To which I’d wanted to reply, behind on technology? Cell phones weren’t exactly a new phenomenon. What sort of backwoods, hick pack was I going to? Did they even know what Wi-Fi was?
“Are you mad?” I broke the silence, able to take it no more. If Sarah was mad at me, then…then screw it all. I wouldn’t go.
“No,” Sarah answered quietly.
“Disappointed?”
“No, Addie,” she said, turning to face me with a tiny smile. It was a smile that broke my heart. “I’m fine. I will be fine.” She walked to my side, trying to be all motherly and stuff. She was failing, at least in my eyes. “I’m glad you’re going. It makes me feel less guilty, keeping you from it all these years. It might be good for you, being in a pack. I’m just…I’m a lone wolf, I guess. Never really liked it.” She lifted a hand, tucking some of my pink hair behind my ear. “Don’t make any decisions because of me.”
Like I could promise that. I could hardly handle a sad and depressed mother.
“I know you. I gave birth to you. I know you’ll feel bad while you’re there and think of me, all alone, in this house. But, honey, I will be just fine. I want you to enjoy yourself, to really think about it. Those wolves would be lucky to have you, if that’s what you choose.”
I forced out a smile. “I’m going to miss you.”
It was so stupid, because it was only a week. I was sure I wouldn’t want to stay, and a week wasn’t nearly as long as a semester in college. But, somehow, this seemed more important. This was different. This could, theoretically, if I were to choose the pack—which I wouldn’t—change my entire life. Getting an expensive degree was not the same as finding out you weren’t human and had a family out there, waiting to meet you.
They weren’t comparable.
Sarah went to hug me, wrapping me up tight. “I’m going to miss you too, honey. So much. But I mean it,” she added when the hug was over, “don’t make any decisions based on me. Do what makes you happy. Soon enough I’m not going to be here, and I want you to have a good life. If it’s with the pack, I’m willing to set aside my feelings about them and be happy for you. Do you understand?”
I knew my mom would not let up until I responded, so I said, “Yes.”
“Good.” Sarah took a step back. “Call me as much as you can. I don’t care if I have appointments. I’ll answer when I see it’s you. Text me lots. Keep me updated. And don’t let anyone strongarm you into making a decision you’ll regret. Do what makes you happy, Addie, not what’ll make others happy.”
“I get it, Mom,” I said, stopping myself from rolling my eyes.
I could not believe I was doing this, could not believe I was really going to go. In the span of twelve hours, my entire life had changed. Shifters were a thing—who knew? And they were nothing like the werewolves on TV and in the movies. Double who knew? I had discovered a new world existed, had always existed, and I’d never known.
I supposed I could’ve been angry at Sarah for keeping it from me, but I knew why she’d done it, and I couldn’t blame her. If the roles were switched, I probably would’ve done the same.
After I finished packing, I zipped the suitcase and started to roll it out of my room, Sarah quick on my heels. The moment I stepped onto the first step, Sarah had thought of something else to say, something super mortifying, as mothers often did.
“Oh, remember when I said have fun? Well, promise me you won’t have too much fun,” Sarah said, a knowing tone in her voice.
I wanted to gag, knowing exactly what she was talking about. Mom didn’t have to worry about that. I wouldn’t go throwing caution to the wind just because I happened to be attracted to another wolf.
When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Maze and Henry stood near the door. Henry was busy looking at his watch while Maze was stuck with a stupid smile, probably having heard what Sarah had said.
Great.
“All ready, then? Wonderful. Let’s get moving,” Henry said, going to the door as he reached for the knob. Apparently not one for sentimentalities.
“Hold it,” Sarah said, running into the kitchen. She returned a second later, handing a small piece of paper to Maze. “My phone number, should anything happen. I trust you will call me if something happens while my daughter is there.”
Maze took it and shoved it in his front pocket, giving her a serious nod. No smart-alecky reply, for once.
