He lay the blanket he had been folding up to one side of the sofa and scrutinized her face. After a moment, he spoke again, his voice not accusing, but very matter of fact.
“What kind of trouble are you in?”
“I can’t get into that right now. I don’t know you,” she replied, sinking her teeth into her lower lip.
“No, but you trusted me enough last night to spend a night alone in a cabin with me.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“And?” he coaxed.
“There will be people looking for me. The bike is stolen.”
“Stolen? From who?”
“My brother.”
“And you think your brother will come after you and do you harm for taking it?”
“No. He’s away at the moment. My father will find it gone and come after me instead.”
“Okay. Same question. I assume you had some sort of spat with your father and took your brother’s bike—ran away. You’re injured, and the bike is fucked until it has some serious work done, if it’s even salvageable. I doubt he’s going to come down too hard on you.”
“You don’t know my father.”
“No, but I know other fathers. They adore their little girls.”
“My father doesn’t. He’s trying to marry me off to the Alpha’s shitty little son.”
“Ohhh, I see. Trying to get in good with the king of the bear clan.”
“Pretty much. He’s the current Alpha’s right hand and deems it a good mating. I told him I don’t want to marry him, and he won’t listen. He told me I have to do it.”
“Is it that bad? I mean, what’s wrong with this Alpha-to-be?”
Autumn hesitated, summoning the courage to say the words, to call it out for what it was. Raising her eyes back to his, she stated it in the simplest terms, terms anyone could understand.
“He tried to rape me. He took me to a secluded cabin. There was rope and tape...” she began hesitating for a moment before deciding to leave it at that. “I got away.”
“I see,” he said.
Autumn could see that his jaws had tightened. Was it anger on her behalf or a reaction to having gotten himself tied up with someone who had a bear clan after her? He was hard to read.
“Anyway, I can’t leave the bike there for them to find. It might lead them to me.”
“Them? I thought it was just your father?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. The Alpha’s son, Trevor, he might come too. He’s not happy that I ran from him and he’ll be even unhappier to be bested by an Omega.”
He nodded but said nothing., his jaws still tightly clinched. Instead, he pulled a phone from his jacket pocket and began looking at something. After a few moments, he dialed a number and waited for someone to answer.
“Hello? Carl’s Recovery?” he said, then waited a moment, listening. “I need to have a bike pulled into the nearest garage and I need it done right away.”
There was another wait, and then he began giving them directions to the bike, along with instructions that it needed to be secure, kept out of sight. He listened again for a bit and then told them that no one was to know it was there. After a bit more back and forth, he hung up the phone.
“I can’t believe they agreed to all that. Seems like they’d question picking up a bike and hiding it,” she observed.
“Wolves,” was all he told her.
“Ah, the brotherhood of the pack.”
“Not my pack, but friendlies. That’s all that matters.”
“Your accent. You’re not from here. You’re American.”
“That’s right.”
“Me either. I mean, I’m Canadian, but from up in the Yukon territory. I was passing through. I don’t know what I will do now.”
“Well, they’ll look at the bike and see if it can be fixed. If they can do it, then you can be on your way as soon as they get it straightened out. Do you have any money?”
“Some, not enough to fix the bike or pay you back for this cabin,” she said solemnly, embarrassed.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure we can work something out. I don’t suppose you have any single wolf Omega friends you can fix me up with, do you?”
“No. They don’t hang out with bears much.”
“Yeah. I figured. Anyway, there was a three-day minimum on this cabin and I’ve already paid it, so let’s just see what happens with the bike.”
“You’ll stay with me?” she asked, hating to feel and sound so desperate, but the truth was that she was horrified that he might leave her there alone.
“I’ll stay with you,” he said, surprising himself with the lack of hesitation.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, do you feel like going out to find some breakfast?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Good. Let’s go.”CHAPTER SEVENMalcolm-2
She didn’t have to tell him she was scared. He could smell her fear. He had known other Omegas like her in his own pack—women who were controlled by overbearing parents or married the wrong wolf and were held tightly under his paw. It was no life for a woman, and as much as he wanted to get on the road and get on with his agenda, he found that he couldn’t just leave her behind to fend for herself.