The Struggle: Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Book 2 Page 5

  I debated on whether or not I should tell the guys what scent I had picked up on. A part of me thought it might have been my imagination, but could I really ignore a potential threat? As I washed the last of the conditioner out of my hair I decided that I wasn't going to keep anything hidden from them, even if they might laugh if it turned out to be nothing. If I was worried about this, then I was going to talk it through with them. Maybe we could go back to the school tonight and the guys would help me track the scent. I felt better once I made a decision and shut the water off. I quickly grabbed a towel as the cool air of the air conditioning swirled around me.

  As soon as I was dressed I hopped down the stairs to look for the guys. Corey and Gray gave me grunts from where they were working beneath a car on the lift, so I walked through to the small office. Wyatt was rubbing his hand over his face and hovering over Kannon as Kannon typed on the laptop. "See?" Kannon murmured. "It's all still there."

  "Thank god." Wyatt looked up at me as I entered the room and I could see the

  relief in his eyes.

  "What happened?" I asked curiously.

  Wyatt uncharacteristically blushed. "I was having problems with our invoice and payment system. I think Kannon got it worked out, though."

  Kannon nodded. "It would be a lot easier to have the customers sign electronically instead of printing everything out, signing it, then scanning it back in. If we got another iPad-"

  "We don't have money for that right now," Wyatt said in frustration. "We're running low on funds and we're going to need everything just to keep this place open. The utilities on this place aren't exactly cheap."

  "We should start getting more money from the college from my contract,” I said softly. “That will help with pack funds.”

  Wyatt blinked at me in surprise. “You’re going to give us your money?”

  I looked at him in confusion. We had never really discussed money before. I had just assumed that the money I got paid would go into whatever bank account was used for the good of the pack. “We don’t have one account for the whole pack?”

  “We do,” Wyatt said slowly. “But-”

  “Lori’s a part of the pack,” Kannon interjected.

  “We all live together and share food,” I added. “I just assumed that it was the same with money. That’s how my last pack was. The pack master would decide who got what.”

  “But your last pack master probably used the money to control everyone in the pack,” Wyatt said. “Gray isn’t like that. None of us are like that. We want to make sure you understand that you have a choice. You can leave anytime you want.” From the way Wyatt looked at me, it was clear that he expected me to leave at any moment. Was that why he always backed off the moment we started to get close?

  “I know,” I said softly. “That’s why I feel comfortable putting my money in a group pot. Because I trust you guys and I know that we’ll use the money the way it’s best for all of us. You guys took me in when I had nothing. You fed me, made sure I had a safe place to sleep, and most importantly, you treated me with respect.” I swallowed back the lump that was starting to form in my throat.

  “But you don’t owe us for any of that,” Wyatt insisted. “We took care of you because it was the right thing to do, not because we wanted something in return.”

  I lifted up my chin. “You’re right. I don’t owe you anything.” Both of the guys looked at me in surprise. “You have my trust and loyalty because you earned it, not because I owe it to you.”

  Kannon beamed happily at me while Wyatt gave me a slow nod. “I respect that. And I want you to know that there is full transparency with everyone in the pack. We have a budget that we all agreed to and once we start making a profit, we’ll be able to split it evenly. That way everyone can get a little bit of spending money that’s not just for necessities. Anytime you want to look through our financial records, you can.”

  “I think Lori should get a little extra out of her first paycheck, though,” Kannon spoke up. “Her trunk is almost empty because she didn’t bring clothes or anything from home with her.”

  I turned bright red. I had run from home with only one set of clothing, completely unprepared to be alone in the world. Over the summer, I had worked part-time at an ice cream shop which had paid very little. I had a couple of changes of clothes that I had gotten at the thrift shop, but it was painfully obvious that I only had about three outfits I could wear to school. After I had walked out of my job several weeks ago, I had been completely reliant on the guys and not one of them had complained. I had shared their food and slept in their home, but I hadn’t wanted to ask for anything extra. I just did the best I could with what little I had.

