Page 32 of Silas

Grabbing her hand, I pull her to her feet. “Come on then, I want to introduce you to the pack, anyway. I’ll shoot off amessage for everyone to meet up in the meeting hall. You ready for this?”

She shakes her head gently from side to side, “Not really, but let’s do this!”

I pull out my phone and type out a message to the entire pack to meet us in the meeting hall quickly.

I place her hand in the crook of my arm, “Alright, let’s take you to meet the pack.” She smiles meekly up to me and nods her head.

I smile down at her, I hope that she is ready for the full moon in two days.

Chapter 22

Nova

Okay, so I didn’t know there were this many wolves in the pack. There are so many smiling faces from one side of the pack hall to the other. I look up at Silas and he gives me an encouraging smile. I lean in close to him and whisper, “You didn’t tell me that there were this many pack members.”

He lets out a low chuckle, “There were more of us, but during the past Alpha’s reign, we lost a lot of members.”

I pat his chest, “Well hopefully with the new Alpha, we will be able to build the pack back up.”

“That is the dream. Are you ready to announce your plan?”

I shake my head, “Absolutely not, but let’s get this over with.”

He clears his throat and steps up to the front of the dais. The room falls silent as everyone sees he is waiting for them. “Thank you, everyone for coming here on such short notice. I hope that this will be the last time that we have to do such a meeting. I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to my mate and your future Luna, Nova Quinn. It is my hope that you welcome her in, but also help this new wolf learn the ways of the wolf pack.” A round of applause breaks out around the room. Silas holds his hands up to silence the room again. “Thank you, thank you. Now for the reason for the meeting. As you know, we have two days to finish raising the money for the Ghost River Pack. We did phenomenal with raising money with the festival but, we are still short a thousand dollars. Nova has come up with a great idea, at least I think so.” He turns and holds his hand out to me. I place my hand in his and he pulls me to stand next to him. “Nova, why don’t you tell everyone what your idea is?”

My face warms with the blush breaking out across my cheeks. “I…uh…” I clear my throat. I can do this. Stepping in front of him and I square my shoulders. “My idea is hosting a huge yard sale. Everyone has items in their home that they no longer want or need. Let’s finish the last thousand dollars by cleaning out our houses.”

Another round of applause breaks out around the room. My cheeks warm again. I hold my hand up just like I saw Silas do.“Thank you. I have never held a yard sale of this magnitude. I am going to need all hands on deck from everyone. Do you think that you guys will be able to go to your homes, collect your sale items, and meet back here in a few hours?”

There is a chorus of yeses from around the room. “Alright, let's meet back here in a few hours, say 2pm?”

Later that night, with the moon high in the sky, Silas and I sip our hot cocoa by the fire in our living room. “I can’t believe how many items people brought for the yard sale.” He hums his agreeance while he sips his cocoa.

“I know Gail said that the pack and community are big into helping each other, but I just wasn’t expecting this.”

Silas sets his hot cocoa down on the side table between us. “There is a lot riding on the success of this yard sale. More beyond just helping each other, we all know that if we don’t succeed that our lives will forever change. I hate that this is your initiation into pack life, but unfortunately we didn't get a choice in the timing of this. But alas, we don’t choose when things happen in our lives.”

Placing my hand on his, resting on the arm of the chair, “I think this is the best time for my introduction to pack life. I can experience what it really means to be part of the pack. I get to see you when you are facing challenges and how you handle them. Although, we might need to assess that again since you know…you were an asshole to me at the beginning.”

He cuts his eyes to me, “To be fair, I didn’t want to drag you into this. I worried I would be dragging you into the death of our pack or the worst possible things to happen to you. Wouldn’t you have preferred to have been ignorant of all this so you could get away if shit hit the fan?”

I rub my hand over his and squeeze it gently, “You don’t get to choose that for someone else. While I can understand your thought process, you don’t get to make those decisions for me. I would rather experience a year of love than to never experience it at all. Even if you told me at the end of that year my heart would be shattered, I would still choose to experience a year of memories with you over never knowing you.”

His eyes soften, and he gives a slight nod of his head. “Fair enough, I didn’t consider it that way. I just wanted what was best for you, you can’t blame me for choosing to protect you.”

“I know, I forgive you Silas. From now on though, remember I would like to be included in decisions, especially if they affect my life. Don’t make it a habit of deciding things for me even if your Alpha instincts insist you do.”

He nods his head and picks his hot cocoa back up. We sit in silence, sipping our cocoa and watch the flames dance across the logs.

The next morning, the yard sale is in full swing, with the town is abuzz with all the preparations. I have a clipboard with thechecklist to ensure everything is where it is supposed to be. So far, we are on track to be ready in time to start at 11 A.M.

“Hey girl! Where do you want us?”

I look up from my clipboard to see Hazel, Willow, and Aspen walking up. I let out a sigh of relief. These girls are quickly becoming my support group here in Jasper. Their arms are laden with baked goods!

“We brought an assortment of baked goodies to help with the fundraising. We thought if we placed them at the cashier tables as a last-minute treat they grab before leaving,” Willow explains while she places her tray of laden with cookies, muffins, and mini pies in front of me on the table.

“You ladies are amazing. I wasn’t expecting you guys to do all that for me. You had to have been baking all night to have this many baked treats.”

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