It was too easy to picture the biker bossing his alpha wolf son-in-law around. I huffed out a sigh. “I’m sure he did.”
“He also dropped off a suitcase of clothes, a laptop, and a camera at my house for you. All of which his wife bought, so there’s no way in hell he’s going to take any of it back because that would upset her.” I pointed at the ceiling. “I brought everything with me.”
“If he’d been born a shifter, I have a feeling that he would’ve ended up in charge of the most feared pack in the world,” I muttered.
“Probably.” He chuckled and shook his head. “And I have somewhere you can go, too.”
My eyes widened. “You do?”
“They’re a smaller pack who lives a more primitive lifestyle out in the wilderness.” Kace jerked his chin toward the basement. “From what Cason told me about the time he spent there, the cabins up there won’t offer the same comfort as this house, but it’s quiet and somewhere nobody would ever think to look for you. You’d be safe with them.”
“The alpha knows about my situation?”
Kace nodded. “I called Keane on my way over here. He told me he hoped one of the bastards connected to the asshole who had you comes looking for you because it’s been too long since he’s had the chance to maul someone.”
“Maul?” I echoed softly, my brows arching.
“He’s a grizzly,” Kace replied, as though that explained everything. And it kind of did.
As I went over my options, there really was only one decision to make. “I’ve always liked the wilderness.”
“Good. I’ll let Keane know we’re headed up there.”
I quirked a brow. “We?”
His lips curved into a grin. “Yeah, I promised Link I’d keep you safe. He’d have my head if I sent you with anyone else.”
“Yeah, he probably would.” For the first time since I was rescued, I laughed.
I fell asleep about fifteen minutes into the drive and napped the rest of the way there. When I opened my eyes again, Kace was pulling the SUV in front of a log cabin. A huge guy with brown hair and eyes was standing on the porch waiting for us with his arms crossed over his chest. While Kace rounded the back of the vehicle to pull out all of the stuff packed in there, the man came over and opened the passenger door for me.
I flashed him a quick smile of gratitude. “Thanks.”
“Welcome to the Wilderness Pack. I’m Keane, the alpha.”
“Is that really your pack’s name?” I asked as I scanned the area, taking in the gorgeous pine trees and mountains.
“Nah.” He shook his head and ambled toward Kace to take the large cooler Peppa had insisted on putting together for me before we left. “I never really had a reason to name the pack since we don’t normally interact with other shifters, but that’s how Booker described us to Cason, and it kinda stuck.”
“I can see why.” I walked over to the aspen tree and picked up a leaf that had fallen on the ground. “Since the wilderness comes practically up to the cabin door.”
“Think you can handle being out here in the wild while you’re with us?” Keane asked.
“You betcha. I used to spend more time in the forest than I did in my room before I was taken.” I gulped down the lump in my throat. “And this place will feel like a castle compared to where I spent the past year.”
A deep growl rumbled up both alpha’s chests at the reminder of the small cage I’d been kept in. “My pack is small, but we’ll keep you safe.”
“And if anything goes wrong, I’ll send reinforcements,” Kace offered.
Being taken and held captive for almost a year was the worst thing that had happened to me—my banning even paled in comparison. But it had somehow led me to people who I’d be lucky to count as my friends. Their packs' kindness extended to me was more than I’d experienced in years. More than my own tower had offered me.
5
Ramsey
The first week I spent with the Wilderness Pack, I barely left my cabin. Peppa had packed enough food to last me for a couple of weeks—even though I was eating five meals a day—and I’d barely made a dent in the pile of chopped logs stacked next to the wood-burning stove. My eighth day here, I finally ventured past my front porch, and Keane took it as a sign that I was ready to be introduced to the rest of his pack.
Leyton, his brother and beta, was the most talkative of the bunch. Booker, a wolf shifter who used to belong to Kace’s pack and still had family there, shared a few stories about life in Timber Ridge. Artemis headed back to his cave as soon as the introductions were over, and Keane explained that the dragon shifter mainly kept to himself. Garner was in the cabin next to mine, but the cougar shifter left his place only a little more often than I did. I connected best with Rome, a wolf shifter who’d spent a decade as a loner before he joined Keane’s pack.