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sixteen

ASPEN

After we all ate, I asked to see Fletcher’s room. He was living in one of the rooms, in the new building everyone seemed excited about. The one I thought they might be imprisoning their groupies in, before.

My wolf finally stirred when the guys gave me a grand tour of the building. They pointed out multiple large common rooms with community kitchens that were always stocked. We stopped in a few gigantic game rooms that were almost all packed full of wolves.

Most of them looked like they were having a good time.

Those who didn’t still looked content. Calm. Safe.

We all hung out in one of the common rooms for a while, playing a card game I’d never heard of while snacks went around the large table. A few of the guys made s’mores over the gas stove. A mess ensued, and we all joked about it.

My wolf basked in the time with her pack. She’d never had that before, and she loved it fiercely. She wanted desperately to get out in the forest with them, but she wasn’t willing to cut off the bonding to make that happen.

After the first round of s’mores, one of the cooking guys presented me with a second one. He bowed his head with a dramatic, “For her Majesty, the Queen,” and laughter flooded the room.

Even Fletcher bit back a grin.

The mate bond didn’t seem so big or terrible if it came with card games, jokes, and s’mores.

Eventually, Fletcher and I ended up in his room. No one shared rooms unless they wanted to, according to the guys we’d been chatting with, but none of the rooms were big. Fletcher’s certainly wasn’t. It reminded me of a comfortable hotel room, nice, but only big enough for a bed, a closet, a small couch, and a bathroom.

I sat sideways on the couch, my feet resting on the cushions, while Fletch sprawled across the bed.

His forehead was creased.

Like usual.

“Stop worrying about me,” I said.

“They’re paying me to do it, now.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’d feel exactly the same if there wasn’t money involved.”

“Maybe.”

“Definitely.”

He sighed. “Of course I’m worried. You’re engaged to the violent, dangerous wolf king. You’re telling his pack your secrets, even though you know they’ll take his side if something ever goes down between you two. Some things need to stay quiet.”

“I’m tired of hiding, Fletch. I know things have been shitty for you because of me, and because of what you are. Being a powerful Alpha makes it hard to find a place. I get that. And I’m sorry that it cost you the Creeks. But for the first time in my life, I can actually talk about what I am. I can make friends. Hell, I—” I looked around the room, searching for cameras. “Are there cameras in here?”

“No. The pack’s land is light on cameras. Hunter gave me a two-hundred-page guide about all the different kinds on Crimson land and in the city, so I would know how to spot them and which ones can do what. He wants me to keep you in line of them at all times.”

“So we can talk in here?”

He nodded.

“Enzo said they’re hunting another female wolf. I don’t want them to catch her—not if she doesn’t want to be caught. But what if she does? What if she needs help? What if I don’t have to be alone?”

“You’ve never been alone.”

“I know, and I’m lucky to have you. But what if there were other female wolves? I could have someone to call when heat does weird shit to my body. I could ask them odd sex questions that I obviously can’t ask you or anyone else.”

“I get it. It would be different,” Fletcher grumbled.

“Exactly. I could belong here. I could have a home here. And yeah, Enzo barely wants to be friends, but that could be good, couldn’t it? I’ll get to have a job, an?—”

“Enzo wants what ?”

Oh.

Maybe I hadn’t told him that yet.

“Enzo doesn’t want to be mates the way our parents are mates. His wolf is the one who claimed me. Not the man. The man is keeping me around for the wolf. Enzo doesn’t have any feelings for me, and he doesn’t want to. We agreed that we’ll just be friends who live in the same apartment and spend heat together.”

Fletcher’s forehead creased, anger blazing in his eyes. “That’s bullshit. The wolf wasn’t the one forcing you to stay on bedrest because of your ankle, or cooking for you around the clock.”

“They have a weird relationship. It’s fine,” I insisted.

He shook his head. “There’s no way.”

“There is a way, and we’re going to find it.”

“You’re lying to yourself, and you know it.” His voice was blunt, but thankfully, he changed the subject. “Mom and Dad keep texting me. They know you blocked their phone numbers to keep them away from the king, and they’re threatening to show up here, guns blazing, if you don’t invite them.”

My eyes widened. “Shit.”

“He hasn’t killed me for hiding you. They should be fine,” Fletcher said. “From what I’ve gathered, he never takes a life without a good reason.”

“He almost killed Silas. Screwing me in the past was enough of a reason for him then.”

“Well, I can understand that. That’s just possessiveness. If Mom and Dad aren’t trying to take you from him, they’ll be fine.”

“ Probably .”

“Probably is the best we can do right now, Aspen.”

He was right.

I knew he was right.

I ran a hand over the top of my hair anyway. It had dried weird after my shower, some parts straight and some parts wavy, but I didn’t care. No one in the pack had seemed to care either.

It wasn’t like I needed to impress anyone. Enzo wasn’t going to let me go, and he’d rather I look bad around his pack anyway.

“Alright, I’ll unblock them and call. Do I get to hear the full story of what happened at Creek, now?”

He grimaced. “No.”

I flashed him a glare.