  Wyatt nodded. “We’ll talk about it at dinner, but I can’t see anyone disagreeing.”

  “Go shower,” I told Kannon. “I’ll get dinner started tonight.”

  Kannon gave me a wide smile before he left the room but Wyatt looked worried. When I had first arrived, I had informed the guys that just because I was female it did not mean I was just here to cook and clean for them. To my surprise, I had quickly learned that Kannon was the chef in the group. He prepared almost all of our meals and was happy to do it. I helped out a lot, but I had never been left alone in the kitchen. I rolled my eyes. “Relax, Wyatt. I can handle tacos on my own.”

  “You’re not on your own,” Wyatt murmured to me.

  I looked at him in surprise but he didn’t hesitate to follow me in the kitchen. “I’ll cook the meat if you want to cut up lettuce and tomatoes for toppings?” I suggested.

  Wyatt nodded and got out the cutting board. I heard the sound of chopping and hummed a little under my breath as I started cooking the meat on the stove. I glanced back when I heard a pause in the chopping.

  Wyatt set down the knife and looked over at me. “Lori, I know I can be…cold sometimes. But I really am glad that you’re here.”

  I smiled at him. “Thanks, Wyatt. I’m never really sure how you feel about me.”

  “Neither am I,” he replied almost under his breath.

  Gray and Corey must have been summoned by the scent of cooking meat, because they appeared in the kitchen and looked towards the pan longingly. “You guys have time to wash up before this is ready,” I informed them. “But be quick.”

  While I was uncomfortable with the shower situation, the guys were perfectly fine sharing. They didn’t mind all piling in there together or stripping down before shifting. Of course, they had all grown up together and were probably used to it. They also had not grown up with the constant threat of rape hanging over their heads anytime they were alone and vulnerable. I shook the negative thoughts from my head and instead thought about the fact that the three of them were probably all naked in the shower together. Right now. Upstairs.

  Warmth flooded through my body as I pictured it. The guys had all been careful not to be naked around me out of respect. But we all lived in very close quarters, so it’s not like I’d never seen them in a towel before. They were all very fit, athletic, well-muscled, healthy males. My daydreaming ground to a halt when I realized that Wyatt was staring in my direction. His nostrils flared and I flushed with embarrassment when I realized that he had most likely picked up on the scent of my arousal. It was months before I was due to go into heat, but that didn’t mean that my scent wouldn’t still be tempting to a male.

  I tucked my head down and focused on stirring the meat in the pan as if that were the most important task in the world. Wyatt cleared his throat. “Uh, veggies are chopped, Lori. I’m just going to go…” He pointed to the door that let out into the garage. “Check on something…that’s out there and not in here.”

  I watched him go with conflicting emotions. A part of me had been nervous that he would act on his attraction to me. If he was attracted to me. But another part of me was hurt that he hadn’t. What if Wyatt didn’t find me attractive? I started vigorously chopping at the meat with a spatula to break up the chunks of ground beef. Why did men have to
be so confusing? Why was I so confused about men?

  This was the first time I had felt anything but fear towards adult male wolves and I didn’t know how to interpret or handle my new feelings. I needed another female to talk to. I paused for a second – what I really wanted was my mom.

  Suck it up, Lori. I could almost hear her voice in my head. I think that my mom would want me to focus on what was really important, but she would also want me to be happy. But how was I supposed to know what that was? I did know one thing for sure: I was going to have to decide what I wanted before I put unfair expectations on the guys. I couldn’t be hot one moment and cold the next. Did I want to be just a pack mate to them? Or did I want something more?

  I had just drained the fat off the meat and mixed in the water and spices when I heard the guys thundering down the stairs. Kannon, Grayson, and Corey all filed into the kitchen with damp hair and smelling fresh. My heart skipped a beat when Kannon came close and leaned over my shoulder. “Looks good, Lori. Thanks for cooking tonight.” He gave me a quick kiss on the side of my head before he went to the cupboard in search of plates.

