The playful and mischievous attitude of the twins was exactly what I needed right now. The intense amount of pressure that I felt squeezing down on me the last couple of days was slowly lifting. I was feeling almost giddy with relief.

After my meeting with Austin, I had high hopes. I knew James would be forced to work with me to find Evelyn’s killers. Once we found the pack responsible, we could figure out what was going on. Did one of her old pack members want revenge on her? Did the pack-master want to make an example out of her?

I wish Evelyn was here now. For as long as I’ve known her, she had always lived in fear. She never felt safe, and she never let herself get attached to a home, saying that she may have to leave at a moment’s notice. I wish she could have met Austin and had the feeling of being welcomed into a pack and kept safe.

I comforted myself by day dreaming of what would happen once we found the pack. I was sure that I could convince Austin to save any females who were still left there. They should not have to live under the oppression and slavery that Evelyn described. I pictured her smiling down on me in satisfaction from heaven once I accomplished all of that.

I was not a religious person, but I was sure Evelyn was in a good place now. She had such a kind soul, and she sacrificed so much; she deserved an eternity of happiness, comfort, and security. I only wished I could have provided her that while she was on Earth.

I snapped out of my day dreaming to referee the twins. Jason was tormenting Mason with his music choices, and Mason had finally lunged up front to try and reach the console. I smacked his hands away from the controls.

“Don’t you guys know that the navigator is always in charge of the music selection?”

Mason settled back down in the back. “We’ll see.” He crossed his arms over his chest as I flicked through the radio.

“C’mon, where’s some Britney Spears?” I teased them.

Both guys groaned. I stopped going once I recognized the first chords of “Wonderwall”, by Oasis. “Everyone knows the words to this song.” I grinned and theatrically started to sing along. They both got in on the fun, and we all tried to outdo each other with our terrible renditions.

As we got closer to my house, I had to do more navigating and less karaoke.

We pulled into my neighborhood, and I admired the fall colors of the trees that lined the perfectly manicured lawns and walking paths.

“This is nice,” Mason said. “It’s not what I expected when you said you lived all the way out here.” I lived pretty far from Seaside in an area that up until recently had been mostly undeveloped forest or farms. Most people didn’t realize how much construction had gone up this way in such a short time.

I had purchased a house in one of the new neighborhoods that had gone up here a few months ago. The advantage of living this far from the beach was that houses were a third of the price, so I could afford one. I had worked two jobs for a while after I graduated, living in a tiny studio apartment when most of my classmates were spending their first ‘real’ paychecks on new cars and parties.

My sacrifice had paid off, because I had saved up enough for a down payment and achieved something I had thought would never happen: I owned my own home. I spent so many years being unwanted in my uncle’s house; sleeping on a fold out bed in the den and having to erase all signs of my presence when I got up in the morning.

I had never had a place to call my own. When I finally left my uncle’s home, it was to a college dorm where I had room that I shared with two other girls. I never had any type of privacy, and my roommates were always moving or borrowing my stuff.

Once I was working on my doctorate, I was able to move into an apartment that I shared with only three other girls. It was less crowded than in the dorm where I had to share communal showers with twelve other people, but it was nothing compared to owning my own home.

I could not describe to you the brief flash of joy I felt every day knowing that when I came home from work, my stuff would still be there, exactly how I left it. I could wake up in the morning and take a shower in my own bathroom. I didn’t have to clean or cook for other people; if I cleaned up a mess, it was because I had made it. Having my own house gave me a sense of freedom that I had never felt before.

We pulled into the driveway of my house. It was a cute two story with a one car garage, not nearly as impressive as the huge mansion we just came from, but it was mine, and that made it the best house in the world. I hopped out of the car and skipped to the front door, entering my code into the electronic lock. Mason followed me in as I put my code into the security system to stop its insistent beeping.

“Jason is going to take a look around outside the house and check for anything unusual.” I nodded and kicked off my boots in the entryway. I went to the fridge and peered in; it was pretty empty because I had stayed the weekend at Kelsey’s house and then avoided coming home yesterday. It had been hours since the burger, and I was starving.

Mason stood behind me as I gazed forlornly into the fridge. “I think you need to go shopping,” he told me seriously.

I just grunted in answer.

“We can probably stop and get something on the way back. Jason and I haven’t gotten dinner yet.”

My stomach picked that moment to growl loudly. We both laughed, and I grabbed some chips from the pantry. I plopped down on the couch with them and picked up my iPad.  “Do you care if I order some stuff to make dinner?”

“Where are you going to order from?” he asked, sounding confused and reaching a hand out to grab some chips. He was probably confused by the “make dinner” part of my question. 

“The grocery store down the street will deliver,” I told him.

He looked a little impressed. “I didn’t know they did that.”

“Oh, yeah. The best part is that they will also deliver alcohol.”

“Really?” he asked doubtfully.

I quickly logged onto the app. “Do you guys like Mexican?”

“Yeah.” He sprawled down on the couch next to me and nudged my leg with his foot. “Order beer.”

I rolled my eyes. “What kind?”

