Chapter 17

Anna

Jason had kept his promise and read me some of Cody’s texts. I understood Cody’s concern for me back then, even I admit I was a little fragile when they first met me. It warmed my heart that he had cared about me at the very beginning.

We laughed about our first impressions of each other when we first met. It was only a few weeks ago, but it seemed like almost a past life to me. Everything had changed when I met the guys. I thought about how different I was when I first came here. I had come so far and gained so much in a short amount of time.

I was nervous about what was going to happen with Sam, but I knew Austin would do the right thing. I had complete trust in him. The twins kept me entertained with stories of when they first came into the pack while we waited.

Eventually Cody came out with Sam, and I was glad to see both of them wearing smiles. I stood up and looked at Sam. “Well?”

Sam gave me a huge grin. “I’m going to be staying with you for a little while.”

I grinned back at her. It was going to be fun to have another girl in the house. Other than Kelsey, I didn’t really have any female friends. I was curious to get to know Sam since she was a female shifter and also active duty military.

Cody gave me a nod. “You’re up now.”

I grabbed my iPad before I headed back to Austin’s office. I had been working on a project the last week to pitch to Austin. I was hoping it would prove that I had some worth to the pack. I wasn’t going to let the events of the day derail me from presenting it to him.

The door was open, so I walked in. I tried to look confident, not nervous, as I approached Austin and James. They had stopped talking when I walked in and Austin motioned for me to have a seat.

I sat down in front of Austin’s desk and settled into the chair, holding the iPad to my chest. James frowned at me in disappointment and Austin gave a sigh.

“We were both under the impression that while you were at work you were in a secure location, out of reach of anyone who would come on base.”

I cleared my throat. “Usually I am. But sometimes I need to work in the ER, or the ICU, or the NICU to help manage critical care patients.”

James gave me a constipated look, as if he was having a difficult time holding in his words. “You got lucky today.” He growled. “Sam could have-“

“I’m not stupid.” I interrupted him. “All of the areas that I work in are heavy with video surveillance and security. If she had tried to harm me it would have been in full view of a large number of humans. I have no intention of letting anyone kidnap me. I’m aware of the dangers and I take every precaution.”

“No one thinks you’re stupid, Anna. But you haven’t spent your life in our world, a lot of this is new to you.” Austin told me with a frown.

“You’re right, Austin.” I told him firmly. “I didn’t spend my life in a pack of wolves ready to defend and protect me. I spent my life alone or with people who wanted to harm me or take advantage of me. Believe me, I know the difference.”

Austin leaned forward. “After meeting Kelsey, you have to understand why we would be cautious about meeting other people you consider friends.”

I blushed but nodded. “You’re right.” I raised my chin. “I let Kelsey push me around and take advantage of me. That was my mistake. But I’m not the same person now as I was then.”

James snorted. “That was a week ago.”

I glared at him. “More like two weeks.” I corrected him. “And that was the old Anna. I wanted to believe Kelsey was my friend because I was desperate for affection from anyone.” I cleared my throat before I continued. “I was alone. Sure, I had Evelyn. But Kelsey was my age and I needed a friend.”

“Looking back at it now, I realize that she sabotaged any other friendships or relationships that I tried to establish to keep me dependent on her. She manipulated me, and I looked the other way because I wanted to believe she cared about me.”

I took a deep breath. “I have you guys now. I realize the difference between what I have here and what I had with Kelsey. I’m not pulling the wool over my own eyes anymore. I’m looking at everyone with a more critical eye now, even myself. I’m done letting people push me around and use me. I want you to see me as the strong female that I am on the inside.”

Austin blinked, and James looked more thoughtful than angry now.

“I don’t want to see you lose what makes you so…you.” Austin said quietly.

“We are keeping watch over you so that you can chase after butterflies and shit.” James added gruffly.

I laughed. “I know.” I smiled at him. “But I need you to trust me and respect me, not look at me as if I were a helpless child.”

Austin shifted uncomfortably. “Believe me, neither of us looks at you as a child.”

“Good.” I said confidently. “I know that I need to earn your trust and respect and I’m willing to do that. But I need you to give me the chance to do it.”

