Chapter 21
WOLF
“Stop fucking staring at me,” I bark at Roman and Grayson, who are both grinning like fools.
“You’re glowing,” Roman mutters, and I shove him in the shoulder as we head outside of the lodge in the crisp morning air. The rain has stopped, and it’s about damn time.
“Shut the fuck up, man,” I state.
“Nope, he’s right,” Grayson adds. “One night with Lucy, and you can’t stop smirking. She has a touch that damn ruins us once we’ve been with her. You can’t deny it.”
“Fuck, she’s incredible.” I let myself go there because who the hell am I kidding?
I’ve been inside her most of the night, balls deep, and even leaving her this morning was torture.
Her scent still clings to me, and if I close my eyes, I swear she’s right here.
That soft, silky body, those moans… Days ago, I was delusional in my obsession.
Now, she owns every possessive part of me.
“She’s worth the wait,” Roman says, staring back up at the lodge, and all three of us are utterly lost to our Omega.
Grayson drags a hand through his hair. “This is serious now, the real thing. The dreams we’d talk about back in prison. We found our Omega.”
“She’s our future,” Roman states as we stroll around to the side of the lodge. “I swear I never thought we’d find one for us.”
I nod, remembering the nights I’d lie in my bed, imagining what it’d be like to complete our family, but like Roman and Grayson, deep down, I never thought we’d get lucky enough. Not considering our backgrounds and the shit we’ve experienced.
“We’ll need to work out where we’re going to live once we complete our program. Get a home, give her time to settle in with us. We’ve all got savings, enough to start a new life,” Grayson rambles on, clearly excited.
These two have been giving this some deep thought, considering we’re already talking about houses and futures. What’s next—babies? I grin to myself, picturing Lucy with a full belly and breasts. Fuck, she’d be so beautiful.
We stroll down the side of the lodge, heading to the rear where our truck is parked. When we reach the far corner of the building, we all pause in our tracks.
“What the fuck!” Roman groans.
Around the back, a huge pine is down, at least forty feet in height, stretched across the rear of the property.
It’s fallen on the path between the lodge and the parking area.
And the electrical box has been ripped right off the wall, wires hanging loose where the tree landed square against it, tearing it off.
Pine branches and needles are scattered everywhere, some of them caught in the window frames.
These rooms back here are mostly storage from what I’ve seen, so no wonder none of us noticed a thing last night, especially not with the thundering storm.
“Well, this is why we had a blackout—from these dead mains,” Grayson says. “Fucking lucky it didn’t start a house fire.”
The thought ices over me. “That storm was a damn bastard.”
Grayson steps over the branches and checks out the damage, poking around, then lifts his head in our direction. “We need to clear this mess, as it’s blocking the exit from the parking area too.”
“I’m going to let Lucy know and get her to call the electric company to switch the power back on.” Roman’s already heading back toward the front entrance, and I nod, following Grayson.
“We’ll need to bring the saws and chains over from the cabin on foot and start chopping up this beast,” he groans, mostly to himself.
While he drags some of the branches off our work truck, which remains mostly unmarked, I stride alongside the fallen tree, wanting to see what happened. My gut instinct says it was lightning, as I’ve seen it happen frequently.
I keep moving along the fallen trunk until I reach its base.
The stump left behind is a mess of jagged splinters.
Strong winds can cause such damage, shoving the tree around enough that it finally snaps under the pressure.
Especially seeing as there’s no blackening of the wood or scorch marks to suggest a lightning strike is responsible.
I step closer and crouch low, noticing that the upper section of the stump that faces the lodge isn’t jagged but smooth. I run a palm over the even surface. It’s a clean cut, more than halfway through the trunk with a saw. Then the storm did the rest.
I glance at the lodge in perfect line from this pine and back to the notches in the stump done to drop a pine precisely where you want it to end up.
“Shit,” I mumble under my breath, getting to my feet and dusting my hands on my pants. Someone deliberately chopped this tree, leaving it barely standing, wanting the storm to knock it over onto the house.
Ice folds over in my gut, and I’m exhaling loudly.
Luckily, it just hit the main electrical box, but who the fuck would do this and why?
The guys and I haven’t been chopping anything in this area or this close to the lodge, so I’m confident it wasn’t one of us leaving a job half done. We’d never do that in the first place.
I give a short, sharp whistle in Grayson’s direction, and he glances my way. I wave him over, and he comes jogging. Then I give him a rundown and show him what we’re dealing with.
“Goddammit,” Grayson mutters. “What the fuck’s going on here? Is it just me, or do you feel like this place is being watched and someone wants to harm Lucy?”
A cool breeze swishes past, sending the branches around us into a wild lashing and rustling.
“Yep, some asshole is playing games, and my money is on that stripper prick from the other night.”
Grayson nods. “We need to start taking guard of the place because there’s dodgy shit going on. I’m gonna take photos of all this, then we’ll start chopping it up to clear up the mess.”
“Yep, and we don’t touch the crown of the pine where it’s tangled with the main box. But fuck, my instincts are screaming that something’s really off here.”
Grayson frowns, arms tight at his sides. “If I find that prick again, I’m ripping his spine out. I have no idea what his problem is, but if he’s got his sights set on Lucy, then he’s going to be in real trouble.”
He gets to photographing, and I walk the length of the trunk toward the house, my thoughts crowding, darkening in my head.
I’d grown up with crime, murder, and danger.
And when someone keeps having strange occurrences and misfortunes, it’s no longer a coincidence.
Someone’s working on Lucy because this started the moment she arrived in town.
I curl my hands into fists at the thought of anyone planning to bring harm to my Omega. Grinding my teeth, I want to smash my fist into their face.
Roman steps out from around the corner of the house all of a sudden, hands deep in his pockets, and lifts his gaze. “Hey, Lucy wants to head into town for some errands, and I’m going with her. I don’t want her alone right now.”
“Agreed.” Part of me tenses with an urgency to rush up to her, take her into my arms, and protect her from the rest of the world. But she’s also extremely proud and independent and would fight me the whole time. So instead, I give Roman a rundown of what I found at the tree stump.
“Fuck! Someone’s causing this shit!” Roman glances over my shoulder, frowning. “Let’s clear up the parking area first, as I need a truck to drive her. And right now, it’s blocked and no way I’m letting Lucy out of my sight.”
I chuckle, surprised I have the energy, considering I’m livid on the inside that this happened right under our noses. “Fine, then you’ll give us a hand to collect the tools from the cabin and start chopping up this massive pine.”
He rolls his shoulders, head high, just as Grayson approaches us. “Let’s get this done,” he calls out, and we’re already heading toward the cabin.
The wind buffets against us, cool enough to bite, and my gut still churns. I spent my life with danger, and I’d always have a sick feeling before guns came out or shit went sideways. And right now, the same unsettling dread crawls through me.