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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 
     
ROWAN
“My, what big teeth you have.”
I open my eyes and look into Quinn’s grinning face. I’m an absolute sucker for that face, so I lean forward to kiss him and… lick him.
What?
“You know what? I needed a shower anyway,” he says as I realize that at some point in the middle of the night, I’d shifted into my snow leopard form without realizing it. My shifting has been a mess lately, and it’s honestly not the first time it’s happened in the middle of the night… or in the middle of the day.
Quinn wraps his arms around me and squeezes me to him. “It’s like waking up with a teddy bear.”
“I’m not a… a… teddy bear.”
“One that purrs,” he says as he starts scratching under my chin. The purring is instant. I have no control over it, and it hits me like a semitruck. Just one minute, I’m contemplating why I’m like this and the next I’m purring up a storm because Quinn touched me while having that ridiculously sexy grin. “Ooh, listen to that motor.”
“You are evil. You will regret this,” I decide as I lick his face again.
“No! Your tongue is like sandpaper.”
“Maybe you’ll stop harassing me, then,” I say with another lick.
He grabs my tail and stuffs it into my mouth before I can lick him again. “Carry your tail around again like the cute little snow leopards on TV.”
I spit the ridiculously hairy thing out. “Ew. No.”
“Do it! It’s adorable. Do it.”
“No!”
Quinn stares at me like I’ve broken his heart so when he grabs my tail and aims it for my mouth again, I grudgingly open it.
“Oh my god, you’re so cute,” he says as he pulls out his phone and snaps a picture. I spit my tail out and pounce after his phone as he tucks it down and hurriedly does something on it.
“Don’t you dare do anything with that picture!”
He’s grinning manically as he says, “Oh no, you should have said something sooner. I already sent it to Ari… I’m sorry… and Graham… and Kaiya. It was just so cute.”
I stare at him while wondering why I do this. Why I let him torture me like this. But then his smiling face makes me step back into him where he can grab me in a hug. “I also made it my wallpaper.”
I hiss at him and try to get away while wondering how I’d fallen for his lies again. “You are a devil in disguise.”
“Nope, just a wolf,” he says before shifting and pouncing on top of me. Not expecting it, I’m thrown onto my back where he stands on me and looks down at me. His coat is absolutely gorgeous. His is silky and smooth unlike my dense fur. He leans down and grabs my ear before giving it a tug. “Why are your ears so tiny?”
“Why’s your snout so long?” I ask.
He leaps off the bed and I flip back onto my feet before I see him do a play bow. I press my body down low as I watch him like I would prey. Then I spring toward him but he’s gone before I even land. I chase after him as I notice him dart into the living room. I leap up onto the table, knocking some papers down as he goes clambering over the coffee table, wiping out an unlit candle. We chase each other around the house before I realize he has far too much energy and shift back before collapsing on the ground.
He shifts before looking down at me. “What are you doing down there, you sexy man?”
“Wondering how you have so much energy.”
“That’s because you expended all yours with your butt wiggles and jumps.”
How can he make everything I do sound so unsexy? “I didn’t wiggle my butt.”
Quinn grins at me as I stare at him, slightly horrified that he might be right. “There were a lot of butt wiggles.” He looks around the house as his brows knit. “Huh.”
“What?” I ask as I sit up and realize that we have demolished the house. Anything that was once on the counter or really any flat surface has been knocked over, tossed onto the ground, or strewn about. The only thing left standing is what Quinn rushes for.
“Aww, my flowers didn’t get hurt!” he says as he picks up the vase of stems. The only petal that’d still been hanging on for dear life flutters to the ground. “They look as beautiful as when you brought them.”
“I will bring you something next time that I promise I won’t destroy.”
“I don’t need you to get me anything. I just enjoy picking on you about it,” Quinn says before giving my cheek a gentle pat and doing a come-hither motion with his finger. When I step into him, he kisses me. “Want to get breakfast at the diner?”
“Sure. Is your brother going to be there to murder me for touching you?”
Quinn grins at me. “He might. You mean you won’t fight for me?”
“Fight your brother? As a human he’s like a fucking giant and as a wolf he’s like a fucking giant with fangs. He will murder me.”
Quinn seems highly amused by this as he walks back toward the bedroom. “I’ll protect you. I’m a better fighter than him. Now let’s get a shower. Together.”
“I do like the sound of that.”
My eyes fall to his back that’s healing but still red and looks painful. He acts like it doesn’t bother him, but I just want to keep him close and safe to make sure it never happens again.
      
We walk into the diner and slide into a booth across from each other. I made sure to wash myself extra hard so no one can smell Quinn on me, and Graham doesn’t have an excuse to murder me. I’m pretty sure Quinn thought I was insane and just snickered at me the whole time.
Graham might still murder me but at least this way there’s no proof about why.
“Mornin’,” the waitress says as she walks up with a smile. “What can I get you started off with?”
“Just water for me,” Quinn says, so I order a coffee.
After she leaves, I take Quinn’s menu from his hands so I don’t have to reach too far to get one.
“Excuse me,” Quinn says with a raised eyebrow.
“What happened?” I ask nonchalantly as I peruse the menu.
He gives me an amused smile. “That was my menu.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about—” Suddenly, there’s a dark presence looming over me and snapping me away from whatever I’d been saying. A lot of things are forgotten when Graham hovers over you and you’re questioning whether or not death is just around the corner.
“Are these yours?” Graham asks, startling me as he drops underwear on the table.
Quinn lets out a snorting noise that he quickly covers up with his hand.
