Page 37 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

Layla noticed something was off with me, too.

She’d eyed me with poorly veiled suspicion at lunch and the moment Jared walked away from the table to grab a third plate from the cafeteria, she voiced her concern.

I spent most of my shift at the bookshop texting back and forth with both of my best friends. They wanted to know what was going on between Jared and me.

I didn’t know what to tell them.

Even just imagining the exchange was a total joke.

Are you guys dating? Viv would ask, disapproval coloring her tone.

I don’t like the vibe I get from him, Layla would add, crossing her slender olive toned arms over her chest.

I’m not dating him, I would say. I’m just mated to him. You know, because I’m a freaking werewolf now and that’s a thing that happens…apparently. I have no choice in the matter. We’re just destined to be together. Like it or not.

Except…I wasn’t really sure if I disliked it.

And I couldn’t tell if that was because I actually did like Jared Stone or because of my wolf’s desire for him messing with my head.

I’d liked him before I’d been bitten, hadn’t I?

As a friend, definitely. After everything Jared did for me, I owed him at least that.

But there was something else between us even then, wasn’t there?

I hefted the last stack of new orders onto the shelf and sighed. I didn’t know what was real and what was a byproduct of being part wolf anymore.

Another text buzzed in my pocket and I drew it out, groaning in anticipation of yet another unimpressed text from Viv or Layla. But it was Jared’s name that flashed on the screen.

Jared: Thought we’d run home if you don’t mind getting a little wet. Be there to pick you up in an hour?

My fingers hovered over the keypad. I could just take the bus to the unmarked trail and walk myself back to the cabin. I didn’t really need him to come and get me.

But the idea of being alone in the dark—in the woods—didn’t sit well with me anymore. Alarm bells went off in my mind, sending my pulse skittering into a quicker rhythm. What if Ryland let Devin go?

If he banished Devin, would he give my ex time to collect his things? Would Ryland send an escort with him to make sure that was all he did?

My throat tightened and I hated myself for being such a coward, but I thumbed out the reply anyway.

Allie: Okay. Thanks.

Then I clutched the phone to my chest and closed my eyes, taking a soothing breath. My inner wolf, which had awoken to the surge of fear pumping through my veins, settled back down.

I was starting to think there was no way around it. Jared was right. I needed to shift again. If I didn’t, I knew my wolf would make that call for me.

The risk of that happening in front of someone normal wasn’t one I was willing to take. And not because I’d be in some sort of trouble, but because I couldn’t stand it if it happened in front of someone like my boss.

Jacqueline would probably have a goddamned heart attack. It would be even worse if it were Layla and Viv. I could picture their horror-stricken faces so vividly it made my stomach turn.

And someone seeing me wasn’t even the worst part. No, the worst part was imagining what would be done to them if they saw. There was a reason normal people didn’t know about this stuff.

With only one person browsing the shelves of the small used book section near the back, I stepped outside for a second, wanting a breath of fresh air. The cold breeze helped snap me out of it and I inhaled a lungful, chafing my arms for warmth.

The Monday evening was quiet, like they always were in Forest Grove.

At almost seven o’clock most of the shops had already closed and there were only a few stragglers left on the streets.

Most hurrying home, not stopping to shop.

Sometimes I wondered why Jacqueline bothered staying open past five, but I’d never ask her.

If she decided to take my advice and close earlier, I’d be out of a job. And those were hard to come by in as small a place as this town. My breath clouded in front of my mouth and I peered back over my shoulder to check that the customer was still browsing and not waiting for me by the counter.

As I tilted my head, I caught a scent on the wisp of autumn wind dragging its long fingers through my hair. I knew that scent. What was it?

I sniffed the air in that direction, moving away from the shop to follow its trail. It was a musky smell. Like engine grease with an undercurrent of spice. I didn’t realize I’d moved nearly half a block down the street until the scent began to fade and I came back to myself with a start.

Shit.

I blinked rapidly, wrinkling my nose as I bolted back to the shop and flew through the door. The customer who’d been browsing the stacks at the back was tapping his foot at the front counter.

Double shit.

“Sorry,” I called sheepishly, rushing to get behind the register. “Thought I saw a stray outside.”

I wasn’t nearly as out of breath as I should have been from running almost twenty miles. When Jared and I broke through the last copse of trees before the cabin came into view, I was only just beginning to get winded.

