The thought sent red, seething rage through me. If they ever tried, I’d find their alpha and tear him limb from limb.
“Possibly. They tend to stay sequestered in the farthest reaches of the forest. Part of why I run so much is to make sure those assholes don’t come too close. I wouldn’t worry about them too much, though. They are dangerous and would love our lands for their own, but Rainier and I think they only have two ormaybe three dozen men. Not enough for a full assault. Plus, we have people who scout the areas around Hidden Grove for signs of them. So far, they’ve never come any closer than this.”
She glanced over her shoulder in the direction the men had escaped. “Okay. If you’re sure.”
“I am. Come on. We need to head home.”
Shifting to my wolf form, I allowed her to climb upon my back and headed for home. As we left the creek behind, I cast one last glance at the dead shifters. I’d have to talk to Rainier about this. The Red Maw was too close to Hidden Grove, and we needed to figure out why. But for now, I would enjoy the feel of June’s fingers in my fur and rejoice in the fact that I hadn’t completely ruined things between us.
19
JUNIPER
After the disaster with the painting and the Red Maw assholes, Levi put a halt to the seduction elements of my lessons.
“We should focus on other things for now,” he said the morning after rescuing me.
It made sense. We’d both done things to strain the strange mentor-mentee relationship we’d begun. That didn’t make it any easier to hear, though. For one, I really liked the physical nature of our relationship, so it made me embarrassed all over again for sneaking into his place.
“All right,” I said. “Like, what kind of stuff?” I’d be happy to go ahead and start something new. Maybe then we could leave this whole dumb situation behind us.
“Well,” he said, taking a sip of coffee, the morning sunlight angling through his living room window. “You said you wanted to understand what it takes to be a mate. I thought I could teach you the administrative side of things.”
I frowned. “Administrative side?”
He chuckled as he put his mug down. “Yeah. It’s not all group pack runs, sexy nights, and elder meetings. There’s a lot more that goes into helping an alpha run a pack.”
“Okay,” I said, patting my thighs. “What’s the first step?”
Reaching behind him, Levi grabbed a small stack of papers. “This,” he said, plopping the stack down on the coffee table.
“And this is…what?”
“Trade logs we use when exchanging items with other packs, credit lines we use at stores that need to be assessed and paid, supply lists for the pack that needs to be itemized and categorized, and also the pack bank accounts that need to be balanced.”
“Bank accounts?” I asked dumbly. “You guys use a bank?” I picked up a few of the papers. “Who the hell do you trade with? None of the packs I know have any idea Hidden Grove is even here.”
The smirk he gave me should have annoyed me, but anything was better than that angry expression he’d had the day before.
“We trade at a distance. I don’t want trouble around here, and I’m sure if everyone knew where all the runaway and exiled shifters were, we’d have trouble. Rainier has a truck. He goes to other packs and sells our excess produce and eggs, as well as some of the crafts we make. The handmade baskets, woven blankets, and so on. And yes, we use a bank. I don’t keep the pack money under my mattress.”
As I looked at the papers, I felt a little anxious. This was alot, though, for the most part, it was similar to what I did at my grandparents’ store. I’d taken on the heavier load of administrative duties as they grew older to take some of their stress away. I was positive I could do this. Anders would have stuff like this he’d have to deal with, and as his mate, I’d have to help with it.
Though, the more time I spent away from Idlewild, the less I was concerned with what Anders wanted or needed. But I was still desperate to stay with my family and friends and not beturned out as an exile, and the only way to do that was to be Anders’s mate.
“What do you think?” Levi said, watching me flip through the papers and files. “Think you can have all this handled by dinner tonight?”
“Tonight?” I yelped.
“It’s got to be done. Time waits for no one.”
Was this some sort of punishment? Some minor way of him getting back at me for invading his privacy?
“Uh…okay. I think I can get this all sorted out by then.”
“Great,” he said, standing up. “I’m heading out. I’ll be gone most of the day. I’ll see you tonight and answer any questions you have. If you’re up for it, we can try getting you to shift again after dinner. I have some other ideas we might try to get you there.”
“All right,” I said, gathering the papers and standing. “I’ll head back to my room and get to work on all this.”