“Oh my god,” I whisper as I snatch them off the table. “They were clean. I’d just taken a shower before I put them on, but did you have to bring them in here and put them on the table?”
Graham continues to hover, telling me this isn’t quite over with yet. “Then what do you want me to do with this?” he asks as he drops a sock on my head.
Quinn is dying, he’s laughing so hard. I’m horrified and want to just crawl out while no one is looking.
“You didn’t have a bag?” I ask as I try to hide the sock as well.
“Does it look like I brought a bag with me? Does it look like I was planning on picking up your clothes as I walked here?” Graham asks before giving me a shove so he can sit across from Quinn and I’m smashed between his body and the wall.
“Quinn, you need to teach your pet to pick up after himself,” Graham says.
“We were going to fetch his clothes after we ate, but I have to admit, this was much superior,” Quinn says, although I’m not quite sure it was. Humiliating, perhaps. “I think he wanted you to fold them before you handed them over.”
“I thought about ironing them,” Graham says, as if he’s serious.
Kaiya, noticing us as she walks in, gives Quinn a push so now he’s suddenly across from me, and I wonder how our breakfast together turned into a social gathering, but I’ve noticed that happens a lot with the shifter bunch. They’re all extremely familiar with each other and the idea of asking if they can sit down instead of just shoving someone out of the way and sitting seems to be a kind of regular thing. Then again, maybe it’s just normal for Quinn’s crew.
“I’m glad I found you guys. So, Quinn, I have a question… wait… why’d you bring your underwear?” Kaiya asks me.
I try to figure out where to stuff them that won’t leave them noticeable. “I didn’t bring my underwear, Graham brought them for me. He even ironed them for me, which felt a little personal, but it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside,” I say as I gently rub the back of Graham’s neck.
Quinn, more amused than ever, snorts as Graham slowly turns his head so he can glare at me. “Excuse me?”
“Thanks, babe,” I say as I give his earlobe a little tug, honestly feeling like two can play this game unless the game leads to murder. Then I’m pretty sure there’ll only be one person playing.
“But… wait… but Quinn.” She points at Quinn as her head tilts like a dog’s does when they hear a shrill noise. “I thought you were with Quinn, but you’re with Graham?” Kaiya asks. “Man, I had this wrong all along.”
Graham gives her a look, and I don’t blame him. “No, we’re not… sadly, he’s my brother’s pet. Not sad that he’s not my pet but… dammit. You get me.”
She grins. “I know, I know!”
“Who brought their underwear?” Ari asks as he climbs into the booth, slipping past Kaiya and sitting his ass on Quinn’s lap which makes me glare at him before I can stop myself. Of course, Ari immediately notices and does a little ass wiggle on Quinn’s lap. “Ooh. Feisty already this morning, are ya?” Ari grins at me before poking my nose. “It’s okay, little kitty. No one blames you for bringing your underwear here, but it’s a bit gross seeing as it’s a restaurant and everything.”
“I didn’t bring my underwear and get off his lap,” I growl before I can catch myself.
Ari’s grin blooms as he wiggles his ass on Quinn’s lap again. “What’s that?”
I bite back my next words, and instead, aggressively drink the water that came with my coffee.
“Let’s be nice,” Quinn says. “Rowan’s a bit testy when he doesn’t get his way.”
“I’m not calling him Alpha Daddy, like I call you,” Ari says to Quinn.
Quinn gives Ari a gentle squeeze. “You don’t even have to call him alpha. We’re not sure he’s even staying. If he does, we can figure out what to do. Until then, you’re going to call him Floof Daddy.”
I sigh loudly so they can all know how displeased I am. “I’m going to go saddle my horse and ride out of here and never look back.”
“Alpha Daddy, why’s Floof Daddy so dramatic?” Ari asks, like this is of actual concern.
“He loves drama,” Quinn explains.
“I do not,” I say.
Ari dramatically smacks the table. “Ooh, then do I have a story for you, Floof Daddy. So when I met Logan, I thought he was terrifying, but my god did he make my heart pitter-patter,” Ari says as he theatrically grabs his chest.
Kaiya waves Ari off. “We’ve all heard it a million times. I did actually have a reason for sitting down besides just forcing myself into your lives,” she says. “So someone said that Dennis is refusing to even come to work.”
“Probably scared of the spanking Quinn’s going to give him and Ethan,” Ari says while miming some spanks.
“I bet Floof Daddy would like some spanks,” Graham says as he stares at me, as though what he said was actually a threat. “And if he even thinks about it, I’ll murder him.”
“You said it!” I exclaim.
Graham leans into me. “Yes, but I could see that’s what you were thinking in your eyes.”
I’m going to die, and it’s not by some monster in the woods or in some coal mine shaft but in a diner while clutching a pair of underwear.
“When Rowan and I are done enjoying our meal, we’ll stop and talk to them,” Quinn says.
“What about our meals?” Ari asks as he flags down the waitress.
“I don’t… think you were invited,” Quinn says.
“Floof Daddy wants me,” Ari says while giving me the sweetest smile he can. The thing is he does look sweet until the edges of his mouth twist into a conniving look. He knows what he’s doing, but there’s a part of me that likes even his evil side.
When we are all finished eating, Quinn and I head out alone. My pockets are stuffed full of underwear and socks, and I’m holding on to the rest of the clothes Graham acquired on his trek here.
Together, we walk over to a house toward the middle of the village. Quinn eyes the closed-up house before stepping onto the porch and knocking. “I really assumed they were just avoiding me,” Quinn says as he waits.
