Page 124 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

My clothes from the last time were still in there, and I’d have to remember to come and fetch them before my whole damned wardrobe ended up here.

I carried them home sometimes in my mouth, but they usually ended up with holes that way. I’d need to remember to bring my pack if I wanted to get them back to camp.

Replacing the branches over our makeshift locker, I cracked my neck again and took off at a run, pounding my bare feet against the earth as my wolf took hold.

When I was first changed, the transformation was painful.

Excruciating. The first couple of times it had taken hours.

Now, I could shift between one footfall and the next with only a split second of agony that was easy enough to endure.

I launched forward, giving over that part of myself that would allow my wolf to be free.

She took the reins, bursting out from within me with a snarl.

Our twin tails bobbed behind us as she carried us swiftly toward home.

Once, she’d felt like a separate entity from me.

Like a force I could neither control nor understand.

Even though her instincts didn’t always align with mine, I knew now that we were one. She was merely an extension of me. A shadow self that ran on primal instinct and raw emotion instead of logic and limits.

I luxuriated in the feel of the cool, shaded breeze running through channels of our black and silver fur, giving us a reprieve from the scorch of the sun.

The borders of our land now extended far beyond the boundaries of Forest Grove, encompassing two other pack territories that had been absorbed into ours during the battle of the Four Corners before I ever became alpha. But the border I crossed now was the border of our pack camp.

The inner ring. One of three that always had a constant patrol.

We didn’t anticipate any attacks. Only a fool would try something against what was now one of the largest packs in the US.

Though if I’d learned anything from the time I was bitten by my psychotic ex-boyfriend until now, it was that you could trust no one.

That when you feel you’re the most safe, is often when you’re the most in danger.

My ears pricked as another wolf approached from the west, and my wolf recognized them as pack.

I slowed as they approached, my sides heaving from the long sprint.

Layla came into view a moment later, her all-black wolf offset with a starburst of silvery fur on her forehead and socks to match.

Her trademark jasmine scent clung to her even in wolf form.

Seth was only a few seconds behind, loping up to greet me with his long tongue lolling out to one side.

They were dating now. Had been for a few months, and even though Layla was one of my best friends along with Vivian, I couldn’t say I saw it coming.

Where Layla was quiet, reserved, and preferred to dress in all black to match her long dark hair and near- black eyes, Seth was the complete opposite. With hazel eyes often set in a mischievous stare, and a loud ass personality.

A case of opposites attract, I supposed.

Did you leave the Chevelle in town? We didn’t see it on the way past the garage, her voice slipped into my mind as her wolf cocked its head.

I did. Had a drink at Grove’s End, so...

Clay take your keys? Seth butted in, bumping my shoulder with his as he stalked around me playfully, making me skid to one side to avoid his snapping jowls.

You good, Allie? Layla asked before I could answer, and I was reminded just how well my besties knew me even if we didn’t have a mate bond allowing us to sense one another’s emotions.

Truly, I’d all but put the encounter with the witch out of my mind, but the lingering aftereffects of it kept my muscles taut and strained.

I’d expect the inquisition from Vivian, but Layla would let it go.

Yeah, you guys should get back to your patrol. Is Jared back yet?

No, Seth replied. But I talked to him earlier. He said he’d be back in time for the festivities.

I gave Seth a nod and looked north toward camp.

How are they settling in, do you know?

They’ve already started work on their cabin, Layla told me. A bunch of the pack are helping, including Viv and the guys, so they should have it built within the week.

Some of the weight lifted from my shoulders at that, and I let out a relieved chuff. If Viv is on it, I doubt it’ll take more than a few days, I joked. With her barking orders, no one would be getting any breaks.

Come on, babe, move that cute tush, we have work to do.

Seth snapped at Layla’s behind, making her yip before they took off to continue their rounds. No doubt Seth had orchestrated it so that they could take the earlier shift and not miss the party. He never missed an opportunity to feast and drink. Ever.

The new shifters we were welcoming tonight were from a pack further to the south. They’d been forced out by their alpha when they mated. It was the same old story. Once word spread that we were accepting of same sex mated pairs in our pack, they started seeking us out.

Four mated pairs had joined us already over the last four years and that was a lot, considering how few shifters remained.

The fact that they couldn’t procreate was the reason given when their alphas forced them to blood out, but I knew better.

They were backward thinking asshats with antiquated principles who wouldn’t understand the concept of love even if it got them by the jugular.

