17. Bexley

17

BEXLEY

“Tag, you’re it!”

“Let’s go splash in the river, Alpha!”

“Come on! There are more berries to eat over here!”

I ran around with the kids all day as the sux waxed and waned in the air. It gave me a chance to breathe as well as scope out the rest of the grounds. The compound that Voss’s pack took up was massive. There had to be at least five acres of flatland that the pack and their houses occupied. Houses that, for all I knew, ran on magic themselves. I mean, how in the world did they get things like water and power out here in the middle of the woods?

It was astounding how functional this place was in the middle of nowhere.

“Alpha!” Annabelle said as she tackled me to the ground.

I laughed with delight as I rolled over and tossed her into the air. “Annabelle! Annabelle! She is graceful like a gazelle!”

The little girl giggled profusely before she wiggled out of my arms, but all too soon, Little Billy flopped down on top of me.

“Do me! Do me!” he exclaimed.

So, I took him into my arms, laid back in the grass, and tossed him into the air.

“Little Bill! Little Bill! He’s like storms and has no chill!”

“Heeeeey,” Billy said as he wiggled out of my grasp.

I reached over and tapped my finger against his nose. “Boop.”

He giggled and wiggled his nose. “What’s a boop, Alpha?”

I sat up from the grass as more of the children from the packs gathered around me. “It’s just a soft touch like this. Boop.”

I reached out and tapped my finger against his cheek before he turned and tapped his finger against Little Annabelle’s head.

“Boop,” he said in a high-pitched voice.

Annabelle giggled as she reached her finger out and touched his forehead. “Boop!”

“Hey, I wanna boop!”

“Come here, let me boop you!”

“Boooooop!”

That’s when the kids chased one another around, wanting to boop each other’s noses. That bought me some time to walk around the compound and really take stock of everything they had there. I walked by some of Ronyn’s teams training, but there was no Ronyn in sight. In fact, I hadn’t come across the brutal-looking man all day. His teams trained by running drills and racing them through obstacle courses that someone conjured from out of nowhere. And even as I watched as they popped up before they disappeared in puffs of what looked like smoke and sparkles, I searched for Ronyn.

I wondered if a human had ever been so close to a shifter compound before.

And I wondered where in the world that man had gotten off to.

I continued walking around, prowling the edge of the woods for any sign of attacks. And as I did, I watched. I saw the women gardening and governing and cooking. I saw the fiery red head that washed me down in the bath house as she barked orders to a bunch of young women before they scurried into the woods. She managed to wave at me and I waved back, but in the middle of our wave a young woman came up to her, whispering something into her ear, and made her laugh. The woman, Merida, I believe her name was, threw her head back in laughter and forgot all about me.

I couldn’t remember the last time I laughed hard like that with someone.

Anyone, really.

As I continued my rounds on the pack, I found Ronyn switching out patrol teams. I found Voss knocking on people’s doors to see if they needed anything. I saw children shifting and rushing off into the woods before they came back with small prizes, like squirrels and chipmunks. But for the entire day, everyone left me alone.

Including the three men that seemingly invaded my space.

Finally, the sun set. I walked by a garden where a lovely young woman handed me a tomato, and I chomped on it as families rushed into their homes for dinner. Smoke rose from the stone chimney stacks, and the summer sun sank effortlessly beneath the tops of the trees. Purples and reds and oranges splashed themselves against the sky while Voss’s pack continued opening their doors to my pack. And as everyone hustled and bustled around me, getting ready for bed, I found myself standing in front of Voss’s house. Right at the bottom of his porch steps. The home I came out of that morning.

I just couldn’t bring myself to go inside.

Why couldn’t I move?

Why the hell couldn’t I bring myself to do fucking anything?

“Alpha?”

I felt a soft tug on my shirt and looked down to find another kid from my pack, Joseph, standing next to me.

“Well, hey there, Jay,” I said as I took his hand into mine, “everything okay?”

“Can we stay here forever?”

The question broke my heart. I released his hand and crouched down in front of him, smoothing a bit of dirt off his cheek. A soft smile crossed my face, but I knew he wasn’t going to like my answer as I parted my lips.

That is, until Voss interjected from out of nowhere. “However long you’d like, little man.”

Jay’s eyes lit up. “Really!?”

I looked up at Voss and found him staring down not at Jay, but at me. I searched his gaze, but for what, I wasn’t sure.

“Alpha?” Jay asked as I whipped my gaze back to him. “Can we really stay here however long we’d like?”

I flickered my gaze up to Voss one last time. I saw the care and compassion that dripped over his stone-cold face for the little boy. He definitely had a soft spot for these children, despite the rage behind his eyes.

I put on my best smile as I finally answered Jay. “We can really stay as long as we’d like.”

“Thank you, Alpha!” Joseph exclaimed as he threw his little arms around my neck. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Then, he released my neck and rushed off into the night. “You guys! She said yes! We can stay! We’re gonna stay longer!”

I stood as I listened to the children rejoice. They clapped their hands and let up small howls toward a moon that finally peeked its head out. I couldn’t help but smile as they celebrated their good fortune, because they sure as hell hadn’t had much of it.

They hadn’t had much of anything to celebrate lately.

“You coming in?” Voss asked as he wrapped around me and started up to his front door.

I shrugged. “I don’t know if I should.”

“Very well,” he said as his front door creaked open, “door’s open if you change your mind.”

The screen door thudded when it closed. However, I peered over my shoulder and found that he had his front door cracked for me. I thought back to how lovely that bed of his felt. How rejuvenated I was getting up that morning. My shoulders slumped with exhaustion as the laughter of the children died down and parents scooted them through front doors and tossed them into baths.

Where the hell would I sleep, if not for Voss’s place?

So, even though I wasn’t sure I made any of the right decisions, I dragged my ass up those steps and eased my way inside his home.

Maybe one more night’s rest in his place wouldn’t hurt.