CHAPTER FIVE || REED
Iparked my battered old Ford pickup at the edge of the commune’s gravel lot and got out. Harris was already standing next to his rental car, squinting up at the collection of log cabins set on the hill above us.
“This is where you live?” He frowned at the scene in front of him—the large fire pit at the base of the hill, the log benches surrounding it, and beyond that, trees on all sides.
There was a pathway leading up from the fire pit to a ridge.
There were a dozen log cabins at the top of it. “It’s… remote.”
“That’s the point.” My tone wasn’t exactly encouraging, but Harris seemed determined to ignore my frosty demeanor.
“Right. Away from prying eyes.” He nodded to himself. “I still can’t get over the idea of werewolves. And there’s a whole pack of you.”
“Scared?” I asked hopefully.
He shook his head. “You’re going to have to do better than that, pal. I became besties with a homicidal vampire with zero human emotions. I don’t exactly scare easy.”
Surprise jolted through me. I’d known he was friends with a vampire, but I hadn’t known the rest. With more curiosity than I should have had, I asked, “And this vampire going off and murdering people didn’t make you reconsider your choice of friends?”
“Well, they were all serial killers, not innocent people. He actually saved quite a few would-be victims along the way. And our becoming friends wasn’t my idea.” He paused. “Anyway, Cole is pretty cool now. He’s officially retired and has sworn off hunting humans.”
I appraised him, hearing the wistful note in his voice. Did Harris miss the vampire? “Aren’t you a cop?”
“Trust me, doesn’t help.” He avoided my gaze. “I figure that supernatural stuff requires different sets of rules. I can understand something without condoning it.” Then he pointed at the top of the ridge overlooking the fire pit. “So, one of these cabins is yours?”
“Yes,” I said shortly.
“Look, if I’m sticking around, you might as well get to know me. You might even like me.”
I started walking without replying to that.
Harris fell into step beside me and we walked in silence.
His presence beside me was vivid—more so than any human I’d ever met, as if the details of him were sharper or more present in some indefinable way. Though, that was probably expected, given the mate bond that had sprung into being between us the very first time we locked eyes.
But even that was weirdly soothing. Everything about him was.
The trouble was, I did like him. Granted, I was a little iffy on his ethics, given that he was friends with a murderous—sorry, formerly murderous—vampire.
But apart from that, he was brave enough to come all the way here to tell me off, even if he had no idea what he might be walking into.
On top of that, he was a homicide detective.
A protector, of sorts, like everyone else in the pack.
And he was obviously loyal. Once he liked someone well enough, he had a hard time just walking away from them.
Loyalty and bravery were qualities wolves instinctively admired in a mate.
And he was physically beautiful, too. Tall, muscular, with his dark skin and even darker eyes, his black hair shaved close to his head and only the hint of stubble on his chin.
But it was his face that was so arresting—classically handsome, but above all, kind.
Someone you wanted to tell all your problems to, because you knew, just by looking at him, he’d understand.
Someone who—
Stop it, I commanded myself, sucking in a ragged breath.
It was the mate bond. It had to be. The name of the game was to make him feel like he had no choice but to leave. Ordering him to go definitely wasn’t going to work. And apparently appealing to his rationality wasn’t going to, either.
So what if every fiber of my being was firmly telling me no matter where else I was, so long as Harris was at my side, I was already home?
Ignoring that was my only safe option here.
I was so stuck in my head the walk from the parking area to the commune seemed to take no time at all.
I took Harris to the vacant cabin next to mine. I didn’t want him sleeping with me—the temptation to make a mistake would be way too powerful—but I also couldn’t stomach the idea of him being too far away. If the unknown monster did attack the commune, I’d still be close enough to protect him.
Besides, the cabin was a decent one. Granted, it had been empty for a long time—ever since the former alpha, Jeremy, had fled into the woods to live as a wolf for nearly a year, and half the pack had decided they should split too, before things got any worse.
In his grief at the loss of his mate, Jeremy had forced all of us to abduct a human man named James, who he had attempted to turn into a werewolf against his will.
If not for a vampire—and not just any vampire, but the progeny of the vampire king of Seattle—saving James from us, he would have been forced into a life he hadn’t chosen.
I had been Jeremy’s friend since childhood and I understood exactly why he did what he did, but even I had a hard time forgiving him for it.