“You’re fast,” Jared mused as we slowed to a walk and started down the gentle slope that led to the cabin’s dirt lawn.

I didn’t really know what to compare it to, so I took the compliment with a nod.

“Feel better?” he asked.

I thought about it, feeling around for the wolf within, and decided I did feel more myself than I had before we’d left the shop together. “Yeah, actually. I feel more myself than I have since last week.”

“Good,” he said with a smile that glinted in the exterior light as we stepped up onto the deck.

That smile…

The screen door banged open ahead of us, slamming against the outside wall of the cabin. I reared back instinctually, my hackles raising.

Clay stood in the doorway, hulking and just as angry looking as ever. The light behind him threw his face into shadow, so I could only make out the shape of him in the dim.

“Clay?” Jared said, surprised.

“I thought you were staying out in the woods tonight?” he added when Clay didn’t respond right away, this time his tone was different, and I sensed something charged in the air between them.

My wolf didn’t like it. I backed away a step, trying to put distance between myself and the guys that made my nerve endings go haywire.

“I need to talk to you,” Clay growled at Jared. “Alone.”

Jared’s shoulders tensed and I got the feeling they were doing that thing again—the thing where they were having a silent conversation I couldn’t understand.

“Does it have anything to do with me?” I asked before I could stop myself.

Neither answered me, and their lack of response was enough to tell me what I wanted to know.

A low growl shook behind my ribcage. “Because if it is then I have a right to hear it,” I snapped at them both, my fists curling.

It was about Devin, wasn’t it? Ryland had finally let him go.

That must be it.

My breaths came harder and my nostrils flared, taking in the scent of stale sweat and something else… engine grease.

And spice.

“You were at the shop earlier,” I said, the accusation in my tone clear.

Jared snapped his gaze to me and back to Clay, his jaw tightening.

Clay didn’t deny it, but he didn’t admit it either. “We need to talk,” he repeated, more slowly this time.

“Spit it out,” I all but shouted, fuming now and completely unable to help it.

“It’s Devin isn’t it?” I asked, storing the fact that Clay was keeping an eye on me while I worked in the back of my mind for future contemplation.

Right now, knowing what the fuck was going to happen with Devin was my priority.

Jared’s spine stiffened. “Ryland was here,” he said, more a statement than a question. I wondered if he’d scented his pack alpha and I sniffed the air to see if I could discern the unique smell like I had with Clay’s back at the book shop.

There was a faint peppery odor with an undercurrent of something smoky that was different from the smell of the fire burning in Clay and Jared’s hearth in the living room.

This was more like an outdoor fire scent.

Like the fires Dad and I used to burn at camp when the wood was a bit damp and there were too many leaves in the pit.

It left a bad taste in my mouth.

Clay turned and stormed back inside, leaving Jared and I to follow. I let Jared go inside first, following in his shadow and pulling the screen door closed behind me.

Clay went to stand in the dim living room, snatching a short glass from the fireplace mantle to swirl the amber liquid within.

He knocked back the drink in one long swallow and set the glass back down with a hard knock against the wood.

He huffed out a breath and moved to stand behind the large armchair where Ryland had sat the last time I’d seen him here.

Instead of sitting in the chair, Clay splayed his fingers over the ridge of its leather back and breathed deeply.

Keeping my distance, I stood by the couch only a few feet away from Jared. I didn’t think I could sit yet, either.

“What did he say?” Jared asked, his voice deeper than I was used to.

Clay looked up at Jared and I, his startling blue eyes flickering with the reflection of the tall flames to his right. “A lot,” he replied. “But I guess it was nothing we shouldn’t have already expected.”

His mammoth hands tightened on the armchair, straining the worn leather.

“He’s letting Devin go,” I breathed. “Isn’t he?”

My heart leaped into my throat and the swell of panic behind my breast made it hard to swallow; difficult to breathe. I needed to move.

Staying still always made it worse. I walked a few steps toward the kitchen and then turned back, my breaths coming faster.

I turned and paced the length of empty floor again.

“Clay!” I shouted, stopping for just a second so I could glare at him.

“Is he letting him go?” My voice broke on the last word and I hated it.

My wolf roiled and snapped within. She was growing, starting to press against the limits of my human flesh. I knew if I looked in the mirror right then my eyes would be glowing bright and angry.

