"Has anyone?" Grace looked down the counter, making eye contact with each of the wolves, hoping someone would give her a reassuring nod. They all shook their heads.
Heath was the Alpha of the pack, having beaten out Cain for the position. Though they mostly lived like an egalitarian commune, the Alpha was still a vital part of the pack, and she could tell that the men were nervous. Heath may not rule with an iron fist like Malcolm, the Alpha of the pack they split from, but he was still the captain of their ship.
"I'm sure he's fine," she said reassuringly. “Cain and Eileen were with him, and maybe the police business is taking longer than expected."
"Why not just look into your crystal ball and tell us?"
Grace rolled her eyes and looked toward the door. Sure enough, Sampson was leaning against the frame glaring at her.
"Better yet, twitch your nose and bring him here. Then we would know he was safe."
"First, let me snap my fingers and get that stick out of your ass."
Neil slammed his free hand on the table. “Stop, both of you. We don't know how long Grace will be here, but I will not listen to you two fight for the next two minutes, let alone for the next two months."
Grace shot up in her chair and fought to keep the panic out of her voice as her mind raced. "Two months? What do you know, Neil?" She’d planned on staying with the wolves fora few days, definitely not a few months.
"I don't know fucking anything. I have no idea how much danger you’re actually in."
"But, we have one of them. The police will get the rest into custody," Grace said.
"Will they? These people knew they were attacking wolves or witches. They have some serious balls."
"Yeah, but they weren't always hitting their target, so obviously they aren't that smart."
“If they’d hit their target tonight we wouldn’t have any of these fucking problems.” Sampson yelled pointing at Grace before he turned and stormed out of the lodge.
"Ignore him. Heath will deal with him. Listen, they aren't stupid either. They knew your name," Neil said.
Grace looked up from her bowl. They had known her name. How? "It's a small town. Everyone knows everyone else." But she wasn't convinced because she hadn't recognized him at all.
"That could be it." Neil shrugged. “Or they could have done some research."
"Research? Why?"
"I don't know, Grace. If I did, I'd be able to keep you safe." He squeezed her thigh, then pulled his hand away and started clearing all of the dishes from the countertop.
"Don't worry, Gracie. We’ll figure something out. In the meantime, you're completely safe here with us, you know that right?" Ben leaned over the counter; his eyes were darting back and forth, searching her face for the answer.
"Of course, Ben."
"Want a tour? I'll show you all of the sights around Camp Wildwood."
Ben stepped around the counter and spun Grace's chair around to face the table and chairs. “This is the dining room." He turned her chair toward the couches. “And this is the living room." Ben faced her back toward the counter. “And this is the kitchen."
"Fabulous tour, Ben." Grace made a show of applauding, playing along with the wolf's antics.
"There's more! Come with me." He waited for Grace to hop off of her stool and then placed a hand in the small of her back guiding her past the dining room table toward a narrow hallway. "There are a few bedrooms in the lodge. I stay in one, but the other two are empty. There's also an office. Neil mostly uses that for accounting and whatnot for the pack and the company."
"Neil does your accounting?"
"Yeah, he hates working in construction. I think that's the primary reason he joined us and left Malcolm. Malcolm just kept him working on the sites although he's good with numbers and people. Okay, so, shower room is in here." He pointed toward a doorway and flipped a light switch inside.
Grace poked a head in. “Seriously?" The shower room had half a dozen shower stalls lined up along one side separated by chest-high tile walls. "I mean, beggars can't be choosers and all that but, seriously? We all have to shower in here?"
Then again, maybe she wouldn't mind seeing Ben standing in front of her washing off the day. Or Neil, for that matter. Or anyone else from the pack, really. Grace flushed at the thought of seeing six of the wolves lined up in the shower stalls. Fuck that would be a great sight.
"Not ideal, but wait. Walk all the way through."
