Page 84 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

How far in is it?” Quinn asked, brushing his dark hair away from his face as he stared dubiously at the tiny deer path snaking out from the inlet where we parked the Jeep on the side of a gravel road. It was as close as you could get to pack camp by car.

It would only take Jared and me about five minutes at a hard sprint in our wolf forms to get there from here, but at a human pace...

“It’s about an hour hike,” Jared said with an apologetic frown. “I’ll carry the tent. Mine and Allie’s things are already there.”

“I call dibs on your bags,” I said, trying to inject some cheer into my voice as I rushed around back to pull both Viv and Layla’s bags out of the back of the Jeep.

“Allie, you don’t have to—” Viv began, but I cut her off with a shake of my head. Quinn was busy adjusting the steps on the tent bag to better suit Jared’s tall, lanky frame, but I kept my voice down anyway.

I pulled on Layla’s messenger bag first, and then shouldered Viv’s backpack on after that. “I know I don’t have to,” I replied. “I want to. And honestly? I could probably carry both of you all the way to camp and barely break a sweat, so don’t worry about it.”

Viv raised a brow. “So, it’s not all bad then, I guess.

Super strength would be kind of cool.”

It felt oddly like Viv was extending the proverbial olive branch, and I wanted to take it.

They’d barely asked me any questions about what would happen if they did shift.

They both seemed to only want to hold on to hope that they wouldn’t.

Now there wasn’t enough time for me to explain all the. ..perks.

Thinking on it now, I realized there were a fair few.

Speed. Agility. Heightened senses. Strength.

Incredible night vision. Fast healing. I could never get sick.

I no longer felt like I had to power walk when I left the bookshop after dark in case there were any early evening drunks hanging around the local pub a few blocks down.

“No,” I told Viv, feeling like my chest was being cleaved open and all the oxygen I’d been dying for, for weeks was rushing in. “It isn’t all bad. Not even close.”

A smile ghosted across Viv’s lips for a second and it was enough to make this all just the tiniest bit less painful.

“What isn’t all that bad?” Quinn asked, coming back over to the Jeep to haul his pack out from the back.

I cleared my throat. “The hike,” I said. “It’ll be over before you know it.”

Quinn sidled up next to Layla, sliding his hand into hers as Jared shut the back of the Jeep and locked it up.

“Okay,” Jared said, stuffing his keys into his pocket. “Allie and I will lead the way. Stay close. It’s easy to get lost out here.”

“Aye, aye,” Quinn said with a little salute and fell into hushed conversation with Layla as they walked several meters behind us.

Viv rushed to catch up with me and Jared and leaned into my side to speak low so Quinn and Layla wouldn’t overhear. “Can you guys tell me a bit more? You know, just in case.”

Jared smirked.

I gave her a nod, peeking back to make sure Quinn and Layla were far enough away, but close enough that they wouldn’t lose us. “I thought you’d never ask.”

“I want it all,” Vivian said, and I saw a flash of her usual fiery, take-no-shit-self coming through the dark shell she’d been keeping herself in for weeks. “The good and the bad.”

I clenched my teeth. “Okay. All of it.”

It took us a little under an hour to get to camp.

We kept up a brisk pace as the sun began its rapid descent down the clear blue canvas of the sky.

Vivian, still chewing on everything I’d told her, hardly noticed when the camp came into view.

It wasn’t until Charity, seeing us coming, shouted a greeting.

Shouted it extra loud so that everyone would know there were mortals entering camp.

“Dude,” Quinn said as he and Layla rushed to catch up, and I handed Layla and Viv back their bags. “This is fucking epic. Is it like a commune or something?”

Jared snorted. “Something like that.”

Unconsciously, I took Jared’s hand after he handed the tent back to Quinn and pointed out a spot at the southern edge of pack camp, away from where the new pack members had their tents.

Closer to where Charity’s cabin was. And the one Seth shared with a few other shifter bachelors.

They more than likely wouldn’t even get the chance to use the tent, but sending them to set it up would give us a few minutes to run and check on things and warn those who weren’t already warned, not to go shifting in front of our mixed company.

“Charity!” Jared called. and she rushed over.

Quinn gave Charity a strange look, and I wondered if she seemed familiar to him. Layla and Viv seemed to recognize her straight away. Layla gave her a grateful, if a little droopy, smile. Viv stared warily.

“Would you mind helping them get set up over there while we go and check on a few things?”

She grinned. “Of course.”

“Thanks,” I said.

She winked.

“We’ll meet you over there in a few and then give you the tour,” I explained before we let Charity walk my best friends to the outer rim of the camp. I watched them go, nervously eyeing the area around the spot where they stopped to make sure no one was lurking.

Jared gave my hand a little tug in the opposite direction. “They’ll be fine,” he said, leaning in to whisper against my cheek. He planted a soft kiss at my temple. “When we find Clay, we’ll send him over there to keep an eye on them, too.”

“Okay.”

I let Jared tow me toward the fire ring and the company gathered there. Ryland was among them for once, lounging on one of the larger Adirondack chairs like a king on his throne. His eyes sparked with interest when he caught sight of us.

“Well,” he said with enough enthusiasm to make my gut twist. What the fuck did he have to be excited about? “Where are they?”

Jared jutted his chin back the way we’d come. “They’re setting up their tent on the Southern edge.”

Ryland’s brows furrowed, the one with the scar through it only lowering halfway. “Bring them over,” he said with a wide grin and I caught the scent of whiskey on his breath. “We should give them a proper welcome.”

I stiffened, my wolf pawing at the confines of my rib cage, eager to add another scar to the fractured mess of my alpha’s face.

“We just wanted to check that everything was ready before we brought them over,” Jared told his uncle, a muscle in his jaw jumping as he clenched it.

