13. Aerin
13
AERIN
I t’s the day after I fell in the forest, and I have my head stuck in the refrigerator, looking for something to eat as Mack talks to Bennett on his cell phone outside.
He’s literally just outside since it’s still wet out there and he’s not wearing shoes. The rain was slowing as I opened the drapes earlier. By the time I’d showered, dressed and come downstairs, the rain had stopped.
Mack hadn’t seemed to care that it was raining heavily when he dragged himself out of bed early this morning. I told him he didn’t need to go looking for whatever bear or thing I thought I’d seen when I’d fallen. The more I thought about it, the more embarrassed I was that I’d tripped and fallen. Mack faces off against a bear. I trip over my own feet and tumble down a hill.
Mack came back from his exploration of the forest with wet fur. He shifted and told me he had seen no sign of anyone or anything. Just the bear's tracks heading away from the house. If there had been something there, the rain would have washed it away.
He’s asked me a million times if I’m okay after my fall, and I am. I don’t have so much as a bruise on me. So, while he’s out talking with Bennett, I told him I’d make lunch for us.
The refrigerator is fully stocked from mine and Penny’s grocery store trip a couple of days before, but nothing appeals to me.
That isn’t true.
I want cake, but I had pancakes with chocolate chips, drowning them in maple syrup for breakfast. Adela keeps encouraging me to eat nutritious things, but I’m not craving nutritious things. I’m craving sweet things.
When the house phone on the dining table rings, I pull my head out of the refrigerator and walk over to answer it.
I press the answer button and I’m lifting the receiver to my ear when Mack bursts into the kitchen. “ Don’t ?—”
I take in the panic in his eyes and freeze. “What is?—”
“Aerin?” A painfully familiar male voice drifts down the phone.
Grinning, I forget all about Mack. “ Moses! ”
Mack’s expression transforms into one of relief. One I make a note to ask him about later.
“How’s the baby?” Moses, my dad’s beta, asks.
He was like a dad to me growing up, and although we don’t get a chance to speak often, when we do, I always enjoy our conversations. His responsibilities mean a good time to talk for me isn’t for him, and vice versa.
“Still spending most nights beating up my bladder. How are you? And when are you coming to see me?” I ask.
“Unfortunately, not as soon as I’d like.” The serious edge to Moses’s voice kills my smile.
Mack walks over to the dining table and pulls out a chair. I get the message.
Smiling gratefully at him, I sit down while he takes the seat beside me, putting his cell phone on the table. I’m not sure what he and Bennett were talking about, but I guess it can’t have been too important for Mack to end their call so suddenly.
“What’s wrong?” I ask Moses.
I turn on the loudspeaker and place the phone on the table. Mack is a shifter, so he doesn’t need the loudspeaker to hear both sides of the phone call, but this way, at least, I won’t have to hold it.
“Something is happening with the Dacre Pack,” Moses says simply.
Unease sweeps through me. “What do you mean, something is happening?”
My former mate is Alpha of that pack. For Moses to be calling means whatever is going on there involves me or is likely to.
“Hey there, Moses,” Mack says, taking my right hand and squeezing it as if he can feel my tension. He probably can.
“Mack. How are things in Winter Lake?” Moses asks.
“As good as they can be. You have to come visit us soon,” Mack offers. “We could do a BBQ before the weather turns.”
Moses blows out a sigh. “I wish I could, but that might be awhile.”
“Because of what’s happening in the Dacres?” I guess. “Is Shane causing trouble?”
It’s been months since I last saw Shane.
Back then, he was furious with his mate Bree for killing his dad and for trying to kill me. Bree had shoved me off a mountain, worried that Shane’s wolf, who still viewed me as his mate, would want me back, especially since my baby is, biologically at least, his.
Shane had called my baby ‘it’, and treated me so badly that I’d run from him. He’s shown no interest in this child. But Shane’s wolf had saved me and then sniffed my throat as if I was still his mate, so Bree had been right in thinking Shane’s wolf still wanted me, even if Shane loved Bree.
Could he come back to Winter Lake and cause trouble? I’d warned Bree away, but what if Shane’s wolf decides he wants to force me back anyway?
I don’t realize I’m frowning so hard until Mack kisses my forehead. “We’ll be okay, Aerin. Shane won’t get close enough to cause any trouble here.”
“I don’t think trouble will wind up in Winter Lake, but it might. And if it does, it won’t be from the Dacre Pack,” Moses adds.
“You sound pretty sure of that.” Mack sits back in his seat, though he keeps hold of my hand, and I’m grateful for his touch.
“Thing is, they seem to be having some kind of civil war.”
