Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ANGEL
“That’s your bunk.” Kiera places the pile of bedding and pillow on the only open bottom bunk bed in my new—but as far as I’m concerned, very temporary—home.
“There are only three of us in here. Shifters come and go as needed, usually women who are fighting with a boyfriend, or new adults who need to get away from their parents. You know how it is. We rarely have more than five women in here at once. And there are no rules for the most part. Come and go as you please. Keep your area clean, and stoke the fire when you’re here to keep the place nice and toasty.
One of the men is in charge of chopping and stacking the wood outside, so we don’t have to worry about running out. ”
“I lived with my mom and brothers back home, but we had similar cabins.”
“That’s Olivia,” Kiera points to a red-headed shifter lying on her stomach, reading in the far end of the small but quaint cabin.
She’s closest to the wood-burning stove, and at my end there’s a card table under one of the two windows.
Aside from the colorful area rugs overlapping the concrete floor, the place is rather drab, but warm enough. Certainly better than a dog crate.
“Olivia, this is Angel, the outcast.”
“I’m not an outcast. I’m just alone.”
“Aren’t we all,” Olivia mumbles before flipping the page of her book.
Kiera taps the bottom two drawers in a massive dresser beside the door. “These are yours.”
“I don’t have any belongings with me.”
“See Langdon about that. He’s our Supply Coordinator.”
“I can’t believe Garrett just dumped me with you.” My eyes shoot to Kiera. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that—”
“Never expect much from a male who spends more time away from the pack than with it. Garrett’s a loner. Good at his job, but not much else.”
“What does that mean?” My voice is higher than I intend, but she has no reason to insult Garrett. “He rescued me.”
“I was in the compound when he brought you in. Saw it all. Not saying he’s a mean guy or anything, just not someone you want to get tangled up with. He’s emotionally… what’s the word I’m looking for?”
“Dead,” Olivia supplies.
“That’s it. Emotionally dead.”
“He’s a bit closed off,” I say, then clamp my mouth shut. There’s a lot to Garrett that they can’t see. A flash of him standing naked in that cabin strikes, and I know it’s my wolf screwing with me, because I wasn’t even thinking along those lines.
But now that I’m there, my cheeks heat. More than once, I took the liberty of checking him out in that cabin and the other times we shifted to human form.
I couldn’t help myself, which is odd because I’ve always avoided looking at males when they’re naked, at least below the chest. I’ve never found any of it appealing, but with Garrett I had trouble looking away.
Everything from his muscular thighs to the rather enticing V that tempted me to look lower.
Forcing myself to meet his eyes again hadn’t been hard, but I still wonder what would have happened if I’d let my gaze drop.
“She’s blushing,” Olivia says. “She has a thing for Garrett!”
“I do not. He saved me.”
Kiera’s grinning. “You said that already.”
“She’s hot for him,” another woman says from atop a bunk.
“That’s Ellis,” Kiera points to the closest bunk. “I forgot she’s up there. She only shows up when she’s had a fight with her mate.”
“Boyfriend. We’re not mated. And at this rate, we never will be.” The shifter turns onto her side and pulls the blanket over her head, distancing herself from us.
“No wonder you thought I’m an outcast. This is where the cast-offs go.”
Kiera slams a pillow against my chest. “A bad attitude will get you nowhere.”
“Stay away from Garrett,” Olivia adds as she flips pages. “He’s trouble. Got Marla killed. Didn’t mean to, but she’s just as dead.”
“Maybe that’s why he lives on the outskirts. He feels guilty about what happened.”
“He should.” Kiera grabs a towel. “I’m heading for the showers. Wanna see where they are?”
“Sure.”
I follow her to a building down by the river, the silence between us growing increasingly awkward. I’m not here to make friends, but it’s feeding my anxiety. And Garrett’s not here to calm me.
“What did Olivia mean when she said Garrett got Marla killed?”
“He trained her for infiltration but never took her seriously.”
“Things happen. Even to shifters with experience.” It’s hard not to think of how my entire pack was slaughtered even though we had well-trained border guards.
“She wanted to earn a place on a rescue team, but Garrett never took her seriously. Sure, he trained her, at least some of the skills she’d need.
Enough to pacify her and make her think she had a shot.
It’s why she followed the rescue team on one of their ops.
Her skills were good enough that they never knew she was following them.
They weren’t enough to save her when the team engaged the humans. ”
“I’m so sorry,” I say, because I’m not sure what else I can say. Whether she or Garrett was wrong, or neither, doesn’t change the fact that Marla died.
“She wasn’t ready to go into the field, but she did, to prove herself to Garrett,” Kiera continues. “He thought this was just another whim of hers, like wanting to be a tracker, and before that, wanting to be an enforcer. She was looking for meaning. He never understood that about her.”
“Garrett wouldn’t send anyone into a dangerous situation who wasn’t ready for it,” I say, my instinct to defend him too strong to ignore, even though he led me into his camp without giving them any warning he’d put my past on display.
I understand why he did it, but still, he didn’t prepare me for that.
“You’re only siding with him because he’s handsome,” Kiera accuses.
“I’m defending him because I’ve seen who he is.”
“Marla thought she knew him too.”
“And what makes you an expert on Marla and Garrett?”
She pushes the door open, so hard it slams into the back wall. She’s unfazed by the loud bang.
“Marla was my older sister.” Kiera turns and walks into the showers, leaving me in the cold air to absorb everything she said.
Part of me wants to charge into the showers to apologize while continuing to defend Garrett, but Kiera’s right. I don’t know him very well.
Instead, I wander around camp like a stray dog that doesn’t know where it belongs. A few shifters toss cautious looks my way, one even smiles, a handsome young male.
“I take it you’re the new shifter I heard about. Angie, right?” A smile slides onto his face as his eyes move down my form slowly before he meets my eyes once more. “Want a tour?”
“The name’s Angelina. And no, I’m fine on my own.”
If I wanted a tour, it’d be from Garrett. To my relief, the shifter doesn’t follow or even glance back.
Question after question bubbles up as I meander. By the time I crawl into my bed, I’m too wired to close my eyes.
Rest and heal. He gave me an impossible task… then handed me over to Kiera and walked away.
“Shouldn’t Kiera be back by now?” I ask to whoever’s in the cabin.
“Kiera’s got a boyfriend.” Olivia slides her book into a nook in the wall, then climbs under the covers.
“I think she’s avoiding me. She said some awful things about Garrett and I defended him.”
“She’s still bitter about Marla, probably always will be.”
“And yet Garrett asked her to show me around?”
“Because Kiera wouldn’t hold his actions against someone else, and he knows it.”
“I still can’t believe—”
“Stay out of it, new girl. And if you know what’s good for you, stay away from Garrett. He’ll get you killed, just like he did Marla.”
“New girl has a name. Angelina.”
“I’d heard it was Lina.”
“Only to my friends.” I storm out of the cabin. If everyone in this pack shares Kiera’s and Olivia’s attitude, I can understand why Garrett distances himself.
And yet it still doesn’t make sense that he’d leave me here to be bombarded by all their negative thoughts. Maybe that’s why I turn down the path by the cookhouse, into the thickest part of the woods… to Garrett’s cabin.