Page 29 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

JARED

Her door loomed near the end of the hall, sealed shut, but not locked.

Allie hadn’t come out for anything more than using the restroom in days. And I hadn’t tried to enter, doing my best to give her the space she obviously needed.

But I couldn’t wait anymore.

Every tray I brought up for her, weighed down with a meal fit to satisfy her new more ravenous appetite had been left untouched outside her door. I wouldn’t let her starve herself.

“Hey,” Clay called as I mounted the top step. He surprised me and my jump almost spilled the full glass of orange juice onto the mountain of macaroni and cheese with bacon I made for her.

“Shit, Clay,” I hissed, shoulders tensing.

Clay’s face hardened and his stark blue eyes bored a hole in the floor.

He’d barely been able to look at me since the other night in the woods.

We’d hardly spoken, either. This was new territory for us.

Things like what happened with Allie weren’t supposed to be possible.

In the history of the Enduran race, as far as we knew anyway, there wasn’t a single other case of two wolves bonding to the same mate.

It just wasn’t a thing that happened.

It was…unnatural.

A ball formed in my throat.

“What?” I bit out when he didn’t speak, speaking around the lump.

He reached back to palm the short hairs on the back of his neck. “Is she…I mean,” he corrected. “Has she eaten anything yet?”

I clenched my jaw and a fire licked up my spine, igniting the spark that began the process of bringing my wolf to the surface. I squelched the primal urge to stake a claim on what was mine. How could I when what was mine was also his?

With a longing glance down the hall to where Allie lay huddled in bed, I deflated, a short growl coming out with my exhale. Allie wasn’t either of ours. The magic of the curse had bound us together, but that didn’t make her anyone’s property.

“No,” I said without emotion. “But I’m going to see if I can convince her to.”

He nodded mutely as though agreeing with a thought in his own head. “Good,” he said. “That’s good.”

Clay’s fists curled and he gave me one last sharp nod to acknowledge the end of the conversation before he stormed off and I heard the screen door bang closed behind him.

He hadn’t been around much since it happened, preferring to spend his days in the shop pummeling his heavy bag and tinkering with his motorcycle. And his nights out in the woods, sleeping in his wolf form.

The only real thing he’d said to me since it all happened—and the only reason my wolf wasn’t going for his throat—was that he would step back. Clay wasn’t going to lay claim to Allie. He promised to keep his distance as much as possible. It was more than I expected.

The floor beneath my feet trembled slightly as I hesitantly stalked to Allie’s door. Clay was going extra hard on that heavy bag today. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to have to replace it…again.

I coughed a little to clear my throat and tapped on her door with my knuckle. “Allie,” I said gently, but loud enough that I knew she would hear me. I doubted she was asleep since it was just past dinner time, but for all I knew she could be.

No answer came.

This is what I was afraid of. I didn’t want to encroach on her territory. I didn’t want to force her to face me.

But…I wouldn’t let her keep doing this to herself, either.

Grimacing, I balanced the tray on my wrist and turned the handle, stepping inside cautiously. She had all the lights out and her hearth was cold even though I’d stacked enough wood next to it to keep her warm for weeks.

Allie was sitting atop her bed, as disheveled as the crumpled sheets and blankets beneath her.

Her turquoise hair was matted in the back and curled up in a cowlick on one side.

Her cheeks looked sallow and her eyes dark.

She stared unseeing out the window at the thick cluster of trees lining the property.

My chest ached and the pull of the bond coiled in my chest like a fist curling around my heart, forcing me to feel her anguish whether I wanted to or not.

Which meant that she could also feel my emotions.

I dampened them down, dulling my worry and pain so she wouldn’t be saddled with the extra emotional baggage. She had enough on her plate as it was.

“What do you want, Jared?” she asked me in a hushed tone, her voice a little hoarse. She didn’t bother turning from the window, just watched with glazed eyes as the sun began to slump low and hang heavy and bright orange in the sky.

The light made her gray eyes gleam with flecks of amber as I drew near enough to see them.

I set the tray down on her bedside table, nudging her cellphone out of the way to get the tray down in a position where it wouldn’t fall. “Allie,” I whispered, both hoping she would look at me and dreading it at the same time.

So, I didn’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved when her gaze never faltered from watching the sun fall down to the horizon.

