I looked up and smiled at the first of the two men. This one had messy blond hair, light brown eyes, and a mischievous smile on his face. With a nod at him, I turned to what I assumed was his brother. He had a similar hair color, although his was much shorter than the other’s. But it wasn’t until I met his eyes that the whole room ground to a halt.
They were almost the exact same color as the first man’s, but that’s where the similarities stopped. This man’s eyes gripped me like a boa constrictor, cutting off my oxygen and the blood flow to my extremities. It felt like I was suffocating as I fell deeper and deeper into his warm gaze.
I’d never felt that way in my life. Never had that kind of instant connection with another person.
It threw up bright red flags that I couldn’t ignore.
I wrenched my eyes away from his and took my first real breath in what felt like forever. I had no idea what just happened, but I knew I couldn’t let it happen again. Something that powerful and all-encompassing had no place in my life.
With my eyes on the wooden table in front of me, I mumbled, “Nice to meet you both.”
The first man answered, “You too,” and I found myself yearning to hear the second man’s voice instead.
While I was silently chastising myself, the voice I was longing to hear rang out in the space between us. “Right. Nice to meet you too.”
Jeez. Even his voice was captivating.
If these two guys were really about to join our pack, I was in deep trouble.
My brother spoke up next and I silently thanked him. “Now, let’s go take a look at the rest of the pack lands. I can show you where your house is and then let you get back to your mom so you can all prepare to move in tomorrow.”
“Sounds good,” the second man said, and I had to actively hold back a shiver from racing down my spine.
Thankfully, they left moments later, and my heart was able to slowly return to its normal pace. I wasn’t alone long though.
“I changed my mind,” Aubrey said. “I call dibs on that one.”
I whipped my head in her direction to see her pointing at Abey and the men he’d just introduced me to.
“Which one?” I asked cautiously, although I felt like I already had a pretty good idea which one she meant. That’s just the way my luck went.
“The one with the shorter hair. He’s mine, so hands off.”
I scoffed. “You can’t be serious. He’s not a toy, Aubrey. You can’t claim him.”
She narrowed her eyes at me, and I fought to hold still under her critical gaze. “Why do you care? It’s not like you’d do anything with him.”
She kind of had me there.
I was notoriously single and that was the way I preferred it. I was too busy with my work and studies to pay attention to men or entertain ideas of dating them. Besides, I’d never met anyone I cared to set my books down for. No one had ever interested me more than my studies.
It seemed like that might have changed today.
“Whatever, Aubrey. Do what you want,” I said before turning back to my textbook and dismissing her.
Thankfully, she left soon after that, but thoughts of the new guy were apparently here to stay. I could tell this was going to be a problem, which meant I’d be sequestering myself in my room again until further notice.
Chapter 3
Wyatt
The drive back to the motel was silent. I think we were both too wrapped up in our own thoughts to worry about the other. That changed when we finally parked in front of our room.
“I can’t believe it was that easy,” Wes said.
I blew out a deep breath and ran a hand through my short hair. “I know, man. It’s almost too good to be true.”
“Do you believe that?”
I stared out the windshield at the door to our room, imagining our mom sitting inside waiting for us. “For her sake, I hope it’s not.”
Wes was quiet for a few minutes before he spoke up again. “It’s pretty lucky the first pack we get accepted into has a doctor, huh? Maybe Mom can finally start to get better.”
“Yeah, that’s if he’s actually helpful.”
“You think he won’t treat her?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know what to think. I mean, Abraham seemed nice enough, and I know he said his pack would feel the same about her as he does, but does he really know? He can’t guarantee how every wolf is gonna react to Mom.”
“Do you think we shouldn’t join his pack, then?”
I shook my head. “No. We have to join. You know we’re out of options. I’m just not ready to let my guard down yet, you know?”
I saw Wes nod out of the corner of my eye. “Yeah, I hear you.”
“Until we know it’s really safe there, we need to make sure one of us is always with her. I won’t risk something happening to her now that it seems we’ve finally found a safe place. Until we’re sure, we need to be on alert. Got it?”
“Yeah, I got it. We’ll take turns staying with her until we know it’s safe.”
I blew out a deep breath and unbuckled my seatbelt. “Come on. Let’s go tell her the good news.”
We climbed out of the car and I unlocked our motel room door for us. As soon as we stepped inside, Mom’s voice reached us.
“Well? How’d it go?”
As my eyes adjusted to the dim room, I was able to see her better. Her dirty blonde hair hung in lifeless waves past her thin shoulders, but her light brown eyes were bright. I tried to not wince at the sight of the rash that was still spreading across her face, but I didn’t know if I was successful or not.
“We got in!” my brother yelled before I had the chance to answer.
Mom’s eyes filled with tears as she clasped her hands in front of her. “You’re kidding! Really? Oh, that’s such good news!”
I walked over and gave her a kiss on the head before sitting next to her and taking one of her hands in mine. “The alpha’s giving us a house on his land just for us. He took us by it today and it was really nice. There’s even a little fenced in yard out back where you can plant a garden if you’re up for it.”
Her eyes lit up. “A garden? I haven’t had one of those in so long.”
When we were growing up, she’d spent most of her free time out in the garden. She had the greenest thumb of anyone I’d ever known. It seemed like she could make anything grow anywhere.
When she got sick, she had to cut back on her sun exposure and her garden had been left unattended. I always regretted that I hadn’t stepped up to keep it going for her and hoped I could rectify that now.
“Yeah, a garden. Wes and I can help you set everything up. And hopefully, this new doctor can help you with some of your symptoms and you’ll be able to spend time out in the sun again.”
“New doctor?”
I squeezed her hand. “There’s a doctor in this pack and the alpha said he’d be more than happy to treat you.”
A single tear fell from her eye and my chest clenched at the sight. “That sounds wonderful. I’m so proud of you two,” she said before leaning over and kissing my cheek.
I listened to her praise but felt completely unworthy of it. It shouldn’t have taken us this long to find a stable place to live. Truthfully, we never should have stayed in our old pack as long as we had. I think Wes, Dad, and I had all become complacent at some point. We’d allowed them to treat us and our mother like garbage because we were used to it. I could only hope things would be different in this new pack.