Chapter 24
VANCE
Unfortunately, despite Dawn’s whispered request to go home, we were stuck in Reno for another two days. I wanted to say screw this place and drag her home, but she stubbornly wanted to stay to see her former pack settled.
I sat beside her as Franklin and Talbot helped Benson, Maxi, and a couple of the brawnier betas clean the place up.
Surprisingly, Vente remained behind too, despite the rest of the team leaving yesterday with the remaining buyer who survived.
He was scheduled for a personal meeting with Alexander, and I bet he wished he’d been executed right along with his buddy.
The bodies of my mate’s abusers had been burned in the woods and buried in the earth.
Soon, the wildflowers would grow over that spot, and nothing would be left to mark the dead.
It would be like they never existed, except for the scars that remained on every single member of the Truckee-Reno Pack—physical scars, and emotional ones too.
While Dawn had tried to be the buffer between the Alpha’s rage and his remaining pack members, no one had escaped.
Not the young, the old, the women, or the children.
I wanted to dig him up and shoot him in the head personally. No, I’d want to make it hurt. The pup we rescued lay across Dawn’s lap, his eyes blinking slowly. His mother hovered beside him with one hand on his ankle, her battered face proof that she’d fought to keep him safe.
They all eyed Benson with trepidation, but that was something the wolf Alpha would have to overcome himself.
We sat around in a circle as Dawn and I answered their questions, and it felt a little like group therapy. “Can we get rid of the Alpha house? Smash it to pieces with a bat or something?” The young wolf who snarled the query glared at the mobile home in question.
“As therapeutic as that would be, it’s probably best to sell it,” I told her gently. “The pack could use the money.”
She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. There was a lot of anger now that the fear was gone, and bitterness had replaced anguish. It was why Dawn didn’t want to leave immediately, not when she could soothe them.
“What if we don’t care about this pack? What if we want to leave?” the same girl asked, and I gave her a sympathetic expression.
“You have options. No one will ever take them from you again. You can stay and rebuild this pack into something you can be proud of, or you can return to Black Mountain with Dawn and me and live in the dens. Or you can branch out on your own. The pack and the convocation will provide you with a limited fund of cash to get yourself set up.”
Everyone murmured softly, but somehow, I knew that none of them would follow Dawn home. Even now, I could see the haunted looks they gave her. Whatever happened the last time she was here had physically scarred Dawn’s body but had mentally scarred them all.
“What if this new Alpha is the same as the last one?” someone asked, and my chest ached for these battered shifters.
Vente rumbled, “I guarantee on my immortal life that he is not, but to assuage your worry, I will stay in the area for some time to ensure that he doesn’t succumb to the lure of power.”
They all blinked, almost in unison, at Buenaventura.
He was terrifying. I’d only seen his beast form once, and I’d had nightmares about it for a month.
He was powerful and deadly, and it came off him in waves.
Having him lurking at the edge of my den lands would give me gray hair, but the way the whole circle relaxed told me these wolves didn’t feel the same.
They sensed the monster beneath his mortal facade, and they thought he was a better option than Alpha Derrick.
I was more surprised he even made the offer. He didn’t usually care about the people we liberated beyond the act of execution itself. We usually got in and out, mission accomplished.
Dawn’s Aunt Vonn dipped her chin. “We appreciate the safety net.”
A tiny curl of his lips was the only sign he heard her.
Did Vente have a crush on Dawn’s aunt? I tried to see her through his eyes.
She looked like an older version of Dawn, her blond hair starting to streak with gray, and she had deep lines on her face from years of worry and tragedy, but there was also a lightness there now, something hopeful.
I raised an eyebrow at Dawn, and she grinned back at me. Maybe the healing of the Truckee-Reno Pack had already begun.
There was a sense of peacefulness to the pack land by the time we left.
I’d spent the afternoon building outdoor benches and reinforcing the storage shed so it wouldn’t blow down in the next summer storm.
Maxi had taken the previous Alpha’s possessions and sold them.
Vente went with him to scare people into paying market price.