Austin sat back with a small smile and James gave me a nod of respect.

“This is going to be a learning process for all of us, Anna.” Austin told me. “We are going to probably be over-protective of you because it’s part of who we are, but you can call us out on it if we start to smother you.”

I smiled at him. “We can negotiate and meet in the middle.”

Austin nodded and gave me a smile. “In addition to training you how to fight, James is also going to be teaching you some of our security protocols. There’s no reason for us to leave you out of the loop, you’re a part of the team.”

I smiled happily. This was turning out better than I expected, I should speak my mind more often. This was a win for the new Anna. I narrowed my eyes. But was it a little too easy? They had caved pretty quickly.

Austin nodded at James. “I need to talk to her about her pack responsibilities.”

James murmured an agreement and surprised me by giving my shoulder a squeeze on the way out. He closed the door behind him and it clicked shut.

Austin stood and came around to my side of his desk. “Come here, Anna.”

I stood, and he wrapped me in an embrace. I was surprised for a moment but wrapped my arms around him and gave him a squeeze. He held me there and I felt him inhale my scent and kiss the top of my head. “I was so worried…” he murmured into my hair.

I relaxed against him and rubbed his back. “I’m sorry.” I told him regretfully.

He gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Please don’t ever text me again to say that you need help with a panther and then leave me to panic without another word.”

I held him close and leaned my head against his chest. “I really am sorry. I will think before I text next time. If it makes you feel any better, I also texted Cody to say I was in the ER when he was on his way to ‘save me’ from the panther.”

Austin chuckled. “If that had been the next text I got from you, I might have lost it.”

“Yeah, today I learned to preface texts like that with ‘I’m fine but…’ and then state the emergency.”

“That would probably be best.” Austin said wryly.

I closed my eyes and breathed Austin’s scent in. His scent was comforting to me. It reminded me of pack, of safety, of family… and something more. Now that the emotion and the tension had faded I was becoming more aware of his muscular body pressed against mine.

I felt the flames of desire come to life inside me. My palms started to feel a little sweaty when I thought about what it would be like to run my hands over Austin’s back if he wasn’t wearing a shirt. If I tilted my head up and pressed my lips to his, what would he do?

“The twins came to talk to me about you today.” He murmured, resting his head on mine.

I stiffened. I knew Caleb planned to talk to the twins about us, but I didn’t expect them to take the issue right to Austin. He hadn’t sounded like he wanted to kick me out of the pack earlier…

He pulled back to meet my eyes, but didn’t release me. “I need to know… if I told you that I care for you, would you give me a chance as well?”

“I wasn’t sure how you felt about me.” I told him honestly, my heart pounding. “I wasn’t sure if you offered to be my mate because you felt obligated-“

He shook his head to interrupt. “I like you. I want to get to know you better and I am very attracted to you.”

I blushed and buried my face in his shirt. “I like you too. But I also like Caleb and the twins.”

I felt his chest move as he chuckled. “It’s not that unusual for a female to have more than one mate. You have such a big heart, I know there is room in there for me even if you have feelings for others.”

I looked up at him. He met my eyes and gently brushed my hair off my face. I blushed but moved my hands from his back to wrap around his neck. My heart beat faster as he lowered his head and our lips met.

I ran my fingers through his hair as I lost myself to sensation of his kiss. I was much more confident with my kisses now that I had some experience, so I was able to relax and enjoy the experience.

Austin started to pull away and I bit his lower lip to keep him close. He chuckled and kissed me more aggressively. This time when he pulled away, we were both breathless.

He leaned his forehead on mine. “I do have actual business to talk about with you.”

I smiled. “I do too. But you can go first since you’re the pack-master.”

He laughed. “Let’s sit.”

Instead of taking his seat behind the desk, Austin sat in the chair next to mine to face me. He reached out for my hand and rubbed his thumb gently over my wrist. “I need to talk to you about Evelyn’s estate.” He told me gently.

I swallowed. “I believe she willed everything to charity because she did not want my name associated with hers in any way.”