Sarah grabbed the suitcase from my hand and shoved it toward Maze. “And, for God’s sake, be a gentleman. Hold the doors for her. Keep any stray wolves from sniffing around her. Don’t let anyone force her into any decision, because you have my word—I’ll make you all regret it.”
“Understood, sir,” Maze said. “I mean ma’am. I mean…” The ever-talkative one was suddenly tongue-tied. It was actually kind of funny. “Yes,” he finally finished, shooting me a look that pleaded help me.
All I could do was laugh. Maybe this week wouldn’t be so bad, as long as I stuck by the idiot.
The unbelievably cute idiot.
Near the door, Henry said, “Yes, yes. May we leave now, or do you plan on keeping us here until the moon hangs in its zenith?” For such an old man, he was a snippy guy, one I still didn’t like. “And you are certain you don’t want to come with us? The pack would welcome you back, even after your abandonment—”
“No, I’m fine here, Henry. Go on. I hope it’s a long while until I see you again,” Sarah spoke dryly, turning her gaze upon me. Another hug, and a kiss on the cheek. “Good luck, honey. And remember, call me. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I said, returning the embrace. “And I will. See you in a week.” I was so sure as I said it, but as I moved to the door, following Henry and Maze out, I met my mom’s stare. It was at that moment I knew: Sarah didn’t think I’d come back. She thought I would choose pack life.
I’d prove my mom wrong.
I hoped.
Henry was the first out the door, and Maze gestured for me to go next. Was it his first gentlemanly gesture, letting me go before him? I wasn’t about to argue with the whole suitcase thing, but letting me go first, so close to Henry, who I didn’t particularly like? I could’ve done without it.
“You’ve made the right choice, Adeline,” Henry spoke, sliding in the front passenger’s seat. “After meeting the pack, you will forget all about this ridiculous human life you’ve had.” He sounded so sure, so certain. I wanted to sock it to him just to be an a-hole.
Maze hurried around me, beating me to the car’s back door, opening it with a bow and a silly, “My lady.”
“Keep it up,” I muttered, “and I will punch you. Hard.”
He grinned and went to put my luggage in the trunk.
I turned my gaze to the front door, meeting my mom’s stare as I got into the car.
Sarah stood with her arms crossed, watching with a stern expression. She was not happy about letting me go, but what she’d said before was true; I had to make my own decision.
I might’ve already been leaning a certain way, because my mom’s prejudices couldn’t have been apparent pointlessly. Sarah felt the way she did about the pack for a reason. Hopefully I would see it for myself, and whatever weird curiosity I had about my not-so-human half would be quenched.
Once Maze was in the driver’s seat, they got going. I waved to my mom as we backed out of the long driveway, and then we were off.
It was a mostly boring drive through the neighboring states, across state lines. For all the running my mom supposedly did, we didn’t go too far away. A little over a day’s drive, nothing more. And since Maze was wide awake, completely chatty, much to the chagrin of Henry, they drove through the night, only stopping for gas and bathroom breaks.
It was a road trip with strangers, two people I hadn’t met but twenty-four hours earlier. It still blew my mind to think how quickly everything had changed. I was so against the possibility magic was real, that I’d hallucinated the darned floating book, and suddenly I found out I wasn�
�t even human.
Half human, really. I swore to myself I wasn’t going to debate or think on anything Henry said, and yet here I was, riding in the backseat, hours from meeting the pack Sarah had run away from.
When night fell, I knew I should try to sleep in the backseat, try to get my mind to shut off and relax, but I couldn’t, no matter how hard I tried. My mind would not stop racing. Like a marathon runner, my thoughts were fast and steady.
What if I ended up liking the pack? What if I wanted to stay? I would not give up my mom for the pack, no matter how much like family they made me feel. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what it would be like, and that thought scared me the most. Having grown up with only Sarah around, I didn’t know what it was like to have an extended family.
And Maze…I didn’t want to think about him, about what it could possibly mean for me. The more I looked at him, even from the angle I was at in the backseat, the more I found myself liking him.
