“It’s not a big deal.” I try to reassure them, seeing the annoyed, angry looks on their faces. “I didn’t want to make a fuss. You guys have been working like crazy, and I didn’t want to be a bother, is all. It’s fine, really.”
“It’s not fine, Snow. We should have celebrated. You just came of age,” Forest says, looking at me with sad eyes. He’s always the softy.
“I’m not a shifter, so I don’t think it really counts.”
“It matters.” Flint walks the rest of the way into the kitchen and wraps me in a hug, kissing the top of the head.
“I mean, just think about it. My father can’t, like, come and take me or anything. I’m eighteen and all.”
“I’d snap his fucking neck,” Flint growls, making me smile at his protectiveness.
“But you said your dad took all kinds of people,” Flints adds, squeezing me tighter like someone might bust in and take me now. He’s right. My father liked to take shifters. Cage them and then do God knows what. It still eats at me that I’d run and left them all behind. By the time the Denali brothers found out where I’d been, the building I’d run from was empty. They’d said the place was completely bare. Maybe if I hadn’t been so scared. Maybe if I’d told them sooner, they could have saved some of them. I push the painful thought away.
“I know, but it’s been seven years, and I can’t hide forever. If I do that, I might as well have stayed in the cage he put me in.”
Flint releases a deep breath then lets me go. He walks over to the counter and picks up a piece of bacon, popping it into his mouth. “Thing is, I still got to tell the alpha about you. It’s kind of against the rules to let humans who aren’t mated to shifters know about us.”
“It’s not like you spilled the beans,” I remind him. I’ve known about shifters most of my life.
Flint runs his hands through his hair, something he always does when he’s thinking.
“Just think on it is all I’m asking. Nothing has to be done today. Besides, you’re going to be late. Can’t be doing that your first month here.” I turn to the fridge and pull out the three lunches I packed, then I grab the thermoses I filled with coffee, handing them over to each of them.
“Make a cake. I’ll grab some candles. We’re celebrating,” Forest says, pulling me into a hug.
“Okay.”
“Chocolate,” Forest adds. I smile.
“It’s my cake. Shouldn’t I get to pick?”
“Fine.” He winks.
I’ll still be making chocolate. I know it’s their favorite, and I can’t seem to help myself. It’s hard not to dote on them. Even more so considering they’re pretty much my whole world. They each say their goodbyes before filing out the door. Flint pauses in the doorway.
“Stay inside, Snow.” He gives me a hard look. He’s the eldest, so he uses the same one on all his brothers.
I just smile and nod.
I step over to the kitchen window to watch them pile into the truck as snow starts to fall. If the storm gets too bad, maybe they’ll be home early. I’m not used to this new schedule or being alone so much. Since we got to Gray Ridge, they’ve been working, building houses with some guy named X. That’s about all I know.
Sometimes they work twelve-hour days. I get lonely. I’ve become so used to taking care of people. It makes me long for what some of my other brothers have found. Mates. But I guess for me it would be a husband. A family of my very own to take care of.
I turn away from the window and clean up the kitchen. It only takes five minutes. Then I stand there, looking around the cabin that’s now our home. When we first got it, I was thrilled. We’d always moved around so much that I was excited to have a place that would be ours. I didn’t realize that meant I’d be left alone so much.
There really isn’t anything for me to do. I can only clean a house so many times, even with it being a four-bedroom and three-bathroom. I turn to the window again and look out. The snow is falling harder. I’d once heard Flint say the snow can often hide your scent, make it harder to track or catch someone.
I know most of the town of Gray Ridge is shifter, but I also know we have a cabin with a good amount of land. I’m not sure where ours ends and begins. Maybe I could just go out a little. No one would know.
I need to do it now. The snow will cover my tracks back up, so no one will know I went out. Just twenty minutes, I tell myself.