AllFreeNovel
Share Us
All in all this has been a pretty successful trip, he thought amused. But he was itching to get back to Hat Island. Tomorrow, he promised himself. As soon as he and Ryder talked, he was heading out. It was a four-hour ride if the roads were good, but he wasn’t counting on that going over Snoqualmie Pass. There’d be snow there, for sure. Probably snow in Wenatchee and on Blewett Pass too. He needed to remember to check the forecast.
He slept in wolf form again in front of the stove.
Benny had breakfast and coffee waiting when Ryder rode in with Jessie behind him. She gave him a hug. Ryder clasped his arm. “Coffee?” Jessie asked hopefully.
“I knew I forgot something,” he teased. She rolled her eyes and walked up the steps to the front porch and on inside. A woman on a mission.
“This place is great, Ryder! Is this where you grew up?”
“Some of the time,” he answered, following her inside. “Think you could live here some of the time?”
Jessie grinned. “Of course, I could. Look at this place!”
Benny looked around. To him it was home. But he realized his father had made the place a proper home for himself. There was a cowhide on the floor in front of that potbellied stove. Old-fashioned snowshoes were on the wall by the back door. Books everywhere. A big brown leather couch with Pendleton blankets on it — he remembered getting that thing up here and inside the house! He had been afraid they were going to have to build a special door just for it. The kitchen appliances were old, but they all still worked. He’d gone upstairs to the loft that had been his bedroom, but he’d preferred to sleep downstairs in wolf form. Some of his books were still on the shelves there. More books had been added for Ryder. His brother wasn’t much of a reader, but his Dad never stopped trying.
The two men watched fondly as Jessie explored the place. Benny caught his brother’s eye and grinned —Ryder had a besotted expression on his face, no lie. Ryder laughed a bit and shrugged.
Titus pulled into the driveway, still driving Hansen’s pickup. Benny wondered idly what had happened to his own pickup — he’d driven something up to Penticton months ago after all. But given Titus’s predilection for battered old trucks, this was probably an upgrade —and the ultimate fuck you to the man who had tortured him.
Jessie gave Titus a hug too. Guess she was in a good mood. “Things going OK in Penticton, I gather?” Benny asked.
Jessie nodded. “Getting things settled,” she said. “Still have to figure out what we’re going to do with 150 recruits. Ryder’s Recruits,” she said and snickered. Benny glanced at his brother, who looked resigned. Benny laughed.
“The boot camp is a good idea,” Benny said more seriously. “I don’t know for sure what the Chinese Alpha has in mind, and whether losing his Canadian partners has put a stop to it. But if it hasn’t, we may need those recruits for our side.”
“You’ve got more fighters on Hat Island than you could possibly need,” Ryder observed.
“True,” Benny said. “But the Chinese Alpha had a plan for that. It worries me.”
“The Chinese Emperor,” Jessie corrected. “I think that’s significant. What I overheard was in Chinese, and I translated it as Chinese Alpha. But I’m not sure that’s what Chen and my grandfather actually said. People have been trying to figure out which Chairman of the two ‘Chinese’ Councils they were referring to. But what if they weren’t referring to either one? What if it’s someone else? Someone old?”
“Someone so old, they go by Emperor?” Benny asked. It was worth thinking about. “Good point. Not sure Cujo and Haru Ito are going to be thrilled with the idea that there are even more suspects than they thought.”
Jessie grinned. “Better than getting stabbed from behind while you’re squaring off with the wrong man.”
True enough. “You started fighting lessons yet?” he asked her.
She grimaced. “Yeah. Between Jason and this man here I’m never going to have a moment’s peace. But I’m getting stronger! Ryder even let me ride a bike for the first time yesterday.”
Besotted, Benny thought with a grin. “Jason stayed? Did Michel go home?”
“Michel and four guards as escort,” Ryder said. “Jason wanted to go, but he said things were too tenuous in Penticton — especially if I was coming down here for a week. So he stayed.”
Benny wondered about Jason, and whether his tie to Mei was pulling him home to Hat Island. They had so much to learn about all of this! “You still have connections to the recruits?” he asked Jessie.
She nodded. “Like family links,” she said. “Mei said she felt like she had a bunch of new, clueless cousins? That’s a good description. I wish I could see links like Alpha Stafford does —see if mine look like a dandelion burst too.”
Benny itched to know as well. “Well, when you two come through next time, we’ll get Abby to take a look,” he said. He looked at Titus. “You ready to do this? I want to get home before dark.”
“Good luck with that,” Ryder said. “Snoqualmie got a foot of new snow last night.”
Benny grimaced. Well, he’d regained most of his skills with a bike. He’d just have to take his chances.
“Could swap you the pickup,” Titus offered. Benny pictured the old man on a motorbike, and grinned.
“No,” he said regretfully, because he was dreading the ride through snow on a bike. He truly was a weekend warrior —one who would put the bike in storage for the winter at that. “It’s Maggie’s bike. I promised to bring it back.”
“And you do not want Maggie mad at you,” Ryder agreed.
