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“If you won’t claim Wolf Creek, you need to look around at what you’ve built,” I said. “Your community is more pack than anything I grew up with.”
“Packs complicate things,” he said.
“Yet, you want me to go run one?” I asked, skeptical.
“It’s different for you. Your pack is still there and it needs to be run by someone with compassion and intelligence.”
I lifted my brows. “That is high praise for someone you hardly know.”
“It doesn’t take much time with you to know your heart is in the right place,” he said.
I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. None of this was what I expected. I wanted so badly to be angry with him. He wasn’t making it easy.
“We should wake the others,” he said.
“Okay.” It hadn’t felt like four hours, but I honestly wasn’t keeping track. Either way, after everything I just heard, I could use some time to process and I probably wasn’t the only one. That had to be near impossible for him to share with me. No wonder Sheila insisted that it was his story to tell.
“Thanks for telling me all of that,” I said.
He gave me a weak smile. “You deserved to know after everything I put you through.”
My heart felt like it was going to explode. I was so overcome with sympathy for Alec, and at the same time, I was wondering if there was anything between us I could still salvage.
With everything I had on the horizon, I wasn’t in the right place to assess my heart. Quietly, I stood and walked toward my sleeping bag.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the others waking. Kyle stretched and turned toward me. “You good?”
I nodded.
“Five more minutes,” Sheila moaned.
“You got this, protector,” Malcom said, using the title she’d have if she was in a pack where her mark had been honored.
“Way to use my words against me,” she teased.
“Stop your chatter, the others need some sleep,” Kyle said.
Alec was already in his sleeping bag, his body turned away from me. I hoped he would be able to get some sleep after reliving his past.
I settled into my sleeping bag, lulled to sleep by the quiet, muffled conversation of my friends but my slumber didn’t last long.
