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I gave a frustrated shake of my head. None of these options seemed ideal. The factory would likely be too much work to refurbish. The military base was decent, but might give a lousy impression; we didn’t want to give anyone the idea that we were a militaristic pack. The hotel could work, but it was more than an hour’s drive away from town. It was workable, just not ideal.
Still, I decided to start with the closest option—the factory. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as I imagined.
As I drove toward the factory, my thoughts returned to my argument with Marley. The guilt over not being more understanding of her desires to transition sat like a heavy weight in my stomach. As much as I hated to admit it, Travis was right. My insistence that she remain human felt selfish and controlling. Surely, if she loved me enough to stand by me in spite of the danger involved, she deserved the chance to live the life she chose.
Even if that meant becoming a shifter.
When I finally reached the abandoned factory, my mood hadn’t improved. The place was even worse than I expected—riddled with rats and filled with the stench of decay. No wonder nobody wanted to buy it.
Inside, the place looked like it had been abandoned for years. Rusty machinery lay strewn about, the floors were covered in broken glass and debris, and the air smelled of rot. The rust was so severe that we’d have to do a full-scale demo before we could break ground on anything.
This place wouldn’t do. Not at all.
I scrubbed a hand over my beard. Okay, so the factory was a no-go. It couldn’t hurt to check out the old military base.
The base was ugly and last used in the ‘60s, from what I could tell. Maybe for the Vietnam War. There was an eerie ambiance to the place. The med bay still had hospital beds and bed pans littered throughout. It was covered in graffiti that I couldn’t decipher and trash that told me people had spent time squatting there.
I checked out the barracks, but they were too small for what we wanted to do with them. Once again, I was left with no real solutions.
This scouting mission was turning into a disaster. If I couldn’t find a suitable location for our new headquarters, we might need to leave the city. Everything seemed to have issues, whether it was cost, accessibility, or simply the fact that it was located in the middle of nowhere.
Frustration bubbled up inside me, threatening to spill over, and I gripped the steering wheel in lieu of punching it. I was too agitated to calm down and missed Marley’s cheerful exuberance. Despite a few exceptions, usually related to causing me problems or other people causing issues in our relationship, Marley was such an optimistic bright spot in my life. She made me feel more capable and helped me believe in the version of me she saw. If she was here, if things weren’t so tense between us, she would have been telling me not to give up, to keep looking. She’d have reminded me that it would be worth the work.
But she wasn’t here. I was alone, trying to figure out where to go from here. I couldn’t help but feel like I was failing at everything and that nothing was working out the way it was supposed to. Like somehow, I had managed to screw everything up.
At least she was safe for now.
And yet, despite everything, the nagging fear that I was going to lose her refused to leave me alone.
The thought of living without her by my side—of facing a world without her smile, her laughter, her unwavering faith in me—was almost too much to bear. Every fiber of my being ached for her, yearned for her, and yet, I couldn’t help but feel like I was pushing her away by being so protective of her.
What I needed to do was figure out if I could really support her if she decided to go through with transitioning. I knew I couldn’t be half-hearted about it, that it would be difficult and scary and I’d have no way to escape my fear. I would have to face it head-on until she was out of the woods.
It was one thing to worry about losing someone you loved—everyone who had ever been in love had been there before. It was another thing entirely to actually feel like you were going to lose them. To feel like you were standing on the edge of a cliff, teetering back and forth, knowing that one wrong step would send you plummeting into darkness. That was how I felt whenever I thought about her getting those injections.
I wasn’t going to feel right about this until I talked to Marley. We needed to work things out if I was going to be able to face the ever-more-likely reality of her risking her life to become a shifter.
I checked the clock on the dashboard, then decided to drive out to the hotel location Sylvia had given me. It would give me enough time to make sure Marley was ready to go when I went back to the hospital. I also hoped the mountain air would help me clear my head.
It took me a while to find the hotel, which was hidden behind a thick copse of trees that shielded it from view. Once I got closer, however, it was apparent why Sylvia had recommended it. It was a magnificent, sprawling Victorian mansion built on the edge of a lake. The water sparkled in the afternoon light, reflecting the autumn leaves falling from the surrounding trees.
I parked my truck and walked up to the front door. I’d assumed when Sylvia told me the site was an abandoned building project that it would look like a half-built building with missing sheetrock and unfinished framing. Instead, it was a large-scale renovation project.
There was no mistaking it—this place was something special. It had clearly been abandoned mid-construction—tools and materials were scattered everywhere, and it was evident that whoever had run the project had gone bankrupt before completing it. But even incomplete, it was a marvel.
The architecture was breathtaking. The exterior consisted of rich red brick with towering turrets and gabled rooflines. Inside, the lobby was grand, with sweeping staircases and ornate detailing that spoke of a wealthy patron who had commissioned the place over a century ago. As I explored, I discovered that the rooms were equally impressive—huge windows overlooked the lake, and hardwood floors creaked pleasingly underfoot. In many ways, it was perfect, and it had plenty of space for us to set up shop. The views alone were worth coming out all this way.
However, there was one major problem—the location. The mansion was magnificent, yes, but it was also miles away from the rest of the town. The logistics of using this place as headquarters would be a pain in the ass. It was more than an hour’s drive out of New Middle Bluff.
Still, there was something undeniably special about the place, and Sylvia had been right when she’d said it was different. It had charm in spades. Though the journey would be long, it was hard to deny that it might be worth it. After all, if we could get past the practical concerns, this place could truly be a sanctuary for us. A home where the pack and all its people could build their lives together.
That thought made me pause. I’d been so focused on the argument and the money and the work associated with this whole thing that I’d forgotten about zooming out and looking at the big picture. What kind of life did I envision for myself and my mate? For my son? For the rest of the pack members I wanted to support? As much as I loved New Middle Bluff, I’d been stressed every moment since returning from our blissful time in Georgia.
Sure, this place was far from town, but it wasn’t an impossible drive. It was an easy day trip when necessary, and a peaceful location for any people coming to us as refugees. It was the perfect place for people to get back on their feet. I wasn’t trying to create the same thing my grandfather had. We wanted a facility for people when they needed it, but we wanted them to live their lives the way they wanted to. And with all of those things in mind...well, it would be the perfect place for us to create our home away from home.
As I stood and took it all in, trying to decide if the hotel was worth pursuing, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around to see a familiar and unwelcome face. She was smiling that ever-present, saccharine beam that made her look so very approachable and friendly. The smile that had been present the first time we met on the beach.
Ms. Paulson.
