Taken In by the Pack: Second Chances (13 page)

Barefoot, I realized as my feet hit the unpleasantly spiky doormat right outside my door. Rolling my eyes, I caught the door before it closed, darted back to my bedroom, slipped on some sneaker-pump hybrids, and was back outside again in a few seconds.

I nearly ran to my car; the one up side was I didn’t see any sign of the old red truck. I cranked the car up, and headed out of the parking lot, taking the turn fast enough that I think my back tires may have skipped a little.

I took off for the farm like nobody’s business, many times faster than I would have gone under normal circumstances. I wasn’t even sure when I had gone from ‘should I even go?’ to ‘bat out of hell' mode.

Chapter Nine

Despite my rush, it was still full dark before I reached the meadow. I nearly missed the hidden break leading in, except luckily I had seen a few faint glints of firelight through the trees as I drew near, so I knew it must be close. I still had to back up a little once I identified it; I switched to my fog lights as I turned, not wanting to blind everyone in the meadow once I broke through the screening foliage.

Once the meadow opened up, I was mildly surprised to see even
more
people than the night before. Apparently that hadn’t been the whole pack after all? Or, did multiple packs come together to play sometimes?
Play. What a nice way to put it.
I snorted softly to myself as I carefully parked at the edge of the road like the other vehicles. I closed my eyes and took a slow, deep breath, asking myself silently if I was really,
really
sure about this.
Bit late for second thoughts now, isn’t it?

My moment of indecision was interrupted with a thump on my door that set my heart racing; before I could even focus on what had caused the noise, the door opened. I squeaked in surprise as the light came on.

It was Bryson, and he was grinning from ear to ear. I felt like my insides — and my momentary panic — all melted into a hot, liquid pool in my lower belly. It certainly didn’t help that, of course, he was bare-chested again; muscles rippled visibly under his skin when he moved, even in the dim light.
He’s like a statue of some youthful demigod come to life. . .

“Adalyn! I was afraid— I mean, I thought you’d decided not to come! I’m glad you did. Come on. Everyone wants a chance to get to know you better.” He reached down and grabbed my hands, pulling me out of the car and nearly right off my feet, as well. He seemed like he was nearly vibrating with excitement, and it was rather contagious. I laughed lightly — something that felt like it had been too long since I’d done — and let him tug me in the direction of the roaring fire.

Aside from the infectious laughter, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about being here, nor his boisterously welcoming attitude. “Oh, you mean I get to be the entertainment for the night again? Joy.”

He winced and paused his headlong charge towards the group around the fire to face me. “I’m sorry about how I handled things last night, Ada. Gram spent most of the day chewing my ear off about it. I swear, if I weren’t the alpha I don’t think I’d be able to sit for a week.”

He started to say more, but I interrupted with a vehement, “Good!” I liked this lady more and more.

He chuckled a bit at that, before continuing. “Like I said last night; this is not a normal situation. None of us quite knew how to handle it. I figured just spelling it all out, in front of the whole pack, would be the easiest, but— well, easiest for us, not for you. Sorry.” He hung his head a bit, looking at me imploring me through his lashes.

“
Oh em gee
, you bring a whole new definition to the term ‘puppy-dog eyes’,” I drawled. He laughed, and leaned in to kiss my forehead lightly. It felt like fiery little butterflies danced over my skin outward from that spot.
Down girl. You need more answers, first.

“Seriously though, everyone wants to get to know you. Especially Gram. She said any girl who would dare slap an alpha, surrounded by the ring of his pack, is a girl she wants to know.” His face split once more in that ear-to-ear grin, and started tugging me along again.

❖ ❖ ❖

The fire he escorted me to was nearly as large as the one from the party last week, and there was at least half a cord of wood stacked neatly nearby. I got the impression this fire was meant to stay strong all night. That confused me slightly, since he had mentioned changing into wolves, and what did wolves need a nice big fire for?

As we drew close, much of the conversation around the fire quieted, and I felt suddenly very conspicuous. It was not an unfriendly quieting, though; entirely the opposite. There were smiles and grins and waves everywhere I looked. The elderly woman, Bryson’s grandmother, stood with the help of her walking stick, and came over, giving me a one-armed but solid hug, surprising me; and Bryson too, by the looks of his expression.

“Hello Adalyn. Welcome. I’m Magdaline Morneau, but most just call me Miss Madge. Do please forgive my grandson for being an inconsiderate knucklehead last night, won’t you?”

Those unexpected words and the totally impish tone of her voice made a laugh burst from me, to my own surprise. Oh, yes. I liked this woman.

“Grams!” Bryson protested, and he was actually
blushing
. That made me giggle all over again. Miss Madge took my hand, patting it, and led me over to one of the simple log benches set up around the fire, with Bryson trailing behind us helplessly. She sat me down in the middle of the log like I was an oversized doll — though I didn’t really mind that — and took the seat to my left. I was still more than a little nervous, but she had managed to take the edginess off. With a resigned sigh and a shake of his head, Bryson took the seat to my right.

Even though the gathering was roughly circular, somehow this had a feeling of being at the ‘head’ of the group, as though everyone had oriented themselves to face in this direction. Made sense, I supposed, with both the alpha and the oldest member of the pack(and grandmother of said alpha), sitting in one spot.

And there I was, the pitiful little clueless human, sandwiched between them. Well, half-human according to Bryson, but still. I felt like a fish with no water as far as the eye could see.