I took some of the female wolves into town and stocked them with food, as well as a large industrial refrigerator.
The wide eyes of the remaining children as we passed box after box of food into the storage rooms was heartbreaking.
When Dawn pulled out the industrial-sized tubs of ice cream and started handing out cones, their sheer joy was infectious.
Benson helped dish it out, stopping to speak to every single wolf who came up to the table. He smiled at the kids and spoke reassuringly to the adults. The old and the new blended together, but it would take more than ice cream to win their trust.
Buenaventura appeared beside me, and I looked over at my old friend. “I’m surprised you’re staying,” I told him, and he shrugged.
“I can do some good here.”
“And it has nothing to do with Vonn?” I teased softly, and he glared at me.
I smirked in his direction. The old man had a crush, and it would be cute if he couldn’t smoosh me with a single chomp of his beast’s jaws.
“As they are now unintentionally my in-laws, I feel I have to tell you that if you hurt her or any of them, you and I will have trouble. I don’t care if you could fuck me up, I’ll make it hurt first.”
Vente inclined his head. “Understood. I’ll even let the insinuation that I would ever hurt an innocent woman slide when I’d normally tear a person’s tongue from their mouth for even making the suggestion. You’re only doing your Alpha duties to your mate.”
I shook my head. “Benevolent of you.”
Dawn waved and started to walk toward us, and Vente huffed a soft noise. “I feel that you should also know that if you hurt a single hair on the little Omega’s head, I will crush your skull like a grape.”
“Duly noted,” I choked out.
Dawn smiled at me and wandered over with two ice creams in her hand. She stopped in front of Vente and gave him a double scoop.
“You look like a strawberry man,” she teased.
Vente bowed his head respectfully. “Thank you, Omega,” he rumbled.
She turned to me, and I fell in love all over again. I had a feeling that I’d fall in love with her with every single smile from now to eternity.
She handed me a chocolate double scoop. I held it out for her to take a lick first and then chased it with my own.
“I want to show you and the guys something before we leave,” she said and took my hand. I would follow her anywhere.
I whistled, and the guys looked up immediately. I lifted my chin at Dawn, and they both put down their tools. Franklin said something to the wolf he was working with, and then he trotted toward us.
Talbot didn’t even make an excuse, just putting his hammer down and moving toward us with a determined stride. When they saw each other on either side of the camp, they moved faster until they raced toward Dawn, trying to make it there first.
Dawn laughed, because everything was a competition with those two.
Franklin made it first, but only because he was running from the beginning.
I saved the ice cream before it could become a casualty of the steamroller that was Franklin.
He grabbed Dawn in his arms, swinging her around and around in the sunshine, then he dipped her backwards and kissed her so deeply, I wondered if Talbot was right about tonsil injuries.
I could feel the eyes of her pack members, but no one had said anything about the fact she was shacked up with a bunch of bears. If they had a problem with it, they kept it to themselves. Wolves had never meant anything other than pain to her.
“Sunrise, you look so fucking beautiful today,” he said, passing her to his twin as Talbot joined us.
Clutching her to his chest, Talbot kissed her more gently. “I’ve missed you.”
She smiled up at him, love in her eyes. “You’ve been twenty feet from me all day.”
“Felt like twenty miles,” he crooned, and even Franklin screwed his nose up.
“And he calls me the lame one.” As we stepped into the tree line, he raised an eyebrow at me. “Where are we going?”
“I’d like to run here with you, just once, in our other skins.” She smiled sadly, and I’d do anything to remove that hurt. “Besides, I’d like to show you the place where I kept all your letters. My special place.” She looked us over. “Though none of you will fit.”
Franklin pressed his forehead against hers. “That’s what she said,” he murmured reverently. I slapped him on the back of the head out of habit, even though I was glad he made our girl laugh.
“Idiot,” Talbot said fondly, and then he shifted into his bear form. I shifted next, and the appreciation in her gaze made my bear ruffle his fur proudly.
She turned into the most beautiful little white wolf and let out a yip, racing into the woods. As we lumbered after her, I knew I’d chase her anywhere. My Dawn.