“And as you’re aware, unless Roland has his shifter skin, the poachers might kidnap him and force him to shift.”
“How would they do that?” No one could make a shifter take their beast form except for the candy Roland had talked about. But it was doubtful they’d have any because it was made by his herd. They might not like him, but they wouldn’t set poachers on him.
Two sets of eyes were on me, and I shivered as if I had something to do with the poaching. Did they know about the candy?
“You, Bryden.”
“Me?” I flapped my hands at them. “This has nothing to do with me. I’ve never met any poachers.” Or if I had, I hadn’t recognized them as such.
“They’d kidnap you instead and tell Roland they’d harm you unless he shifted and allowed them to cut off his horn.” Auden folded the newspaper.
I collapsed into a chair, not bothering to ask if I could sit in Alpha’s presence. My mate and I had discussed what might happen if his horn was removed. First, there was the danger to his life. Like with rhinos, his beast could survive, but again, similar to those wild beasts, poachers only cared about the horn and often killed the animal to make the theft easier.
But assuming Roland lived, he’d have no control over how his beast reacted with his most prominent feature removed, the part of him with healing properties. He might curl up inside my mate and never shift again, and his depression would seep into Roland. And there would be no modern medicine that could cure him. Even the special candy would be of no help.
“Poachers care about money. They don’t give a damn about property damage or children’s safety.” Creven walked to the window. “They trample everything in their path. And that has serious consequences for Stoney River.”
I’d been worried for my mate since he told me his predicament, and I’d give up my life to protect him, but I wouldn’t endanger the pack, and I suspected neither would the Alpha.
“I will allow you to stay for a few days to regain your strength before making a decision about your future.”
I thanked Alpha, and he asked how my wounds had responded when touched by Roland’s horn. I pulled up my pantleg and showed him the scars.
“It had life-saving properties,” he agreed. “You were lucky.”
“I’m so scared for my mate,” I told them.
They nodded. There was little they could say because bar cutting off my mate’s own horn myself, there was no guarantee that he’d ever be safe. He needed full-time bodyguards, and while the Stoney River pack didn’t provide those, being part of the group would give us some protection.
“Join your mate in the dining hall, and afterward, I’ll have someone show you to your cabin.” Creven ushered me toward the door.
“Thank you. We didn’t intend to bring danger to your doorstep.”
“We’ve dealt with similar circumstances in the past. It comes with the territory of accepting rogues.” Creven put a hand on my shoulder and told me to forget about anything except eating and sleeping for the next few days.
11
ROLAND
We hadn’t been on the pack lands but for a handful of hours, but it was already enough to feel like I could breathe for the first time since this all began. Given that my mate and I just learned that my worry over poachers wasn’t nearly strong enough, that said a lot. While there had been many days in my life when it would’ve been a million times easier to have been born a horse, I was glad that I was who I was. If it weren’t for my horn, my mate would be dead. I shivered at the thought.
The pack at Stoney River was so different from my herd. I could sense it the second I stepped onto the pack lands, and it was only reinforced by every encounter I’d had.
The members seemed to genuinely care about each other. I supposed in my herd there were people like that too, but I was considered the outsider, the one who didn’t belong, so I didn’t get to see that. In a way, these were all outsiders, though, weren’t they?
After talking with Creven and Auden, my mate joined me in the dining hall on a small bench, Auden, the older alpha, sitting on a chair across from us. They filled me in on some of theirdiscussion. I didn’t push. If they wanted me to know all of it, it wouldn’t have been private.
Bryden kept scratching his neck as we spoke with Auden. At first, I thought it was a nervous twitch. Being rogue on any pack lands for the first time couldn’t be anything but tense. But as I leaned over and looked, I realized he was flaking away caked-on dirt from our journey. I’d be itchy too.
“Do you think maybe... would it be too much to ask for us to have a shower?” I asked.
Instantly, Auden got up and told us he’d show us the way. He led us to an outdoor shower and apologized for its rustic nature on the way there. I expected it to be similar to the one I had been living with. How wrong I was. It was larger, had a real showerhead, not a hose nozzle, and even had a bench outside for our belongings. Comparably, it was full-on luxury.
“Thanks so much,” Bryden said.
“No problem. Just meet us back at the fire when you come out. We’ll have some tea and food for you. It’s going to take you a while to rebuild your stores.”
The shower wasn’t quite big enough for both of us, but I was able to reach inside to help my mate with his shampoo. Physically, he could handle it, but the grime was really bad on the back of his head. We’d showered at the motel, but he hadn’t been strong enough then for the scrubbing his scalp needed, and we’d been traveling since then, adding to it. Besides, it gave me an excuse to have my hands on him, and my beast longed for that touch. I suspected his bear felt similarly.