He nodded. “She did. But after her death, the council fixed the paperwork so that her belongings would go to the pack so that we could investigate further. They arranged things with the appropriate authorities.”

My jaw dropped. “So, you own everything?”

He nodded. “That’s one thing I want to talk to you about. Would you want everything to go to charity? Or do you want to hold on to her things?”

I swallowed. “Can I have some time to think? I had just assumed everything would be gone…”

Austin gave my hand a squeeze. “Of course. Take as much time as you need. I do need to ask, though. Do you know where she got her money?”

“She worked from home. She did old fashioned accounting with books instead of computers.” I told him.

Austin gave me a strange look.

“She had several clients who had small businesses, they were a part of her church.” I said defensively.

“Anna…there were no accounting books anywhere in her house. Did you know that she paid cash for her house, her car, her groceries, everything?”

“Yes,” I replied. “She didn’t trust banks or computers.” I frowned. “I didn’t know she paid cash for her house though, I thought she was just renting.”

“Do you know where she would have gotten that much money?” he asked me gently.

I shook my head. It seems like Evelyn had been keeping even more secrets from me than I had known.

“Can Caleb or James find out?” I asked him.

“The information that they found shows that Evelyn had been living in Europe with a wealthy husband before moving to Seaside.”

My jaw dropped. “Well, she was hiding from her old pack.” I said slowly. “But I don’t know where she would get all that money from and she never mentioned being married or even visiting Europe.”

Austin just nodded. “We will figure it out. Don’t worry about it for now.”

I looked at him dubiously. How could I not worry about it? This was weird. “Do you think someone was helping her hide?”

He shrugged. “Possibly. I never met her, but it seems unlikely that she was a bank robber.”

I laughed, trying to picture Evelyn robbing a bank. “What about any progress about locating her pack?” I asked hopefully.

Austin nodded. “We tracked down a pack that matches the description that you gave. Ten years ago the pack was raided by slavers. All of the humans were killed, most of the males were killed, but the pups and halfling children were kept to be sold. Council enforcers attacked the slavers in retaliation and most of the prisoners were freed and sent to live with other packs.”

My jaw dropped. “Slavers! That’s a thing? And Evelyn’s pack has not even existed for ten years?”

Austin shook his head. “The pack has not existed but some of the males were never accepted into other packs and have been wandering the country as lone wolves. One of them was involved in the attack here. We think he came across Evelyn coincidentally and decided to use the opportunity to get revenge on her for leaving the pack so many years ago. Who knows? He may have blamed her for the slaver’s attack.”

“So, just to summarize, we also have to worry about slavers attacking us?” My voice came out a little high, so I tried to calm down a little. “And I know there was a group of wolves at Evelyn’s, not just one.”

Austin grimaced. “We know. We think he had help from the other lone wolves that attacked us that night. But the council has custody of the prisoners and is only giving us small amounts of information. And we don’t have to worry about slavers in the US anymore. Council enforcers and the packs have forced them all out.”

I sighed. I knew Austin was doing the best he could, and I appreciated him letting me know. But this was frustrating! I felt like I had no idea what was going on.

“Speaking of the council…” Austin sighed. “I need to make sure that you understand that they are not always on our side. Even my parents. The only people I want you to trust are myself, James, Cody, Caleb, and the twins.”

I frowned. “What about the rest of the pack?”

Austin looked at me thoughtfully before giving a sad sigh. “This does not leave my office.”

I nodded. I could tell he was being very serious right now.

“James and I suspect that we may have a mole or two in our pack.” Austin told me sadly.

It was my turn to give his hand a squeeze. I knew how much it would hurt him to have to admit that.

“That’s why I am so insistent that you are with one of us at all times.” Austin told me. “If one of the pack members asked you to go somewhere with him or tells you that one of us asked for you to go somewhere… be cautious.”

I nodded. “Thanks for telling me, Austin. The secret is safe with me.”

He gave me a smile before his face turned serious again. “Last piece of serious business from me.” He paused as if gathering his thoughts. “When we first met, I sent James up north to investigate your past.”

“To Buffalo?” I asked.

He shook his head. “The arctic wolves have a stronghold in Montreal.”

