AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ChapterSixteen
Ginny sat on a chair near where she’d been caged, wearing a shirt with the park’s logo on the chest, a pair of too-long scrubs, and Crocs. She shivered, and someone handed her a blanket.
“I’m not cold,” she said, even though she wrapped it around her shoulders.
“Could have fooled me,” a female said with a smile. “I’m Jess, by the way. My mate, Auden, and I run the aviary. You gave everyone a freaking shock.”
“I’m not cold, I’m just stressed,” she said. She gathered the thin blanket around her shoulders more firmly. She needed an hour-long shower to get rid of the grossness she felt at having been trapped in her shift for several weeks and unable to take care of herself. And she doubly needed to get the hell out of here before her grandfather figured out where she was.
“I understand,” Jess said. “How did you wind up in that hoarder’s house anyway?”
“I got caught in a trap, and the cage they put me in was too small for me to shift. Then when the humans finally rescued me, they put me in a slightly larger cage but planned to execute me because they didn’t keep what they considered to be wild animals.”
“What would you have done if Mercer and his mate hadn’t gotten you out of there?” she asked with a raised brow.
“I honestly have no idea. If they would have taken me out of the cage at some point, I would have shifted to get my freedom and then…I don’t know, knocked out the human who saw it happen maybe.” She let out a weary sigh. She was so fucking tired.
“Where is your family? Can we call someone for you?”
Ginny resisted the urge to shouthell noand try to flee. First, it wasn’t Jess’s fault she’d been captured, and second, the whole damn building was crawling with shifters who weren’t going to let her get two steps away before they stopped her.
“I don’t have anyone,” she said. Everyone in her life had been killed by her grandfather in his attempt to keep his leadership of their clan. Ginny was sure that if there was even a hint that a jackal shifter was in New Jersey, her grandfather would find her.
She didn’t even want to be the leader of the clan, but by law she was next in line. The clan’s laws stated that once the alpha reached age seventy, he or she retired and the next in line took over. Her grandfather had systematically wiped out her entire family, starting with his two sons and their wives and children. She was the only one left. Her grandfather’s attempts to keep his reign over the clan had known no bounds.
Her life was on the line. She needed to get the hell gone, period.
“Listen, I appreciate being set free. Really, it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. But I need to go.”
“We can’t allow you to leave,” a big male said as he walked into the room.
She’d seen him before but didn’t know his name. He carried himself like an alpha, but she couldn’t pick out what animal he was. He smelled like sunshine and tall grass, though, but what the hell animal that was, she couldn’t fathom.
“You don’t know what keeping me here will do.”
“Well, why don’t you tell us?” he asked.
Other males walked into the room, which suddenly felt very crowded. Jess slipped away, which was smart as hell. Ginny was sure all the males in the room were alphas, or at least highly ranked. She could pick out bears and lions and wolves, but there was the grassy-smelling guy and also one that smelled like the deep jungle.
This place had a lot of different shifters, that’s for damn sure.
She hadn’t told anyone her full story yet. Even though her parents had been gone for a year, she felt the sharp ache of their loss like it was yesterday, and then her brother had been added to the list, compounding her grief. She’d never even had a chance to properly grieve anyway, because when her brother fell at her grandfather’s hands, she knew she was next.
“Fine,” she said, wiggling in the chair to get more comfortable. But she knew she wouldn’t really be comfortable until she was on the way out of New Jersey. Keeping on the road was the only thing keeping her safe. “I ran from my jackal clan because my grandfather slaughtered my family and I was next.”
* * *
Mercer sat on the bed and stared at the door.
Maybe he should’ve stayed out there with Rhomi? Or left the bedroom door open?
He scrubbed a hand through his hair in frustration. This was not how things were supposed to go. They were supposed to share I love yous and then he’d tell her the truth and show her his shift. He would have expected her to be shocked but not scared because she would love him and trust him. But he could tell right now that Rhomi was full of mistrust for him.
How the hell had he screwed this up so badly?
He heard footsteps and his lion let out a curious purr.
A shadow appeared at the door, and he heard a barely audible sigh.
