6. Mack
6
MACK
W hen I called the pack over for dinner, I didn’t envision sitting with my back flush to a tree, ostensibly kicked out of my own home. At least I’m not out here alone.
Bennett, Warren, Colton, and Chris sit beside me in a dark, quietly talking about the latest football game. Preparing Aerin and Thumper’s nursery surprise has taken over most of my relaxation time, so I missed the game. They didn’t seem as surprised by the girls kicking us out of the house the moment we’d cleared our plates of the Chinese takeout Bennett brought over.
Usually, we’d have followed up the meal with a pack run, but Aerin is too far along in her pregnancy for it to be safe for her or the baby to shift. Lately, the rest of the pack would go for a run and I’d stay at the house eating ice cream with Aerin. This time, the moment I set my fork on my empty plate, Penny was up off her seat and practically shoving me out the back door with a hastily called out,
“Go for a run. Have fun. We’re watching a movie, so don’t hurry back.”
And then I was outside with the rest of the guys staring at the door that she slammed shut, wondering what the hell had just happened.
Bennett had just shrugged his shoulders and led the way down my garden where, earlier this morning, Aerin had been frustrated by her lessons with Adela, which had led to it ending sooner than usual.
Aerin and I spent the rest of the day together, discussing baby names, napping on the couch, and reading, a much loved habit I’ve fallen out of the habit of.
I’ve had so much on my mind that shutting my brain off and reading hasn’t been high on my agenda.
The distant sounds of female laughter drift from the house. It sounds like Aerin is laughing, which is a relief. Between Penny, Helena, and Tina, they’ll distract her from the problems she’s having with her powers.
Adela and Aerin’s grandparents are early to bed type and skipped the meal in favor of an early night.
“I know we’re out here for a run, but…”
“It’s not as fun without the girls?” Colton says, raising his eyebrow.
“I think that makes us whipped,” Warren says.
Warren and Tina have been together for years. He’s a soft-spoken, big hulk of a guy over 6’5, and who would do absolutely anything for Tina.
“I don’t mind,” Chris adds with a shrug. “I like spending time with Zoe.” He focuses on me. “She was saying that apparently Aerin’s powers aren’t working properly. Is it because of the baby?”
“I have no idea what it is. I just know that she’s plagued by self-doubt and doesn’t know who she is if she isn’t an omega.” A small animal scampers toward us, a rabbit I think, and my wolf growls in my head. The rabbit must smell a pack of wolves feet away for it to freeze, then dash away before I continue. “I don’t think she wanted me to hear her admit it to Adela this morning, and I was trying not to listen, but…”
“You did,” Bennett says. “Now you don’t know what to do with what you overheard?”
I nod. “I want to protect her, but I also don’t want anything to happen to her. The more overprotective I am, the less sure of herself she is, and I don’t know what to do.”
I have a problem in front of me, and I don’t know how to fix it. As the Alpha, it’s my job to fix it. The house thing might work out. Everyone seems excited about living together, including Adela and Aerin’s grandparents, when I asked them what they thought.
But this? I don’t know how to help Aerin. I want to, but I don’t see how I can fix this problem she’s having with her powers.
“Have you tried talking to her about losing her identity?” Colton suggests. “Penny was the same with her lack of confidence about baking.”
“She’s emotional.” Immediately, I wince.
If Aerin heard me use that word… “I just meant I don’t want to upset her when she’s already struggling.”
Bennett leans to the right and picks up something from the ground, handing me it. “Here.”
I take it before I realize what it is.
A bottle of beer.
I raise my eyebrow. “Since when did we start keeping beer in the garden?”
He shrugs. “You looked like you needed a cold one.”
I look at Warren and Chris. “Did you know about this?”
“Nope.” Warren takes a beer Bennett offers him. “But I’m happy to take advantage of it.”
“Me too,” Colton says.
“Me three,” Chris adds.
“I assumed you might want to talk,” Bennett says as he pockets his bottle lid. Nature and the forest is a shifter’s playground, because of that, we’re always careful to pocket our trash and take it inside.