I perked up a little. “I'm related to them?” I asked excitedly.

“Yes and no.” Austin stated cryptically.

I raised an eyebrow at him. Now was not the time to be cryptic.

Austin reached over to his desk and pulled a wrinkled photo out of a folder. “He was given this by one of the wolves.”

I eagerly looked at the photo. It was a photo of a blond woman, who looked very similar to me, holding a baby. “Is this Astrid?” I asked excitedly. “Emerys mistook me for her when he was here.”

Austin frowned. “I don’t want you to get too excited, Anna. We don’t know a lot right now. I’ve reached out to Emerys and my other contacts to try and get more information for you, but it may take a while.”

I nodded, cradling the delicate photo in my hands. Tears came to my eyes. I was looking at a picture of my real mother, holding me when I was a baby. I could tell by looking in her eyes that she loved me. She hadn’t just thrown me in the trash when I was born.

“Can’t we just ask them in Montreal?” I asked in confusion.

“The pack-master denies ever having her in the pack.” Austin said with a frown. “There’s more to this story than we know, and we have to tread carefully. If we push too hard we might not get any information at all.”

I swallowed back my tears of frustration. I had waited all of my life for this information, I could wait a little more. I tried to be grateful that I had a picture and her name, that was more than I ever had before.

I looked at Austin with tears in my eyes. “She loved me.” I whispered.

Austin reached out for me and pulled me into his lap. I squirmed a little to get comfortable and then cuddled into him. I took deep breaths of his scent and pushed back my tears.

He rubbed my back. “It’s okay to let it out.” Austin murmured to me.

“My emotions are all over the place,” I told him honestly. “I want time to process and then later tonight I can let it out.”

“All right.” Austin gave me a little squeeze and we both stayed still for a moment. I was comforted by his scent and took a deep breath to clear my mind.

“Does this mean this weekend is going to be a good or bad time to scatter the ashes?” Austin asked quietly.

I let out my breath. “I don’t know if I’m ready.” I told him bluntly. “I thought I was, but talking about what happened to Evelyn’s pack made me realize that I can’t say my final goodbye to her yet. Nothing is resolved, I feel like I still owe her.”

Austin rubbed my back. “You have been handling all of this very well. You have been very patient with our slow progress on the investigation and you have been doing a great job at fitting in with the pack.”

I looked at him suspiciously. “What does it feel like there is going to be a ‘but’ on the end of that sentence?”

 He smiled at me. “But I need you to be patient a little longer. I promise that I have a plan for all of this to come together, but I need you to give me time.”

I sighed. “I appreciate everything that you have done for me, but how much time are we talking?”

He chuckled and nuzzled my hair as he held me closer. “As much time as it takes.” He murmured to me.

“I can do that if you are going to let me be more involved.” I told him assertively.

He pulled back a little to look me into the eye and raise his eyebrow in question.

“I don’t like sitting idly by and waiting for someone else to do my work for me. I want to be actively involved and a major player in the search for these attackers and Evelyn’s murderers.”

He tapped a finger on my thigh where his hand rested. “You’ve let us take the lead so far.”

I nodded. “That was the old Anna. I’m done compartmentalizing and distracting myself with work to avoid facing my emotions and difficult situations. The new Anna is all about facing these things head on. I refuse to hide or be afraid anymore.”

Austin gave me a nod, but the frown remained in place. “I respect your desire to be an active member in the pack, but I’m not willing to place you in any risky or dangerous situations until you are trained and have proven you can handle it.”

It was my turn to nod. “I understand, and I think that’s reasonable. But I still want to be involved in the investigation. I’m sure there are plenty of things I can do that don’t involve facing down the enemy.”

“I’ll talk to James and Caleb to see what they think.” Austin told me.

I took a deep breath to argue with him further, but the look in his eyes told me that I had gotten as far as I was going to be able to get today.

I pulled back from him, so I could change the subject. “If that was all of your business, then it’s my turn.”

He nodded and relaxed his embrace to just have his arms loosely holding me in place. I reached for my iPad and moved to get off his lap, but he tightened his hold to keep me on his lap.