I tried to settle in and relax; it seemed that I had interrupted a round of storytelling, or maybe just bragging. I was glad, at least, that I neither had to speak, nor have a deluge of information dumped on my head again for the moment. This was clearly a social gathering, not a— well, whatever that had been last night. I had no appropriate words to describe it.

After several minutes of just watching and listening to the various stories, Bryson wrapped an arm lightly around me, tucking me a bit closer into his side. My breath froze in my chest, even as my heart leapt and raced like a horse loosed from the gate. I peeked up at him, and he looked down to meet my gaze with a warm, tender smile. The racing beat became a fluttering prance, and I could feel my breath coming more deeply. I hoped no one else would notice.

I wanted so desperately to push him for information, to ask some of the countless questions on my mental list, but the pressing ones forefront in my mind at the moment didn’t seem appropriate in the midst of a large social gathering. I considered trying to drag him off to drill him for answers, but I wasn’t sure how that would be taken, and I didn’t want to endanger the good will they all seemed to hold for me right then So, I merely smiled at him gently in return, and lay my head lightly on his shoulder. I said a silent little prayer to whatever deities that might be listening, to please, please let me not be making a giant mistake.

I tried to focus more on the tales and anecdotes being shared. Eventually I pieced together that, yes, there was another small pack from somewhere nearby who had come to join them for the night. As I began to pay attention to the world beyond myself, I heard a variety of yips and other soft canine-type noises coming from the woods nearby. I guessed some of the pack must have already taken off, opting to forgo this party-ish scene.

❖ ❖ ❖

I was startled from a sort of half-dozing trance nestled in against his side some time later by the sound of approaching vehicles and the glow of headlights filtering through the trees here and there. I had assumed, late as I had been, that I was by far the last to arrive. Given that no one else seemed surprised or worried, though, apparently this was an expected thing.

Miss Madge leaned over, speaking softly to me. “Jim and Cerise both had to work a little late this evening, so we’ve been waiting for them to get here.”

I beamed at her. “Oh, I see. Thanks.” I elbowed Bryson in the side and shot him a playfully accusatory glare.
Why didn’t
you
think to tell me that, mister?
my expression asked.

“Owwwww,” he complained, just as playfully, rubbing his side where I’d nudged him. Madge snickered and patted my arm, apparently approving of my attitude.

“Don’t be too hard on him, dear,” she stage-whispered to me. “He’s still young and stupid when it comes to the social graces.”

Bryson looked at her with a long-suffering, pleading expression, lips curled down in a near pout and brows drawn together. “You shouldn’t say things like that, Gram, you’ll scare her off.”

She gave that sweet-but-cackly kind of laugh that only elderly ladies can pull off. “If she gets scared off, it’d be from you doing it, not me saying it.”

Bryson rolled his eyes but let it go. Probably wise on his part, for once.

During this little exchange, two cars pulled in at the edge of the meadow, and five people altogether emerged, a couple who looked to be in their fifties or so — he had a distinctly doctor-or-lawyer look, ‘Jim’ I imagined — and a group of two girls and a guy in their early to mid-twenties.

As they came over to the fireside gathering, an anticipatory tension began to crackle in the air. Every eye, it seemed, trained on me; I realized after a heartbeat or two that it wasn’t
me
they were looking at, it was Bryson.
Duh
.

Except, he then turned his attention to me, and the rest followed suit. If I could have crawled underneath the log I was sitting on and hid, I probably would have.

“We don’t have any other non-shifters here tonight; with it being an all-night kind of thing, the kids and teens that haven’t changed yet are all at home, and our pack doesn’t have any other human members.”

I nodded softly; this wasn’t really a surprise, I had assumed as much.

“Will you be okay here by yourself while we’re in the woods?”

I pursed my lips, raising a brow slightly. If I was just going to spend the evening by the fire alone, why had he pressed so hard for me to come tonight?

“I don’t see why not. Presumably the only dangerous critters likely to be around will be you lot.”

He chuckled softly. “Likely, yes. And we’ll swing by and check on you from time to time, too. Don’t worry if you don’t see us, though; we can see a lot better — a lot further — than you can, especially in the dark.”

I nodded again, feeling more than a little uncomfortable but trying not to show it. Something about this felt very odd, but I wasn’t sure what or why.

“If the fire starts to die down, feel free to feed it.” He motioned over at the pile of logs.

Miss Madge spoke up, then, when he didn’t continue. “And if you get tired, dear — I know most folk aren’t used to being up all night — there are some blankets and things in the back seat of my car, it’s the first one there,” she finished, pointing with her walking stick to the far end of the line of cars, at an old but very sturdy looking beige mid-size car.

I smiled my thanks to her and nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind, though I can’t imagine getting tired. I’m way too keyed up.”

She and Bryson both laughed softly, as did several of the others around us. “Somehow, I’m not surprised,” drawled Bryson with an electric sort of grin.

❖ ❖ ❖

Bryson slapped his hands flat on the tops of his thighs, then, and stood. He took a step up and back, up onto the log on which I was sitting. He whistled loudly, and all conversation around us ceased, all attention on him. The intensity of focus was almost a palpable thing.

“Is there anything we need to address before we get going?” he asked loudly. There were a few conferring murmurs in the group, but no one spoke up. He nodded. “Alright then. Let’s get going!”

Fairly rapidly, everyone rose from where they were seated, and I began to follow suit. Madge put a hand on my shoulder, pushing down gently with a smile. “No need for you to get up, dear, you just relax.”