I sighed.I’m not going to go back to the old plan.I couldn’t now that I’d started to wake my wolf. I had to break the bond with Tyler and learn to shift. Once I passed off the information about the toxin, I could rest easier knowing that Wolf Creek would get the punishment it deserved.
I finished buttoning up the plaid shirt I’d borrowed. It was nice to have something with long sleeves again as the evening grew colder. “What exactly do you know about my return to Wolf Creek? Because Alec has been minimal on the details with me.”
“That sounds right. He never really tells me the plan until it’s time to go. I do know he got a car so you don’t have to hike back there,” she offered.
“That’s good news.” I hadn’t even considered that part of it. A days-long walk with Alec might have been something I’d enjoyed not long ago. Sleeping under the stars, cooking over an open fire, sharing a single sleeping bag…
I shook the thoughts away. That wasn’t going to happen and this trip wasn’t a romantic tryst. Driving meant a few hours there and back and then hopefully, I could put this all behind me. Once it was finished, I’d either stay here and avoid Alec, or I’d move on to somewhere new.
My wolf felt restless.Same, girl. I hated the lack of information. Was it possible that Alec was out in the common area? Most evenings, it was the place to be. The shifters here shared meals and stayed up until the fires died. Sometimes they’d shift and run in the woods. Sometimes they played cards or sat and talked. Whatever was going on tonight, there was a good chance Alec would be there. If we were heading out tomorrow, he wasn’t going to leave camp tonight. I wasn’t sure how to handle talking to him, but I knew the longer I waited, the worse I was going to feel. “You think there’s some food left from dinner?”
“Good call,” Sheila said as she finished getting dressed. “I’m starving.”
We headed out into the dark. In the distance, I saw a few tiki torches and some solar lights that were used in front of various shifter tents. It was an eclectic place with a variety of different styles all coming together.
The common area was still hopping and I could smell burgers cooking on a grill. “Follow the smoke.”
Sheila laughed. “That smells amazing.”
Mario, my new friend who had been fixing up the car, was grilling burgers on his camp sized propane grill. He waved when he saw me. “Hungry?”
“You always have the best food.” It was true. He was by far one of the best cooks in the camp. Possibly one of the best cooks I’d ever known.
His wife, Paula, beckoned us to the picnic table near their tent. We sat down and joined the couple for burgers and tomato salad and watermelon slices. It was like summer on a plate.
Now that I wasn’t soaking wet, and I had food in my stomach, I was handling my emotions a little better. I should have expected something like that from Alec. He could deny it all he wanted, but he was an alpha through and through. His outburst was exactly why I wanted to shield myself from males like him. I didn’t need him. Sure, the sex had been amazing, but I had nothing to compare it to. For all I knew all sex was that great. I could find someone else. It wasn’t like the two of us were heading to relationship status anyway.
So why did my stomach do somersaults when I noticed him walking toward us?
As he got closer, I realized the expression on his face was grim. Something was wrong. He stopped at our table.
“Hey, pull up a chair. There’s plenty of food,” Mario said.
“Thanks, but I’m not hungry.” He looked down at me. “We need to talk.”