She smiled. “Yeah, I have.”
He stared at her. “They won’t.”
“Please, stop worrying about it. I’ve been living fine like this for seven years. Trust me, it is all good.” She put her hand on his arm and then immediately pulled away. “Sorry, I er, sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
She had felt that heat from her touch. He wore his leather cut, but it didn’t stop him from aching for more, wanting her touch.
Amelia’s gaze was wide, and she took a step back.
Did she not want to touch him?
“Why do you stay?” Wolfe asked.
She had been looking at the floor, but he didn’t want her staring down. Her gaze should be on him at all times.
Amelia looked up. “What?”
“It doesn’t take a genius to know that your life is fucking hard, but you don’t leave. Why not?”
She laughed. “You’re wondering why I stick around?”
“Why do you?” he asked. “None of it makes any sense.”
Amelia took a sip of her coffee and shrugged. “I’ve thought about it. Quite a few times, actually. The first time I wanted to, and I even went to the pack line the day after I first turned into a wolf. My parents told me they had done what they could and kicked me out. That was … hard. Probably one of the hardest things I ever went through.”
He saw tears fill her eyes, but she closed her eyes, and when she opened them, they were gone. “I wanted to leave, but, I don’t know, I stared at that line, and I felt like running away, leaving, was the wrong thing to do. I’m not a runner. So, I turned back around, and I decided what the hell.” She had another sip of her coffee.
“Is that what you do? What the hell?”
“Not always. Like the petition for the deer. No one asked me why I was so determined to get it signed. They didn’t care. I told them clearly and precisely what they were signing. They wanted me to shut up.”
Wolfe thought about it, and he nor the club had asked. “Why did you?”
Amelia looked at him. “What?”
“Why did you want that petition signed?”
“After one of the full-moon runs, I make sure to go through the forest and retrieve all the clothing. I know we’re at risk of hunters, so I don’t want to leave anything too suspicious, and a town full of clothes is pretty suspicious. One of the pack had hunted a deer, but they hadn’t … killed it. They had injured it.” The tears filled her eyes once again, only this time, she didn’t bat them away. “It was crying out in pain, and it was hurting. I … I couldn’t … so I took it to a human vet.”
Wolfe stood. “What?”
“I know. I know leaving the town line is dangerous, but I took the deer to the vet because I couldn’t bring myself to kill it. It was such a beautiful animal. A female. If she hadn’t gone to Doctor Milton, the vet, Wolfe, she’d have died. The vet nursed her back to health, and I paid for the bill. I didn’t ask for the pack to help. I paid myself, and then, I was there with the vet when he released her back into the forest. I knew I had to keep her safe, so I … got the petition signed. I don’t know which one of us attacked her, but what I do know is they did it for fun. They allowed her to suffer. She was dying, and if I didn’t go and get our clothes, she would have died, slowly and painfully.”
He had no idea that Amelia got their clothes.
They all assumed that each of them got their own clothes. Wolfe found his clothes always neatly folded on his bike. In fact, now that he thought about it, all their clothes were neatly folded after being laundered.
“You wash the clothes?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, I do.”
Okay, now he just felt like a fucking prick. A giant fucking prick.
Did Alpha know?
Did the club know?
“But why do you stay?” Wolfe asked.
“This place is my home. It’s my family, and I guess I’m that member that no one particularly likes but they all kind of put up with.”
She finished her coffee, and Wolfe drank his.
No one seemed to realize that Amelia was a freaking gem. The pack didn’t deserve her. None of them did.
****
“With the risk of hunters, I want you to be able to use this,” Val said, holding up a shotgun.
Amelia shook her head.
“Don’t even fucking mess with me on this, Amelia. I’m a damn bar on the outskirts of town. I know you don’t live close to the pack either. You will do something to protect yourself.” Val had pulled her around the back of the bar, in the yard.
He shoved the shotgun into her hands, and Amelia glared at him.
Last night, Wolfe had been at her apartment, asking her all kinds of personal questions. Some had been a little hard to think about, let alone answer. She sounded like a damn doormat. He must think she was a real piece of work. Living in a pack that turned her into an outcast.
She hadn’t meant to bring up the deer petition. It was the final nail in her pack coffin. Some of the pack used to be able to abide her. A couple of pack members would greet her, talk to her, and pretend she wasn’t a social pariah. After the deer thing, no one did. They all openly avoided her.
She could deal with it.
Telling Wolfe she broke pack law was terrifying.
They didn’t have any vets or doctors. They had a Shirley, the healer, but that woman didn’t like her either. Yet again, another skill she learned for herself. How to heal her own body.
Val stepped away from her and moved toward the long table he’d pulled outside, and lined up used beer cans and bottles.
She hated guns.
“Val, you know we have other weapons, right?” she asked.
Big wolves that would come out when truly called to protect.
“We’re dealing with humans, Amelia. Humans that don’t need to know we’re wolves. We can scare them off with our big shiny guns.”
“This seems a little extreme. What if we just let them have a drink and then leave?”
“Then they’ll come back.” Val shook his head. “Not having that. They need to know not to come back.”
“Don’t you think we just need to … I don’t know, wait and see what the trouble is?”
Val shook his head. “I haven’t chased down bunnies, Amelia, or rats. I’ve got a couple of empty beer cans and bottles. If you don’t want to lose your job, you’re going to prove to me that you can do this.”
Amelia gritted her teeth, annoyed. She liked her job. It was the only job she could get. There was not going to be another one for her. Pissing off Val was not an option.
“Now, I’m going to talk you through what you have to do. I know you haven’t shot a weapon before in your life—”
She didn’t let him finish his statement.
The shotgun was already loaded with two shots. She fired both shots, opened it, loaded the case, and took another two shots. She did this until the can and bottles were gone.
All she needed was a single shot on each item. She’d taken them all down. Lowering the shotgun, she stared at Val’s shocked face.
“I don’t believe in violence, Val, but it doesn’t mean I’m not capable of taking care of myself.” She had learned to fire a weapon after her father had taken her out. He’d gotten so angry with her because she refused to follow his methods.