He reluctantly launched into the story. When I glanced at the clock as our conversation came to a close, I made a face.

Nearly 1 AM.

“We need to call it a night.”

“Yup, need our beauty sleep for a big day of being trapped on your king’s land tomorrow,” Fletcher drawled.

“He’s not my king,” I corrected.

Fletcher didn’t look any more convinced of that than I felt.

“I’m kind of surprised he hasn’t come looking for me,” I added.

Fletcher grabbed his phone off the bed and scrolled through some messages. “It’s going to be a late night for him. I’m supposed to stay in the hall outside your room in my wolf form until he’s back.”

I picked up my own phone and turned on the screen.

No new messages.

My stomach clenched, just a little bit. “What’s he doing?”

What if he was in town, with another woman?

What if he’d wanted more after heat? What if I wasn’t enough?

I pushed away the ridiculous thoughts. Insecurity wasn’t my style. I had too many other problems.

And Enzo was the one who had claimed me. He said his wolf caught my scent and refused anyone else.

But he could lie.

Unlike him, I couldn’t sniff out the truth. I just had to trust him.

“Hunting rogues. Looks like someone went rabid a few hours ago. They took him down, but it took a while, and his pack had already scattered. I guess when one wolf goes rabid, another usually follows.”

Oh.

Damn.

There definitely wasn’t another woman, then.

Fletcher was oblivious to my insecurity, still scrolling through the messages. “Enzo’s still hunting, and they’re a few hours away from here. I doubt he’ll be back before the morning. I’ve heard how long these hunts can take even when there aren’t rabids involved. They’re being more thorough than usual right now.”

“So early morning is probably the soonest he’d be back.”

“Yeah. Lunchtime or late afternoon is more likely.”

Right.

Great.

The kid in me wanted to ask my brother if I could sleep in his room to avoid the dark emotions I’d have to deal with in Enzo’s. Mine.

But Fletcher was already worried about me.

And I was going to have to get used to those emotions, because they weren’t going anywhere.

I was going to be mated to the king. That meant sleeping alone a lot, and doing my own thing. I needed to make peace with that.

“Want to go for a midnight run with me?” I asked.

Fletcher grimaced. “I would, but the Savages gave me a list of rules when I joined the pack. Not taking you into the forest after dark was one of them.”

I scowled. “Seriously?”

“Yup.”

“You’re all assholes if you’re going to enforce that.”

“It’s for your safety. They hunt rogues. There’s a rabid wolf on the loose, and you don’t want to be anywhere near it.”

“It’s a few hours away, Fletch. Break the rules for me.”

His lips curved upward, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. He wasn’t going to do it. “Not this time. The city knows what you are now, so you will always be in danger.”

Wow.

I was officially on my own. At least, when it came to my supposed freedom.

“The rules are supposed to ease up after you seal the mate bond,” he said, as I slipped off the couch and padded toward the door. My ankle wasn’t sensitive at all anymore. The pain was gone entirely.

“We’re still two weeks away from that.”

“It’ll go by fast.”

I hoped so.

But at the same time, I hoped he was wrong. Because that meant I only had two weeks to find a way out of mating with Enzo.

There wasn’t a way out. I was confident of that, even if I wanted to convince myself otherwise.

We walked back to my room, and Fletcher gave me a quick hug before I left him outside. So he could guard me.

It was kind of fucked up, but what part of my life wasn’t?

Going to bed alone after spending the last week sleeping in Enzo’s arms felt kind of wrong, but I pretended I didn’t notice as I curled up in bed with one of his pillows.

My wolf was quiet, and a little sad.

Honestly, I kind of was too.

I hadn’t forgotten about the nightly oral sex he’d promised me. It obviously wasn’t going to happen, but I remembered his words clearly.

They had mattered to me.

Even though they didn’t seem to mean anything to him.

I tried to clear my mind, reminding myself that in two weeks, I was going to be free. I could be the one who left Enzo to sleep alone, or wake up alone.

That thought eased my messy emotions enough that I finally fell asleep.

As Fletcher predicted, Enzo wasn’t back the next morning. He didn’t reach out to me in the pack link either, though I knew after talking to Fletcher that he could’ve.

He’d spoken mentally to my brother, but not to me.

That pissed me off, even when I tried not to let it.

Since I had nothing else to do and needed to get it over with, I called my mom after breakfast. I apologized for blocking her number to protect her from the king. Then, I invited her and my dad to come visit the Lodge.

They agreed readily.

Our relationship had always been a little strained after everything that happened with my first heat. They didn’t blame us, but we blamed ourselves. That was difficult to get past.

They were there an hour and a half after my call, so Fletcher and I gave them a quick tour while we chatted. I answered all of their questions, though I left out the sketchy bits. Like stripping in Enzo’s shower while him and his brothers stared at me.

And others.

So many others.

Ahem. Anyway.

Neither of our parents looked comfortable, but they were determined to see everything and figure out if I was safe.

I was safe.

Safe from everyone except Enzo.

We had lunch together in the dining hall, where they were charmed by Fletcher’s friends. Our friends.

