He’d made it clear that lupus wasn’t something she could get rid of, but rather something they’d work together to manage. According to him, she should start feeling much better soon and the relief we’d felt from that statement alone was overwhelming.
I stood up and met Wes at the door. “One of us will be back soon.”
She waved us away, a disgruntled look on her face. “Just go on. I’ll see you later.”
I shook my head and left the house, making sure to lock the door behind us. “I hate that she thinks she’s a burden. And that she’s so upset about being watched all the time,” I mumbled to my brother.
He slapped me on the shoulder as we made our way up the gravel road toward the lodge. “Just be happy she’s feeling well enough to argue with us, brother.”
He was right. There were times she’d been too ill to even put up a fight. Now she was getting some of her spunk back, that meant she must be feeling better. I couldn’t be anything but grateful for that.
We walked in silence up the road, and just as the lodge came into view, so did our new alpha.
“Wes, Wyatt, I’m glad to see you two,” he called as he walked over and shook our hands. “I’m sorry I haven’t been by again this week.”
We frowned at each other before turning back to him. “Don’t worry about it, Alpha. We’re getting along fine,” Wes said.
He nodded absentmindedly. “And how’s your mom? Has the doc been by?”
“Yeah. He’s been great. Some of her symptoms are already improving.”
His eyes were still on the woods in the distance. “That’s good. Real good.”
I frowned at my brother again before speaking up. “Hey, is everything okay?”
Abraham met my eyes, and his shoulders slumped with a heavy exhale. “No, not really. We’ve been dealing with an… issue for the better part of a year and I’m anticipating more bad news any day.”
“What kind of issue?”
He sighed and shook his head. “I suppose you’ll find out soon enough since you’ve both become enforcers.” He ran a rough hand down his face, and when he looked at us again, it seemed like he’d aged ten years. “We’ve had someone killing women in our woods since last June. We don’t know who it is except he’s a werewolf.”
“You don’t recognize his scent?” Wes asked.
Abraham’s jaw clenched. “No. I don’t. And there’s something off about it.”
“How many women has he killed already?”
“The third was just a couple weeks ago.”
I turned wide eyes to my brother before focusing on Abraham again. “Are the authorities involved?”
“We didn’t really have a choice. Thankfully, we have someone from the pack who works at the local precinct and he keeps us updated and off their radar, but it’s only a matter of time before their attention turns to us. Regardless of that, because it’s a werewolf doing this, I feel even more responsibility to find out who it is and stop them.”
I felt that same sense of responsibility down to my bones. It was just another reason I knew we were in the right place with the right pack. “We’ll help any way we can,” I said.
Abraham gave me a weary smile. “I appreciate that. I think we need all the help we can get.” He let out a deep breath and curled his lips into a bigger smile, although it didn’t reach his eyes. “Let’s put this aside for now. We’ve got a barbecue to get to.”
He ushered us forward and I let the subject drop for now, but it still weighed heavily on my mind. I wanted as much information about this series of crimes as possible so I could do everything in my power to make a difference. If I knew my brother, he was probably thinking along the same lines as I was.
“Come on, let me introduce you to the rest of my sisters,” Abraham said as he led us into the lodge and toward a table full of brunettes.
My eyes instantly zeroed in on Callista, and the closer I got, the harder something tugged deep within me. Like she was an anchor and I was a ship at sea, helplessly attached to her.
“Damn. You really do have a lot of sisters,” Wes murmured.
“No kidding,” Abraham said, the humor clear in his voice. When we arrived at the table, he put a hand on each of our shoulders. “Girls, these are our two newest packmates, Wyatt and Wes,” he said, nodding at each of us in turn. “Guys, this is Evelyn and Delilah, and you’ve already met Callista.”
I glanced at the first two women he mentioned, but my eyes didn’t stray from Callista for long. She was in a plaid button-down shirt like mine, only hers was tied in a knot at the waist, presumably because it was two sizes too big. Her mess of curly brown hair covered part of her face and my fingers itched to tuck it behind her ears.
Her eyes stayed glued to the table, however, denying me another look at her beautiful pale blue eyes.
“So, who here is single?” my idiot brother said from the other side of Abraham. Lucky for him there was a mountain of a man between us because my hand itched again, but this time to smack him in the back of the head.
Abraham chuckled. “Good luck with that.”
Wes turned to him. “What? No stay away from my sisters or else?”
Abraham laughed
