Page 66 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

Much as I tried to draw it out, the shift at the shop went by so quickly I swear one minute it was three o’clock and I was fielding texts from Layla and Viv while dealing with an uncharacteristically busy shop, and the next I was packing away the last of the returns in a box behind the counter, glaring at the clock that told me I only have five more minutes before it was time to go.

Three minutes early, Jared’s white jeep pulled up out front. Two shadows crowding the front seats.

It’s going to be a cakewalk, I told myself as I shut off all the lights and triple checked that the safe was properly locked with the cashbox inside. Just agree to submit, accept him as your alpha. Do the whole ceremony thing and be done with it.

I made a mental note to ask what exactly the ancient ritual of being inducted into a pack entailed on the way so I would know what to expect.

I assumed it would just be swearing an oath or something, like in ancient times when men swore fealty to their lords and kings.

Or something equally symbolic and ridiculous. But who knew?

I’d also been wondering about the vampire guy I’d run into at Ry’s cabin.

No one else seemed even mildly curious as to why he was there.

Jared and Clay didn’t even mention him. I assumed that meant it wasn’t a big deal.

Maybe he was even a friend to the pack. But either way, the guy gave me the creeps and I wondered what Clay and Jared might know about him. I’d ask them when this was all over.

If I was going to be running into other paranormal creatures on the daily when I joined the pack then I wanted a bit of heads up on what to expect.

I locked the door behind me and took my time making sure everything was finished, checking off the mental list in my mind to keep from freaking out. I didn’t want to get in that Jeep until I had control of myself.

My inner wolf had been prowling like a caged beast for the whole shift. She knew what was coming as well as I did, and even though I’d accepted my fate, she wasn’t ready to bow so easily.

I remembered what Charity said about me and my wolf being one. That she wasn’t truly a separate entity from me, but then why was I over the whole thing and she was still fighting it? It didn’t make sense.

Once I had my breathing steady and the shaking in my hands down to a barely noticeable tremble, I shook the door handle one last time and then tore myself away from the shop and climbed into the back of the Jeep.

“Hey,” I said, clearing my throat when my voice came out shaky and uneven.

“You ready?” Clay asked. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“It’s going to be fine,” Jared reassured me, but not even he sounded certain. “We’ll be finished and back at the cabin before you know it.”

Back at the cabin before you know it, I repeated to myself in my mind, the reassurance sinking in.

Piece of cake.

We drove in silence out from the main street and to the edge of town, me in the middle of the back seat, rigid with nerves. It didn’t help that the car behind us seemed to have their high beams on, the light bouncing off the rearview straight into my damned retinas.

When it didn’t seem like they were going to get off our tail any time soon, I unbuckled and moved to the seat behind Jared, I’d never fit in the narrow gap behind Clay’s seat. He had to have it pushed the full way back just to fit his bulky frame in the vehicle.

I rubbed my eyes and sighed. “Are we almost there?” My stomach was sour with nerves—leaving a foul taste on my tongue. I needed to get this over with before I went into full blown panic attack mode. I couldn’t exactly swear my allegiance if I was vomiting or couldn’t fucking breathe.

Why was this so stressful? Why did it feel so wrong?

“We’re here,” Clay said a moment later and Jared pulled the Jeep over into a small dirt inlet at the side of the back road.

The car that’d been behind us finally whizzed past, their blinding lights vanishing behind a bend in the road.

It took forever for my eyes to adjust to the dark after they’d practically been seared the whole way here.

“We go on foot from here,” Jared said as we picked our way to the front of the Jeep and onto a tiny footpath no wider than the width of my palm. “It isn’t too far.”

Jared led the way and Clay fell into step behind me, protecting my front and back, I realized as their chaotic energies soaked into me. They were on edge. As much as I was or even more so. I didn’t have the gall to ask why.

Hating how quiet they both were being, I tried to come up with something to say as we walked in a straight line further and further into the cold and the dark.

I brushed my hands over my arms—the sweater I’d worn not enough to keep out the chill.

My breath clouded in front of my face in little wisps of steam.

My teeth chattered. “So,” I said. “Why is it called the four corners?”

