Page 24 of Fractured Fang: Omega

I blushed. “Thank you. I’m so glad they like it. I swear, every time I give someone a piece of my art, I expect them to throw it on the floor and destroy it and tell me how terrible it is.”

Macs scoffed. “There would have been bloodshed if something like that had happened.”

“Oh yeah? You’re going to take on a whole pack of enforcers just because they insulted my work?” I quirked my brow.

“A thousand percent,” he said with a smile.

I leaned over the center console and kissed him. “Thank you, mate. While I don’t advise that behavior, I appreciate the willingness to defend my honor.”

We headed off toward Asilo. It would be a long drive, and we would likely need to stay there overnight because we would be exhausted after this day. And that was okay. Asilo had never been my forever home, but it had been my home for a bit, and staying there was no hardship.

“I kind of want to tell you about everything,” I said after we had been on the road for a while.

“I want to hear it, mate. I really do. If you’re ready.”

I sighed. “I am.” I took a deep breath and gathered my thoughts. “I met a woman named Shelly at one of my first-year classes, and we became fast friends. I met her son a few times. Levi is his name. He’s deaf, and she taught me how to sign so I could communicate with him. And while I was in school, I took a few more classes to learn more. Levi is such a great kid. He’s smart. I wasn’t sure what it was that drew me to them initially, but the more I got to know Shelly and Levi, the more I realized it was the fact she was a witch. She knew of shifters; she even suspected I was one. Finally, after knowing each other for quite a while, she outright asked. It was nice to finally be honest with someone. That’s when the friendship really got great.” I took another deep breath. Now that I’d gotten started on the story, there was no backing down. I owed my mate the truth.

“I’d met Levi’s dad. He was…” I wrinkled my nose. “A dick, for lack of a better term. She wasn’t with him anymore. But he came around every so often claiming that he had rights to Levi when he actually did not. The human court system is such a mess. There was no way to enforce the fact he had no rights to his kid. Then he started following me because I was around them a lot. He would sit outside my apartment in his car and watch. He would show up at my classes. I don’t think he actually wanted anything to do with me. Not like that anyway.”

Macs tensed as I spoke.

“But it was like he was crazed. Eventually, I had to go to the human police after he broke into my apartment and tried to beat me up. Thankfully, he was no match for my wolf strength. But I still had to be careful. Graduation was looming, and I had no idea what I would do when I finished with school. I wanted to run away with Shelly and Levi to keep them safe from him. So we put a few plans together to do just that. As soon as I graduated, we were going to find my parents and ask them for help. We should have just done it right away. I don’t know how, but Levi’s dad got wind of that plan, and he…” I fought back the tears thinking of all that had happened. “On the night of my graduation, I had expected Shelly and Levi to be there, but they weren’t. Afterward, I went to her apartment and found her. They had fought; I’m assuming she had tried to keep him from Levi. Levi ran, and his dad got mad. He hit her so hard she fell down the stairs.”

“She was dead?” Macs asked.

I nodded and blinked back tears. I laid my head back on the headrest and gazed out the window. “Goddess, it was so awful. I needed to find Levi right away because if he was with that awful man, I didn’t know what I would do. So I shifted to my fur and tracked him down. I found Levi hiding in a park, thank the Goddess.” I couldn’t tell him about Levi’s gift and how he could talk to me when I was in my wolf form, that he could hear my thoughts. I hadn’t known until Levi had seen me shifted for the first time. Macs would learn soon enough—it wasn’t my secret to share.

“I’m glad they had you,” Macs said. “What happened to Levi’s dad?”

“In jail now.” Not for long enough. Humans had such a weird notion of what justice looked like. People could be in jail for making a mistake that led to a death for a shit-ton longer than Levi’s father got for actual, intentional violence. It made no sense.

“I took Levi away, and we went to Asilo. It was only by luck that I ran into a shifter at the first motel we stopped at. She was part of an enforcer pack called Valford. I think the human police are still looking for Levi, or at least trying to. With his dad behind bars claiming that the kid ran off, there’s not much else they can do. It’s a dead end unless they stumble on to pack property and find him.”

“I’m glad that he has you,” Macs said again.

“Me too,” I said.

There was so much more to say than that, but it was a start, and I already felt a thousand pounds lighter.

Chapter 13

Macs

Ihadn’tbeensurewhat to expect when Gabe gave me directions to turn into the drive for Asilo pack. It had been labeled as a nature reserve, which I thought interesting. Hidden in plain sight of the humans was always best, I supposed. But part of me wondered if it was almost too much in plain sight, if humans accidentally wandered onto the land. I imagined not, or they would’ve fixed that by now.

Much like our pack territory, the drive led a winding path into the very center of the woods, where the trees gave cover to anything that might happen there. Humans might think it odd to see a cluster of houses inside a forest, and with all of the drones and things all the rage, it was best to be as tucked away as possible. Especially given this was a pride. Someone seeing a random wolf was not a huge deal. But a lion or a tiger—oh yeah, that would be noticed, and panic would ensue.

I was surprised by the quietness of it all. My pack and the packs I had visited were busy with activity everywhere: people moving, getting chores done, laughing, and talking. But Asilo was quiet. People were moving about but not hurried.

“Living in Asilo is about recovery and rebuilding,” Gabe explained. “A lot of the supplies we bring from the outside are things that a regular pack might make on their own or whatever. Asilo is not necessarily meant to be self-sufficient in the way that other packs are. A lot of their focus is getting each shifter what they need to leave this place—basically giving them wings.”

“That makes sense,” I said. “Is my presence going to be a problem here? I can stay in the car.” I’d actually been surprised when they let me come. I might be Gabe’s mate, but I didn’t wear his mark, and I wasn’t from Steelwick. Nothing about me shouted that I was safe to be there, even though I was. But they welcomed me with open arms, and I appreciated that.

Gabe shook his head at my offer to stay put. “No. When they know that supplies are coming, any omegas or children who feel uncomfortable around alphas will stay in their homes. Everyone else is pretty well comfortable around other shifters.”

The door to the main house opened, and an omega walked out. Even without scenting him, I could tell he was a cat shifter just by the way he moved and looked around with assessing eyes. Then with a flash, a smaller being ran out of the house and launched himself toward the car. The little blond-haired boy cupped his hands over the window and looked inside, shouting, “Gabe! Gabe, are you in there?”

The omega on the porch sighed like he had given up on reining in the little boy. And really, given what I saw, it would’ve been nearly impossible. Sometimes it was just better to give in to defeat.

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