“Well… I think we all did after what Ethan did,” I admit. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to watching you whoop some ass.”
Quinn snorts. “Don’t let Ari and them be right.”
“They’re not!”
He laughs before knocking again. “I don’t think they’re home, but I hear a cat. Do you think they left their cat?” Quinn asks in concern. “Like if they just ran off to avoid me… would they leave their cat?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I don’t… really know them.”
“I’m going to call Addie.” Quinn calls Addie and puts her on speaker, presumably so I can hear.
“Hello?”
“Addie, it’s Quinn. We’re trying to find Ethan and his father Dennis. Have you heard from Ethan since you returned?”
“No… he hasn’t answered any of my calls, and then today when I tried calling, it went straight to voicemail. Is… something wrong?” she asks in concern.
Quinn cups his hand around his eyes, blocking out the sun as he tries to see into the house through a window. “He has a cat?”
“Yes, he loves the hell out of that cat.”
“If they left the pack, would they have come back for the cat?” he asks.
“Yeah, of course. Even Dennis loves her. I don’t think… you think they left the pack? No, Ethan would have told me. I’m sure they’re just… doing something. I’m sure someone’s watching the cat.”
“Okay,” Quinn says, sounding uncertain. “If you hear from him, no matter what, you need to tell me.”
“Of course,” she says. “I’ll try to call them again.”
“Do you know how to get into the house?”
She hesitates before saying, “Y-Yeah… he always left his… bedroom window unlocked. We didn’t do anything! We just talked, but… please don’t tell Trenton. He’ll be pissed. He’s already pissed but he’ll be more pissed.”
“Okay,” Quinn says before he tells her bye and looks up. “Which window looks like his?”
“I suppose we should have asked,” I say.
“You seem to have a knack for climbing,” Quinn says with a grin.
“Want me to climb it?”
He laughs. “No, it’s fine. Can you boost me up onto the porch roof, though?”
“Sure, please be careful.”
“I will be, I can tell they’re not inside,” he says as I lock my hands together so he can step into them. He does while holding on to me to steady himself and I hoist him up. He catches the porch roof and pulls himself onto it. I step back to see what he’s doing, but he must find the window because he disappears into the house. After a few minutes, he unlocks the front door.
I follow him inside to where a long-haired orange cat comes trotting up and instantly rears up to paw at Quinn’s pants.
Quinn freezes, and for a moment, I’m confused before I remember him saying that cats hated him. “She… she likes me,” he breathes before slowly kneeling down. “She’s probably starving to death and just wants anyone who will look her way, but I’m going to pretend she likes me.”
“I think she does,” I say as I watch him delicately scoop her up and carry her over to an empty food bowl. She meows before jumping out of his arms and staring expectantly at the bowl.
“If they never came back, she’s been here without food for around six days. I just… I just assumed they were avoiding me, you know? It’s not like I’m used to bumping into them every day or anything. So I thought nothing of it. Fuck… some alpha I am,” he says, sounding upset.
I set my hand on his head and pull him close to me. “Hey, you can’t control what they do. If they want to leave the pack, maybe the pack is better off without them.”
Quinn nods as he pours some food for the cat. “Maybe… I just…” He’s quiet for a moment, and I realize there’s something more going on that he’s not saying. He runs his fingers over the cat’s back as she purrs.
“Quinn?”
“This is really stupid, but I want to go back to where we lost Ethan…” he says as he looks up at me.
I personally don’t want to go anywhere within miles of the place. “But his dad texted us back and told us he found Ethan,” I say.
The cat greedily eats as Quinn tentatively pets her. “I know… I’m not asking anyone to go with me. I’ll go alone.”
I despise that idea and I’m sure it shows on my face.
“I’ll be quick and careful,” he assures me as he grabs the water bowl and fills it before finding her litter box to clean.
“I’m not letting you go alone. I’m going with you no matter what. Don’t even try to change my mind.”
Quinn hesitates before nodding. I help him finish up in here, and before long, we’re out to the car. He drives to the location and only then does he have me text Graham.
Graham instantly calls but Quinn ignores it as he gets out and strips. We shift and I follow after him as we face the forest we’d fled from just days prior.
Quinn picks up a steady pace as we follow the same path we’d taken out. “I want to find where Ethan broke away from Trenton,” he explains.
“We… could have asked Trenton.”
“No, I’m not including more of my pack in this. This is enough,” he says as he wanders this way and that before he nods. “Here. It was here that he broke off.”
“Quinn,” I say as I notice something far out into the forest.
Quinn quickly looks up and his hackles rise as he stares at the single beast. It looks like the one who’d attacked us the first time I’d gone out into the forest. Unlike the ones we’ve been dealing with recently, its coat is a little different, almost a silvery black compared to the muted brown or dark colors. He’s a little more catlike than the others, with a shorter muzzle. It’s the first time he’s stood still long enough for me to get a good look at him and notice the differences. The others look similar to each other. More bulky muscle and pure power. He’s still tall, but sleek in some sense with long, slim legs and a body that looks like a cross between a wolf and a bear. It’s a jumble, yet uniform enough that it tricks the mind into believing that maybe he really is just an unusual type of animal.
Quinn stands his ground, sidestepping in front of me just a little, and while I really want to do what I can to protect him, I know he’s got this whole body language thing down while I just pretend to know what I’m doing.
The shifter doesn’t lower his head or move toward us; instead, he turns and slowly starts walking away.
Quinn instantly trots after him, startling me.