  Wyatt must have decided it was safe to come back inside now that the other guys were here. I looked around the kitchen at all four of them laughing and working as a team to get dinner on the table and I realized that this, right here, was what I wanted. I wanted the friendship, the comradery, and the love that was in this room. I was attracted to each one of the guys here and there would be an empty hole in my heart if one of them decided to leave. I needed to get over my fear of the unknown and go after what I wanted.

  “Crap!” I cursed. “I forgot to heat up the shells.”

  “No worries,” Kannon said with a smile. “It’ll only take a few minutes. I’m sure these savages can wait.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Corey grumbled.

  “We have chips,” Grayson announced as he dug through the pantry in search them.

  “Taco nachos,” Wyatt said with a grin.

  Kannon shrugged as Gray located the bag of tortilla chips and tossed it towards Corey. Corey ripped open the bag and sprinkled some on his plate. Wyatt scowled at him. “You should mix up all the toppings first, then dip your chips in. You get a better ratio of chips to toppings that way.”

  Corey rolled his eyes. “No way. Chips need to be the base layer. Do you know nothing about nachos?”

  I giggled as I took a seat at the table. It was good to see the twins arguing playfully instead of at each other’s throats. “What do you think, Lori?” Corey challenged me.

  “I’m going to be a real rebel tonight,” I said before pausing for dramatic effect. “No chips at all. I’m having a taco salad.” Both of the twins cried out in outrage, but I could see the laughter in their eyes.

  “I like the way you think,” Grayson said with a grin. “It’s healthier that way.”

  I eyed Grayson’s plate as he dumped a liberal amount of grated cheese over his meat. “I can’t even see your lettuce under the five pounds of meat and cheese.”

  The guys all laughed as Grayson insisted that he was the fittest wolf here, regardless of how much cheese he ate. I had to agree with him there, that man had very little body fat. Once the laughter died down and everyone dug into their food, Grayson got up to the fridge for beers. He tossed one to Wyatt and one to Corey before grabbing one for himself. Kannon looked at him hopefully but Grayson just shook his head. “It’s a school night, buddy.”

  Kannon shrugged and scooped up another chip. “Wyatt and I wanted to talk to everyone about giving Lori a little extra money when her first paycheck comes from the college so she can get some clothes and girl stuff.”

  Gray shrugged. “Whatever you need, Lori.”

  I had expected Corey to argue a little and say that the pack needed the money for the business more than I needed ‘girl stuff’ but he really surprised me. “There’s a mall a couple towns over, I can take you on Sunday.”

  Wyatt’s jaw dropped mid-chew and he stared at his brother in shock. “Thanks, Corey,” I told him with a shy smile. Not only was Corey volunteering to spend time with me, but he was also sacrificing his only day off to shop for girly things.

  “What?” Corey grumbled at Wyatt. “Close your mouth, that’s gross.”

  The table went back to quiet and I cleared my throat. “I also needed to talk to you guys about something.” I shifted in my chair nervously. “I think I might have smelled something, but I’m not sure if it’s real. I wanted to see if maybe one of you could come with me to check it out?”

  Grayson frowned at me. “Of course, we’ll check it out. But what was it? And why would you think it might not be real?”

  I looked down at my plate and pushed a piece of lettuce around with my fork. “I only caught the scent for a couple of seconds, and it was so faint.” I could feel all the guys looking at me. “It’s because, well, it was the scent of my dead pack master.”

  “What!?!” Corey exploded. “Where?”

  Gray gave him a dirty look. “Sit down.” Corey huffed but did as he was asked.

  “I only caught the scent for a moment,” I said softly. “But I’ve feared that scent for my entire life. I know it better than my own. It’s just – it’s not really possible for him to be alive.”

  Kannon reached for my hand. “I think the whole pack should go, just in case.”

  Grayson nodded. “We need to take this seriously. Lori, a powerful wolf can heal injuries that you might not expect. As much as we all might wish he was dead, we have to consider the chance that he’s not. I wish you would have told us this sooner, we should have gone right away,” he gently chastised me.

