Page 131 of Claimed

“Not at all. He’s wonderful.”

“You’re a sweet girl. So kind. You deserve to be happy,” she says, patting my hand with her free one.

“We all do. We all deserve so much more than what’s here, Patsy. Clean water, the ability to find love and have families, to look after ourselves and our loved ones, and we deserve leadershipthat we respect. We deserve to shift as often as we need. We deserve to live our lives!”

“We do. Our young need to also learn the way a pack is supposed to run. Your mate’s people rounded everyone up all into one place here and some were scared. But I knew they were going to help as soon as I smelled you on the one with the silver eyes. The only ones who need to be scared are those who’ve done wrong, done harm.”

“Exactly,” I say.

“Tell everyone how good it is there, Stacy,” Luke suggests. “It’s good, you guys. Better than good. Pretty houses. Lots of people. Happy people. Enough to eat. Clean water.”

I look around the room, seeing some of our women helping the sick, our kids with juice boxes and granola bars, the men in the back corner, some looking on with interest while others look like they want to hide. Everyone pays attention to me and Patsy.

Grey is standing by the doorway now, talking to Floyd, lifting his phone out of his pocket and making a call.

He gives me a look and slips out as I faintly hear him greet, “Hey Brody?”

I clear my throat and keep talking. “People there can work if they want, either in the village or outside of it. Those who don’t have much… they get help. No tribute needs to be paid to the leadership team but of course everyone is expected to help out if there’s a need. They look after one another, you know? Like it should be. They have a restaurant and a store right in the village. They have a big mess hall like we have here, but it’s for parties. They have a library and a book club and a schoolhouse twice the size of ours. Movie nights for the kids. And when a couple mates, they send food and other gifts. Nobody steals things from one another out of hunger or greed. They celebrate the union offated mates. They’re happy about it. They work together to do what needs to be done, whether it’s throwing a birthday party or dealing with a threat and they look after their elderly. Their elderly all seem so much healthier than ours. And the water you guys… it’s clean. So clean and delicious. And shifters get to shift whenever they want. Men and women. Do you know why? Because that’s who we are.” I slap my chest over my heart with my palm. “We’re wolf shifters who need to shift for our own physical and mental health. That’s why Wyatt doesn’t allow it unless with his permission. He wants us weak. He wants our throats underneath his boot. In Arcana Falls, you can shift as much as you want. Run the woods. Swim in the lake or the river. You get to live there and thrive there. And the women? Treated very differently from how we’re treated here.”

Patsy is smiling. “It sounds wonderful. It sounds like what it was like when your grandfather was our alpha.”

“Yeah,” I whisper, choking up.

Some people here have tears in their eyes. Some look angry. Some are looking down or looking away.

Mitch Blakely is recording me. I feel uncomfortable under that scrutiny suddenly, but I hear a whimpering sound, so my eyes find a crying child on a mattress. Kimmy Dean. She’s six or seven. She’s not the only child on the floor. There are three others beside her.

“Larry!” I snap.

He’s standing by Grey, Jase, and Floyd by the door. Grey is no longer on the phone. He’s watching me, listening to me.

“Why are they here, Larry?” I demand. “You’re feeding the poison food to the kids?”

I’m seeing red right now. I want to break something. Scream.

I see Jase nudge Larry, growling, “Answer her.”

Larry stares with fear and what looks like remorse.

“What is wrong with you?” I demand and storm to get right in his face. I smack it hard, leaving a red mark.

The room is dead silent before Kimmy whimpers again.

“Answer her,” Jase demands. “Or you’ll have my hands on you next.”

Larry clears his throat. “I only gave it to the one Wyatt told me to. Kimmy. The others must have snuck extra food when they weren’t supposed to.”

“Fuck sakes,” Jase barks and Larry jumps like he’s about to be hit. Jase backs him up to the wall and shouts in his face. “You’re directed to poison some of your people including a fuckin’ child, and not only do you do it, you’re careless about leaving the poison food around when your people are hungry? I heard your people are only eating once a fuckin’ day. Of course little kids are gonna go hunting around for more when all they get is one bowl of shitty soup a day!”

Larry is cowering, showing his throat. Jase is infuriated, growling.

“Get over there,” Grey clips to Floyd and points at Larry and then at the group of men. Both Floyd and Larry hurry to the cluster of men. There are around fifteen of them. About half of them are older or elderly and most of them look about ready to shit themselves.

“Blossom, you tell me who does and doesn’t deserve our help. You also tell me if any of those men are fuckers that deserve the opposite of our help. Larry, you and Floyd are on bed pan and puke-mopping duty.” Grey points at the crowd of men cowering even further. “All of you are on notice. When I get allthe information about which motherfuckers have been hurting your women, your kids, the elderly? You answer for it. And why the fuck didn’t the group of you do something to protect your people? You got a fucked-up alpha? You do something about it. There are how many of you? My wife says a lot of your younger men fled to get away from this shit but why the fuck didn’t anybody nip this shit in the bud before it got so outta hand instead? How many were there when things started down the road of going wrong? You don’t let him pick off your innocent, your weaker pack members one by one? Fuck sakes. You sure don’t bloody well take women against their will as your fuckin’ reward.” He kicks a folding metal chair, and it flies into the wall beside the group of men.

He knows. I might throw up.

His eyes snap to me and fear spikes at the look of fury in my mate’s eyes. He exudes power and danger. And he now sees most of my secrets. Seeing this place, the place I come from, he now has a clue of the life I’ve led.

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