Page 38 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

“Allie,” A soft voice crooned in my ear.

My eyes flew open and the swell of panic lodged in my throat, blocking off a scream. A large hand covered my mouth before I could draw enough breath to project a shout for help. I twisted in bed, the covers tangling between my legs as I tried to lash out; to defend myself.

My wolf sparked into a hot flame and I thought for a terrifying second that I would shift right there in my bed. Tear my clothes and Jared’s covers and mattress to ribbons…

“Allie,” the voice urged again, and the sharp edge of panic abated as I realized who it was.

“Jared?” I breathed as he pulled his hand away from my mouth. “What the hell are you doing?” My hand pressed into my chest, feeling the quick thumping behind my ribcage. “You scared the fucking shit out of me.”

Now that the fear ebbed away, the sense of his nearness fell over me like a warm shroud.

“I’m sorry,” he rushed to say. “I didn’t think—” he cut himself off. “I was just…”

“Just what?”

“I got something for you,” he said, tugging his lower lip in between his teeth, clearly re-thinking the idea to wake me up in the middle of the goddamned night.

I cocked my head at him, pushing myself up to sitting.

Acutely aware that the thin tank top I was wearing with no bra made it impossible to miss the hardened pebbles of my nipples beneath the sheer fabric.

I kept the blanket raised to cover myself, wishing he would just spit it out so he could leave, and I could go back to sleep.

If he could see me as well as I could see him in the dark, then it wouldn’t matter, though.

There was only a sliver of moonlight illuminating my room through the window, but still I could make out every rise and hollow of his face.

The delicate curl of his tousled dirty blond hair. And even the bobbing of his throat.

“Will you come with me? It’ll be dawn soon and we can—”

“Wait,” I said. “Go with you where?”

Jared lifted something from the floor by his feet and placed it in my lap. It was heavy, and I knew exactly what it was at first glance. A bow.

“How did you—”

“I got it last week,” he said with a little smirk. “I remember you used to use one. When you were younger,” he gulped. “With your dad.”

My heart gave a throb of hurt and I moved my hands over the bow, feeling the solid strength of it beneath my fingers. It was big. Bigger than the one I’d had before my aunt and uncle sold it. Apparently teenage girls shouldn’t have weapons.

“I told the guy at the store how tall you were, and he said this should be good for you. He looked at me like I was crazy when I told him you could handle an eighty- pound-draw but…” Jared shrugged.

My brows furrowed. “I can’t handle an eighty- pound-draw,” I told him, a swift disappointment settling into my bones when I realized I couldn’t use it. At most I could maybe pull a fifty. Definitely not eighty.

“You can,” Jared said with a wicked smirk and his left brow raised. A glimmer in his amber eyes.

A slow smile spread over my lips. He was right. I remembered how I’d notched the wooden door frame with my bare fingers—without even meaning to.

I’m stronger now.

And I have better senses.

“This,” Jared said, brushing my messy hair away from my face, leaving a trail of embers against my cheek where his fingers brushed just above the cheekbone. “What happened to you—becoming a shifter—it isn’t all bad. Let me show you?”

Fifteen minutes later we were outside in the growing light of early dawn. The sun hadn’t risen yet, but the evidence of its approach stained the sky in shades of deep purple and streaks of pink-bellied cloud.

I had the bow Jared gifted to me slung over my right shoulder.

He carried with him a small quiver. The ten arrows inside rattled as we walked.

I had no illusions about how much it must’ve cost him.

A bow of this quality would’ve had to be purchased in the city.

It must have been at least several hundred dollars.

At least the bow had been freshly strung, and the string waxed.

I doubted Jared would have known that he needed to purchase a bow stringer and a good quality bow wax to take proper care of it.

I usually used gloves and an arm guard, too.

They helped keep my fingertips from blistering and my wrists from being turned to mince meat from the snap back of the string.

I wouldn’t mention any of that though. I’d quietly go and purchase the things he didn’t know better to get later…unless I could convince him to return it after I got a few good shots in. The desire to see how my new canine senses would affect my ability to shoot was too great to pass up.

“Do you work?” I asked Jared once we were in the thick of the trees, heading north into denser forest, skirting the slope of the mountain.

I was curious to know how it was that he could just afford to go and get a brand-new bow when he liked.

Or a brand-new pair of converse sneakers.

