Page 29 of Chased

Sanchez rose to his feet. “You haven’t screwed us over yet, Big T. Let’s hope this decision to let outsiders in here isn’t the one that does.”

“I’m sure we’ll weather whatever comes. Good day, Mr. Sanchez.”

Sanchez left the Big House, thinking hard. Lapins, huh? Rabbits? Maybe Madison was telling the truth when she said she was half fox—but it seemed possible the other half was no rabid moose. Just a fluffy bunny.

Hell. He stopped in his tracks. Maybe her fox didn’t manifest at all, and she was really a bunny shifter through and through.

That would be a disaster. Gunn really would send her away—there was no way she’d be safe Changing here with all these fucked-up PTSD crazy wolves around. Including him and his cousins.

We must keep her safe, his wolf said. Protect her.

Sheeyit. Did Sugar drop samples in your breakfast too? We have more than enough to do, keeping our family safe. The fucking bunny is on her own.

We must protect her, his wolf said stubbornly.

Fuck.

Chapter 13

The next morning, Madison woke up just before her alarm went off.

She turned and stretched, letting the reality of her surroundings soak into her.

She’d put over half a continent between her and the Renards, and had her very own home for the first time—where no one was watching her or judging her or telling her what to do.

The sense of freedom made her almost dizzy.

Yesterday she’d meant to just take a little nap and then go down to the office, but she’d ended up sleeping through into the late evening. Breanna had stopped by sometime during her nap and left her a note, telling her they’d see her in the office in the morning.

She knew that because she’d found it when she woke up and fixed herself a leisurely midnight snack. She ate it by the window, looking out at the darkened compound, listening to wolves baying faintly in the distance—a wild, lonely sound. She’d wondered if one of them was Sanchez.

At one point she thought she saw the shadowy form of a big wolf in the woods near the overgrown garden, but she blinked and it was gone.

She’d gone back to bed feeling oddly safe.

Now, she threw back the covers and walked barefoot into the kitchen, wearing only a t-shirt that reached down to mid-thigh. The ridiculous frilly nightgowns with matching robes that her aunt had insisted were befitting a Renard woman were one of the things she’d been delighted to leave behind.

There was a coffeemaker in the kitchen, with a bag of her very own coffee next to it—the coffee that Boomer and Sanchez had smelled in her suitcase and rudely commented on.

There was even sugar, and milk in the fridge. Those, like her snack last night, were courtesy of Breanna. In her second note yesterday, she’d explained that she’d stocked the kitchen with ‘a few more things’ so Madison wouldn’t have to worry about breakfast.

Another unexpected kindness. It was so much more than she’d expected, as a mere employee.

She started a pot of coffee and looked over her breakfast possibilities. Cereal, eggs, and even some packaged pastries.

She pulled out the package of pastries and turned around—and gave a gasp. There was a face at the window. Handsome, scruffy, shoulder-length hair.

Boomer.

Madison froze, her mind just going oh my gods what? Things had been going so well here, and now there had to be a Peeping Tom? She began backing towards the bedroom, wishing she had a phone to call Breanna. Or someone.

Boomer started making exaggerated ‘open the window’ gestures.

Madison stopped backing up. Should she do it? Tell him where he could get off? Breanna had told her not to take any shit from the men. Bite him, Vixen said. Rude.

Well, he couldn’t grab her through the window, right? And if he really gave her a hard time, she might be able to get Sanchez to beat him up.

Madison walked over, unlocked the window, and pushed it up, stepping back out of reach. “What the hell are you doing, looking in my window? Are you some kind of perv?”