“Okay,” Stella repeated. “Thanks. Thank you.”
“Of course,” Lynn said. “I love you.”
“I love yo
u, too.” Stella hung up.
Lynn let out a breath, staring at her phone.
Warm hands landed on her shoulders, and she nearly jumped out of her skin before remembering Ken.
Ken. God. She’d been so focused on her sister, she’d literally forgotten he was there.
“I guess you heard all that,” she said. With shifter hearing, he would’ve heard Stella’s side of the conversation, too, no problem.
Too late, she wondered if she should’ve avoided mentioning the police, if she should’ve tried to make the conversation sound innocuous, in case any of the wolves were listening in. But Lynn hadn’t heard any angry male voices on the other side, no sign that someone other than Stella was reacting to what she’d said. Maybe it was okay.
“I did,” Ken said. “Your sister’s in trouble, it sounds like.”
Lynn nodded grimly. “And my niece. She’s seventeen, and I don’t want her anywhere near a pack of rowdy wolves.” She held up her keys. “I’m sorry about this, but I really have to go get them. I can’t leave them there with those wolves, not knowing what’s going to happen…”
“Of course you can’t,” Ken said, sounding offended that she’d even apologized for it.
Good. That was good. And…she hesitated.
“What is it?” he asked quietly.
A pack of wolves. Stella hadn’t said how many there were—Lynn should’ve asked, she realized now; maybe she should text Stella to see—but a pack was definitely more than one or two. If she tried to get Stella and Eva out of there, would the wolves object?
Stella wasn’t a fighter—she was much more likely to try and run away. Lynn wasn’t about to let Eva fight anyone or anything. Which meant that if there was a real problem, it would be her alone against—five wolves? Six? Ten?
“Would you…” God. This was harder than she’d thought.
Lynn was so used to doing everything herself. So used to depending on no one, to being the older sister who had her life together and who could take care of everything. Her own business, that she ran alone. Her own house, where she lived alone.
Her own life—alone. She might not need anyone, but that meant that she didn’t have anyone, either.
Wasn’t asking for help a good thing? Because it meant that she had someone to ask. Someone in her life who would help.
And it wasn’t like she was uncertain of the answer, after all. She knew what Ken was going to say before she asked. There wasn’t any question at all.
“Will you come with me?” came out of her mouth, all at once.
It was easier to say than she’d thought it would be.
And if anything, Ken looked even more offended at the idea that she might’ve thought about going alone. The expression almost made her giggle. Or maybe that was the rush of relief.
“Of course I’m coming with you,” he said.
The relief wasn’t because he’d said yes. She’d known he’d say yes.
She was relieved she’d been able to ask.
Maybe she could figure out this having a mate thing, after all. Maybe she wasn’t an incurably single cantankerous middle-aged spinster, and she really could work this man into her life, learn to depend on him the way couples depended on each other.
“Lynn,” Ken was saying, “if you thought I would leave you to walk into a literal den of wolves by yourself, we’re going to have to have a conversation about what being mates means.”
Now she did giggle. It was strange to laugh in the middle of a serious situation like this, but it didn’t feel inappropriate, somehow. “I guess I wasn’t thinking about it in those terms, exactly.”