“What are you doing?” I ask in horror.
“His body language isn’t like before. He’s not preparing to attack us.”
“Right now. What about in five minutes when he decides to tear us limb from limb?” I ask.
“Stay here,” he says before trotting off. Does he actually think that’ll work and I’ll just let him wander off alone with a man who’s already tried killing us twice? When I’m in my leopard form, I have this odd sense that I’m a badass and can protect him when I literally know nothing about fighting as a leopard. I assume it involves a lot of bitch slaps with claws and hissing, but who knows!
So I rush after him and stay beside him as he follows the shifter.
“You sure he’s not leading us off to a good spot to murder us?” I ask.
“No… I don’t. But I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”
I don’t like the idea of finding out, especially when Quinn is involved, but I also know he probably understands more of this than I do. That’s until a horrible smell begins to invade my nose. I still as I look to Quinn. “What is that smell?”
“Decay. Something’s died,” he says, sounding a bit uncertain.
He hesitates and the shifter looks back at him before continuing on. Quinn rushes after him and I struggle to keep up.
“Fuck,” he says as the shifter leading us stops and sits down. I notice Quinn isn’t heading toward him, but over to a mass lying on the ground. My body is telling me to stay away as my mind tells me the smell is only going to get thicker the closer I get to it.
“Who is it?” I ask.
“Dennis,” Quinn says in disbelief. “Dennis is dead. He… he must have gone out to look for his son after I told him not to and they killed him, but that means…”
The text wasn’t from Dennis. Dennis didn’t find his son on the side of the road as he drove here. So Ethan is probably not somewhere safe either. I can’t imagine he wouldn’t have come back to the pack, even after everything that happened. Facing a moment of Quinn’s wrath would have to be better than wandering around packless.
The other shifter turns around and heads off, but Quinn isn’t prepared to let him go.
“Are you positive he didn’t kill him?” I ask as Quinn darts after the shifter I’m currently questioning the intentions of.
“Yes, I can smell blood here and it’s not from him.” Quinn races after him but the shifter doesn’t seem interested in stopping. “Hey! Please wait.” When the shifter doesn’t react, Quinn shifts to his human form. “Please, talk to me. I need to know what’s going on.”
Not even a twitch of the ear.
“I know what happened to the woman who was traveling with you.”
He stills before looking back at Quinn. I’m concerned he’s going to attack, and Quinn must be too because I can feel the tension in his body. I lean into him, prepared to fight back if the shifter so much as touches Quinn.
But instead, he shifts into his human form and stares at Quinn. He’s an average-sized man, surprising me. For some reason, I’d fallen under the assumption he’d be this big, hulking man like Logan or Graham, but instead, he’s around the same height as Quinn but more muscular. His hair is shaggy and his facial hair is clearly unkempt from his time out here. It’s hard to really get a good look at his face with how out of control everything is. He’s dirty and scarred, especially around his neck and sides, telling me his back is probably worse. His dark eyes watch Quinn closely, paying no mind to me.
“I know what happened to her, but before we talk, I need you to promise you’ll stop attacking my pack,” Quinn says.
He cocks his head slowly, like he’s contemplating this.
“My name is Quinn. What’s your name?”
He’s quiet for a long moment, long enough I assume he’s not going to answer, but Quinn is patient with him.
“Emery,” he finally says.
“Emery, I’m the alpha of the nearby pack and that man was one of my pack members. I received a text from him telling me he’d found his son, and since his son had gone against my orders, I assumed they were avoiding me or they’d left the pack. I’m now realizing he never sent that text at all.”
“No,” the man says. “You’ve fucked up worse than you could ever imagine. You killed the lead female. And now they’re going to kill you.”
I look to Quinn, unsure of what to do, but I decide to stay as a leopard unless otherwise needed, since it takes me longer to shift than Quinn.
“I didn’t… kill her. She fucking attacked us,” Quinn says. “She fell and impaled herself.”
Emery slowly shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter.”
“So you’re part of them?”
He gives us an amused look. “They tried to make us a part of the pack, but I refused to listen so they kept me locked up in a cage. They would use me to teach the new ones how to fight. But I escaped. I got loose and I’m going to kill them all.”
“Why’d you attack us?” Quinn asks. “We weren’t hurting you.”
The man points a finger at me. “That one.”
“Rowan?” Quinn asks in confusion. “Why Rowan? He’s not even a part of this. He was just working to help find what he thought were escaped convicts.”
The man stares at me, the look making me uneasy. “His face is like his.”
“Whose?” Quinn asks.
“The second’s.”
“One of the pack members?” Quinn asks in confusion. “You think he looks like one of them?”
“I thought he was him. But it was dark, and I was irritated and needed to kill. Now, where is she? Where is Kara?”
“The other escaped shifter? She came to our pack wearing the uniform the group of dead people we found in the woods was wearing,” Quinn says. “At that time, we didn’t know who they were and so we thought she was a wounded human that was part of their group. We told her we were getting her help and she went along with it, but when they arrived, she attacked them, so they tranquilized her and took her away.”
The man tsks as he turns his head away. “She always was rather rash. She was more into the idea of killing what she can quickly than biding her time and killing them all.”
“What about the people in the forest? The ones we found dead with the uniforms on. Did you kill them?”
“They cornered me, trying to take me back to that hell, so yes, I attacked a few. That’s when Kara arrived. I told her we’d just flee, but she refused to follow me. Did she kill the rest?”