When Fletch and I eventually walked them out to their car, my mother hugged me tightly. She whispered, “It seems relatively safe here, but if you ever need to get away from the king, you know I’ll help you disappear.”

Someone cleared their throat, and I cursed silently when I recognized the sound. And the presence.

Enzo.

He had great timing.

“Thank you,” I whispered back, squeezing her again before I released her and turned to face my Alpha.

Fletcher stood beside our father, with his arms folded. If it came down to a fight, I knew my brother and I would both give our lives for the human and wolf who had raised us.

Our parents looked like an odd couple from a human’s view, with our dad frozen in his mid-to-late twenties like all werewolves, and our mom around forty-five. But among shifters, that was normal. Hell, it made us proud to be what we were, because it was physical proof that mated wolves were loyal to the bitter end.

“I’m Enzo.” The king introduced himself, never one to shrink back from a confrontation. He offered my mother a hand.

She hesitated, looking at me.

The king was wet, wearing just a pair of low-slung jeans, with his soaked hair dripping down his neck and over his shoulders. He’d clearly scrubbed his hands, but there was still blood beneath his short fingernails.

I gave her a quick nod, and she accepted his hand, shaking it lightly. “I’m Christine,” she said. “Thank you for protecting my daughter, and giving my son a place to stay.”

She didn’t mean the words, and he would be able to smell that.

I fought a smile.

My mom was terrible at acting as if she liked people she didn’t.

Enzo made a noise of agreement anyway.

Apparently, he was even worse than she was at pretending to like people. That wasn’t shocking, though. I was pretty sure Clay was the one who handled social interactions when they needed to work with other people.

Enzo shook my father’s hand too, and I made eye contact with Fletcher. Though his face hid what he was feeling, his blue eyes were bright with humor.

Our parents left without bothering to exchange more pleasantries, and as soon as they’d turned down a road that was concealed by trees, Fletcher laughed loudly. “They hate you.”

The words were obviously for Enzo.

Part of me wondered if the king would retaliate, but he just grunted. “That was inevitable.”

“You stole my sister and got me kicked out of my pack. Of course it was inevitable.”

I bit my lip to hide my grin.

The king grabbed my hand and told Fletcher, “I’ll let you know when I need you again.”

My humor faded as Enzo all but dragged me back to the Lodge, and right to our room. The door shut behind him, and then his body was on mine, pinning me to the wood.

My eyebrows lifted as my arms went slowly around him.

More whiplash.

Serious whiplash.

Overflowing whiplash.

I needed a lifejacket or a neck brace or something.

“A warning that your parents were here would’ve been nice,” he rumbled.

“I didn’t know if you were even coming back.”

His grip around me tightened. “Of course I was coming back. I told my enforcers I was on my way.”

“I’m not one of your enforcers, Alpha .”

He growled at my use of the title. “I assumed they would tell you.”

“Did you ask someone to do that?”

His grunt was a clear no.

“Well, I have no idea which of these guys have which rankings, let alone who you’ve assigned as enforcers. So who would I ask?”

“I don’t know.”

“Neither do I.”

Enzo finally relaxed his grip on me, just a little. “I have responsibilities. I can’t stay here all the time.”

“When did I ask you to stay all the time? Or to stay at all?”

“You just?—”

“I’m not the bad guy, Enzo,” I interrupted.

“I’m well aware that I fill that role, Princess,” he growled.

I pushed him away, and he reluctantly released me. “You don’t need to tell me things. I don’t need to know when you’re coming back, or what you’re doing. But you don’t get to be frustrated with me for not knowing things you choose not to share.”

He shoved a hand through his hair. “Fine.”

“I’m going for a run. Some bastard made rules against me shifting at night.”

His gaze flashed liquid gold as his wolf filled his eyes. “You’ll have lunch with me first.”

My wolf tossed her head in annoyance. She was on Enzo’s side most of the time, but at that moment, she was as frustrated as I was about sleeping alone without hearing from our mate.

“I already ate.” I slipped out the door.

Part of me waited for the king to chase me. Stop me. Pin me to the wall and tell me he couldn’t stop thinking about me when we were apart. Say that he would add me to his enforcer’s group chat. That he would let me know when he was going to be home the next time.

He didn’t.

And even though I knew his night had probably been hell, I couldn’t offer him support. I wasn’t emotionally available at the moment, and he had made it clear he wasn’t interested in having that with me.

We were just friends.

I wasn’t even sure if we were going to be that, most of the time. Maybe just people who screwed once a month and shared mating bites. I was just going to have to be okay with that.

I stripped out of my clothes and shifted when I reached the forest, leaving them in a pile by a tree. When I gave my body to my wolf, relief cushioned me, making me feel the freedom I ached so badly for.

Things were just easier when my wolf was in control.

Fletcher’s wolf caught up to mine at some point, and the beasts played together the way they hadn’t been able to since we were kids.

When we made our way back to the Lodge, I had to admit a small but significant truth to myself:

My new taste of freedom was worth dealing with Enzo a million times over.