“I guess. Do you think Alpha Stone would think I’m pretty in a dress?”
My eyes almost bug out at Winnie wanting my brother to notice her. Maybe because I have the opposite reaction to him. I avoid him like the plague if I can, hence my moving out into my own place. He’s so overbearing and I don’t get it.
He acts like I run around town hooking up with random guys or something. Sure, I like to go out and have a good time and throw back a few drinks, but that’s it. I’m waiting for my mate.
The thought makes my stomach clench, like it does every time I think about my mate. I thought I’d found him once. I sometimes wonder if I dreamed him up and he was never really here. He told me he’d always watch me. That was a lie. I’ve never seen him since that day. I knew then he wasn’t mine. My question must have scared him when I asked about his own mate. He must have found her, because he never returned to watch me again.
“Hmm… maybe? Stone nags me about my clothes so maybe not.”
Her shoulders slump at my words.
Things start to click together then. Winnie always wants to come over to dinner to my brother’s house, and she’s always asking about him. While he doesn’t even seem to notice her, he did help place her in a home when Dominic found her. Stone keeps tabs on her like he does everyone in our makeshift pack.
I wonder what a wolf and bear mating is like.
“You like my brother?”
“No! I just thought…” Her words trail off and she looks away.
“Thought what?” I nudge her shoulder with mine, trying to get her to talk.
“I don’t know.”
“Is he your mate?”
“No!” she squeals, and it’s the loudest she’s ever been.
“Okay, okay,” I say, holding my hands up. “Let get to the fair before all the good food is gone.”
Pulling her by the hand, I head out to the fair before she can change her mind.
Chapter Two
Xavier
I climb down off the roof and put away some of my tools. Most of them are under the porch so the weather doesn’t get to them. I’ve been fixing up the house for the last couple of weeks, and it’s coming along nicely.
Ever since Dominic came into the woods and had a talk with me, I’ve been working on the house. I’ve been so long out in the wild I forgot what living felt like. I’ve just been surviving for the past few years and not taking care of myself since…since the day I lost my mom and my sister.
They were out hunting together on a sunny afternoon and went too far north of the protected property. They went beyond our boundaries and into an area humans were known to sometimes sneak into. They must have gotten lost and weren’t paying attention. Normally, it wouldn’t have been a problem because I was usually with them. I would watch over them and make sure they didn’t go beyond the safety zone. But that day I was distracted. I didn’t make it home in time to go with them, so they left without me. Two hunters saw them and thought they were wild wolves. The hunters were trespassing, and when they came across two wolves hunting a deer, they shot them.
Stone found the bodies and tracked the hunters down, taking care of them. I never got my revenge, and after hearing the news, I went mad. I shifted and fled to the woods, unable to be in my skin for a very long time. I didn’t think I would ever fully shift back, but over time it happened slowly. I was still part-wolf up until a few months ago, and some of my features never really returned to how they were before.
I should have been there that day. I could have protected them.
I stop that train of thought and focus on the task of cleaning up. I can’t let myself go down that road.
The sun is setting, and I’m all finished for the day. Shifters are amazing creatures with lots of strength, but I realize that I had neglected my body for a long time, only eating when I gave in to the hunger pains.
I’d always built houses, so I knew my way up one side and down the other when it came to putting one together. But the first day I tried to do just some basic work, it about broke me physically. After a few good hunts, I was doing better. And about a week later, my body was back. I could feel the strength in my arms and legs grow as my shifter genes helped repair the years of damage I’d done to myself. I am bigger than I have ever been.
I’ve been given free rein of the forest surrounding Gray Ridge, but a few acres are specifically mine. I’d built a home on some land out here before my mom and sister died, but I hadn’t been back since the accident. I built it so that one day, when I took a mate, I would have room for everyone. I couldn’t bring myself to go back after they died, but from what Dominic told me, he and Stone would go over every so often and take care of things for me. I think Stone knew at some point I would want to come back, and he made sure it was kept up.