Ben put his hands on her waist and gently guided her toward the other end of the shower room, to a door she’d been too distracted imagining naked wolves to notice before. The door was made of cedar and had a large wooden handle. She pushed it open and stepped into a glass atrium with a hot tub in the middle. “Oh, yes please!" Grace squeaked. "Why is this even here? The options are boys' high school locker room or luxury spa experience?"
Ben shrugged and grinned. “Beats me. Maybe the builder thought he could attract more than just hunters if he included a top-of-the-line kitchen and a bonus hot tub? I thought you might like it. We really don't come in here, so hopefully you can get some use out of it."
"Fuck yeah, I will. Thanks for showing me, Ben." Grace hugged him, and he pulled her into his chest, softly kissing her hair.
"Do you want to see your cabin?" he asked, his lips still resting against her head.
Grace nodded.
They walked together back through the shower room and lodge. The other men were moving around the kitchen cleaning up after their meal and doing dishes, glancing at the door every few seconds. A few wolves were spread across couches watching TV with vacant stares, jumping at every sound. Heath had still not arrived, and everyone seemed on edge.
CHAPTER TWO
GRACE
Benjamin reached into Neil's beat up red pick-up truck, grabbed Grace's bag from the back seat, and swung the backpack over his shoulder. "We put you in the center cabin." Ben pointed to the cottage directly across from the lodge's door. "We didn't want you on the end, so Sampson moved to number two and you can have six."
"I'm sure Sampson was really eager to do that."
"He's just not okay with outsiders. Sampson's a jackass sometimes, but he'd do anything for the pack. He honestly didn't put up too much of a fight. Even though he seems to blame you for putting Neil and Heath in danger, I think he's also grateful that you saved them."
"I just wish he would understand that I can't just wish things into existence. And even if I could, there would be consequences. You guys have complete control over your shifting, but I have a whole universe ready to balance the scales if I choose to do something too fucked up. The only way I was able to save Neil and Heath's lives was because that's how the goddess chose to let me manifest my protection spell. I cast a spell asking for protection, but she decides how to grant my request."
Ben raised an eyebrow. “You're not the only witch I've met and not everyone practices that way."
"I stick purely to earth magic; I don't fuck with dark shit."
"But there are consequences to practicing your magic?"
"Yeah, Three Fold Law. It brings selfish or destructive magic back to you, three times what you put out in the world. Or you could cast a spell and get a monkey's paw situation—ask for love, and your work crush’s wife dies, leaving him a widow with four kids and in the market for a rebound."
Ben laughed as he opened the door to her cabin. “Remind me never to ask you for anything witchy."
Grace walked inside and took a brief inventory of her new, temporary home. The space looked larger than she expected and didn't feel cramped at all. There was a dresser to her right and, beyond that, a door that led to a lavatory with a toilet and a sink. Along the wall to her left were an empty bookcase and an overstuffed reading chair in the corner. The whole cabin felt clean but rustic. The furniture seemed to be new, and the bathroom was crisp and white. Grace wasn't sure what she had expected, but definitely not this. The most surprising thing sat in the center of the cabin: a king-sized be
d.
"A king?" she asked, pointing to the unexpectedly large mattress.
"Do you think any of us could fit on a twin? When we bought the place, the cottages had two twin bunk beds. That did not last long."
Just then, headlights panned across the cabin throwing shadows against the back wall.
"Heath!" Grace exclaimed, dropping her bag and racing out the door. She stopped short of running to the car when she saw the whole pack surrounding Heath's SUV. Suddenly painfully aware that she was not part of their family, she decided to hang back by her cabin and wait to be invited over.
Ben strode by her, never slowing down, and opened the driver’s side door for the Alpha. Heath stepped out into the glow of a flood-light mounted to an electric pole in the center of camp. Mud stained both his beard and white V-neck undershirt. His leather coat and plaid shirt were gone, and his wavy, chin-length blond hair stood out in all directions. The Alpha whispered something to Benjamin then, straightened up and yelled, "Sampson!"