I stuffed my hands deep into my pockets, fisting them.

“You—” I began, but was cut off by the violent buzzing of her cellphone atop the table.

It rattled against the metal tray loudly and, in a trancelike state, Allie dropped her gaze from the window and reached out with a shaking hand.

She pressed the side button to silence the call and pulled her arm back to rest in her lap.

Her vision grazed the tray of food and her stomach rumbled loudly, but her top lip curled back in disgust and she pressed her palm flat against her thin stomach.

The screen flashed with her notifications a second later. I didn’t want to pry, but I couldn’t stop myself from looking.

New Voicemail

Sent from Vivian Cole

And below that were a slew of others.

Text Message

Vivian

Are you sure I can’t bring you anything? My mom made so…

Text Message

Layla

I tried calling you at the house, but the line has been disconnected. Where are…

New Voicemail

Sent from Layla Esposito

Messenger

Seth Green: Haven’t seen you in class, everything okay?

If Allie didn’t start responding to her friends, someone was bound to try to get ahold of her aunt and uncle. Then the secret she’d worked so hard to keep would be exposed. She’d be forced to move back with them until she turned eighteen.

It was like someone had doused me in ice-water.

“What have you—”

“They think I’m sick.” Her voice was deadpan, and finally, she looked at me. In her eyes I saw all the hurt she was trying to numb—trying so desperately not to feel—and it was like someone was pressing down on my windpipe.

This was all my fault…

If I’d just left her alone in the woods...

Or hadn’t convinced her to stay here…

If I’d just fucking told her about Devin when I had the chance and damned the consequences…

This could have been avoided.

“I told them I have a nasty flu and that I don’t know when I’ll be back at school. I told my aunt and uncle the same.”

Still tense, I managed a nod. “That’s good.”

“Is it?” she snapped, her damp eyes narrowing on me. “How the hell is any of this good, Jared?”

Her eyes welled and she looked away just before a hot tear could fall on her cheek. “How am I supposed to live like this?” She’d said it so quietly that if I wasn’t part wolf, I wouldn’t have heard her.

I couldn’t relate, not how I wished I could. I was a born wolf. So was Clay. There were a few changed wolves in our pack, but they were more rare. I would never know what it was like to lead a normal life before having it torn out from under me because I’d never had a normal life.

Damn, I hated it when she cried. My fingers itched to wipe away her tears, the mate bond calling for me making it even more difficult than it had been before.

“It’s not,” I finally replied, even though her question was clearly rhetorical.

I just stood there stupidly while she cried quietly for a minute, unsure what to do.

I couldn’t leave her like this. And I couldn’t comfort her.

She’d made it pretty damned clear when I coaxed her into coming back to the cabin with me that night.

Every time I got anywhere near her, she’d growled at me.

Her mouth frothing and teeth snapping in warning.

I’d never seen a wolf as beautiful as she was—though I’d have expected no less. Looking at her now, even gaunt and matted with her eyes red-rimmed from crying, she was still the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.

I’d wanted her for as long as I could remember, but would never allow myself to get close to her for fear of this very thing happening.

She tilted her head and I was struck with a memory of her. Her little gray eyes looked as they did now, both sad and horrified. She couldn’t have been more than seven or eight. I wondered if she remembered me.

I shuddered as the memory of my parents’ blood, cold and sticky and starting to dry into my fur bombarded me. I sealed my eyes against the memory and clenched my teeth together. If it weren’t for Allie I don’t think I would have survived.

Her father hadn’t wanted her to help me.

I remembered him, big and burly with a thick beard and a kind but hard gaze.

I’d growled at him when I saw the shotgun slung over his shoulder, but he wasn’t the one who killed them and taken their furs to be hung like a morbid decoration on a wall, or to be forever walked on as a rug by someone’s fireplace.

Or worse—worn as though a jacket on the back of some rich gold-miner’s daughter.

She helped me despite his warnings and had cried when he tried to pull her away. She was strong even then. And stubborn as hell.

The bright thread of hope in the dark memory lessened the gripping pain of it and my shoulders sagged. It was my turn now. I needed to help her this time. No matter what it took.

Bond or no bond.

I owed her and she didn’t even know it. Couldn’t remember. Or maybe, just preferred not to.

I knelt next to the bed but didn’t dare touch her. “Allie, I’m so sorry.”