“She did. What are they doing?” Quinn asks. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know what they’re doing. But I know that they’re creating monsters…” He freezes and looks up. The motion makes Quinn’s body still.
“They’re coming. They probably had a camera on the body, waiting for you to return. I wouldn’t go back to it unless you want to fall into their trap.”
And with that, Emery shifts and darts off, letting the forest swallow him up. “Fuck,” Quinn hisses before shifting and racing back toward the car. I follow close behind him, and by the time we reach the car, I can hear something hot on our trail. Quinn shifts and yanks the door open and I quickly climb in after him as one of the beasts lands on the hood of his car. The metal groans against its weight as Quinn throws the car in reverse just as one crashes against his window, beating and clawing, doing everything in its power to get in.
I reach into the back seat where I’d stored my gun that Quinn was very curious why I’d bothered getting out of my trailer. Quickly, I yank the gun case to my lap as the car slams to a stop as one of the shifters pushes into it to keep it from moving while the one on the hood jumps onto the roof.
“What the fuck. What the fuck,” Quinn hisses. “How the fuck did we get wound up in this?”
It beats against the sunroof, probably the weakest of the glass. Quinn presses down hard on the accelerator as I unlock the case and pull out my gun. That’s the moment the glass of the sunroof breaks, spiderwebbed cracks running through it a second before the shifter punches his arm through it.
“I’ll fight them off—you get in my seat and get the car out,” Quinn says as he eyes the opening the shifter had made, like he’s literally planning on climbing through it to keep me safe.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I growl as the shifter pulls away the broken glass.
Quickly, I lift the gun and fire. The noise in the car is nearly enough to deafen both of us, but it throws the shifter back as it screams out. It slides down the roof, leaving a streak of blood on the windshield as my ears ring. But I can’t hesitate. I steady the gun, preparing for another shot. Quinn throws the car in drive and slams into the one I’d just shot. This seems to anger them more but causes the one behind the car to jump onto the roof to try its hand at beheading us through the new opening. Quinn’s quick to put it in reverse as I aim the gun at the next one and fire. The first shot misses as it sidesteps the attack, but the second bullet finds a home right in its broad chest. Quinn whips the car around and the shifter falls off as the tires squeal and the car shoots out.
“This is a fucking mess,” Quinn says, his voice sounding a bit funny as my ears ring.
I roll the window down just enough to stick the barrel through and Quinn looks over at me.
“What are you doing?” he asks.
“If they’re going to fucking destroy us for killing their lead female, we might as well stop a few more,” I say as I steady my gun toward the shifters racing after the car. I aim and fire off another shot. I miss the first one since the shifters are bouncing around too much, but the second and third shots hit their marks. The issue is that these creatures are relentless; even being shot, they’re up on their feet and rushing after us again, but they can’t catch up with Quinn’s car. I pull the gun in and close the window before looking over at Quinn.
“Are you alright?” I ask.
“No, I’m not fucking alright,” he says, voice rising. “I’ve fucking… I’ve condemned my entire pack, Rowan. If I’d have just kept my nose out of it, none of this would have happened. None of this… fuck.”
But then you’d never have met me. “So you’re just never going to help anyone just in case there’s this weird fucked-up organization from hell behind it?” I ask.
Quinn’s hands are gripping so tightly onto the steering wheel his knuckles are white. “I don’t… I don’t know, Rowan.” He sounds so desperate that my body aches for him.
“Was your pack an already formed pack when you arrived? Did you just waltz in one day and say, ‘Hey, bitches, I’m alpha now’?”
“No. I… I started it from the ground up. It was just me and Graham, and then I acquired them as I went. I made them a home, and I promised them I’d keep them safe, and now—”
“Quinn, listen to me. Hear yourself. If you never took a chance helping anyone, your pack members would have suffered and had to live a life of prejudice and injustice alone. How the hell would you know how any of that would turn out? How would we know this is what would happen when we just thought we were looking for escaped convicts? We never could have guessed any of this.”
I set my hand on Quinn’s leg and he loosens one hand and sets it on mine before squeezing it. “You’re right. I’m sorry for raising my voice. I’m just frustrated, and I don’t know what to do.”
“You’re a really kind person, Quinn. I don’t think you know what it takes for someone to do all you’ve done for your pack. You could have just as easily left them all behind; instead, you drew them in, you gave them a place to belong. If you’d never started helping others, think how many would need help. And you would have never met me.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” he says as he lifts my hand up and kisses it.
Neither do I.
OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 
     
QUINN
When we reach the village, I’m left explaining to the others what happened to Dennis. Graham is about to go out and start maiming things the moment he gets a look at my car, but Rowan tries his best to calm him down. I hated telling them about Dennis and I hated it even more when I told them I wasn’t sure it was safe to retrieve his body so I’m having Scott deal with it, since they most likely won’t attack humans.
“So what are we going to do?” Kaiya asks as the pack stares at me like I have all the answers. The issue is, I’m not sure I know any more than them.
Rowan looks over at me and I remember what he’d told me the other day, about how I needed to stop assuming I have to do everything alone.
“I think… we need to work together to come up with a plan. I know I’m alpha and I know I should have all the answers, and I feel like I’m failing you by being unsure of what to do, but at this point, I’m not sure what’s best.”
“You’re not failing us by listening to our ideas,” Kaiya says.
“It’s just stupid to think that,” Trenton says as he folds his arms over his chest.
“Brother, you’ve gotten this whole pack through so much, there’s nothing you have ever done that would make it seem like you’re not doing the best for us,” Graham says.
