Yep. Cracked. The whole bunch of them.
Laughter renewed, she covered her own smile with a hand to try and stifle the chuckles. I’ll fit right in…
“Anyway,” Gillian continued, but Colby stopped listening as her amusement sobered.
I’m planning on staying. I as much agreed when he talked about tomorrow morning. And damn if she didn’t want to stay. The doctor kept talking, but Colby had trouble tracking all the words. Covering her discomfort with another sip of coffee, she tried not to look at Brett or the doctor again. Better to get herself together first and figure out what it all meant.
“Wouldn’t that be grand?” Gillian asked.
“Sure,” Colby said then blinked. “I’m sorry I think my mind wandered. What would be grand?”
“I’ll reach out to my friends at SUNY, see what I can do to help speed your admission process. She can stay with you, right, Brett? Until she has her legs beneath her?”
“Of course she can.”
Um…what? For the first time in her life, Colby had no idea what to say. She needed more coffee. A lot more of it if she planned to keep up with Gillian.
An hour later, Hurricane Gillian swept Colby away with her to go check out the university. The healer found her absolutely fascinating and had asked him a half-dozen questions about her immediately upon her arrival earlier. It was hard to be in a bad mood around Gillian…or Colby for that matter. He’d not meant to wake her when he knocked on the door to the guest room. After pacing the house for hours after waking, he and his wolf had both been impatient for her to rise. Owen accompanied his mate, and Brett trusted him to look after both women.
Still…pressing the contact number for Pierce, he reached out to the Hunter. “Yes, sir?”
“Are you busy?” Asking instead of ordering seemed to throw the other wolf off his game.
“No…I’m actually having coffee while I go over reports from the other Hunters.” The answer made sense, especially as Brett had begun to reach out to Pierce more and more. The Hunter had a solid head on his shoulders.
“Anything interesting in the reports?” Hunters spent their days on rotation, scouting, patrolling and checking the borders as well as the pack members.
The Hudson River pack occupied a great swath of upstate New York, but also had smaller enclaves and groupings in western Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland with a handful of families choosing to live deeper in New England as far east as New Hampshire and Connecticut. Maine remained open territory, more because none from the pack wished to live there than it was unclaimed. Brett wouldn’t let another pack get a foothold that close to his territory.
“Not bad, actually. Things are calming down after the last exodus faster than we’d expected.” The surprise in Pierce’s voice didn’t increase Brett’s confidence in the subject. “Then again, the Roths and the Holts were looking to move west, you know, especially after their kids all mated into other packs.”
Understanding didn’t soften the sense of betrayal. “You make a fair point. Pierce, I want to talk to you about taking lead with the Hunters. It’s more or less what you’ve been doing, but I want to make it official.” Once upon a time, Marco had held the position. No other wolf had been given the spot after Marco’s rebellion and murders. When even the sound of Pierce’s breathing ceased over the line, Brett chuckled. “I should have let you come here for the conversation, but it’s the right move. You are loyal, competent, and the other Hunters trust you.” More importantly…
“You trust me, sir.”
“Enough of the sirs. You lead the Hunters. You have the right to call me by my name.”
“Yes, si—Brett.” His chuckle held a note of disbelief. “I will not fail you.”
“I never thought you had.” No, the failure had been Brett’s. Owen liked Pierce. Respected him. He’d cleared him his first week back in Hudson River. Pierce’s directness was a point in his favor.
“Then, if you don’t mind me saying so, we need to host another gathering. The run the other night was great. It went a long way to reminding the pack why we’re together, but most of the wolves who came were locals. We need to bring in our stragglers.”
“Have a suggestion do you?” Why else bring it up?
“At the risk of losing my promotion before we even finish the call, we need to see more of you, not less. The last year has been hard on everyone, not just you, and they need to see you out there, spending time among them and believing they can come to you…” Hesitation had him trailing off rather than completing the thought.