“He is,” Clay said finally, and it was like something inside of me snapped. My blood went cold.

Ice cold.

Sweat broke out over my chest and darkness swept in at the edges of my vision.

Think about the positives. Focus on the things in your control. List them.

My breathing spiked and I fought for control. I couldn’t think of a single thing. All of my thoughts were scrambled and incoherent, fraying at the edges.

“Allie?” I distantly heard Jared call out to me as though we were all underwater.

“Hey,” he said, and his face appeared before my eyes. His hands curled around my arms and for once I didn’t feel anything. I was numb on the outside and brimming with too many feelings on the inside.

“Breathe,” Jared ordered. “Everything is okay. You just have to breathe.”

But I couldn’t. It was a fight for every breath. Ryland let him go…

But what had been the alternative? Kill him?

Did I really want that?

Yes, an animal voice hissed in my ears, making me shiver.

“Ryland banished him like we thought he would,” Clay continued. “He’s been given twenty-four hours to collect his things and leave town…then he’s fair game.”

I craned my neck to look up at him as Jared guided me to sit on the sofa opposite Clay. “What?”

Clay’s face reddened. “He can’t be allowed to live,” he said simply. “Scum like him shouldn’t be free.”

I understood what Clay meant. The implication he didn’t want to say aloud. Just because Devin wasn’t here in Forest Grove, didn’t mean he wouldn’t do the same thing he did to me, to someone else, some place else.

Take a liking to a girl. Stalk her. Accuse her of cheating and hurt her. Take her captive and…

I almost threw up but stopped the train of thought before I started gagging.

“There will be consequences,” Jared muttered, his gaze searching the pattern of the rattan carpet beneath him as though it held the answer to an unasked question.

“So be it,” Clay’s voice was a monotone rumble in the cabin.

My pulse slowed and bit by bit, the darkness at the edges of my eyes cleared. The hollow pit in my stomach filled. The swell of anxiety that almost had me passed out against the sofa cushions was abating. “You can’t,” I whispered.

“Can’t what?” Clay barked.

“You can’t kill him,” I told him, meeting his piercing stare with a hard one of my own, shifting that stare to Jared once I was done with Clay.

“Allie, I think Clay is right, we should—”

“No,” I said with more force than I thought I could muster. “It’s murder. You wouldn’t be any better than he is.”

Clay recoiled, his fingers coming free of the armchair as though I’d struck him. “And letting him live is better?” he demanded. His eyes blazed with the glow of his wolf as he stepped back again, away from Jared and me.

I shook my head, unable to look at him anymore. My canines were pressing painfully against my gums. My wolf wanting to join his. “It’s not just that,” I croaked, “It’s like Jared said, you’ll both be punished if you go against Ryland’s orders.”

I gulped. “I’m not going to pretend I know anything about how any of this works, because I fucking don’t. But I do know that if you guys get banished, then I—”

I couldn’t say it. Didn’t want to admit how terrified I was of all of it.

Of myself.

Then I’ll be all alone… because after everything I’d done, everything I’d sacrificed to stay in Forest Grove, I couldn’t leave.

Clay snorted, making me peek up to see his dark expression.

The glow in his eyes dimmed. I thought he was mocking me.

Poking fun at my weakness. And my wolf snarled, coming alive in a lick of heat up my spine.

“It might not matter,” Clay said, throwing a fist over his skull, through the short dark hair there.

“Ry also gave me a message to pass on to you.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Jared’s hand curl into a fist. “It’s too soon,” he almost shouted. “She isn’t ready.”

Clay sneered at his friend, though I could tell the anger wasn’t wholly directed at Jared. He was furious, but that fury was directed at something, or someone else. And I bet I could guess who.

“This is his territory,” Clay reminded Jared and I got a feeling I knew where this was headed. I didn’t fucking like it. Not one bit.

“Either she submits,” Clay trailed off, and I found his gaze again, this time a real chill creeping over me at his stare. “Or she’ll be forced to leave.”

“Bastard,” Jared breathed, his hands moving up to clasp his head between them as he slumped into the armchair across from me.

What the hell did that mean?

Clay reached for the bottle of amber liquid on the side table, snatching it up on his way out of the cabin. No longer looking at either of us.

“She has until the next moon to decide.”