Or afford to buy rib eye steaks on a daily basis.

I’d offered to buy our steaks over the weekend and balked when he said they cost him about thirty dollars—for only two. And he usually bought three even though the one intended for Clay usually went uneaten and ended up split between us for the following breakfast.

Jared shook his head. “No,” he said, though he didn’t seem sure. “I mean, I guess technically yes, but not really.”

A short laugh broke the silence between us. What did that even mean? “Care to elaborate?”

A twig snap in the distance made my spine stiffen and I tried to nonchalantly move a few inches closer to Jared beneath the shadowed canopy.

Jared assured me that even though Devin had been released to gather his things, Ryland would have at least two pack members with him at all times until he was out of town.

Even when he went to the bathroom—I asked to be sure.

But I still couldn’t help the foreboding feeling the forest at nighttime drew out of me.

It was always my place. The forest was where I found peace. Comfort. It was where I felt at home. Now, even that, it seemed, had been taken from me.

“I help my uncle Ryland sometimes when he needs it. My family owns a quarry. If he needs to go out of town or anything like that, then he’ll sometimes ask me to check up on things there.

That sort of thing. I’m the only one who knows how to run the place.

And the only one he trusts to handle the payments when he isn’t around to do it himself. ”

“So…” I trailed off, unsure how to ask without sounding like I was prying or judgmental. In the end I figured it was better to just come out with it. “Are you rich then?”

He laughed. “My family is, I guess,” he admitted.

“I was left with a small inheritance when my parents died.” Jared shoved his free hand into his pocket and looked on.

I sensed he was remembering something. Maybe something he didn’t want to remember.

“And the quarry. But I was just a kid, so my uncle took over all of that for me.”

“But you’re eighteen now,” I reminded him. “Shouldn’t it be yours?”

Jared shook his head. “I’ve never had an interest in it. I mean it’s mine now if I ever wanted it, but—”

“You don’t want it?” I ventured a guess.

“No. I don’t think so. Uncle Ry uses the money for the pack, and I think that’s how mom and dad would’ve wanted it, anyway.”

“What happened to them? Your mom and dad?” I asked before I could stop myself.

I’d never known Jared’s parents. I’d only seen his uncle once besides that night in the cabin and in his wolf form in the woods last week, and I hadn’t really ever wondered why his uncle had come to collect him at school that day instead of his parents.

Jared visibly paled and I worried I’d overstepped. “You don’t have to tell me,” I assured him. “I just…wondered.”

Jared paused and turned to face me, his eyes looking everywhere but into mine. He swallowed. “I do want to tell you,” he said, his voice a low whisper. He sighed. “It’s just—”

“Hard to talk about?” He smirked. “Yeah.”

“I get that.”

“Tell me when you’re ready, then.”

“I will,” he said and then reached out his hand to me. “Come on, it’s just a little farther.”

I took his hand with a little shiver as that zap of energy fizzled between us and then followed him further into the brush.

The dense trees grew sparser as we walked, and the dawn came swiftly in shades of orange and blush pink. It was only another couple of minutes before we came into a clearing. I grinned as broadly as Jared when I saw the two targets set up at the other end.

I’d been a little afraid he expected me to shoot something with a heartbeat and I’d have to refuse, even though he’d gone to the trouble of getting me the bow.

My smile dimmed when I realized the targets were brand name. The really good ones dad could never afford to get me. I practiced on hay bales and trees on our property when I’d been really into my bow. I’d begged him to buy me one of those targets.

Now Jared had bought me two.

The bow was enough already. This was too much.

“I can’t fire on those,” I said, my voice betraying how upset I was that I wouldn’t get to use them. “You have to return them, Jared.”

His face screwed up into a confused pucker. “I thought you’d be happy.”

I opened my mouth. Closed it. “It’s not that. I just—I can’t accept all this. I don’t have the money to pay you back right now.”

Probably wouldn’t ever.

“You don’t have to pay me back.”

I took the bow from my shoulder and pressed it into his hand. “I don’t need you to take care of me, okay?”

Jared reeled back as though my words had been a physical blow. “Allie, I’m not trying to—”

“Just stop, okay? Stop trying to make everything better. Stop being so…so…”

I couldn’t find the word, but my frustration was mounting and the itch to shout was starting to be too much to ignore.