The back door opened, bringing with it a gust of rain-scented air and Oliver, soaked through despite his rain jacket. He pulled off his boots in the mudroom, calling out, "Please tell me someone made coffee. I've been dealing with Pa’s crew all morning and I need caffeine."
"Fresh pot on the counter," I called back. "How'd it go?"
Oliver emerged, water dripping from his dark hair, and headed straight for the coffee maker. "Good. They'll start on the barn foundation Monday. Pa says if we want it done before summer, we need to commit to the timeline."
"We're committed," Garrett said. "We all agreed the barn was a priority after getting the house livable."
"That's what I told him." Oliver poured himself a large mug, then noticed Garrett's expression. "What happened?"
"Levi met Daphne." Garrett said, giving Oliver a look.
Oliver's attention swung to me immediately, his blue eyes sharp with interest. "How did that go?”
"Interesting." I started prepping vegetables for dinner, needing something to do with my hands. "Ran into her at Morrison's. She's exactly like Garrett described—independent, guarded, prickly when you push but warmer when you give her space."
"She gave him baking advice," Garrett added, like this was highly significant.
"She's had experience from how her home looks. It looks more like a homestead than anything. Self sufficient. ," Micah pointed out, stealing a piece of the bell pepper I was slicing. "
"But she doesn't usually share information freely," Garrett insisted. "Not with strangers. The fact that she talked to Levi at all is notable."
Oliver settled into one of the kitchen chairs, cradling his coffee. "What's your read on her, Levi?"
I considered the question as I continued chopping. Oliver wasn't just our head Alpha in name—he had a way of cutting through bullshit and seeing the core of situations. If he was asking for my assessment, he wanted the truth.
"Smart," I said finally. "Self-sufficient to the point of being defensive about it. She's built a life out here alone, and she's proud of that. But there's something underneath—loneliness, maybe. Or fear of connection. She tried to pay for thirty dollars worth of groceries like her life depended on maintaining that boundary."
"Fear of owing people," Micah murmured, his sharp mind already analyzing. "Or fear of what strings might be attached."
"That's my read too." I glanced at Garrett. "You said she keeps to herself. Any idea why?"
"Not the full story." Garrett drummed his fingers against his beer bottle. "But Lynn mentioned something about her being adopted as a teenager, then her adoptive parents dying when she was young. She bought this property after the biological family came and sold the farm."
"So she's lost people," Oliver said quietly. "Multiple times, probably if she was adopted."
The kitchen fell silent except for the sound of rain against the windows and my knife against the cutting board. We all understood loss in our own ways—Oliver had lost his mother to cancer when he was sixteen, Garrett's parents had the pictureperfect pack marriage until two of his dads, one being his blood father, passed in a work accident, giving Garrett the inheritance of the business. Micah's family had disowned him when he'd chosen to join our pack instead of taking over the family business. And me? I'd watched my older brother nearly destroy himself with addiction before getting clean.
Loss shaped people. Sometimes it made them stronger, sometimes it made them cautious. Sometimes both.
"She's been through some shit," Micah said finally, his usual smirk replaced by something more thoughtful. "You can see it in how people build walls. The height tells you how deep the hurt goes."
"Her walls are pretty damn high," I admitted. "But she let me talk to her, even laughed a couple times. And when I told her she always has a choice about our presence in her life, she seemed... I don't know. Surprised, maybe? Like that wasn't something she'd considered."
Garrett straightened. "You told her she has a choice?"
"Of course I did. She does." I looked around at my packmates. "We all know Oliver declared something at the market that probably freaked her out. If we're actually interested in pursuing this—in getting to know her as a potential packmate—we need to go at her pace, not ours."
"Agreed," Oliver said immediately. "The last thing we want is to pressure her."
"Though we are living a quarter mile away," Micah pointed out. "Pretty hard to avoid us even if she wanted to."
"Which is why we need to be respectful," Garrett said firmly. "We are meeting tomorrow to look at those apple trees. Just me, keeping it professional, giving her space."
I resumed chopping, hiding my smile. Garrett was already protective of her, defensive of her boundaries. That was a goodsign—it meant whatever he felt wasn't just surface attraction. He actually cared about her comfort.
"So what's the plan?" Micah asked, stealing another pepper slice. "Are we actually courting her, or was that just Oliver improvising to get Trinity off his back?"
Oliver grimaced at the reminder. "Bit of both, honestly. Trinity needed a clear rejection, and saying we were already courting someone was the most effective way to shut her down. But..."
