Page 55 of To Hunt A Wolf
He hesitates, clearly debating whether he can trust me. I don’t give him any false hope, but finally, he nods anyway. “Come on. I want to show you something.”
He leads me down a series of short hallways. We don’t pass anyone else, but I can hear voices somewhere nearby. The building is squat with low ceilings and very few windows. “Compound” feels like a fitting word. It has a military feel with function prioritized over comfort.
But it’s not cold or even dangerous.
Not like Thiago’s house.
Maybe I’ve been left alone too long because I should feel endangered by a place that held me against my will, but more than anything, I just want to understand. What makes this place special enough that Levi would lock me away just to keep it safe?
And why in the hell does he think I’m a threat to it in the first place?
“What’s this?” I ask as we pass a hall and I hear music drifting out from an open door.
Children’s songs.
“A few of the families that live here have little ones,” he says and then tugs me forward.
Children?
Families?
What the hell is this place?
We keep moving, and Levi quietly points out a few more areas. “Rec room,” he says, and I glimpse a ping pong table and video game console through the glass doors. “Gym, laundry, showers.”
Community, the men had called it.
I see that now.
Up ahead, the hum of voices grows steadily louder until Levi stops me in front of a set of wide double doors. A security guard stands beside them.
“Sir,” he says when he sees me. “Is this wise?”
“She’s fine, Grey. No thanks to you.”
“Sir?”
“We’ll talk about it later,” Levi says. “Move.”
With a glare aimed at me, the guy pulls the door open, letting us pass.
As soon as I walk in, I stop and sweep the large room with wide eyes. My senses tell me there are at least forty, maybe fifty people seated around the long rectangular tables. A few are still finishing whatever dinner remains on their tray, but most have finished and are chatting with their neighbors.
The smell of food draws my attention, and I see a kitchen running along the right side of the room. True to the guard’s word, it’s closed now. The lights are dark up front near the serving stations.
A cafeteria.
And a crowd.
Every one of them is a wolf shifter.
Most are dressed in the same fatigues as Burnett.
Out of all the things Levi could have been hiding from me, an entire army of shifters under his command was the last thing I would have guessed.
Finally, I turn to look at where he’s waiting at my elbow. He’s watching me with an eagerness that looks disturbingly like hope. I don’t understand it. Or him. Or any of this.
“Who are these people?” I ask.