It had to be the fact we were both wolf shifters. He was too handsome, too muscular. In high school, he definitely would’ve been a football player or something. Not my type, so it had to be the wolf. I would not let myself think otherwise, because if it was something else, I’d be royally screwed.
Oh, God. Wait. If it was because of the wolf, what if I felt the same toward other wolves in the pack? What if I made up for my quiet high school years now by throwing myself at any cute shifter I met? The thought was mostly mortifying.
A wee bit enticing, but mostly mortifying. My embarrassment would win out.
I really should learn how to shut my mind off. Overthinking this was not going to help me; it would only make things worse. As it was, I kind of already regretted agreeing to go, because of all the sheer possibilities that could happen.
The darkness of the night sky slowly morphed into the pinks and oranges of sunrise. Dawn took the land; a not so gentle reminder I had stayed up all night. My first interaction with the pack would be one of pure exhaustion. Which was great. When I was tired, I was either noncoherent or just plain clumsy. Neither of which would make a good first impression.
Hold on. I didn’t want to make a good first impression, did I?
Ugh. This was too complicated. I felt too many different emotions inside; it was hard to figure out what was what.
Maze took an exit off the highway. The scenery was much the same as I was used to, though the trees were less pine and more evergreen. We took a two-lane road, seemingly going nowhere, down a long, straight stretch where we saw not another car.
“Dead-ends into Crystal Lake, which is now a privately-owned area, so we don’t get much traffic,” Maze said, his dark eyes flicking to the rearview mirror to meet mine. “Mostly just pack business, with the occasional family trying to get a peek at the lake.” He shook his head. “You humans.”
I smiled to myself, but I did not respond.
“When we arrive, Maze will show you where you’ll be staying,” Henry spoke, his old gaze watching the road ahead. He radiated none of the warmth I had imagined a grandparent would. “I’ll find Forest and let him know to arrange a pack meeting. You should spend the day resting, Adeline.”
As if the old man had any right to tell me what to do. I’d rest if I felt like it, and I’d rather fall over from exhaustion than do as he suggested.
So I said nothing, preferring my silence.
Turned out, the Crystal Lake pack had money, because as the forest slowly broke apart, nice houses came into view. Actual houses, not cabins. Not shacks. Not tents. I wasn’t sure what to expect, since apparently they were so behind when it came to technology. The houses were at least two stories, sometimes three, all with pristine outsides, trimmed bushes, even white picket fences.
A gas station, a grocery store, a few restaurants. They pretty much had anything they could want with as little outside involvement as possible, save for when the trucks came in to refuel the gas or restock the stores, and snail mail.
What the pack was named after, Crystal Lake, I didn’t see. Maybe after I unpacked, I’d beg Maze to take me to the lake. The wolf would probably like that, me begging him. He was…an odd one for sure. An odd one I kind of liked, but oh well.
As Maze parked in front of a two-story house, its siding a light grey with bright white trim and a yellow front door, I muttered, “Do you guys just have empty houses lying around?”
Would they put me in a house with strangers? These people, these shifters, were supposed to be like my family, but I didn’t know them. I was the first one out of the car, turning my gaze away from the house, staring at a woman walking by on the sidewalk.
She was a few years older than me, and judging from her looks—okay, mostly her rounded belly—she was super pregnant. As prego as a lady could be. Wild black hair, but pretty nonetheless. She nearly stumbled to a halt when she spotted me with Maze and Henry, and then she spun on her heel and hurried off the other way, tossing concerned looks over her shoulder as she went.
Hmm. Not the best person for me to have seen first, huh?
Across the car, Henry glared at Maze. “I’m trusting you with her, pup. Don’t disappoint me.”
Maze only nodded, silent for once as he went to get my luggage out of the back. “No, we don’t have empty houses,” he answered my previous question, starting to head to the yellow front door. “For the next week, you’ll be seeing a lot of me. In fact, I just might never let you out of my sight.”