Grace stood in the shadows silently willing him to look at her; she needed to know how the night had ended, what had happened with Eileen and Cain. She needed to make sure Heath was all right too.
Grace caught a glimpse of Sampson's red hair as he crossed the camp slowly.
"Now!" Heath barked, making the other wolf cover the last couple dozen yards faster than Grace thought was possible.
The two men walked to the trunk and popped the hatch. A bundle toppled out of the car and began rolling around on the ground. Realization slowly swept Grace: that was their captive. Heath had never called the police. The Alpha had brought his prisoner back to the pack.
"What the fuck!" Grace screeched.
Heath snapped his gaze to her. "Go inside." And immediately his attention went back to the bound man on the ground who seemed to think he could fight twelve wolves with both hands tied behind his back.
Grace did as she was told, but once back in her cabin, she closed only the screen door, and stood in the doorway with her arms crossed, watching the scene around the SUV play out. She could follow the letter of the law, but she had no problems ignoring the spirit of the command.
Heath and Sampson wrestled the man into a standing position and half dragged, half marched him back in the direction Sampson had come from. They quickly disappeared from her line of sight. Ben jumped into the SUV and parked it next to Neil's truck while the other wolves milled around the lodge's doorway. Once Sampson and Heath reappeared in the center of camp, the pack filed into the common building.
Grace scoffed and sat on her bed, burying herself in pillows and leaning her back against the headboard. Heath had brought one of their attackers back here. He was supposed to turn him over to police. Cara was going to flip. Did Cara know how tonight had played out? Grace hadn't heard from any of her sisters, which was especially unusual for Eileen. Eileen had been weaseling her way into Grace's life since their mother passed away. Which was completely unnecessary, but, at this point, it was also completely expected.
She slid off the bad and grabbed her phone from her backpack. No service, of course. Hopefully, everyone knew she was okay.
Why would Cain and Eileen let Heath leave with that man? It didn't make any sense. Where did Heath and Sampson take their captive? They had walked back toward the row of cabins. So Grace was just feet away from a kidnapped man who had hospitalized three people in the last few weeks while everyone who had promised to keep her safe was approximately a football field away doing God-knows-what.
Panic slowly built within Grace as she thought about all the scenarios that the mugger could be held in, how he could escape them, and what he would do when he found her. Because he would find her. She had been dumb enough to scream at Heath. She might as well have walked up to the man and said "Good day sir, I'm the reason you have been captured, and I will be sleeping in that cabin right there ... no, not number five, the building just to the right, number six."
Abruptly, the cabin door opened and Grace shot off of the bed, keeping her back against the far wall. Ben walked in and closed the door behind him. She immediately relaxed and flopped onto the bed. “Fuck, Ben, you scared me."
"I didn't mean to. I just came with a message from Heath. He wants you to know we won't hurt him, the guy Heath brought home."
"He lied to me, Ben, to my sisters. He agreed that we would turn the attackers over to the police."
"Grace. If Heath had called the police, the guy would have maybe been charged and given a few years in jail probably? If that. The cops wouldn't care who he was working for, or with. They wouldn't find out why they’re targeting creatures. And we need those answers. We need to know who’s involved and why." Ben sat down next to Grace. “We aren't going to be cruel. Heath will just get the information we need out of him."
"Where is he?" She asked, her face filled with anxiety. Cracks.
"Cabin one. He's in zip ties. He's not going anywhere. One of us will guard the cabin. You’ll be safe. We all will be." He stood up to leave and kissed her forehead.
"Benny, will you stay? Please? It's just… I'm in a cottage alone, in the middle of the woods, with a psycho five cabins away. I don't know that I'd be able to relax tonight, let alone get to sleep."
Ben nodded. “Yeah, I could sleep in the chair."
"You don't have to," Grace responded quietly, watching his response through the lashes of her half closed eyes.
“It’s better than the floor.”
She reached for his hand, encouraging him forward. She was lonely and scared. She trusted Ben. She wanted to feel safe and warm in his arms. “Ben, please, sleep next to me.”
