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I didn’t know if I could live through another loss like that.

The thing was, I would do it, for my friends. I would carry them through the levels and stages of grief and hurt and loss as long as they needed me to. When we signed up for the packmate bond, it wasn’t temporary or shallow. Our bond tied us together as though we’d shared the same womb.

“Hey, he came back on his day off!” Taylor slapped me on the back as I passed. My hands were full of grocery bags. “What’s all this?”

“Decided to make you losers some chili-stuffed sweet potatoes.”

There were cheers. They thought I’d come here because I was a good guy and wanted to cook for the crew.

They were a little bit right. Mostly, I’d come to get away from the mate prep.

Preparing for Evren to come here and have a trial-run with us? Mates, especially fated mates, didn’t do trial runs. You mated the first chance you got and committed to each other for life.

We didn’t even know her, but she was on her way to try us out for size?

We were worth more than that. But who was I to put out my packmate’s fire for this woman?

Chapter Nine

Evren

A bus would have been faster and a lot more comfortable, or at least I assumed so from what I’d seen in movies and TV shows, but there was no bus coming through this place, as the bus agent, who was at least seventy, took great pleasure in telling me.

He did mention a car-rental agency down the street, but I had never been in a position to get a driver’s license, so that was out. No, a bus was the only option for my trip. While I’d waited for the reply, several busses came through going all over the place, but when I gave the agent the name of the town I wanted to go to, he punched a lot of keys on his keyboard, tsked, tsked again, and shook his head.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, shifting back and forth from one foot to the other. “You’re making me nervous.”

“You can’t get there from here.”

“I what?”

“You. Can’t. Get. There. From. Here.”

“Why not? I thought busses went all over the country. I’ve seen them going in every direction.” Technically just two directions since they turned out onto the street and went left or right, but the destinations on the lit-up signs over the windshield indicated a lot more than that.

“Well, they do, of course, and you can technically get there, but it’s going to involve several changes and one six-hour layover.”

“That’s fine. How much?”

“With all the transfers?” He clicked away and looked up from his screen to give me an amount that would use up over half of what I had saved.

“I thought bus travel was supposed to be cheap.” I pulled out my cash and started to count it out onto the counter.

The look he gave me held so much pity, I wanted to cry. “Have you seen what bus and plane tickets cost?”

“No. I haven’t gone many places before now.” No farther than the town nearest the packlands. I unfolded the bills and smoothed them out.

“The printer is down, but I can send the tickets to your phone.”

As the only person of my age in the country who wouldn’t know how to deal with that…or at least the only one he’d probably ever met, I wasn’t sure how to explain it to him. But I had to try. “I’m sorry to take up so much of your time, but can you show me how to use that?”

Goddess bless him, he did and without pointing out that he was worried about me surviving the bus trip with so little knowledge of the basic things of the world outside my pack. Not that he knew I came from a pack. This agent was human for sure. And although he started out brusque, by the time the bus pulled in and I climbed aboard, he had given me his cell phone number and made me promise to call if I had any trouble or missed a transfer so he could use his magical powers —my words not his —to get me back on track.

My first ally in the larger world gave me confidence. A little. I was still heading off to meet three males whose profiles looked good and who seemed nice enough in our DM. For all I knew, they were even worse than the alpha I’d escaped.

As the driver left Main Street and steered onto the highway, my phone buzzed again. I looked down, hoping it was one of the guys and we could chat a little and get to know one another better. But no.

It was my mother. A much better option than the alpha, for sure, but since I hadn’t even said goodbye or left a note —I should have left a note —she wasn’t likely to be wishing me bon voyage.