  I huddled in on myself and Kannon moved his chair closer so that he could put his arm around me. “Was it when we were at practice today?”

  I nodded and he rubbed my shoulder. “I knew something was bothering you, I just didn’t want to push you to tell me if you weren’t ready to trust me.”

  “I trust you, Kannon,” I assured him as I looked into his eyes. “I was just embarrassed for everyone to know if it was just my imagination playing tricks on me.” I looked back down at my plate, no longer hungry. “I still have nightmares sometimes, and they seem so real,” I murmured quietly.

  “I know what you mean,” Corey said. I looked up to see darkness in his eyes. “It can sometimes feel like you are reliving the worst moments of your life.”

  I nodded. “And sometimes the fear follows me out of the dream and haunts me during the day.” Corey and I shared a look of understanding. I knew the guys had a tough past with starting a rebellion and being banished from their pack, but I got the sense that there was something even darker that haunted Corey. Something that had pushed him further from his pack and his brother and isolated him in a prison of nightmares.

  “Finish eating and we’ll be on our way,” Grayson ordered the group.

  Wyatt nodded. “Weapons?”

  Grayson looked at me. “I assume we’re going on school property?” I nodded in confirmation. “We have to be careful, then,” he told Wyatt. “Definitely bring the tranq gun.” Grayson turned in my direction. “Did you pick up on the scent of any other wolves?”

  I shook my head no. “Just him, which is another reason why…”

  “Why you were worried it wasn’t real,” Kannon finished for me.

  “You’ve never really spoken about him before,” Grayson gently prodded me.

  I shrugged. “Baracus was a terrible wolf who enjoyed making the rest of us suffer. He had his enforcer, Robert, do a lot of the worst things. But Baracus loved to watch.”

  “We’ve known wolves like that before,” Wyatt told me. “The power of an alpha goes to their heads and they think they’re gods compared to the rest of us.”

  Corey nodded. “They try to break you by taking away everything that you love the most.” The pain in his voice just about broke my heart. “But if he came to Hollow Crest alone thinking that he could hurt you-”

  “Then he j
ust made the biggest mistake of his life,” Wyatt finished for him. The twins nodded at each other in solidarity.

  A chill ran down my spine at the thought of facing the wolf who had tormented and kept my mother imprisoned my entire life. I had been conditioned to be afraid my entire life, to cower beneath him. But there was a tiny flame of anger deep inside my belly that I tried to focus on. I needed my rage to burn away the fear so that I could face my worst nightmare come back to life. I needed to hate him more than I feared him if I wanted to keep my new pack safe.

  But if there was one thing I was sure about, it was that Baracus was smart. There was a reason why he had always used Robert to carry out his orders. It was so that Baracus could stay safely in the shadows, away from harm while others fought his battles for him.

  “What if he is alive, but this is a trap?” I asked worriedly. “What if he wants to draw us out there where we’re vulnerable?”

  Grayson and Wyatt exchanged glances. “We’ll do something that he won’t expect,” Grayson told us. “We know where he placed his scent to draw you in and he’ll expect you to return to that spot. We’ll circle the area and force him to go where we want him. We’ll make him vulnerable.”

  I nodded but I couldn’t help but keep worrying. I trusted Grayson and the other guys, but they were young wolves compared to the wily and apparently hard-to-kill pack master. Memories of that horrible night flooded back to me and suddenly I was back in the clearing, watching my mother bleed out, helpless to save her life.

  Grayson stood. “Let’s go. We’ll worry about cleaning up later. This is much more important.” The other guys all followed his lead but I ran to block the door.

  A wave of fear crashed over me as I realized that tonight I could lose my pack, just like I had lost my mother. “Wait!” I cried out. “My mother died because-” I couldn’t help the sob that broke out and prevented me from speaking. “I couldn’t bear it if anything…” I choked out the words the best I could, but I was too overwhelmed with emotion to speak clearly. I could see Gray or Kannon lying on the ground bleeding, life fading from their eyes, all because of me.