A warm smile spread across his face. “Of course, Gracie.” He kissed her forehead. “You’ve been through a hell of a night.”
Grace tossed and turned for hours, unable to settle her mind. Ben had fallen asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. He had lain down on the far side of the bed with his back to Grace, but throughout the night, he'd slowly migrated toward the center and turned to face her.
Grace's eyes trailed over the muscles in his arms, following the lines to his broad shoulders and strong jaw, barely softened by his dark beard. Fuck. She moved closer. She loved how solid Ben felt next to her. She blindly trailed a hand down his chest, tracing the ridges on his abdomen. She toyed with the coarse hair just above his waistband and leaned forward, pressing her lips against his.
"Benny," she whispered, kissing him again, lightly biting his lip.
Grace wished he would wake up. She knew this was really fucking forward, but she wanted Ben. He might say no, but after the night she’d had, she could deal with anything.
He was sweet and kind. She could use a little sweetness to get her mind off of the events of the night.
She played with his waistband and hip bone, silently willing his eyes to open. She flushed as a fire swept through her. Her nipples were hard, and they brushed against her t-shirt, waking up bundles of nerves all over her body.
"Ben, wake up."
He let out a low moan and stretched an arm over her, sliding his hand up her back, skin against skin. He rolled her underneath him, and she eagerly opened her legs and cradled him between her bent knees. He kissed her slowly, his tongue filling her mouth and retreating in a gentle rhythm. Ben was grinding against her, and she could feel him getting hard. He pushed her shirt up, stopping to run his calloused thumb over her nipple. He was still half asleep, lazily taking her in.
Ben's mouth left hers, and he moved down her body, kissing the swell of her breast and stomach. His mouth traveled slowly across her skin, lighting tiny fires in each bundle of nerves he kissed, until he finally made his way to her pussy.
He slid his hands under her ass, lifting her to his mouth. Ben flattened his tongue and licked her slit, lapping up her gathering arousal. A low hum of approval rumbled from his chest.
He blew a slow, steady stream of air across her tender lips before dipping the tip of his tongue between them and entering her w
ith a gentle flick. She buried her hand in his undone hair and melted into the mattress, tension leaving her body for the first time all night.
His fingertips dug inter her ass he covered her clit with his mouth and sucked the pearl, drawing quiet sighs from Grace. His hummed as his tongue swept over the tip again and again. She writhed against him, pleasure building in her. The rest of the world dropped away.
She sighed as he slipped two fingers inside her, massaging her, curling his fingers as if he were beckoning her orgasm forward. Loose strands of his hair grazed against her stomach. Somehow that felt almost as good as what his mouth and hands were doing to her cunt.
Her breathing quickened and fire tore through her, but right before she found release, Ben left her empty. She reached her hands out trying to bring him back. She need his touch, to feel his skin against hers.
He rested on top of her again, kissing her deeply; she tasted herself on his tongue and beard. She guided him inside of her and gasped as she stretched to take all of him. Benjamin slowly drove into her, stopping to grind against her clit before he drew his cock out and started the whole process over again. Frustrated by his lack of urgency, Grace desperately grabbed at his ass, trying to urge him forward but he would not be hurried.
She buried her face in his chest, relishing in his scent. Her body pressed against his. She was safe. In this movement, she had everything she wanted.
Grace came with deep, warm waves that left her completely useless. She clung onto his shoulders, tilting her hips to meet him as he finished. His arms swallowed her as he pressed his body against hers.
"Get some sleep Gracie," Ben finally said, lying down next to her and dragging her body against his.
CHAPTER THREE
NEIL
Neil woke up with his first alarm—despite the late night—and trudged across camp to the lodge. He really should get a coffee maker in his cabin, but the pack would probably frown on that subtle act of isolation. He always made a point to have some time to himself in the morning, and an early alarm was about the only way he could guarantee that. He truly enjoyed half hour of silence with a cup of coffee and a good book before the other wolves began trickling into the dining room.
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