Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 19932 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 100(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19932 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 100(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
I would never have guessed he’d wanted to talk to me about moving here permanently. “Are you offering me a place in your pack?”
“Yup.” He gestured toward the clawed bark. “And I think you should seriously consider joining us since your wolf already feels as though this is his territory.”
Fur brushed the inside of my skin, but my wolf wasn’t pushing for control. He was just signaling his excitement over the possibility of returning to the wilderness. “I have to admit, I’m surprised by the offer. From what Booker told me, it’s unusual for you to accept new members into your pack.”
“It’s not as though I have a ton of shifters coming up here.” He circled his hand in the air. “Our lifestyle is more primitive than a lot of people can handle, no matter how happy our animals are to have a fuck ton of land to roam.”
“Primitive?” I snorted and shook my head. “I’m not living in a tent up here or anything. My cabin might only be one room plus the bathroom, but it’s damn comfortable. I wouldn’t call what I’ve been doing roughing it.”
“See? You fit in with our little group better than I expected.” He flashed me a rare grin.
I shook my head and chuckled. “I never thought my wolf would get along so well with bears.”
“Maybe he’s comfortable because with you here, the wolves outnumber us bears,” he suggested.
Keane’s group had six members, all of them single males. Two bears, two wolves, a cougar, and a fucking dragon. I’d only met four of them, though. The cougar had been gone the entire time I’d been here, and I’d been told that the dragon hadn’t left the cave he’d been holed up in for the past couple of months. I’d mostly hung out with Booker, but Leyton and Rome had been fairly welcoming to me for guys who preferred to live off the grid. Leyton was Keane’s younger brother and beta to his small pack, and Rome was a wolf who’d spent a decade on his own before joining Keane’s group. I was pretty sure that hanging out with Rome was a big part of what had helped settle my wolf.
Knowing he’d found a home here after roaming as a lone wolf for so long gave me hope for my brother. I’d been struggling with so much anger after Aaron had been rejected by the human female who was his fated mate. It killed something inside me that my brother no longer felt at home in our pack. That being around his family hurt him. But maybe someday the time would come when he no longer wanted to be alone. When he didn’t feel the need to run from the blow that had been dealt to his soul by the woman who should have been the one to protect his heart for the rest of their very long lives together. Even if we were never part of the same pack again, I wanted that so fucking badly for him.
“My wolf knows better.” I chuckled and lifted my hand in the air above my head. “It would take a shit ton more than three wolves to take you and Leyton down when you’re in your bear forms. Your grizzlies are fucking huge.”
Weighing in at about six hundred pounds, Keane’s animal was about three times the size of mine even though our lengths were only off by a few inches. His lips curved up in a smug grin. “It isn’t just my bear that’s huge.”
A startled burst of laughter bubbled up my chest. “A dick joke? You’re just full of surprises today.”
“Hey, I have a sense of humor,” he insisted as he elbowed me in the side.
If I thought that was true, I might have added onto his joke with something about how he must be a show-er because he couldn’t know if he was a grow-er since he’d didn’t have a mate yet and had never had a hard-on before. Instead, I chuckled again, holding my hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Sure you do.”
“Join our pack, and you’ll eventually see how funny I can be.”
I never thought the day would come that I’d want to leave my family behind, but I found myself wondering if I should take Keane up on his offer.
2
Peppa
I trailed my fingers over the stainless steel counter, enjoying the silence of the kitchen before the staff came in to prep for the restaurant opening in a few days. My life had changed so much over the past several months. I’d been right about how crappy things had gotten at Castagna when William came back from vacation. Our little chat with Armand had only made things worse. It had gotten to the point where each day was more rotten than the last. When I started to dread going to work, I finally admitted that I couldn’t stay there any longer. So I had left Chicago—and a career-making position—behind to start fresh in a small town.