Pack Dacre and Pack Boone—my former pack—share borders. They are close neighbors. For one pack to be fighting is dangerous to the other because it can so easily spill over.
“Has it spread?” I ask.
“No, and it won’t.” As my dad’s second in command, Moses is in charge of training the enforcers who guard Dad and the rest of the pack.
His confidence reassures me that my former pack won’t go the same way the Raleighs did years ago. The Raleigh Pack, violent, aggressive, but held together by Mack’s dad, Connall, imploded when Connall turned his back on the pack.
They serve as a powerful lesson to all shifters about what can happen to a pack without a strong Alpha to hold it together. Fortunately, something like that has never happened again.
“What has Dad said?” I ask.
If Moses is calling to tell us about this, the order must have come from my dad. This is internal pack business and he would never talk about things like that—even to me—without express permission from Dad.
Moses is naturally quiet and serious. Not only did he treat me more like his daughter than my dad, who prioritized leading the pack over spending time with me, he’s good at his job. There’s no one else my dad trusts more, and I understand why.
“That it was important that you know,” he says.
“Because trouble might come here?” I ask, frowning.
“Because Shane was your mate, and everyone knows that. We believe the Dacres worked out that Bree was responsible for Iain’s death and they turned on Bree and Shane,” Moses says.
Mack nods as if he isn’t the least bit surprised. “It would have put Shane in a tough position. Defend his new mate, or side with his outraged pack.”
I once asked Mack what would happen, and he seemed to think this would affect Shane more than it would Bree. His nickname was once Perfect Shane. Everyone viewed him as the Alpha who could do no wrong. This would have shattered that perception in his pack, and no one would look at him the same way again.
“So you think they forced Shane and Bree out?” I ask.
“We don’t know,” Moses says. “It would be too dangerous to send an enforcer to check, but it stands to reason things will get worse before it gets better. If it even gets better.”
“And if they force Shane and Bree out, there’s nothing to stop them from coming here to cause trouble and maybe even blaming us for what happened?” I guess.
Bree wouldn’t have accepted the blame for it. She was angry at Iain for not accepting her as Shane’s new mate. There’s every reason she’ll blame me for what’s happening to the Dacres.
“That’s right,” Moses says quietly.
I realize why else he’s calling.
He had planned to visit us and see me before the baby came, just like Ivy and Connall, but that won’t happen now. I’d hoped to see Moses and Lucy, his mate, because the baby is going to keep me tied to the house and to Winter Lake for a while. Now it’s looking like it could be weeks or even months before I see them. It feels like the world is suddenly going crazy. Ivy can’t leave her pack to see me, and now neither can Moses.
“So you can’t leave Minnesota until things settle down,” I say, trying not to be disappointed. “You can’t afford to, in case the fighting spreads while you’re with me.”
“I’ll be there before you have your baby, Aerin,” Moses promises.
“Things sound dangerous, Moses. Dad needs you more than I do.”
“And we’ll keep an eye out in case Shane or Bree show their faces here,” Mack says.
I recall the shifter they scented at the hotel. If Mack hadn’t been so sure that the scent was unfamiliar, I’d have thought it was Shane or Bree, already here to cause trouble.
“We’ll speak soon, okay?” Moses assures me. “Lucy and I are thinking of Thumper and we’ll come up there soon as we can.”
I force a smile to my lips, though I don’t see how Dad will let him come all this way, especially now. “Okay, Moses.”
After saying our goodbyes, I hang up and face Mack. “You didn't want me to answer the phone. Why? What's going on? What are you keeping from me?”
Mack gives me a long look and I know he’s debating not telling me. “I think we need to have a pack meeting tonight.”
In the past, our pack meetings have been brief, held before a meal or a run and more of an opportunity to talk and catch up with each other. This—whatever this is—sounds serious.
“Why?”
“Come here.” He holds his arms out to me.
I get up from my seat, and that in itself is no easy feat. But I make myself comfortable on his lap as he wraps his arms around my hips, drawing me as close as he can with my belly in the way. “I’m struggling.”
Alarm jolts through me. “Struggling with what?”
“I want— no , I need to keep you safe.”
“But?”
“I don’t want to worry you.” He combs his fingers through my hair. “There seems to be a new source of anxiety just when we’ve resolved something. Now there’s a problem with the Dacres.”
I lean against him. “I know.”
“I want to keep you safe and I’m terrified I’m going to fail.”
“You won’t fail Mack. You already keep me safe.”
He gives me a gentle squeeze. “So we’ll have a pack meeting tonight after dinner. All of us, about everything, and we’ll figure it out.”
“Does this have something to do with you not wanting me to answer the phone?”
He kisses the top of my head. “It does.”