“And the run we’re out here for?” I say, twisting my bottle top off and taking a quick sip before pocketing the lid.
“We can run whenever.” Colton studies me for a beat. “Maybe find something else for her to focus on. Not the baby ‘cause that’s all you’re going to be focusing on when they arrive.”
When Bennett pulls out a bag of nuts from beside him and offers them to me, I know I’ve been played. “You planned all this, didn’t you?” I ask, refusing his offer of nuts. I’m still stuffed from dinner. Apparently Bennett isn’t, because he tears into the packet and pours a generous handful into his palm before passing the bag to Colton.
I’d wondered why he hadn’t seemed surprised by the speed Penny and Tina ushered us out of the house. He just meekly walked out without a single word of complaint. Now we have beer and peanuts for our exile?
This was definitely planned.
Bennett claps me on my shoulder. “You’ve been frowning more than ever. Penny decided Aerin needed to relax, so she set up a movie night for the girls. I think they’re doing some spa stuff as well, whatever that means.”
“And what part did you have to play?” I ask, bouncing my gaze between Chris, Colton, and Warren.
“None.” Warren swigs from his bottle. “Just show up, drink beer, and go for a run.”
Chris pulls a piece of folded paper from his pocket and hands it over. “And to show you this.”
I set aside my bottle and reach for the paper. “What is it?”
“A possibility,” Warren says. “Chris found it and we swung by to check it out on our way here. It has potential and we could make it something really special.”
Curious, I unfold the piece of paper and have to squint to make out the real estate listing. “Does this mean you are definitely interested?”
It’s too dark to read it all, but the listing for a five acre old farm shows potential. There are a couple of outbuildings, plenty of land, and even if the buildings are looking a little worn doesn’t matter. We’ll probably want to rip everything down and start from scratch, so we have exactly what we want and exactly where we want it.
But location-wise, it’s perfect. Out of town but not so far out of town that it feels like we’re in the middle of nowhere. We all like nature, but we like grocery stores and regular trips to the diner as well. And Bennett still as his garage in town. He can’t be too far away from it.
“So is Zoe,” Chris says. “She grew up in a pack and was surprised that we live separately. As long as Penny doesn’t hound her with a million questions about her former life, she’s definitely interested.”
We all love Penny. She’s bright, cheerful, and chatty. But she’s also curious about the people who enter our lives and stay, and Zoe, the newest member of our pack, has been quietly recovering from the pain and grief that came with rejecting her abusive mate. Zoe doesn’t need curious questions about her past. She needs time to heal and rebuild a new life for herself.
“How is Zoe settling in?” I ask Chris.
Chris nods. “She’s okay.”
“And you?” I ask.
“More talkative than ever.” Warren grins as he bumps Chris’s shoulder. “I think he’s talked more since Zoe entered his life than in the last five years.”
“Five years?” Chris’s voice is dry. “You’re being dramatic.”
“No, I’m not,” Warren says firmly.
He’s not wrong. Chris was much more of a lone wolf than all the rest of us combined. Zoe has definitely made him open up.
“She’s still getting used to being in a pack,” he says.
I nod.
We all know what it is to be a lone wolf. Joining a pack after being on her own is going to take time for her to get used to.
Chris lifts his bottle to his mouth and says, as if it’s an afterthought, “And she knows Penny is dying to speak to her. Penny has questions .”
We all grin.
“More like Penny wants to find out everything there is to know about her and then some,” Colton grumbles. “I had to remind Penny that Zoe might not appreciate having her life story dragged out of her.”
“And how did that go?” Chris asks.
“How do you think?” he asks.
To Penny, talking things through helps her feel better, but not everyone heals the same way.
More laughter drifts from the house behind us, signs the girls are having fun. Conversation too, though it’s too quiet to hear what they’re saying.
“Do you think we should go back?” Warren suggests.
“I don’t think Penny would ap—” My nose twitches.