“I feel like you’re a bit biased,” I tell him.
“Maybe I am,” he says with a shrug.
“But he’s not,” Ari says as he puts a hand on his hip. “None of us would be here if it weren’t for you. Hell, some of us wouldn’t even be alive if it weren’t for you. We want to help. I know your skull is ridiculously thick and your ears are surprisingly sucky for being a wolf and all, but we’ve been pleading with you to let us help for years. You don’t have to carry this whole pack on your shoulders. You even have weak little shoulders compared to my Logan,” Ari says as he gives Logan’s muscular arm a squeeze.
I can’t help but smile at the crazy man I call my friend. “I feel like this started off really nice and then turned into an opportunity for you to talk about how muscular your man is,” I say.
Ari sends me a toothy grin as he gives Logan’s arm another squeeze. “No idea what you’re talking about.”
I shake my head and turn to the sane members of my pack. “Thank you, guys. I really appreciate that. I’m uncertain of what’s to come, I think we all are, but what I do know is we’ll be best working together. So I’m willing to listen to anyone’s idea.”
“Make me alpha,” Trenton jokes… I think.
“Throw him out!” Sophia says.
“Fight him!” someone in the back says.
“Hold up, I think he’s joking,” I say as I look at Trenton who gives me a wicked grin.
“Guess you don’t know, do you?” he says.
“You like me and you know it,” I say. “Someone who has a brain and an idea?”
Kaiya raises a hand. “What if we sleep in the town hall as a pack tonightand see where we’re at tomorrow?” she suggests.
“Sure, we can do that for tonight. I like keeping my pack close anyway,” I say, hoping I’ll be able to keep them close for the rest of my life.
      
We decide to head for home and have everyone meet at the town hall by seven; that way the children can get to sleep at a decent time. We stop at the cabin first so Rowan can get some stuff before heading over to my place.
“Whether this is right or wrong, I think my shifter side will be happy to have all of my pack together for the night. Wolves are, by nature, animals who like being part of a pack,” I say as I step into my house.
“You don’t like staying here alone?” Rowan asks curiously.
I shrug. “It’d be nicer with someone.”
“So… if I wasn’t here, who would you stay with?” he asks, sounding like he wants to fight this idea.
I look over at him and find even he looks annoyed by his own question.
He shakes his head. “Ignore me. My brain literally doesn’t work when you’re involved. Like it sees you and then there are like doves and songbirds and then it just dies and in response my mouth says extremely stupid shit.”
“It’s kind of sexy,” I admit. “You are extremely claimy.”
He perks up. “Eh? Well then, let me parade around and say some more stupid shit like… like you better not, umm…” He’s quiet as he thinks. “Huh… when I try to do it, it doesn’t work.”
I snicker. “I don’t know. See, I’m just thrilled with anything you do. You open a jar of pickles and I’m like, ‘Mother of god, that man is Fine with a capital F.’”
Rowan starts laughing as I go into the bedroom to get some blankets and pack them into a bag before stepping out of the bedroom only to find out why Rowan had fallen so silent. He’s standing in the middle of the living room with the bag of catnip open. He has his entire face smashed up against the opening, just breathing it in.
“What are you doing there?” I ask.
“Holy fuck!” Rowan yells. He leaps through the air, flinging the bag and sending it somersaulting through the air, catnip doing a neat little arch before it scatters down all over my living room carpet.
Rowan’s completely still, like if he doesn’t move, I might not notice what he’s been up to.
“What are you doing?” I ask while trying my absolute hardest not to grin.
Rowan steps down on the bag of catnip and nonchalantly slides it behind himself with his foot, like I might not notice the sprinkling of catnip being ground into my carpet. Talon seems highly confused by all of this as he sniffs the ground. He must get some in his nose because he sneezes. “Just… you know… looking majestic and normal. I even thought about playing on my phone a bit to kill time while I waited for you.”
“Uh-huh,” I say as I look at the catnip all over my living room. “Did you have fun?”
“Yep.”His voice comes out a little uncertain.
A snort escapes me which makes Rowan start laughing.
“I’m sorry for the mess. I’ll sweep it up.”
“We’ll worry about it later. I want to see if the next time you come over you’ll just be rolling around on my floor. Before we go over to the town hall for the night, I want to check on Ethan’s cat. I’ll try to find her a home until we figure out what happened to Ethan.”
“Why don’t you watch her? You always said you liked cats.”
I can’t deny liking the idea. “They hate me.”
“Well, this one doesn’t seem to.”
I really would enjoy watching her. “It was just because she was starving to death,” I decide.
Rowan gives me a look like he thinks I’m crazy, so I step up into him and grab his hands.
“Don’t give me that look, Catnip Man.”
His eyes narrow. “No.”
I shrug. “I’m sorry… you smell a little bit like catnip. I think you even have a smidge on your lip here. It’s like a catnipstache.”
“Guess I can’t kiss you, then.”
“You’re going to withhold a kiss just because I caught you snorting catnip? Now that’s not very nice,” I say with a grin as I squeeze his hands. He leans into me and presses a kiss to my lips.
“I like the idea of staying here tonight. Alpha gets special privileges, right?”
I shake my head before pulling back. “Nope, now let’s go.”
We head over to Ethan’s house to check on the cat before making our way to the town hall. Most of the pack has already arrived by the time we get there and only a few stragglers follow in. I have Kaiya do a roll call to make sure we’re not missing anyone, and then we set the youth up in a back room farthest from the door before I head to the security room that I wish we didn’t need.
