“Oh, no, I’m so happy to help. I justknewyou’d pick the longer tee; Mal mentioned you’re taller than me. I’m glad the pant length is okay. I roll that pair sometimes.”
Malachi had noticed her height? Had specified details to Kelsey? And here was yet another person using his nickname, as though he were just another member of their pack. She halted the trail of thoughts and focused on Kelsey’s voice, which had hardly paused for breath so far.
“He says you came for sanctuary, and he granted it, which is really something. Or, I mean, it would be something, if you weren’t you. Would you be willing to tell me some of your story? You can say no.”
Oh. He’d told this woman about more than April’s height. Her chin tucked in, and she laced her fingers together in front of her. She’d have liked to get to know Kelsey on equal ground, but now she was disadvantaged. Then again, as long as April wore Kelsey’s loaned clothes, her neediness was obvious with or without that detail from Malachi.
“Sorry,” Kelsey said with sudden reserve. “My welcome wagon can be a lot, or so I’ve been told countless times.”
“No, it’s fine.” April looked up. “I just… Is that all he said?”
Kelsey nodded. “I don’t know why you’re here or how long you’ll stay or anything.”
“I don’t know how long.” A shiver caught her, and she sank into the opposite chair, which was even taller and wider than the one in which Kelsey had sat. “I was…um, in trouble with another wolf pack, so I came here for help.”
Kelsey’s lips parted, and her blue eyes grew wide. “In trouble?”
“They’re not happy with me. And they’re…aggressive.” Understatement of the year.
“Are they, like, fraudsters or something? And you got evidence to expose them?”
Drew was the greatest fraudster she’d met, though the fraud was his own self. “Close enough.”
“Wow.” Her eyes held a shine now, as though April were someone admirable and important. “Well, whatever you need, Malachi will help you. He’ll be irate over a bunch of wolf criminals. I’m so glad you came to us.”
Us. Kelsey spoke of herself as one of the pack. April looked past her toward the kitchen and the rest of the cabin. “Are we alone in the house?”
“Yep. Malachi and Trevor were headed for the woods last I saw them, so they’ll only hear us if we shout for them.”
“Wait.” April’s pulse skipped and fluttered. “Trevor?”
“He’s my wolf. I’m his bonded mate.”
Bonded. Right. Drew had acted out hisbondingon her often enough. April’s stomach turned. She closed her eyes and breathed deep. She refused to throw up.
Kelsey got up and sat in the chair next to April, which was so massive, their knees came nowhere near touching and April’s personal space remained intact. “April, you know what that is, right? It’s like…extra-strong wolf marriage. And I’m married legally to Trevor too.”
Marriage? What? “So you’re his mate…by choice?”
Kelsey frowned. “Well, yeah. Of course. Look, I know how the media talks about wolves, so if you heard something awful, just know that’s not how it is here for us mates. Not at all. We all chose the bonding, and our wolves are good to us.”
“How many of you are there?” One or two might be a coincidence.
“Oh, um…” She paused to count, mouthing the numbers as she ticked them off on her fingers. “Seven.”
“And you all came here voluntarily.”
Kelsey nodded with enthusiasm, but she might not yet realize who this Trevor truly was. Any of the mates might not yet realize…
“How recently?” April said.
“Well, that depends on the person. Let’s see. Robert and Ann, my in-laws, have been bonded/married for I think forty-two years—”
A small gasp escaped her. “There’s more than one generation of wolves? Still together, living as pack?”
“Oh, absolutely. Arlo and Rebecca are our elder couple, in their eighties. Robert and Ann, Patrick and Nicole are going on sixty, and all three of those couples have been bonded for decades. Most of the rest of the wolves are their next generation. Either by blood, like my Trevor, or by adoption as new pups whose folks were both human. So, you know, their folks couldn’t raise them safely anymore, once they began changing as teens.”
April sat, hands tense in her lap, and tried to process the flood of information. A multi-generational wolf pack. Such a thing did exist. But Drew had said young wolves weeded out the old ones as soon as possible, survival of the fittest under every full moon.
