Page 43 of Tamed Wolf

The entire drive over I can't get Lark’s face out of my mind, but I know the sooner I get this done, the sooner I can inhale that decadent scent of hers again and drown in it. We shared a heat with our ex, but I don't think this one's going to be anything like that.

That one was triggered as well, but she was always so cold, and I always felt like she was putting on an act around us. What would it be like to be with somebody that truly wanted us?

I know we're working off of a lot of assumptions here, because there's a good chance that Lark won't want us to touch her, but the thought of it has me rock hard. I'm grateful for the baggy pants I'm wearing as I park the truck and ring the doorbell at the front of the shelter.

“Alpha,” the woman that answers says in deference, bowing her head.

“Um, hi. I think my mom called ahead?”

She opens the door and beckons me in. “How is Lark?” she asks instead of responding.

Just hearing her name on somebody else's lips makes me jittery, feeling like I need to get back to her. “Not great.”

“And the two idiots that squandered their gift?”

I shrug. “Last I saw them, they were locked in a dog kennel. I think Dad's taking care of them; Lark was our first priority.”

She cackles and it changes her whole face as she leads me down the hall. “Excellent.”

“Now isn't really the time,” I start, “but I know there are a bunch of old laws that need to be fixed. We'd love to work with you. Me and my brothers are intent on making things better for the wolves that have to live here. Starting with funding,” I say as the leaky ceiling drops water right on my forehead. I stop and look up at it, noticing how outdated and stained everything is. “We need to do something about this building. People that live here don't deserve this.”

“I appreciate that, but we make it work.”

“I’m certain we can do better than that.”

She squeezes my arm as we get to a door that I know is Lark’s purely from the scent emanating from it. “She's lived here a while, then?”

“She gave birth to that 22-year-old kid in this room. Yeah, she's been here a while. Of course, there were a few years where she was in and out, mostly out, but this has always been her room. Do you need anything else?”

She opens the door for me, and I walk in, trying to take it in. But words don't do it justice. I wanna burn it to the fucking ground. Maybe my voice comes out a little short, but I hope she knows it’s because I think it’s vile that this is how these wolves are living. “Give me a list of the most urgent needs,” I prompt. “I want to do something about this, and I don't want to wait.” I pull out my wallet and grab a business card with my contact info, passing it to her. “I'm serious about this. If I don't hear from you by tomorrow, I'll show back up, and I don't think either of us want that. Lark needs me, but so does the rest of my pack.”

“There is more than one alpha that has wolves here,” she reminds me. “This is every pack’s cast-offs.”

“Then I'll be the liaison, and I'll contact the other pack alphas. We'll figure something out.”

A tear wells in her eye as she nods and walks out, gripping the business card tightly. “Thank you,” she whispers, and then she's gone.

I sit on what passes for a bed in this room, my tailbone immediately hitting the creaky rusty metal frame underneath the mattress. There's no padding at all. I lean forward and rest my face in my hands, depression washing over me. This has been Lark’s existence. And I thoughtwehad it bad?

I take pictures of everything I can, because I know that people need to see this. No one knows what it's really like here unless they have someone close to them that was rejected. I don't even know the last time any alpha stepped foot here. It seems as if all the packs just pass forward the requisite tithes to keep this shelter running and then call it a day, because it's depressing and completely run down. A few of the packs consider these wolves not to be their problem once they're rejected, but these are people that need somebody on their side.

With ideas flowing through me, I muscle open the sticky closet door to gather her belongings, and the closet is so moldy that I’m sure there’s a leak somewhere in the walls.

There’s hardly anything in here worth taking, but I pack it all anyway. I also pack the thin blanket spread over the bed and a folded up blanket the size of an infant, the only nice thing in the room that's tucked into the top of the closet. I'm assuming this was the baby blanket of Camden's, and while I can't relinquish this room for her without her permission, I can hope that she doesn't ever have to step foot back here again.

In fact, I'll make sure of it. Surely as the heirs to the pack, we have some say in where somebody can live. I’ll build her a damn house with my own two hands if she doesn’t want to live with us. That's fine. She's not coming back here, though.

Chapter Eighteen

Lark, Now

Everything hurts, and I have no concept of time. I've been a prisoner in my own head all week, because after that first dose of whatever shit my exes gave me, I had to mentally distance myself if I wanted to get through it.

I spent a full day hating myself for ending my date with the triplets so badly, because if I'd been even slightly more gracious about it all, maybe they would have checked on me and gotten me out before it got to this point. I only have myself to blame that no one wondered about my well-being.

By day two it was my exes that became the enemy. They've always been the enemy, but they've always been so good about getting inside my head, making me talk to myself like I'm shit, telling myself that I need to do better if I wanted to be worth something. It was somewhat healing to do nothing but mentally list all the exact reasons I hated them.

When I disassociated long enough, I started to dwell on other things. Like the way the triplets talked to me, remembering the reverent way they touched me, the crazed way they looked when they smelled me. I have no business wanting a pack so much younger than me, a pack that is friends with my own son, but I can't deny how badly my entire body yearns for them.

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