When I see it’s Graham behind the monitors, I grab him in a headlock. “Are you doing a good job?”
“I was until you arrived to harass me.”
“Just seeing if you can handle some distractions. Kaiya is out there and I’m sure she needs help. I’ll take over for a bit so you can help her, if you know what I mean. Maybe make your little nest right next to her and in the middle of the night accidentally cuddle up to her,” I say.
Graham rams his chair back into my foot. “Whoops. Didn’t notice you there.”
“Howl to her. It turns Rowan on when I howl at him,” I say as I wink at Rowan.
Graham’s face scrunches up. “Ew, no. I don’t want to hear about that.”
“He does… have an addiction, though, that I’m a little concerned about,” I say, dropping my voice as Rowan’s eyes get wide.
“Don’t you dare!” Rowan says, horrified at the idea.
Graham, on the other hand, is delighted by the idea of hearing something bad about Rowan. “Is he addicted to drugs? I knew there was something wrong about him. I just knew it.”
“Ooh, Rowan is a druggie?” Ari asks as he pops into the room with Kaiya by his side. How Ari always knows where the action is, I’ll never know. Even having a concussion and being hurt didn’t slow him down. I think Logan was able to keep him restricted to the house for two days before he was up and nosing into everything.
“Oh, dear god,” Rowan whispers.
I grin, feeling kind of bad now that we have an audience. “I didn’t mean for everyone to hear! And he doesn’t have a drug problem.”
That’s when I notice Ari is fixated on Rowan. He sidles up to him and breathes him in as I realize Rowan must still smell like catnip.
“What… what is that… smell?” Ari asks as he grabs Rowan and jerks him toward himself before rubbing his face on Rowan’s chest. “That magical smell…”
“Umm…” Rowan says.
That’s the moment Logan decides to step in. “I’m going to make pop… corn,” he says as he witnesses Ari grab a handful of Rowan’s hair and yank his head down so he can snort him.
Ari dramatically gasps. “I wasn’t cheating on you! He did something to me!”
“I really didn’t assume you were cheating in a room with everyone else,” Logan says with a big smile before patting the top of Ari’s head.
Ari snorts Rowan one more time.
“It’s catnip,” I say as I grab a hold of Ari’s hair and yank him off Rowan. “And what you’re rubbing all over, marking with your stench, is mine.”
Ari wraps his arms around Rowan so when I yank him back, Rowan comes with him. “Logan, can we take him home, please? He’ll be like a little air freshener! We could put him in the corner next to my chair and I could snort him every now and then.”
“Sure. If that’s what you want,” Logan says as he pats Ari’s shoulder.
“Logan, you really need to stop giving him everything he wants,” I warn him as I take Graham’s seat.
“Hold up… so Rowan’s not addicted to drugs? He just has a catnip fetish?” Graham says, apparently disappointed in this fact.
“Sit, sit,” I say as I pat the seat for Rowan as he stares at me. “Rowan really likes me, guys.”
“Not for long,” Kaiya says. “Anyway, everyone’s here and your human is wandering around, so I put him in the corner.”
“My human… Scott?”
“Yes. Quite a few people think he’s watching them and relaying information back to the others,” Kaiya says.
I look over at Ari who is now trying to tear Rowan’s shirt off his body while Rowan tries his best to keep it on. Logan just smiles at Ari before heading out the door, like his partner isn’t in the process of stripping another man.
I sigh as I turn back to Kaiya. “Trust me, he’s not. He wants to find his wife and he knows we’re his only hope at this point, even if he’s not very fond of us and we’re not very fond of him either,” I say. “I’ll take over camera duty for a bit while you guys get your beds set up. Let’s lock down the town hall entrance, no one in or out no matter what, got it?”
Ari tries his hand at dragging Rowan after him, but when Rowan proves stubborn and sits next to me, he gets a whiff of his hair before zooming out.
“I don’t even know why I try to look normal,” Rowan says.
“I didn’t make you snort that catnip and dump it all over your body,” I say as the door opens and Logan returns.
“I can watch the camera if you want to be out with your pack,” he says as he hands us each a bowl of caramel popcorn.
I shake my head but greedily take the popcorn. “You just got done making snacks; I’m not going to have you do security as well.”
Logan looks to Rowan. “Sorry I don’t have any catnip for on top. I’m going to have to get some for Ari,” he says, completely deadpan, and the funny thing is that I know he’s one hundred percent being serious.
Rowan sighs as I start laughing.
After an hour, it’s time to rotate and I head out to where everyone has made makeshift beds. “We got yours made up,” Ari says as he grabs my wrist and pulls me over to where my bed is crammed between two others. “And Rowan’s is over there.” He points to a corner by the trash cans. “Graham specifically made your bed up, Rowan. I thought that was sweet of him.”
“So very sweet,” Rowan says sarcastically as he goes over to snatch up his backpack while I look for where he’d even fit in amongst the bodies. Graham did a very good job of making sure he wouldn’t fit.
“Well, I’m going to get to sleep since I took a three o’clock watch,” Graham says as he lies down right next to me.
Rowan comes back and looks at where I’m sitting on the floor.
“Come, you can fit on my mat and spoon my brother. He’ll enjoy it,” I say as I pull Rowan down next to me. Talon decides that since there’s not a whole lot of room he’ll just lie on top of Rowan and me.
Graham turns to glare at us, but I just smile as I squeeze in Rowan next to me and realize quite quickly that being alpha means everyone wants to be on top of me. Rowan is smooshed on my left, Ari slowly migrating over the top of my body to get to Rowan. Someone’s hair is in my face that I have to try to brush away and I can’t even stretch my legs out because of Talon.