“We shouldn’t talk,” Clay said, low and dangerous— his tone making me shiver even more.

I was going to ask why not, but that would require more talking, so I zipped my lips, grinding my teeth together to ward off the foreboding feeling trying to take hold in my bones.

I jumped as something heavy fell onto my shoulders and steadied when I found it was just Clay’s sweater. The smell of engine grease and spice filled my nose, almost immediately putting me at ease. I pulled it closer around me and breathed deeply, turning to give him a tiny nod of thanks.

He nodded back, and I noticed how his eyes were white hot with the glow of his wolf. How the steam didn’t only come from his mouth in the cold but rose from his shoulders as though he were on fire.

The illusion made him look like something you might find hiding in your closet or clawing its way out from beneath your bed. But a break in the trees revealed his face, the moon chasing away the shadows until I could see that it was just Clay.

Ahead of us, I could just make out a clearing.

Much like the one Ryland’s camp was built in.

Except where his was man made, this one was a natural break in the trees.

Packed dirt and brush gave way to tall grasses and ferns brushing against my knees.

The grasses rippled in the light breeze, making the almost perfectly square-shaped meadow look like it was an ocean under moonlight.

The grass moving in perfect sync to look like waves lapping towards a far-off shore.

If we were here for any other reason, I’d have been in awe of its beauty. As it was, the space was filled with an eerie tension. Like the air was charged with static electricity and any second lightning could strike even though the sky was so clear I could see every constellation for miles around.

My heart in my throat, I moved nearer to Jared, gripping his arm to keep myself steady. Needing his strength to hold me up. “Now what?” I whispered.

“We wait,” Jared whispered back. “Ryland will be here any minute.”

We waited.

I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that it was probably only a few minutes, but it felt more like closer to an hour or more.

By the time I sensed Ryland’s presence and caught a whiff of his peppery scent, Clay had positioned himself on my other side, his shoulder pressed against mine.

Making all three of us connected. It was the only thing keeping me sane.

It wasn’t lost on me that only weeks ago I could barely get near them without my nerve endings screaming, and now all I wanted was the solace and warmth they lent me.

Funny how things change.

Ryland came with a group of others. I recognized Charity to his right, and the purple-haired girl from school next to her. Beside them was Forrest and that guy I thought was called Harrison. The one Ryland had called Dylan was there, too, scanning the clearing for threats with backlit green eyes.

“Good,” Ryland said cheerfully as they neared. “You’re here.”

Jared’s hands clenched. “I said I’d bring her,” he retorted, all traces of my gentle Jared gone. “I did what you asked, now let’s get this over with.”

Jared’s hand found mine, and he squeezed it tightly, twining our fingers together.

“Come forward,” Ryland said with a sweep of his arms and a smirk that had my wolf trembling for release.

Hush, I soothed her. We have to do this.

It was almost as though I could hear her whispering back to me. No, we don’t. We won’t bow.

But we had to.

Jared let go of my hand and I shrugged off Clay’s sweater, handing it back to him as the fire of my wolf made it feel almost stifling beneath too many layers of clothing.

Like Clay, I found that my arms almost seemed to steam as my wolf pressed against my bones, trying to force herself from my flesh.

I realized, a little belatedly, that I’d forgotten to ask how this would go and gulped, praying whatever the process was that it would be quick. I wouldn’t be able to hold my wolf for much longer.

The purple-haired girl handed Ryland a flask and he took it, his long fingers curling around the brushed silver. He seemed to be almost moving in slow motion and I wondered why he was drawing this out. I wanted it to be over.

I shook with anticipation.

Just do it. Come on. Faster.

I groaned as my wolf twisted inside me. The pressure of her on my ribcage was going to crack bone. I hunched, pressing my hands into my gut to attempt to hold her inside.

“Thank you, Destiny,” he said to the girl with the purple hair.

Charity stepped forward, her hand outstretched as if she intended to help me remain standing, but she was stopped with a glare from her alpha.

“Not yet,” he barked at her and she backed away again, mouthing sorry to me followed by what I thought was you got this.

I shuddered and pushed myself back to my full height, keeping just one hand to my stomach, fisted into the fabric of my thin gray sweater.