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“Really? He can sense someone like that?” Ryder asked.
Benny shrugged. “We don’t know much about submissive wolves. They’re very rare. I only know of one other. Cujo was telling me about him. That was a Scottish pack, too, now that I think about it. But that phrase? The heart of the pack? Cujo used that phrase — said it was literally true for the pack he dealt with. The Alpha was the brain, the Second the protector, but the submissive wolf was the heart that bound them together.”
Ryder hadn’t met a submissive wolf — not the kind of wolf who would end up in the Okanogan pack, or in his motorcycle club for that matter. “Now that the old Alpha is dead, it seems like he should be told what he is.”
Benny nodded, but Jessie grimaced a bit. “Let’s talk it over with Duncan and Dennis,” she suggested. “He’s young.”
“He’s your age, Jessie,” Benny teased.
Ryder saw the shadow that passed over her face. He gave her a hug and kept her close. She relaxed against him.
“It’s not the years, it’s the miles,” she joked, but Ryder could feel the effort it took to put up a strong front.
Benny started to say something, but Ryder shook him off. Let it go, bro, he thought. She’s fine. He was grateful when Benny dropped it.
“So, latrines? Showers? Practical things?” Ryder asked.
“And the women? How do we keep them safe when their worst nightmares are now camped below their bedroom windows?” Jessie asked.
“We need to move the men somewhere else,” Benny agreed. “But a big open place like this works. Are you still thinking about sending some of them back to the Okanogan with Titus? We need to get him back to that pack as soon as possible — don’t forget it’s coming apart at the seams.”
“We do,” Ryder agreed. “Let’s go talk to the McKenzies.”
“And the lodge?” Benny said. “It worries me.”
“Worries me too,” Ryder said. He considered his options. “Might send Titus and a team up to check it out. He knows where it is.”
“Alpha!” someone yelled. “Come quick. We need you.”
Ryder started forward, but Benny pushed past him. “Never forget it could be a setup,” he instructed. Ryder nodded, although it set hard with him to let someone else take the risks.
It should be me that goes before you,Jessie said.That’s what a Second does. You need a better Second than me, Ryder. I can’t fight.
Ryder snorted.You’ve killed three wolves in as many days. I’d say you’re doing just fine.
He could feel her consider that. She didn’t know her own worth. Well, they’d work on that.
They reached a cluster of young men by the gate. “What’s the problem?” Ryder asked as he approached. They pulled back; a young wolf huddled on the other side of the gate.
“Get her inside!” Ryder ordered, and someone ran for the house to open the gate. He waited impatiently. Female and young. Small enough that any human seeing her would just think a large dog, thankfully. She was injured, and judging by the placement of the wounds, he thought she’d been hurt as human, and then shifted.
And came here? Why had she come here?
The gate opened, and Benny beat him through it. Benny scooped her up and brought her back inside the walls. Jessie motioned to the house, and the gates closed. By then, most of the young men had gathered around them. “Give us some space,” Ryder ordered. They obediently backed up a pace or so. He rolled his eyes.
Benny just walked through the crowd, still carrying the young wolf. He was crooning to her softly. Ryder thought she was conscious, but just barely.
Titus stood at the door, watching them come. Ryder’s Wolves were standing outside the front door. They looked at ease, but Ryder knew them well. They were on alert. If this were a bar, they’d be ready to fight if he so much as breathed the word. He wished life was that simple again. Fight, no fight. Fuck now, fuck later. And ride. Maybe he could be the one that went north to check out the lodge. A ride would do him good.
“This way,” Dennis said, gesturing to a room just inside the front door. A parlor of sorts that Dennis had turned into a medical office. Smart. You put dozens of young wolves in a confined space, and there would be a need for a medic.
And then there were the women, although he thought they needed Benny’s kind of doctoring more than Dennis’s.
Benny put the wolf on the couch. She whimpered but didn’t shift. “Run your hands over her,” Benny said softly. “Talk to her. Let her know her Alpha is here.”
Ryder did as Benny instructed: gentle pats and strokes, feeling her bones and her muscles for injuries, and talking to her. The words didn’t matter, he knew. It worked with his Wolves too. Pack needed touch.
“Now tell her to shift,” Benny said. “She may be struggling to do it.”
