“I think it’s likely that Andie will stay,” hedged Bracken.
“Me too,” said Dawn. “I’m relieved. She’s been through a lot, and she deserves to finally feel safe.”
“She does,” agreed Makenna, taking a little peek at Sienna Rose, who was now being held by Ryan. “Gwen’s cool. I have to say, I wasn’t sure if I’d like her.”
Zander couldn’t help but frown, affronted on Gwen’s behalf. “Why?”
“Her name’s Gwen.”
And that explanation was apparently supposed to make sense to him. “So?”
“So I know three other Gwens, one of whom is Ryan’s mother—I can’t stand any of them.” Makenna shook her head in distaste. “I don’t associate the name with anything good. Personally, I think it’s odd that I know several Gwens; it never struck me as a popular name. But now there’s yet another Gwen. Odd, right?”
Because she already knew people by that name? “I have an uncle called Ryan, an old pack mate named Ally, and my great-grandmother’s name was Dawn.”
Her eyes widened. “Really? Weird, huh?”
“No.”
Ryan grunted, seeming amused, but Makenna just rolled her eyes.
At that moment, Zander’s cell phone beeped. He fished it out of his pocket and saw that it was a text message from Nick: “Make sure you stop by on the way to Oregon. Shay won’t stop whining that she wants to meet Gwen.”
Tucking his phone back in his pocket, Zander looked at Bracken. “Nick wants us to make a pit stop at our territory so that Shaya can meet Gwen.” Although the Alpha female was good at getting her way, Zander hadn’t thought she’d win this one.
Bracken’s brows raised slightly. “Well, that’s a surprise. Gwen’s not only an outsider, she’s an outsider who happens to be a human that’s currently in the kind of trouble he wouldn’t want on our doorstep.”
It made Zander wonder if Derren had contacted Nick with news of Gwen being an informant, despite giving his word to both Gwen and Cain that he wouldn’t. But no, the Beta wouldn’t break a promise. He would, however, assure Nick that Gwen could be trusted. There was, of course, another possibility . . .
Cutting his gaze to Makenna, Zander said, “I noticed you texting someone earlier. Would that have been Nick?”
“No,” Makenna denied with a sniff. In a quieter voice, she added, “It was Shaya.” She shrugged. “Roni and Harley too. I just wanted them to know that I think Gwen’s cool. I get a lot of shifters coming here with one bad story after another. Never before has anyone told me that a human went to bat for them. It’s natural for most to look the other way and stay out of people’s business. That made some suspicious of Gwen’s motives. I’m not, and I wanted your pack to know that.” She patted Zander’s arm. “It’ll all be fine. You’ll see.”
He hoped she was right, because the one thing he wouldn’t be able to tolerate was his pack treating Gwen like shit. Not just because she was important to him, but because now he knew the truth of just how brave and selfless she actually was. The last thing she deserved was their mistrust.
Honesty was important to Zander. Gwen could have spun him a pretty story to get him off her back—God knew he’d driven her crazy with his questions—but she hadn’t lied to him; she’d respected him enough not to do so. That got to him, just as it had that she’d trusted him with her secret.
He’d always had difficulty sharing things—his past, his feelings, his goals. He’d only shared pieces of himself with Gwen so that she’d share pieces of herself in turn, but that meant he’d inadvertently opened up to her. He’d unknowingly let her in. And she’d also done the same with him. She’d trusted him with the truth of her and her half sister. As someone with trust issues, he knew how difficult it was to rely on another person not to betray you. To him, that trust she’d shown in him to keep her secret safe was a gift. One he had no intention of abusing.
He hoped his pack didn’t put him in a position where he had to defend her to them. Maybe the reason he’d always worried about Nick discovering he was involved with Gwen was because he’d known even then that he couldn’t obey any order to abandon her while she needed his protection.
Zander had always been unwaveringly loyal to his pack. But if Nick put him in a position where he had to choose between them or Gwen, Zander couldn’t be sure that he’d choose his pack . . . so it seemed that Derren was right and that Zander was in much deeper with Gwen than he’d thought. What worried Zander was that Derren could also be right in predicting that the scenario could bite him on the ass.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
As she slid out of the SUV, Gwen glanced around Mercury Pack territory. There were several vehicles, including a Winnebago, of all things, in the parking lot. Tall, majestic trees were everywhere, creaking with the breeze—all territorially marked by claws. But it was the impressive building in front of her that held her attention.
As Zander rounded the hood of the SUV, his wolf stretched within him, happy to be back on his territory, and inhaled the comforting wild scents of nature and home. “This is Nick and Shaya’s lodge. They’re my Alphas.”
Gwen gave him an incredulous look. “This isn’t a lodge.” It was huge. Okay, it had that rustic feel going on, but only the second and third levels had timber frames. The first level was made with large stone, and those glass dove windows were not typical of a lodge at all.
“Well, we call it the main lodge.”
“I wouldn’t have expected the fairy lights.” They hung on the trees around what was more of a mansion. They would look awesome in the evening. Right now, they weren’t needed while the glaring sun beat down on them. The hot breeze gave no reprieve from the heat.
“Yeah, most people don’t,” said Bracken as they walked onto the wooden porch.
Gwen probably should have been nervous. She was a human on shifter territory, after all. But she was actually kind of excited. Coming here was a little like stepping into the shoes of a shifter for just a few hours. There were so many times as a kid that she’d found herself wishing she was part of her neighboring wolf pack, and now maybe she’d have a little idea of what that would have been like.