My wolf is instantly alert, and from the way Colton, Warren, Bennett, and Chris abandon their beers to rise to their feet with their heads angled into the forest, I’m not the only one troubled.
My home comes with a couple acres of the forest I’ve left mostly untouched. It’s private property, so I should not be hearing the unmistakable sound of someone trampling this way.
“Bennett, you’re with me. Colton too. Warren and Chris, watch the house,” I say.
“Should I wait in the house with the girls?” Chris asks, abandoning his beer, like the rest of us. We’ll deal with the trash later, after I’ve found out why someone is on my property.
I listen to Aerin’s laugh drift from the house and shake my head. “I don’t want to worry Aerin if it’s nothing. Stay close, but leave them to enjoy their evening.”
Trouble rarely finds its way to a quiet town where humans come to retire, but after the vague warnings I’ve been getting from my dad and Ivy, I’m more on edge than I ordinarily would be.
The footsteps have stopped now, and although I strain to hear more, I can’t tell if whoever was there has gone back the way they came.
“I’ll keep an eye on the front of the house,” Warren says, already walking away.
Good. Between the two of them, Aerin and the others will be safe.
I shrug out of my shirt, toe off my sneakers, and step out of my pants. Then I drop into a crouch, and I reach for my wolf. Behind me, Bennett’s clothes rustle as they hit the soft earth. Colton is on my right side, and Bennett is on my left as we sprint into the forest.
Someone has entered my territory, and they could be a threat to Aerin and the baby.
We follow tracks that ventured onto my property for a few feet and then retreated. They didn’t come too close to the house, but that someone approached at all, and a stranger no less, is something I’m not comfortable with.
The scent is of a regular human, which is a relief.
Stopping under one of the tall oak trees that border the road that goes to town, we shift to our human form and approach the scuffed earth.
I frown as I study them. They could be boot marks. Flat. A man from the scent I’m picking up. But who? And why? “Do you think they realized they were on private property?”
Bennett drops into a crouch, bending his head to study the scratches near the base of a tree. “Or they heard us talking and realized there was no sneaking into the house. I imagine most people are asleep this late in Winter Lake.”
“I could follow those tire marks,” Colton offers.
He doesn’t move from the tree shade. None of us do. It’s late. Most residents of this town are sleeping, but no one needs to see three naked men wandering around the forest. A sight like that would soon lead to some pretty awkward questions about us.
Again, the thought of having our own property, further out of town, appeals to me. We’d have space to spread out and maybe even fence off our property to prevent any accidental sightings of wolves.
“It might just be a tourist or a hiker,” I say. “Probably just a coincidence, and my dad has made me paranoid.”
But my wolf is still antsy and alert, so he doesn’t think it’s paranoia. He’s acting like there’s more to this than just a lost tourist.
From the way Bennett is frowning as Colton stares down the road in the direction the tire marks lead, they’re not convinced this was just coincidence either.
I don’t recognize the scent as belonging to any local in town, at least not anyone I’ve ever come into contact with. And I’ve lived in Winter Lake for long enough to have run into most locals, if not all of them.
“I’m probably being paranoid,” I say. “But in case I’m not?—”
Bennett gets to his feet. “We could pay the hotel a visit tomorrow and see if there are new guests?”
“I can take Chris and Warren to check out the cabins to see if we pick up the same scent there,” Colton offers. “There’s nowhere else an out-of-towner would stay unless they were here visiting family.”
I nod. “Okay. I’m sure it’s nothing, but I’d rather know once and for all that this was just a lost tourist than a sign of something else.”
“Let’s go back to the house. We’ll meet up with the others and do a few loops around the property, make sure no one is where they shouldn’t be,” Bennett suggests.
“Good idea.” I drop into a crouch so we can shift back to our wolf forms.
“Are you going to tell Aerin?” Colton asks.
Do I want to tell her about the scuff marks and someone briefly wandering onto our property?
“There’s nothing to tell,” I say. “At least, not yet.”