Page 93 of Locke

If that is his version of cleaning up, I think I could get used to it.

After we finished, the moon had already risen in the sky and the night air felt crisp. It wasn’t cold on my wet skin as my hair dried. In fact, I felt warm and comfortable as we playfully chased each other, slapping each other’s backsides while we headed back toward the packhouse—our home.

Once we came closer, Locke sniffed the air, then pulled on my hand to put me behind him and growled. A deep rumble in his chest rattled me to my core. It wasn’t a playful, seductive growl but one of possession and anger. I grabbed onto his shirt behind him, and of course I gazed all around us, and kept my knees bent to jump and spring into action if need be.

“Stay back,” Locke snapped.

I let out a growl in my own throat, one that I was becoming more and more familiar with. The hair on the back of my neck rose and I could feel my nails tingle.

“I will do what—”

“Them, not you,” Locke spoke more gently and pulled me close to him, as out of the darkness I could somehow see Hawke and Delilah coming forth out of the bushes.

I furrowed my brow, seeing Hawke holding their sweet baby, Hannah, in their arms. She’d grown almost double in size since I last saw her, looking almost like a small toddler.

“Hi guys, what are you doing out here?” I let go of Locke to greet them, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

“Mine! Get back!” Locke barked.

I blinked several times and jerked my head back and forth.

Hawke raised his arm in surrender. “I know this is a bad time. I know you don’t want us here, but hear me out, Alpha.” Hawke leaned his neck to the side, but Locke didn’t falter. He gripped my arm tighter and fur sprouted all over his arms.

He was going to shift.

“Hey,” I whispered to Locke and ran my fingers across his fur. “It’s alright. It’s your friends.”

Locke didn’t listen. He pulled me in close and took a deep breath into my shoulder. “Mine.” A deep, guttural voice came from within.Fenrir.

“Listen, we—we need help. A lot of the mated do. We have these headaches—”

Locke’s grip loosened slightly.

“We know you are still in your mating period, but our mates—we can’t stand seeing them in pain.”

Locke mumbled to himself, his hand running down his face.

“Can you help them?” I stared up at him. “Is there a way we can help? Why do they have headaches? Shifters can get headaches? I thought they weren’t prone to illnesses?”

Locke ran the back of his hand down my cheek and nodded. “Yeah, we can help.”

Sorrow hit me, and I wasn’t sure why.

“Get Tajah and Bram. Bring every mated couple to the bonfire here at the packhouse. Are Bear and Journey back?”

Hawke put his arm around Delilah, who looked miserable. “Yeah, they did this morning. All the rescued humans have been put up in our apartments or sent back to where they came from, if that is where they wanted to go.”

Locke let out a sigh and steered me toward the packhouse. “Have everyone here in an hour. Don’t be late.”

As always, I had more questions than answers, but I kept quiet and tried to shift through the jumbled mess inside Locke’s head.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Locke

Igrabbed my mate’s hand and whisked her past the large pit. It contained logs, old timber, and trash from the cabins. I swallowed, aware that fire would soon consume me, but it wasn’t my first time being surrounded by flames recently. Months ago, I was in a burning building and I did just fine when Grim and Journey dealt with Idris.

“Keep telling yourself that,”my wolf grumbled.