Page 40 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

There was a strange scent on the breeze as we neared the cabin.

The temperature had risen with the sun, but the air was still cool and scented with pine and molting leaves…and that shampoo my aunt used that I always thought smelled terrible. Like burned hair and chemicals. For a single heart-stopping second, I thought they were back. That they’d found me.

But then my nose picked up the scent of Axe body spray and just a hint of lavender. My aunt hated the smell of lavender. She wouldn’t be caught dead using that to perfume herself.

“Is someone at the cabin?” I whispered to Jared, trying to peer through the gaps in the trees for a better look.

We were still at least fifty yards away though and because of how the forest floor sloped into the tiny valley where the cabin squatted on a patch of dirt, I could only just make out part of the roof and upper balcony.

Jared lifted his head and blinked. “What?”

I didn’t really know how else to say it, so I just spat it out. “I…smell people. Like, other people. Not Clay.”

Jared’s eyes narrowed on the trail ahead and he breathed deep in through his nose, halting mid breath. “It’s Forrest and Charity,” he said. “And Seth too, I think.”

I regarded him with lifted brows, urging him to tell me who they were.

“Oh, right,” he said. “Sorry. They’re pack. Charity and Forrest were there when you…”

“Oh,” I breathed. “What are they doing—”

“She has until the next moon,” Clay’s distinct voice roared from the cabin, sending birds tripping from branches to take to the sky. “So fuck off.”

Jared and I shared a look.

There was an apology in his stare, his face pinched around the nose and mouth.

Guess now we knew why they were here.

“You can go around if you want,” he tried. “I’ll grab your backpack and meet you at the Jeep after I deal with them. We can grab breakfast and coffee on the way to school.”

It was tempting. Like, really tempting.

But from how the area where the cabin was had grown silent, I thought it might be too late for that. “If we can smell them, then I think they can probably smell us.”

They would likely already know I was here, and if I avoided them—went around the cabin in the woods to go and hide by the Jeep and wait for Jared, then I was a coward.

And if there was one thing on this earth I never wanted to be—it was that. Dad taught me better.

Face your fears, Allie Grace, he used to say. Or they’ll gobble you up and spit out your bones.

“No. I’ll go with you.”

I started walking again before Jared did and he rushed to catch up with me, making no comment. Though from the corner of my eye I saw his jaw twitch with strain and his eyes begin to glow a ruddy orange at the edge of his irises.

That fluttery feeling began in my chest again and it was hard to catch my breath. I forced my shoulders to relax and inhaled deeply through my nose, quelling my wolf and the rise of panic like a cork in my throat.

“You’re freaking me out,” I hissed quietly to Jared as we ambled through the trees. “Calm down.”

For a second when I looked at him it was like I could see the wolf inside. Snarling. Hackles raised. Tail erect and ears flat against his skull. My own wolf was prowling now, too. Shocked awake by the scent of new beasts in her territory.

Jared nodded once to indicate that he'd heard and the glow in his eyes dimmed. He unclenched his fists.

“Word has spread,” I heard a voice say as the trees thinned and the cabin and yard came into full view. “Other packs know about her now.”

The girl who was speaking stood between two males.

She was of average height, with a thick, muscled frame and long blond-tipped, brown dreads that hung to her mid back, pulled back with a leather tie.

She and the others turned as we approached.

Her face was heart shaped and almost painfully pretty—not at all what I would’ve imagined from seeing her back profile.

Her eyes were a shade of green that bordered on turquoise and she watched me with a fixed stare. Her emotions unreadable.

The other two males with her watched our approach with differing expressions. The one on the right with a stoic expression and rigid stance. And the other with a wide smile and bright hazel eyes that brought out the olive tones in his skin and the shine in his jet-black mop of hair.

There was nothing false in his smile. It wasn’t forced or pinched, but genuine. And he wasn’t looking at me, he was looking at Jared.

“Jare,” he said, rushing to greet Jared with a manly embrace.

“Seth,” Jared said, returning the hug with a hard pat on Seth’s back. “It’s been a while.”

Even though they were acting friendly, I could hear the tension in Jared’s words, and when mine and Clay’s eyes locked, a shiver ran down my spine. My massive mate was standing on the front porch just outside the door, his arms crossed, face reddened, and a thick vein jutting out of his neck.

I took two steps before I even realized what I’d done and stopped. My body had wanted to go to him.

When I peered up at him again, I found him looking away, his arms flexing at his sides.

“And this must be Allie,” the one called Seth said as he made his way over to me, flipping his hair away from his brow.

He stuck his hand out, towering a full head over my height. Why were they all so freaking tall? “Seth.”

I lengthened my spine and took his hand, shaking it like Dad taught me. With a firm grip and eye contact even though my first instinct was to look away. “Allie Grace,” I said in reply, dropping his hand.

“Good handshake,” Seth said with an impressed smirk, raising one brow at me as though trying to read what I was thinking. “Strong will, too, I think.”

I cocked my head at him. A strong will? Kind of a weird comment, wasn’t it?

“You’ve spoken your piece,” Clay barked from the porch. “It’s time for you to go.”

The other male stood straighter, rolling his shoulders back like Clay did sometimes. I’d come to recognize the motion as a sort of defensive stance. Like the person doing it expected a fight. “Not so fast,” he said.

“Forrest,” Clay warned.

“What’s going on?” Jared asked, staring pointedly at the one called Forrest. He wasn’t as tall as Seth, but he was stocky. Dad would have said he was built like a brick shit house. Whatever the fuck that meant. He even had the square jaw and boxy calves to go with the description.