“This is going to be a long night,” I whisper into Rowan’s ear.
“I have a really nice spot reserved next to the trash can that no one’s at,” he teases.
I grin and wonder if that wouldn’t be too shabby.
      
“Alpha!”
I startle awake and look up at Jordon, a shifter around my age who had joined recently.
He nods toward the security room and I get up to follow him. I couldn’t have been asleep long. Instead, I had lain awake for what felt like hours as Rowan tried to calm me by gently rubbing my hand. I have to pull free of the pack members, some furry, as I stand.
I follow after him and find that Rowan silently falls in line right behind me as we walk into the room where Graham sits at the computer.
“There’s been movement toward the south side,” Graham says as he points. “They never leave the cover of the trees, but it’s clearly not a regular animal.”
I lean over the desk and look at the screen as I see someone moving. “Is it just one or multiple?”
“We can’t tell yet,” Jordon says as he rubs at his curly black hair.
“Do you think it’s the one we talked to or someone else?” Rowan asks.
“I can’t see them well enough. Let’s watch them for a moment. Rowan, you take this camera; Jordon, this one; Graham, this one; and I’ll watch this one.”
I can see glimpses of them as they dart around, but it’s hard to tell what they’re doing. Are they just watching? Getting information on what is mine? It makes me bristle, wanting to rush out and protect my territory, but I can’t be stupid. I can’t just run out and hope all will be well.
The door opens behind me, startling me, and Scott walks in. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing to worry about yet,” I say. “Does anyone have a notepad? I want to write down exact times and which camera that we see them on so we can assess the footage later.”
“I do in my bag,” Rowan says before slipping out.
I see the creatures draw still and step forward a little closer as they look up at the camera. There’s definitely more than one by the way the lamppost light reflects in their eyes. And then they dive back into the trees about the time Rowan returns. He opens his bag and grabs his hoodie, pulling it out and causing some stuff to spill out. A pill bottle hits the ground and rolls over toward Scott.
Scott snatches it up and looks down at it a moment before Rowan grabs it and then hands me the notepad as he tucks the bottle away.
“Wait! Let me see that,” Scott says, but Rowan ignores him.
Scott keeps his hand held out. “I recognize the name of that. My wife was trying to keep it from hitting the shelves.”
“What do you mean ‘from hitting the shelves’?” I ask as I look back at him. “Is it not a prescription?”
“I thought it was,” Rowan says as he examines the pill bottle. “We had to go to the doctor and everything about it. They ran a bunch of tests on me and my brother before putting us on it.”
Scott shakes his head. “No. Not if it’s what I think it is. Can I see it?”
Rowan hesitates before looking over at me, like he wants to know what I think, and I shrug.
“I guess,” he says as he holds it out to Scott.
“Yes, this is it. This was a very controversial drug among her company. They were producing trial treatments of it, but it was considered horribly immoral and threatened to destroy all the human-shifter relations. Because they didn’t want to use it to help people; they wanted to make it a requirement for all shifters to use it so they couldn’t shift.”
“What? And they’re trying to push this?” I ask in disbelief. The world is trying to get better with shifter-human relations, so they couldn’t be trying to push this now, right?
Scott shrugs before holding the bottle out. “I… don’t know. But where did you get it from?”
Rowan slowly takes it from him. “My father. But I was on this for years. It’s been over twenty years.”
Scott looks shocked. “Were you involved in a testing program? I mean, I don’t know a ton about it, but my wife was enraged when she found out about it and all the children they tested with it in the nineties.”
Rowan looks confused, but what I notice is he doesn’t seem certain. “Not… that I know of.”
“Were you sick a lot growing up?” he asks.
Rowan nods, his face unreadable. “Yes… my father would tell me it’s my shifter side poisoning my body. That it’s what I deserved for being unnatural.”
“Does your father work for SCI Tech Pharmaceuticals?”
“I… no… he’s a businessman. He’s… fuck… I don’t know. He’s an asshole is what he is.”
“But he might know more than he’s letting on,” Scott says.
“I’ll… call him tomorrow and see. I can guarantee he won’t tell me anything of importance, though.”
My mind races as I turn back to the cameras that Graham had been watching, but everything seems still. “See anything else?” I ask, but I can’t stop thinking about the drug. Are they wanting to control us? Change us? I can’t imagine being forced to live a lie. I can’t imagine having my wolf stomped down.
“No. They’re gone,” Graham says.
I shake my head because I need to focus on the threat in front of us at the moment. “I don’t like this. They’re clearly watching the area, and I don’t like it one bit.”
Once Scott leaves and Jordon heads out to grab his replacement, Graham turns to Rowan.
“Your father really kept you drugged so you wouldn’t shift?” Graham asks, and I can see his face softening a little. Even if my brother likes to take on the role of a stubborn ass at times, he really is a good guy inside.
Rowan shifts uneasily. “My father… isn’t a very nice man. I’m… thankful for the drugs growing up with him because if I shifted by accident… it was never…” Rowan’s face tightens, and I can tell he’s thinking back to it. I want to comfort him and keep him from those memories. “It was never a good time when we didn’t do as my father asked. It’s why my brother ran away when he was sixteen. I only wish he’d have taken me with him.”
“I’m sorry,” I say.
Rowan shrugs. “Yeah, well, maybe my dad has something he can tell us and be useful for once in his sorry life.”
“That’d be nice,” I say.