Page 65 of Untamed

Jonah pulls away to glare at me. “He’s a Greystone, Kinsey. Not to mention that he and my dad have been friends since they were kids. He won’t want this to come out either.”

I try to sit up then, more alert now that I see a way out of this. “We have to call them. We have to save my parents.”

Jonah clasps my face in his big, meaty hands and makes me look at him. His lips pull tight as he appraises me. “We have safety protocols in place. Trust me. I know what I’m doing. This is in my wheelhouse, remember? We can’t jump to conclusions. We’re going to wait here for information. My father won’t let anything happen if it gets to that point, okay?”

I close my eyes, breathing in deep. Panic is clawing at me from all directions, and I don’t know where to put it all. It makes my brain feel like it’s short circuiting. “I’m sorry. I know I’m not helping but I’m just so scared for them.”

He stands and helps me to my feet. “In Lunar, when shifters are under suspicion, they’re sent to the Pack Council holding facility. They’ll be kept there until the situation can be sorted. There’s nothing we can do at the moment. They’re under our security team’s watch, though, so we’ll be the first to know if anything progresses.” He tugs on my hand. “Come on. Let’s take showers and find some clothes.”

Everything he says makes sense, and I relax with the knowledge that Mr. Livestrong is in the thick of things. I walk naked through the sprawling safe house that’s more luxurious than I would’ve imagined a safe house could be. I peek out the blinds, spotting a crystal-clear reflection in the distance through a thicket of trees. “We’re at the lake?” I raise my brows. I always imagined a safe house would mean a huge room with no windows, but that’s exactly opposite the case with this. It’s like any of the other extravagant homes on the lake. It’s well decorated, modern, and fancy. I’m not sure where all the security Jonah said the house has is, but evidently, it’s hidden away somewhere.

Jonah leads me down the hallway, and we pass several well-appointed bedrooms. I glance inside as my mate gives me more insight into the alpha’s security. “We purchase properties under different names so no one can trace it to the Greystone’s or my family. To any of the surrounding neighbors, this house appears to be like any other rarely used family vacation home. If the alpha were to come under an attack, he could be moved between several different locations to assure his safety. Some of the safe houses are remote, others are hiding in plain sight. I brought you here because this was the closest location that wouldn’t also send us straight into the middle of Lunar.”

“But this is posh,” I protest, still not believing that this is considered a safe house. The high ceilings are decorated with wood beams that open the space up. I’m so busy admiring the design that Jonah has to take me by the shoulders and herd me to a door on the right. A sprawling bathroom opens up with a walk-in shower that boasts two showerheads.

He smirks at me in the mirror as I glance around with my jaw practically on the floor. “The alpha likes things nice. We did a complete overhaul when we bought it.”

He opens the glass door and walks in, turning on both showerheads before beckoning me forward. Despite the dried mud caked on his torso, he’s a dream. His chiseled muscles flex. From head to toe, he’s a perfectly cut, shifter god. I step in after him, waiting for the water to heat. “I’ve never seen a double showerhead before.”

“Rumor has it, the alpha and his wife shower togetherallthe time.”

I raise my brows at him. As soon as I get lost in his brown eyes, tension crackles in the air between us. His very being calls to me, and with everything going on, I seek his warmth. His comfort that only he can provide.

He tips his head back and the shower spray rains down over his neck and shoulders, glistening down his taut muscles. “It’s something I could get used to,” he murmurs, watching me with a heated gaze while I step under the showerhead. My eyes close as the hot water soothes the kinks out of my muscles. I dip my head, letting the water run through my hair. It’s like a balm to my soul.

“I thought I lost you,” he growls. “You didn’t stop when I called.”

His harsh words make me jump, and I turn toward him, blinking. Rivulets stream down the sides of my face, droplets clinging to my lashes and distorting my view.

His mouth parts, and his eyes widen. “Of course. You could resist me.”

I recoil. “I didn’t. You brought me to my knees.”

He shakes his head, a small smile coming to his lips. “You’re a Greystone, Kinsey. Alpha blood.”

He reaches for me, and I swat his hand away. Anger seeps through my limbs. “I’m not a Greystone.” Hurt fills his eyes at my rebuff, and I groan in frustration. “I’m not one of them, okay?”

“I just meant that you have Greystone blood in you which is why you were able to partially resist my command when I was chasing you through the woods. I thought it was because you’d distanced yourself so much that you had no allegiance to pack dynamics whatsoever. Honestly, this makes so much more sense.”

If distancing myself from the pack was possible, I’d have already done it. Hell, I might even do it now. The freaking alpha’s sister—who’s technically my aunt—is trying to take me out. “All I wanted to do was make sure my parents were okay.” Bitterness laps at me as my words settle in the air around us. Jonah purses his lips. He’s right about my alpha blood, and I know he is, but I can’t handle the idea of being a Greystone. The concept that people I share DNA with are trying to kill me or make me go Feral is devastating. They’ll never be my true family. My parents did everything to have me. They broke the law, and most likely damn near broke each other in the process.

What my father must have gone through when my mother was with Shane Greystone…. It chills me to my core.

I’ve seen Jonah jealous. I’ve felt my own jealousy rise up. Fated mates are as primal as you can get, and my parents had to do the unthinkable to make sure they stayed alive.

“Your parents are strong,” Jonah reassures me. I peek over, watching water flow down his cut body. Dirt and grime pool at his feet, slowly spiraling toward the drain.

“They did what they had to.”

“And we’ll do what we have to.” He opens his arms, and I walk to him. He wraps me up in one of his humongous hugs—a true mate safety blanket. I settle for real because though everything feels like it’s up in the air, this right here—my fated pairing—is the end and the beginning. It’s what everything will start and come back to, and as long as I have Jonah, I’ll be okay.

He kisses my temple before reaching behind him to grab the shampoo and squirts some in his palm before working it through my long tresses. When he finishes, he tilts my head into the spray to rinse the soap from my hair. While I stay there, he shampoos his own mane, and then we switch positions until we’ve both rinsed the muck of the day from us. If only I could find something that would erase the worry, too.

Plush towels sit on shelves under the sink. Jonah pulls two out and wraps me in one. The soft material feels like silk on my skin as I dry off. Afterward, he leads me out of the bathroom and down the length of the hallway. At the very end sits a master bedroom. A gigantic four-poster bed sits in the center with enough room around the sides that I could do cartwheels. Immediately, he goes to the closet and brings out two sets of clothes. “We have hundreds of these kinds of outfits lying around,” he tells me, passing me a stack. “We call them shift-safe outfits. If you ruin them, it doesn’t matter.”

My parents had a few of those too, but nothing as nice as this. Their shift-safe outfits were paint splattered, and the kind of clothes you worked in the garden with. These are brand new.

I tug them on, frowning at the fit before I realize these were likely meant for the alpha’s wife because what Jonah pulls on also fits him perfectly.

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