He had forced us all to become monsters by issuing an adjuration, which was essentially an alpha command none of us could refuse.
The only redeeming thing about the whole situation was that James had convinced Jeremy to have a change of heart, which told me my friend was still in there somewhere.
But that choice—his awful choice to force the pack to carry out his darkest impulses, nearly two years ago—had fractured us. It had weakened us.
“It seems… quiet,” Harris said, when we paused outside the cabin. “I guess I was expecting more people here.”
Alarm jolted through me. Maybe it was a coincidence, but his words were very in line with my thoughts. I gave him a sideways look, hoping none of my actual emotions showed on my face. “Don’t you mean werewolves?”
“You’re still people,” Harris said firmly, so quickly that he hadn’t even needed to think about it. “I just… expected more of you, I guess. When I think ‘pack of werewolves,’ I don’t think of a bunch of empty log cabins.”
“Maybe everyone is at work.”
“You guys have jobs?”
I led us up the steps to the cabin’s front porch. “Some of us do. I manage the bar in town. Lacey and the twins help out there, too. Oliver has a job at the ski lodge during the winter months.”
He snorted. “A werewolf named Oliver, huh?”
“He was dying. We offered him the chance to live. In return, he joined the pack. We gave him the bite. That was five years ago. He’s been with us ever since.”
“Wait—what?” Harris took a step back, almost slipping off the narrow wooden front porch we were standing on.
Automatically, I reached out to stabilize him. “Look, I know you’re only human, but can you at least try not to injure yourself while you’re here?”
He scowled at that, which I chalked up to a win.
“So that part of the stories is true, then? People become werewolves by being bitten?” Harris asked a moment later.
He seemed too interested. Too earnest.
Why the hell did I care?
I wasn’t going to answer his question, but when Harris just looked at me with raised eyebrows, waiting, I found that I wanted to tell him. His dark, intelligent eyes were fathomless but somehow also warm. This man was pure trouble.
At last, I gave in. “That’s one way. The other is to be born into it.”
He frowned at that, but I suspected he was filing that information away for later. Just what I needed.
Doing my best to push away my sudden, insane, and immensely unhelpful desire to give him anything he wanted of me, I opened the door and led the way inside.
Harris followed me in, dropping his duffel onto the wooden floor, then stepped past me. “Huh, not bad.”
I tried not to feel a small flush of pleasure at his approval. “It’s not too small for you?” I asked hopefully. “Maybe it’s too… I don’t know… rustic? Given that you’re a big-city guy and all.”
He shook his head. “Nah. Big cities are claustrophobic. Too many people, too much traffic, too much concrete, and all of it man-made—it’s fake, somehow.
This place feels…” His dark eyes swept across the interior of the cabin, which was small and simple.
One room with a wooden ladder leading up to the sleeping loft.
There was a sofa, a television, a kitchen, a square wooden table, a fireplace, and a bookcase with only a handful of books.
The previous occupant—Arden—hadn’t needed much.
Harris finished with, “More real than Los Angeles. It feels like it’s telling the truth, somehow. ”
“Then why not leave?” I asked, forgetting myself. “If you don’t like LA, why not move somewhere more honest?”
He grinned and his eyes crinkled around the edges in a way that made my heart do backflips. “Cities are where most of the murders happen. I go where the work is.”
Don’t get used to this, I reminded myself. Don’t let this gorgeous human with his kind face and amazing lips charm you. He’s leaving soon. He has to, for his own good.
Already, I didn’t particularly want to leave his side. Everything else seemed to fall away at his nearness. And my pack needed me. None of us could afford for me to lose my sense of purpose.
When I went quiet, he added, “I don’t need much. And some space to think wouldn’t hurt.”
“Well, you’re going to get that here, whether you like it or not.”
“This isn’t your cabin, is it?”
I shot him a speculative look. “What makes you say that?”
“There’s nothing of you in here at all.”
“You don’t really know me. Maybe I’ve lived here all my life.”
“No. It doesn’t smell like you.”
Before I could stop myself, I asked, “What is my scent like for you?”
“Like Christmas,” Harris said immediately. Then his cheeks darkened and he amended that to, “Err—pine, I mean. You smell like pine. Cedar, too, I guess—that’s whatever soap you use. But under that, you smell like pine. Like a Christmas tree.”