Chapter Twenty-four
Glenn
To say it was hard for Glenn to watch Brady throw a branch onto a gaping bear trap with the intent to set it off would be an understatement. He must have been crazy when he agreed to Parker and Brady coming up to the homestead to help him. He'd cleared a lot of the land of the obvious dangers. He'd even gotten to the point where he was able to start cleaning up the destructive mess the coyotes left behind in a few places. But there was still so much. Worse, many of the traps left now were well hidden. A few times Parker had shouted out for one of them to freeze moments before they had been about to set one off. Not all the traps were deadly, some were simple hunting snares, meant to trap and not kill. But some, like the shooting spears and the bear trap, would do enough damage to kill.
He hated to admit it to himself and would never say the words out loud, but Parker was the best of them at spotting the traps. Because they are the traps of his people. Glenn thought bitterly. He still didn't know what to do about that. He couldn't keep Parker away from his family forever. And, that wasn't what he wanted to do. He only wanted to keep Parker out of danger. It just so happened that Parker's family was danger.
"Ouch!" Brady shouted and Glenn was by his side in a flash. "Part of the branch snapped off and hit me in the face," he said, looking guilty for worrying them. "I'm fine."
"You should be wearing safety glasses," Glenn said. "I can't believe I didn't think of that until now."
"I'm fine," Brady said, pushing Glenn back. "We've been at it for hours and this is my first injury. This isn't even an injury."
"Maybe we can order some chain mail. I've seen chain mail gloves that Pippen makes new people wear in the kitchen when they do prep. He says he doesn't like the sight of blood. Which is hilarious."
Parker and Brady blinked at him. Neither of them knew anyone from his pack. Brady had met them briefly but had been so worried and then weirded out that he didn't get a chance to really meet anyone. Glenn wanted to change that so badly, the urge grew every day. When they got a little closer to being done with clearing the homestead, he would bring it up again. The pack party was in a few weeks, so he still had some time.
"Oh jeez," Brady said as Parker pulled him back roughly right before he'd been about to step on a mat of sharpened wood cleverly hidden under some leaves. "This place is like a theme park for serial killers," he said and then looked behind himself at Parker. "No offense, babe," he added with a smile.
"None taken. I think," Parker replied. He cleared the mat and grabbed it from the right corner, lifting the deadly looking spikes up into clearer view. Imagining those spikes sticking through Brady or Parker's body was the last straw for Glenn.
"That's it, I can't handle another moment. We're breaking for lunch," Glenn said, waiting for the other two to get in front of him, away from the homestead to the line of forest that they had decided was safe and clear.
Brady laid out the blanket as Glenn grabbed the food and Parker grabbed the bottles of water from the packs they'd brought in.
The three of them had made their sack lunches the day before. The homestead wasn't more than a day's hike away, but it took a lot of the daytime hours to get there, especially with Brady on his human legs. They'd thought about bringing the four-wheeler, but until Glenn knew the area better, he wasn't comfortable with the idea. While Parker knew of these parts of the woods, he didn't know them as well as he knew his own part of the mountain. This land they were in now was inhabited before, by Asher. He'd been there so long and was so mysterious, he'd turned into a legend with some people likening him to a Bigfoot.
They'd started the journey the day before, had camped along the safety boundary and had gotten started the moment they could all see well enough. Glenn didn't plan on staying another night. The plan had always been to hike back and have a very late dinner.
Glenn hadn't brought it up to the other two but he also planned on a late-night mating session as well. The three of them had gone longer without sex than they ever had, and Glenn did not like it.
They munched quietly on their sandwiches. Glenn tossed Parker and Brady an apple and then grabbed the last container they'd brought full of thick, juicy, raw steaks. Brady had insisted on bringing it for the wolves in case they had come to this area. He wanted to check on the runt and Glenn thought Brady missed them a little as well.
The moment Glenn pulled the container out of the cold pack and opened it, there was a rustling in the bushes to the right.
Glenn knew for a fact that the wolves could move silently so if they were making a noise, it was because they wanted them to hear it. He wondered why they hadn't come out before that moment, since it was clear now that they'd been watching the three of them since their arrival.
"I can go," Parker said, sadly.
Brady shook his head. "Nonsense. That's why I brought four."
Glenn understood then. The wolves had stayed hidden because of Parker. Despite the fact that they would have become more familiar with his scent while they were staying at the clinic waiting for the run to heal. He still smelled like the people who had taken their little brother, like the coyote shifters who had nearly killed him.
Brady pulled out a knife and cut the fourth steak into pieces. He got up, and starting at the outside of the bush, began making trails of beef from the bush to their blanket. Specifically, to where Parker was sitting.
Glenn sat back in awe of his mate. He'd taken the time to think of this scenario and had come up with a possible plan of fixing it. That the natural wolves were accepting of Parker suddenly became very important, as if they were a symbol for how Glenn's wolf pack of shifters would accept him.
Brady sat back down next to Parker and handed him the rest of the food. "If they want to eat, they'll do it from your hand," Brady said resolutely.
Parker looked worried. "They shouldn't have to suffer because of me. It is getting late in the year, they need this fat and the calories for winter."
Glenn thought about what Parker said. "How did your pack survive with all of your sicknesses and trouble? How did your pack survive the winter?"
"Poorly."
"I'm sorry, Parker," Glenn said, hoping Parker would understand that he was apologizing not just for what he had to go through, but for how Glenn had treated his family up until this point, for the prejudices he still couldn't quite shake.
A shiny black nose poked out of the bush, sniffing the air. Another appeared at its side a little lower down, and then yet another, hardly a half foot of the ground. The large female, the older sister, stepped out of the branches first. Moving slowly, she made it to the first piece of steak on the ground and sniffed it thoroughly before giving it a lick.
She must have deemed the meat safe to eat because her next move was to pick the meat up with her teeth, chew on it a few times, and swallow it down. She looked over to where her brothers had remained and silently communicated that the meat was safe. The middle brother came out nearly as slowly and cautiously as the sister while the younger brother, the runt that Brady had cared for, nearly bounced out and pounced on the piece of meat closest to him.
The sister made a huffing noise but ignored her brother's exuberance in favor of sniffing out the next bite. On and on it went until the three wolves were standing closer to Parker than they had ever dared at the clinic. Parker didn't move, almost as if he was afraid. He should have known that Glenn would allow no harm to come to him, even from these wild wolves.
"It's okay," Brady said quietly. "Offer the first one out, the big one. You'll need their sister's acceptance if you want any hope of the other two taking theirs."
Parker held the big steak out, it was red and shiny in the afternoon sun. Glenn watched the oldest wolf like a hawk for any signs that she was going to become aggressive. He saw none though, only trepidation and curiosity. She didn't take as long to grab the meat from Parker's hand as she had to consume the first piece on the ground. Something told Glenn that the moment she had done that, she had already made her choice to trust Parker.
Parker made a shocked noise and then smiled wide. He caught Brady's eyes, then Glenn's, beaming at them both like a kid on Christmas morning. "Amazing," he whispered.