“Someday, we’ll have funny stories to tell about our family,” I said, and she laughed and said, “We already have one… you slipping on that banana peel!” And then her face changed, and she looked remorseful for something.
She doesn’t want to admit we have a future. She’s trying to be casual with me.
I’ll make her want to stay. I’ll make it so she can’t imagine being happy anywhere but with me.
I love her so much.
Tomorrow, I want to start making this place better for her and then maybe she’ll feel like it’s her home. I’ll ask her to choose things she likes. The few pictures I saw on her screen showed she spends time in much nicer places than this.
***
I’m awake, thinking about all I’ve seen and experienced in the few days since I’ve shifted back to man form when I have the urge to check on things. I carefully slip away from her and check on the house, feeling like something isn’t right.
No sooner than I have that thought, I catch the scent of a shifter, a shifter I do not know. I smell another person. I know that smell but can’t place it. I’ve smelled so many individuals in the past day without being told which names go with which scents.
I quickly move outdoors to find out who the fuck this is and what they want.
When I step off the porch, I see a male and female approaching from near the willow tree where they’ve parked.
They stop when they see me and wait there, so I make my approach.
He’s tall and dark-haired with dark eyes. She’s short and curvy, with long light brown striped with blonde hair. She’s wearing eyeglasses and she’s related to him.
“Tyson? I’m Grey. Greyson Blackwood. Fourth alpha. I just got back, just heard, and wanted to come by and meet you.”
“Fourth?” I inquire as I nod to her.
She smiles and wiggles her fingers beside her face.
“Yes. Born fourth that year,” he says. “This is Bailey Blackwood, my sister.”
“I remember seeing you,” I say, still unsure of why the fact he was born fourth on some year is relevant, but I don’t ask questions.
The young woman speaks up. “I told him you wouldn’t welcome an unannounced visitor, but he insisted, so I came along so that you’d recognize one of the two scents coming to your house in the middle of the night. You recognize my scent from the clinic?”
“I do,” I confirm.
“My sister wanted to show respect. I hope you don’t consider my visit disrespectful. I know you’ve met Riley, Jason, Joel and Linc. I wasn’t around, but just got back, so…”
“Who’s missing?” I ask.
“Missing?”
“I was told there are supposed to be seven and what you’ve said adds up to six.”
“Mason. He just got back, too. He’s not ready to approach.”
I notch a brow.
“I shouldn’t have said anything,” Grey says quickly. “He’s not at his best. He’ll meet you soon. When he’s feeling 100%.”
“Your sister is right; an uninvited approach was a bad idea.”
“Riley needs us,” he interrupts. “He needs you. We all do.”
I wait for him to expand on that.
“He’s lost. He’s been excellent as second alpha sitting at the top and though we have always felt your absence…” He stops speaking and stares deep, as if to add emphasis to what he’s just said, before continuing - “I know he’s coming to see you tomorrow. Watch for it, you’ll sense it if you pay attention. He needs you in the first alpha position so he knows he can take time to fix what’s wrong in his life. He’s very wrong inside. His wolf. Himself. The sooner you’re with us, the better.”
I already sense this thing he talks about. I don’t reveal that though.
Bailey speaks up. “Grey’s the one with the strength of insight. They all have it, but Grey has it in spades.”
I don’t know what she means so I stare at her.
She squats, her back against a tree and sits cross-legged. “I can fill in some gaps about things if you want information. I don’t know how much you know about our way of life.”
“Assume I know nothing.”
“Do you know anything?” Bailey asks. “I’m the walking Wikipedia of the pack, but I don’t want to come across as a know-it-all.”
“Do you know it all?”
“Well…no, but more than most.”
“Then tell me what you know. What I know might or might not be truth. My source of information about this pack was Cornelius Savage.” For some reason, I feel at ease talking to Bailey Blackwood. “I don’t know what was truth and what wasn’t. But I also don’t know if I trust any of you – so bear that in mind with whatever you say to me.”
“I can understand that,” she says, nodding slowly. “Trust is a rare commodity for many lone wolf shifters who don’t have a pack at their back. But, you should know, your instinct about people will be right. It’s one of your strengths. Maybe you have or haven’t quite learned how to tap into that instinct but it’s there. I mean, unless you already know this about yourself.”