I selected my quick list named “Mexican” that already had all the items I needed for tacos and fajitas and then added his request for beer.

The front door slammed, and Jason came into the living room. He eyed us both just sitting on the couch and claimed the loveseat for himself. “What are we doing?”

“Anna is going to cook us dinner.”

“Really?” He looked surprised.

“I’m going to make you guys help with some of the chopping, but yeah.”

“That’s cool, we like knives.” Jason grinned. He mimed throwing one, and I rolled my eyes.

Jason jumped to his feet. “Where’s the food? Let’s get started, I’m starving!”

I explained that we were waiting on the groceries to be delivered, and he looked just as impressed as Mason had. Judging by the house they lived in, I would have guessed they had a team of servants to take care of them.

They both laughed when I asked, and they explained that the two of them did the grocery shopping and procuring of food since they were the lowest ranking wolves living in the house.

“So, they just bring you all your stuff without going to the store? How long does that take?” Jason asked.

“It will probably be an hour or so.”

“Huh, that’s probably how long that would have taken if we ordered pizza.”

I turned sideways on the couch, positioning a pillow against the armrest behind my back and swinging my legs up and over to my side of the couch. My knees were up so I could keep my legs on my side of the couch, and I leaned my iPad up against my thighs. “Teach me some wolf stuff.”

Mason scooped his arm around my feet and gently laid them over his thighs so my legs could stretch out.

He leaned all the way back into the couch with his hands behind his head and gave a deep sigh as he relaxed. I had tensed up when he first touched me, unsure of what he was doing. But I relaxed as I looked over at him.

My calves were across his thighs, but other than that, he wasn’t touching me. I wasn’t familiar with this kind of casual touching but decided I kind of liked it. It was comforting in a friendly way. With him reclined and exposed like that, he was the opposite of threatening right now.

Jason had taken advantage of the distraction and snatched the bag of chips off the coffee table, happily crunching away. 

Mason opened one eye and looked over in my direction. “James didn’t tell us anything other than you were a new add to the pack. It’s a little strange that you already have a house here and everything. When did you move here?”

Austin had not mentioned whether I should share my past with the pack, but I had a gut feeling that I could trust these guys.

“I have been in the area for almost 8 years now. For 7 years, I went to school at North Peninsula University, and I have been working on the base for about a year now.”

They both looked surprised. “So you were here before Austin started the pack?”

I nodded. “So technically, you guys moved in on my pack lands.”

They both laughed. “Please tell me that you told James that,” Mason begged.

“Well, he was there when I told Austin that his land surrounded mine, like the Vatican in Italy.”

The guys were both rolling in laughter now, so I continued. “And Austin did agree to merge packs, so I guess technically you guys are also in ‘The Anna Pack’ now, too.”

Jason had to wipe tears from his eyes, he was laughing so hard, and it took a couple minutes for the guys to settle down. “I wish I had been a part of that meeting,” Mason told me.

“What pack did you come from originally, though?” Jason asked. “I’m surprised they would let you move out here on your own. This was the Wild West of wolf country before Austin moved in and cleaned things up.”

“I have never been in a pack before,” I admitted softly with my eyes down.

Mason moved his arms down, placing one on his armrest and the other resting on my shins. I squirmed uncomfortably, and he absentmindedly wrapped a hand around my ankle, gently stroking the delicate skin right underneath my ankle bone. I guess this was OK.

Jason had finished the bag of chips, and after gazing longingly into the bag to see if he missed any, he tossed it onto the table. “So where are your parents?” he asked with a frown.

“I was adopted as a baby. By humans.” I didn’t want to get into the whole story about being adopted a second time by my uncle.

“I wonder how that happened.” Mason murmured with concern in his eyes. “Wolves rarely let offspring out of the pack - especially females. Someone else in your pack should have stepped forward to take care of you if your parents couldn’t.”

I just shrugged, trying to think of something to say that would change the subject.

Jason did it for me as he sprawled out over the loveseat, making himself more comfortable. “So, James wasn’t exaggerating when he said you needed ‘how to be a wolf 101’.”

“Nope, I really need to know how to avoid embarrassing myself in front of other wolves.”

They both laughed. “You definitely don’t act like any other females I have ever met, but I don’t think we should teach you how to be like that.”

“Yeah, most of them are super spoiled and use the fact that they are so rare to manipulate and take advantage of the single males in the pack.”

“A lot of them think it’s a game to make the men compete and fight over them.”

I turned my head from one to the other as they took turns speaking. I must have had a disbelieving look on my face, because Jason added, “It happens.”

Mason nodded. “That’s why we don’t have any females in the pack now. Austin is building a really good thing here, and he doesn’t want it torn apart by fighting or jealousy.”

That made sense to me. “Well, I’m independent and can provide for myself just fine.”

Mason grinned. “Don’t worry, we will make sure no one spoils you.”

“I call first dibs on any presents that pack members try to give Anna!” Jason called out.

I threw my pillow at him and sat back up. I put legs back down on the floor to sit up straight. I was surprised to realize that now that I had been getting used to feeling Mason’s touch, I felt the absence of his warmth.

The doorbell rang. “Food’s here!”