Page 73 of Runaway Hucow

Roscoe grunted, but it sounded like a positive grunt. Tess was learning to tell the difference. The alpha minotaur stepped forward and offered Shannon Duffy his hand to shake.

“A fair trade,” he said. “We’ll keep your secret as long as you keep ours.”

“Deal,” Shannon said.

As they were boarding the airship, the smaller wolf pup growled playfully and nipped at the larger wolf’s feet. Rufus growled back and nudged the pup with his snout, gently pushing him inside the ship. That was when Tess realized something. The wolf pup wasn’t Shannon’s pet at all.

He was her third child!

CHAPTER 37

Tess stood in the yard and watched as the airship lifted off and took to the skies. The breeze from the propellers tousled her hair and stirred the grass where she was standing. Once the ship was high in the air, Tess waved goodbye, and she could see Shannon and her two children waving back from the windows on the side of the gondola. Then the airship turned and flew away from the valley.

“Well,” Tess said once the ship was out of sight. “That was a nice visit, wasn’t it?”

She turned to look at her companions.

The three bisonmen were standing in a row behind her with their arms crossed, staring at her silently. The sight of those three stern males made Tess break out in a cold sweat.

It was Roscoe who finally broke the silence.

“Little hucow,” he said, “you’ve got some explaining to do.”

Tess supposed that was true. She’d already admitted to the bisonmen that she had contacted Shannon Duffy, but she hadn’t explained any of the details yet. There hadn’t been time.

She took a deep breath and explained it now.

She told them everything, starting with her conversation with Roscoe a few days earlier, when the alpha had told her that Spike was only interested in breeding her. She told them about how upset she had been at the time, about her midnight trips to the barn, about the telegraph key and the coordinates she had given to Shannon Duffy. When she was finally finished talking, she looked at each of the three bisonmen in turn. They all looked unhappy.

“You’re angry at me,” she said nervously.

Peyton shook his head. “No, not angry, Tess.”

“Disappointed?” she asked.

Somehow that seemed even worse. Anger she could handle, but there was a part of her that yearned for the bisonmen’s approval. The thought that she had disappointed them with her actions was almost unbearable. She lowered her head and looked at the ground in shame.

Spike placed a finger under her chin and tilted her head up until she was looking at him again.

“We’re not disappointed either,” he said. “Just concerned. I understand now why you were so upset with me at the time. I just wish you would have talked to me first, Tess.

“So do I,” she said.

Peyton took a step forward and rested his hand atop her shoulder. “Tess, tell us the truth now—do you still wish to leave this valley?”

Tess had already told them how she had changed her mind about leaving, but she could see the bisonmen had their doubts. And for good reason. She had betrayed their trust by sending those secret telegrams.

“Shannon asked me the same thing,” Tess said. “She offered to take me away on her airship, but I told her no. I don’t ever want to leave this valley. I want to stay here with you, with all three of you… if you still want me, that is.”

A tear crept down her cheek. Peyton gently brushed it away.

“Don’t be silly, little hucow,” he said. “Of course we still want you.”

“Really?” Tess said, smiling. “Do you mean it?

This time, it was Spike who answered her. “Of course we mean it, Tess. We want you to stay here and be our mate. That is what I have wanted ever since the first moment I saw you up there on that stage in Crooked Valley.”

Tess’s smile got even bigger. Now her tears were tears of joy, not of sadness. But when she turned and looked at Roscoe, her smile instantly faded. The big alpha was still glaring at her sternly.