Chapter Two #4
Guilt wasn’t a new feeling to Shane, but he couldn’t help but think that if he and his pack could leave Tolstone quickly, they could make room for this new pack. These shifters needed safety just as much, if not more, than his own pack did. More pressure. Great.
Erica put a hand on Dominic’s shoulder. “I have two spare rooms. Maybe the family and the couple can stay with me until something gets freed up?”
Everyone looked at the human who hadn’t said a word since the meeting began. Her input wasn’t expected, and Shane found himself a little speechless, his mind struggling to make sense of her offer.
Dominic smirked at her. “I know you like your privacy, Erica. I couldn’t make you open up your home to strangers. Besides, I think I’d go batshit crazy with worry that you’d be rooming with wolves I don’t personally know.”
A spark of fire lit up her eyes. “Your dad offered my family a home when hunters threatened us. The least I can do is try to pay it forward.”
A glance at Cole told Shane next to nothing. The stoic cop might have been moved by her gesture, but he didn’t show it. However, Shane’s nose picked up on some thread of hidden emotion that he couldn’t identify. There was a story there, and Shane seemed to be the only one left in the dark.
Too curious to stay quiet, he asked, “You don’t live with your mate?”
Shane could feel Gage’s stare on him, but he wouldn’t meet it. It had to be the same as the others who gave him a look as if he had just insulted the Prime Alpha and his mate.
“It’s a long story,” Dominic said gently. “But the short answer is no. She doesn’t. Not full-time.”
“And you’re not worried for her safety?”
Right about then was when Shane realized he should have kept his damn mouth shut.
After the words came out, he realized too late just how much he sounded like a racist prick.
Erica was a human. Practically defenseless.
That was no way for the Prime Alpha’s mate to live.
Shane was judging her before he even knew her, just like his father would have.
“I can hold my own,” Erica replied with a lift of her chin.
The assembly of alphas gave agreeing nods like they were hearing a stirring sermon on Sunday morning.
“She definitely can,” Dominic affirmed. “Doesn’t stop me from worrying occasionally, though.” He added a teasing smirk.
“Besides,” Erica continued. “We might live next door, but we don’t sleep alone.”
“Moving on,” Cole proclaimed a little loudly, breaking the tension and diverting the attention from Shane and to the humorous fact that the sheriff didn’t want to hear about his daughter’s nighttime habits.
To regain some of his footing and to tell the group that he wasn’t a total asshole, Shane said, “I wouldn’t mind sharing my apartment with their alpha. And I could ask around my pack if they’d be willing to share space too.”
He wanted to steal away every possible excuse for Dominic to turn down this request. The lives of eleven shifters may have been on the line if the hunter threat was real.
When Cole and Gage offered up their places as well, it was clear they all thought the same thing. If it meant saving this pack in Virginia, they were willing to band together and bring them to Tolstone.
Dominic seemed bemused, but gracious. “All right. Make the call. Our door is open. I’m not convinced that hunters are circling them, but they only need to let us know they’re on their way and we will make room.”
Hank gave a nod of understanding, pulled out his phone, and went downstairs. Shane didn’t expect them to move that quickly to contact the endangered pack.
He looked at the Prime Alpha and his mate as they shared a quiet moment, his hand gripping hers in a muted sign of appreciation.
Maybe that was why he let the woman come to the meeting.
She was a gentle influence, a voice of compassion in a room of alphas that might have considered little beyond the cold facts of the situation.
His father’s criticism from beyond the grave exploded like gunfire in his mind.
Don’t waste limited resources.
Let them handle their own problems.
Don’t let a woman sway your decision.
If the hunters get them, it’s what they deserve for being careless.
Shane pressed his palm between his eyes and forced out the ghost again, suppressing a growl. That was not the way Tolstone worked. That was not the way Shane wanted to think.
“Are you okay, Shane?”
He met Cole’s piercing stare.
Shane was thoroughly irritated with that damn question. “Yeah, I’m good.”
All the while, his wolf and soul felt as if they were being torn apart whenever he had to do battle with his father’s teachings.
Shane wasn’t so dumb as to think he wasn’t in transition.
Everything he thought about himself was put on trial, and he had to lie to keep the storm from being too evident to everyone else.
He had to find his resolve. Find his footing on shifting sand.
He had to learn to trust himself again, as well as his pack.
But how could he begin to trust after what he went through?
Hopefully, more time learning from these alphas and some time for soul-searching would help him find the answers.