Ryland cocked his head at his nephew. “Well, of course it is. Nothing but the finest accommodations for our potential new recruits.”

I followed Ryland’s gaze to the stone structure set next to and behind his house, several meters back, abutting the tree line.

It was an ancient looking thing that blended in with the forest behind it.

The gray stone was covered in moss. Trees and long grasses sprouted around it on all sides.

I made Charity show it to me last night, needing to know what my friends were in for.

Unlike the cave where Devin kept me, or the small cellar moon room in Clay and Jared’s basement, this was built specifically for its purpose.

It housed enough space for up to eight wolves that needed chaining.

A bare space with an icy floor and shackles spaced evenly as they ran along either side of the wall.

With enough slack to be able to move a couple of feet once shifted, but not enough to reach any of the other wolves even if the space was filled.

Gratefully, there weren’t any that needed the use of the room tonight save for us.

The Forest Grove pack hadn’t had a newly shifted wolf in nearly a year, and neither had the newly joined packs.

As far as I knew, it would only be us, Jared and Clay—because they insisted—and Ryland inside the stone building.

When the moon was high enough to trigger a shift, just before midnight in most cases, Ryland would turn a crank on the wall that would open three round holes in the ceiling, letting the moonlight inside to help quicken the transition.

The chains Clay had to clamp around my wrists and ankles at the cabin had been bad enough, pushing memories of Devin and the cave into the forefront of my mind.

I had a feeling these chains would be far worse.

And even more difficult to endure the sight of my best friends being chained along with me.

“Well, bring them over,” Ryland pressed after a moment of tense silence between us. “I’d like to meet them—officially.”

“There’s one thing,” I said, finding my voice. “I’m not sure if you know, but Quinn, the guy with them, he doesn’t remember anything—”

Ryland waved off my concern before I could finish. “I’ve been made aware,” he said with an annoyed roll of his ruddy orange eyes. “Don’t worry. They’re on orders not to shift until you’re all safely tucked away in the moon chamber.”

I nodded, unable to verbally thank him.

Jared tugged us away from Ryland as another shifter came up next to him, whispering something in his ear.

“Come on,” Jared whispered to me. “Let’s get a drink and then we’ll go back and get them, okay?”

“Yeah. Sure,” I replied numbly, letting him pull me over to where Seth was sitting with Trey and Todd next to him on one side and Destiny on the other.

“...what an idiot.” Destiny’s haughty tone reached through my haze of chaotic thoughts and I perked up, curious who she was talking about.

“I can’t believe he just left. Like, did he really think Ryland wasn’t going to go after him after we’ve been searching all this time for his buddies.

Just watch. He’ll probably lead us right to them in the search tonight. ”

Destiny paused as we came up, eyes widening as though she were surprised to see us. “Oh, hey,” she said, the greeting mostly meant for Jared.

“Who are you talking about?” I asked, a sneaking feeling of dread clawing up my back. “Did someone else desert the pack.”

“Tried to,” Seth corrected me. “I’m sure we’ll find him tonight. Too bad you won’t be able to run with us. You probably got a good nose full of the fucker’s scent at the fire the other night.”

“Sully?” I asked, feeling the breath whoosh out of my lungs. “The guy with the red hair that was wasted?”

“Yeah, that one,” Trey said with a pointed look. “The douche that almost fell in the fire. Would have too if you hadn’t caught his ass.”

I shook my head, incredulous. “When did he leave?” Destiny shrugged.

“We don’t know. He was missing from his tent this morning.

We thought maybe he might’ve just gone for a run, you know, blow off all that extra steam he’s carrying around.

But he still hasn’t come back. Either that’s a really long run, or he’s gone. ”

“And no one has gone to look for him yet?” Jared asked, eyeing me curiously. I hadn’t told him about Sully at the bonfire. We actually hadn’t spoken much other than via text since the hot cocoa night at the quarry.

Destiny made a noncommittal sound and flipped her hair out of her face. “Ry’s giving him until dark.”

I couldn’t believe it. Didn’t.

Sully was angry and upset, but he wouldn’t have left, would he? I mean, he did have some interesting theories about where his friends vanished to...maybe he thought it was best to get himself the hell out of Dodge before whatever he thought had happened to them happened to him, too.

For some reason though, I wasn’t buying it.

“Does Ryland think Adam’s pack is behind this one, too?” I asked, trying not to let it show in my tone how unlikely I thought that was.

“Could be,” Todd said. “We won’t know until we head out after him.”

If there’s a trail to find...

“Where are your friends?” Destiny asked, changing the subject. She glanced around Jared and me, as though she expected to see them appear out of thin air. “I haven’t seen them yet.”

“On the south side,” Jared told her. “Pitching a tent.”

“We should actually get back over there. I was going to send Clay over, but I haven’t seen him yet.”

Seth jabbed a thumb over his back. “Went that way a few minutes ago. Probably just taking a piss.”

“Hey, mind if I come with you?” Destiny asked, directing the question at me. There was none of her usual bite to the question. No hot sarcasm or disdain.

“I guess,” I said, studying her suddenly unsure expression. “Just...be nice.”

She scoffed, her light grey eyes glinting with the last dregs of sunset. “I can be nice,” she said as though offended, but we both knew it was a valid request. Destiny was one of those people who knew exactly what sort of person she was and wasn’t afraid to own it.

I admired her that.

She reminded me a lot of Vivian in that way. And just like Vivian, I was sure Destiny would grow on me eventually. Once she got over whatever the hell it was about me she’d decided she didn’t quite like.

“I’ll believe that when I see it,” I joked in return, breaking away from Jared to head back to where my friends were waiting.