“She’s unclaimed,” he said, turning slightly to face Jared while also being able to keep a wary eye on Clay. Probably a smart move.

“Un…what?” I asked, unable to help myself. I didn’t like the sound of that word, or what I thought it implied. A hot swell of anger bubbled in my chest and up my throat, leaving an acrid taste on my tongue.

The girl, Charity, cast a long glance my way. “Unclaimed,” she repeated with none of the ire Forrest had, but with patience instead. “You don’t belong to a pack,” she explained in a level voice. “You have no alpha. We call that being unclaimed.”

“So? Ryland said I had time to decide, right?”

She nodded with a little sigh. “He did, but,” she looked from Jared and back to me again. “That might change.”

“What do you mean?” Jared demanded.

Clay groaned and threw a fist through his hair before turning and vanishing back into the cabin, letting the screen door bang loudly closed behind him, effectively telling us he was done with the conversation.

But I doubted he would go far. In fact, I could see his shadow pacing the length of the cabin by the front window.

“Word is spreading about her,” Forrest explained, his eyes sharp. “About the new wolf in Forest Grove who is unclaimed and who has two tails.”

Jared stiffened.

“They’re curious,” Charity added hesitantly. “Ry’s already had to chase a few off our lands who were trying to sneak a peek.”

I didn’t like the way Charity had said curious. Like it was a bad thing. Like the innocent word could be concealing something more sinister but she didn’t want to come out and say it.

“She’s mated,” Jared growled, and my wolf shifted in response to his use of the word.

“Yeah,” Seth said with a shrug. “They’re curious about that too. But who isn’t?”

My mouth went dry.

Jared brooded in silence. I could tell he was trying to find a solution right there on the spot but coming up blank.

“You’re going to join anyway, right?” Charity asked, moving past Seth to come nearer.

I met her kind stare with defiance. “I don’t know,” I said between clenched teeth, trying hard to keep control even though it felt like I was being backed into a corner.

“But you want to stay here don’t you? This is pack territory. Ryland’s territory. And your mates are pack—”

“I said I don’t know,” I snapped.

“Okay,” Charity said, backing away a step with her hands raised. “I just thought—”

“She needs more time,” Jared growled, breaking free from his stillness to curl a hand around my arm and lead me toward the cabin. “You all need to leave.”

“Awe man, come on,” Seth whined halfheartedly with an overstated pout.

Forrest stepped up to stop Jared and I from passing. Jared’s nostrils flared.

“That’s not the only reason we came,” Forrest almost shouted.

I noticed the fine lines around his eyes and decided he must have been the oldest of them.

Where the other two looked like they could be in their early twenties or even younger, Forrest seemed older. Maybe late twenties or early thirties.

My wolf wanted…I don’t know what she wanted.

But with him so close it was like she wanted to challenge him for dominance.

An urge to see him beneath my paws against the dirt—to see him submit rushed over me.

I wanted to show him who was stronger, and it seemed, my wolf thought that was her. Not him.

I let out a shaky breath and shrugged off Jared’s hand to run up the steps onto the porch past Forrest, needing to put distance between us before my wolf jumped out of my throat and went for his.

The further away I got, the more the feeling subsided. It helped even more when I looked away.

“What then?” Jared sighed. “What do you want, Forrest?”

“Ry needs you.”

“What for?”

“As long as your mate refuses to join the pack, we’re all on damage control. Like Charity said, he’s already had to chase two off our lands. More will come. Some might want to claim her.”

Jared’s eyes ignited in amber and jade light.

I had to look away again, my pulse thumping in my ears.

“Not a fucking chance,” Jared hissed. “No shit,” Seth said from behind him.

Charity stepped into place between and beside both Jared and Forrest, as though making herself a physical buffer between them. “He needs you at the quarry,” she said, and I saw how even though she had a fighter’s stance, her tone was cool, trying to keep the peace.

I liked her.

But I didn’t like how Forrest was looking at Jared like he was a fucking snack. My wolf didn’t like it, either.

“I-I need you to move away from Jared,” I warned Forrest and he turned to glare at me. My voice came out pitifully unsteady, but I did need him to move away. I didn’t want to shift right now.

I wasn’t ready. Not yet.

I needed more time.

And if he didn’t get the fuck away from Jared, then my wolf was going to make him.

Charity held her hand out. “Forrest isn’t going to hurt Jared,” she said soothingly. “It’s okay. We’re just talking, right boys?”

Forrest turned back to Jared. “Yeah,” he spat. “Just talking.”

“Isn’t there someone else?” Jared asked, thought I could see the wind had left his lungs. He looked completely deflated, like he already knew the answer to his question.

“What do you think?”

“Fuck.”

I didn’t want Jared to go, but we’d just talked about this. He said his uncle needed him sometimes to help with his parents’ business. I just didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

“When?” Jared asked. “Tomorrow.”

“Until?”

“As long as it takes,” Forrest replied, cutting a sidelong glance toward me and then back to Jared, illustrating my role in exactly how long that was. I wanted to punch the smug look off his face.

I staggered forward, seeing red, and stopped only when a heavy hand clamped down on my shoulder, sending a bolt of heat and electricity rushing through my blood. I gasped and turned, finding Clay had come back outside.

“Easy tiger,” he warned and then flicked his gaze back to the other pack members.

“It’s time for you all to leave.”

When no one moved, Clay rolled his shoulders back and glared at each one in turn, his sharp blue eyes rimmed in an otherworldly glow. “Now.”

Jared shouldered past Forrest to join Clay and I on the porch.

“What should I tell Ryland?” Forrest demanded. Jared paused and his eyes turned down at the edges.

He bowed his head. “Tell him I’ll be there.”