Page 104 of In the Mouth of the Wolf

My phone started beeping. I grunted, figuring it was the directors wondering if we should reschedule the meeting, but it was a notification from the new security system I’d installed.

ALARM TRIGGERED: SLIDING DOOR BREACH

Adrenaline coursed through my veins. Was that shifter back? Had he brought his pack? I needed to get to Marlowe.

I opened the video as I ran out of my office to find her.

But it wasn’t a wolf breaking in.

It was three wolves breaking out. Slamming into the back door, shattering the glass, and heading northwest through the woods.

Straight here.

49

THE GRAY WOLF

Distress.

My pack mate, my omega, was in distress. The human couldn’t hold me back, I needed to protect her.

And now, I had two new pack mates, the other humans she had bonded with, to help me.

It took them a moment to get their bearings – they’d been stuck inside their humans for so long, like me – but once they stretched and recognized me and each other, it was time to go.

Protect the pack.

50

MARLOWE

Patricia chatted me up the whole way to my dad’s office. She was tall and round in the middle, with short, curly hair, wearing dark pants and what appeared to be a hand-knit sweater.

She exuded a kind, matronly warmth that made me ache for my own mom. Ache for female companionship, period. Ever since I’d arrived in Wisconsin, I’d been drowning in testosterone, and I just wanted to talk to someone who wasn’t constantly on the verge of punching a wall.

“James didn’t really come into the office much, so he never had a lot in here. The computer might not be hooked up to the new system, but even if it is, I doubt it’s been updated. Want me to make an appointment with IT?”

My curiosity piqued. It was a long shot, but if IT could get me onto my dad’s account, there might be something, anything, about my mom or my past that would help us figure out who that full shifter was.

“Yes, that would be great. Thank you so much,” I replied. She let me in, and tsked at the layer of dust that had settled over the desk and shelves.

“The cleaning crew should still have been coming through here. Let me make sure they put this room back on their rotation. Well, holler if you think of anything else I can do for you.”

She closed the door behind her and I walked slowly around the space. The office was similar to Cam’s, but lacked the personal touches and warmth. It didn’t even smell like anyone, feeling more like a showroom. A blank canvas.

I grabbed a couple of tissues and wiped down the desk, making room for my laptop. My hand bumped into the mouse by accident and the screen came to life. Yikes, I didn’t even want to think how long this computer had been left on for.

I reached over to turn it off but the screensaver made my heart stop.

It was a picture of us – me, Ezra, my mom, and my dad, from some summer day on Lake Michigan. Ezra and I couldn’t have been older than two or three. My parents looked so young, so beautiful, and so in love.

And now, all of them were gone.

Ugly sobs erupted from my chest, and I collapsed my head into my arms on the desk. I had started coming to terms with the fact that my dad wasn’t who or what I’d thought he’d been. He wasn’t an asshole loser who had abandoned his family. He had left us out of fear or for our protection, trying his best to provide for us behind a curtain of anonymity. Together with my mom, who had specifically recommended my brand of “birth control pills” to dull my scent and heats, he had wanted to keep me hidden in plain sight because he knew someone was looking for us.

But this one small thing, a screen no one would see but him, where he could remember who this was all for, broke me.

It wasn’t long before Cam burst through the door. I figured he would have sensed my sadness, but he’d also caused my initial anguish, and I really didn’t feel like listening to him explain how I should forgive Julian for acting like an asshole.

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