I followed him, stepping inside the house to see new, pristine furniture. Metal wall decor dotted every wall, abstract shapes, contrasting with the tan paint. Maze was right behind me, moving straight to the stairs.
“This is my house, actually,” Maze said, almost hesitant. “Well, my brothers and I share it, so I guess you’ll meet them soon enough.”
I blinked, my heart skipping a beat. “What?”
“Well, Landon’s not really my brother, but we’re our own little mini-pack, so…”
As if that explained anything.
“Why am I going to stay with you and your…brothers?” Talking about people who really weren’t related as if they were related would be something that would take time to get used to. And sharing a house, even if it was only for a week, with multiple strange guys?
Not okay.
Maze was a deer in headlights—er, a wolf in headlights? “I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you.”
“Tell me what?” I demanded, stepping closer to him. His easy smile was long gone, his cheeks flushed. “What aren’t you supposed to tell me, Maze? So help me, if I have to wring it out of you, I will—”
“If you decide to stay, you’re…well, you’re supposed to be ours. That’s what Forest wants, at least.” The more he spoke, the more annoyed I became. “Look, I—”
“Stop,” I said. “I don’t want to hear anything about…that, because I’m not staying. And if you keep this up, I’m going to ask to leave right now.” I stormed up the stairs, aghast and upset. “Now show me where I’m going to sleep, because I could sure use a nap right now.”
Really, I wanted to murder him, kind of like how I felt when I got that stupid C-minus, but a nap would do, since murder was illegal and there were no floating books to save me this time.
So…that’s why Mom ran, then.
Not just to be with her true love, as temporary as it was, but because the pack chose its pairs. And, I put it together, since female shifters were so rare and prized, they had multiple—ew—mates.
Hell to the no. This would not fly.
I’d have a very calm and very adult discussion with Henry, maybe yell at him a little bit, since he’d neglected to tell me during the dinner with Sarah the day before that my future had already been chosen in the pack.
How archaic. How insulting. How…
Screw these wolves.
Not literally.
Chapter Eight – Addie
Maze had wanted to stay with me, but I had gotten him to go find his brothers, or packmates, or whatever the
y technically were, because I needed some alone time. Time to think, time to unpack a bit. Mostly time to fume to myself at how stupid I was for wanting to come here, but he didn’t need to know that part.
“All right,” Maze said, not needing too much encouragement. “I’ll go find them. They have to be around here somewhere. I’ll be right back. Don’t move a muscle—kidding, kidding. You can breathe and unpack, maybe blink a few times, but that’s it.” With a wink, he was gone.
And I was alone.
So the pack chose pairs? Or…quartets? Or whatever a relationship with three guys and one girl was. It shouldn’t have surprised me, considering everything I’d been told of the pack and how it worked, how shifter women were so rare, but it did. For some dumb reason, I thought things would be different, better. I’d thought, hoped, these people would welcome me like a family and not a prized horse they only wanted to breed.
Maybe I was overreacting.
Maybe not.
The more I thought about it, the angrier I became. Was it the only reason Henry and Maze found me? Did they not care about me at all and only want me for my belly?
How rude.
There was no way I was going to choose this pack now, no possible way I’d ever want to stay here instead of returning to my old life with Sarah. College degree or no, anything was better than having my future chosen for me.
And three guys? That was…just…
How would that even work? There were logistical things that couldn’t…well, if a girl got pregnant by one dude, needless to say the other two would just be around for the sex. All of which would not happen where I was concerned.
Were these wolves okay with sharing women like that? Sure, if they were so frigging rare, it was pretty much all they could do, but still. Three? It was…a nightmare, not a dream come true. No girl grew up hoping she’d be destined to have three boyfriends, at the same time. A shifter girl, maybe, but only because she was brought up that way.
It was too weird, too confusing. I could hardly wrap my head around it.
Crystal Lake Pack: The Complete Series: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance Page 6
