step through the waterfall, then quickly dive under the water and swim beneath it as far as I can, popping up near the shore where she was lying.
I glance around but don’t see her. My heart starts to beat faster, and I try to tamp down my panic. I’m sure she’s around here somewhere.
I quickly make my way to the edge of the pond and step out, glancing around as I jog to where we left her lying under a tree.
“Fuck!” I yell, grabbing my hair in both hands.
“What is it? Where is she?” Maddox yells, jogging out of the water with the others on his heels.
“I don’t know! She’s… gone.”
Bain shifts instantly, then lets out the loudest howl I’ve ever heard, full of pain and heartache. My wolf tries to press to the surface, wanting to echo Bain’s cry, so I let him press forward and shift.
Wherever she’s gone, we’ll find her. She’s ours.