I giggled. “Is this the best position for a business discussion?”

“Yes,” he told me with a glint in his eye. “I need to see whatever you are going to show me on your iPad.”

I rolled my eyes with a smile. “Fine.” I didn’t mind, I thought it felt nice to have him hold me. Especially after everything that we just talked about.

I pulled up the spreadsheet that I had been working on. “I used the receipts that the twins keep to put together some numbers.”

Austin’s eyebrows went up when he looked closer at my work. “I made columns for each type of expense that you have. This is probably not going to be a surprise to you.” I paused for dramatic effect. “But taking care of a pack of wolves is really expensive.”

Austin played along with a smirk. “Expensive? I had no idea.”

I nodded seriously, continuing the game. “But good news! I have found a way to make it less expensive.”

“Oh, thank god.” Austin replied with a chuckle.

I couldn’t help but giggle when I imagined our conversation as part of a late-night infomercial.

I flipped to the second spreadsheet I made. “This shows that if you purchased from suppliers directly or purchased in bulk instead of from the grocery store, you could be saving a lot.”

Austin frowned as he looked closer at the numbers. “You think you could save us forty percent?”

I nodded. “My proposal is to let me handle all of the bulk purchasing of all the food, perishables, alcohol, and supplies like toiletries.” I could see him thinking as he looked over my work.

“If you aren’t sure about how it would work, we could start small with just this household. If you like the results, I can expand to the entire pack.” I told Austin seriously.

“I’m interested.” He replied. “Detail some of the specifics.”

I explained the research that I had done and the conversations that I had with several suppliers. I also went over prices for individual items to emphasize my findings.

“We spend how much a year on deodorant?” Austin exclaimed.

I nodded. “Yeah, if you buy it from the drugstore on demand you pay two or three times the price you could be paying. Multiply that by fifty guys in the pack and it gets out of control quickly.”

Austin tapped my head. “I like the way your brain works. I think this is a great idea. I’m going to let you start with the household purchases here and see how it works for now. In two months we will talk again.”

I nodded with a grin. “Sounds good.” I wiggled a little with excitement and Austin groaned.

“As much as I want to just hold you and never let you go, I do need to have a chat with James and Caleb. We have several projects we are working on in addition to the panther you just brought us.” Austin murmured to me regretfully as he ran a hand through my hair. “James is going to have a lot to say about my decision to let Sam stay.” Austin said ruefully.

I sighed sadly, “Okay.” I didn’t get to spend time with Austin that much, he always had work to do. Plus, I could tell that James was going to be giving Austin a hard time, I didn’t envy him. But it sounded like James was going to be distracted with Austin, so now might be a good time to plan with the twins for our next prank on him.

Austin tilted my chin up, so he could look in my eyes. “What would you say if I wanted to ask you to dinner, just the two of us?”

I grinned at him. “Like a date?”

“Exactly like a date,” he replied with a grin to match mine. “I want to sit on the beach with you and have dinner as the sun sets. Then we can walk along the ocean waves under the light of the moon and admire the stars.”

I couldn’t hide my smile. “That sounds romantic.” I murmured.

Austin leaned forward to brush my lips with his. “Saturday?”

“It’s a date.” I told him, trying not to look so excited. We traded a couple more affectionate kisses before we were interrupted by a knock at the door.

Austin groaned. “That’s James. He’s been trying to get my attention. I told him I was busy scolding you for being reckless.”

I chuckled. “I’ll try not to look too happy on my way out.” I gave Austin one last kiss before sliding off his lap and heading for the door.

James was waiting impatiently on the other side and gave me a suspicious look when I opened the door. I self-consciously smoothed my rumpled clothes and pressed my swollen lips together. “He’s all yours,” I told James, stepping aside so he could enter the room.

I was a little surprised at myself by how easily I was starting to share my affection with the guys. When I first met Austin, the thought of sitting on his lap would have given me overwhelming anxiety. But when I was with him now, it just felt natural. I smiled to myself, proud of all the progress I was making.

I glanced down at the photo Austin had given me, I wanted to go up to my room and get it in a frame before anything happened to it.