This new couple had it rough, though. One of them, Callum, was a freshly turned wolf, and their alpha mangled him when he blooded them out, going for the face instead of the usual shoulder, arm, or leg that inflicted less damage and left a less noticeable scar.

I’d have been pissed too if I knew I was going to lose a shifter as strong and able as Archer when he mated to Callum, but that was his choice to cast them out.

..and there was no excuse for that sort of behavior.

If they hadn’t come over two-hundred miles to be here, I’d go show him exactly what I thought of his barbaric methods.

Shifters healed quickly, and often without scarring. The only thing that did scar us was a bite from another wolf. Something in the venom prevented proper healing, hiding away beneath the tissue and lingering there, keeping the scars from ever truly healing.

I had several of my own I would bear for the rest of my life, and I knew that if I held the position of alpha, there would be a great many more to come.

Just like Seth and Layla said, there was a small crew hard at work on the new cabin at the edge of the massive clearing. Soon, we’d have to clear more forest if the pack kept growing.

Viv waved as she saw me pass, her short blonde hair catching the last rays of the sun before it would slip down below the trees.

She stopped for only a second before spinning to bark more orders at her small group of conscripted helpers.

The newbies waved too, nervously, and with smiles that were too broad and didn’t reach their eyes.

They were nervous. Didn’t know what to think of me.

Of how I ran my pack. They would see soon enough that they were more than welcome and the only things I expected from those under my command, other than their loyalty, was for them to pull their own weight and not start shit with other pack members. That was it.

I shifted back at the sliding door to the rear of the cabin I shared with Clay and Jared. Even after four years, I preferred being naked without an audience, though it didn’t bother me much when the need arose anymore. Not like it used to.

“Do you think they’ll like chocolate chip or peanut butter better?

” Grams asked as I slid the door closed, unsurprised to find her baking in my kitchen.

It was the only one with a working oven.

We’d have sprung for her to have one in her own cabin, but I think she liked the excuse to come by just as much as she liked to bake. “Or should I just do a cake?”

“If they’re anything like the rest of us, they’ll eat whatever you want to make.”

When it came to Hazel’s baking, we didn’t discriminate. For an old blind woman, she really knew what she was doing.

“Hmph,” she grunted, pulling out the ingredients for both kinds of cookies like I’d suspected she would. No matter how many she made, they’d all be gone by morning.

“You see my grandson today?”

“Yep. He’ll be by for the welcoming ceremony before he goes on patrol.”

“Good,” she huffed. “Between that damned bar and him patrolling every night and sleeping all day, I never see him.”

“You and me both, Grams.” I slid past her to grab a drink from the fridge, going for the cold brew. She brushed my shoulder and stilled, turning on hobbling legs to yank my hand away from the handle on the fridge door and pull it into hers.

She squished my hand between her palms and then turned it face up as though she could see the lines in the surface of my skin with her milky white eyes. I knew what she would see, or sense more like.

Grams had been blind since birth and that affected the senses of her wolf when she made the transition. Heightening them in a way that allowed her to glimpse emotions and snippets of the past and present events that spurred them.

“Who was it?” she asked, tilting her head. Her long gray braid shifted behind her shoulder as she stared at me, unseeing. There was no sense in lying to her. Never was.

“A witch,” I told her, gently pulling my hand away from her grasp. “I sent him away. He won’t be back.”

She pursed her lips.

“Don’t mention it to the guys?”

Her hands went to her hips, and I could already anticipate the talking to I was about to get and rolled my eyes. “Look,” I added before she could get a word in. “If he comes back, I’ll tell them. There’s no reason to worry them over nothing. Deal?”

“What did he want?”

“A meeting. With someone from the Arcane Council.”

Her expression soured. It was a truth universally known and acknowledged that the witches didn’t exactly get along with the other three races. They hadn’t ever since the original voyagers left their veiled homeland of Emeris and sailed to the mortal lands.

Ancient history if you asked me, but old grudges died hard it seemed.

“I don’t like it,” she replied, clucking her tongue before turning back to her task at the counter with a flustered blush in her pale cheeks.

I patted her on the shoulder as I passed. “Save me a few chocolate chips before they’re all spoken for?”

A grunt was her only reply as I went to get ready for the night ahead, a new kind of anxiety taking root next to the other one still blooming.

A sense that something was coming. Something out of my control.

Maybe it was just the visit from the witch putting me off, but my gut hadn’t ever been wrong before.