“Still listening, honey. I’m not going to judge you,” he pressed.
“I was born a white wolf shifter,” she blurted, waiting for his reaction. When she found none, Aspen continued. “If you’ve heard of shifters, then I’m sure you’ve heard all of the news about the wolf shifters who’ve been causing trouble. We are not like them. They are black and gray wolves.”
“I have heard of trouble with them,” he said as he swallowed his bite of food. “Anchorage had a pack of them last year, but they were stopped. Not sure what happened to them after that.”
“Yeah, we’ve lived secluded for a long time, and if it wasn’t for Charlie, we wouldn’t have known about them.” She was going to be as honest as possible. If Booker was her true mate, he would have to know everything.
“Shifters came out to the humans like six years ago, Aspen,” he frowned. “You didn’t know?”
“No,” she sighed. “Look. We are a very small pack. It’s just my brothers, myself, and my cousin and her mate. We are a rare breed of wolf, and as far as we know, our pack is the only one of our kind.”
“Can’t you reach out to the other shifters and ask them for help to see if you are the only ones?”
“It’s not that easy,” she whispered, holding down her emotions. Her mother’s face flashed in her mind, and she shook her head to dislodge the image of her being ripped to shreds by a grizzly shifter. “We are hunted, Booker. Our family was killed by a clan of bear shifters eleven years ago. If it wasn’t for Nash, we would’ve died without our father, the leader of our pack.”
“My god, Aspen,” he gasped, dropping his fork so he could turn his chair toward her. He gave her all of his attention at her confession.
“We have to have an alpha to lead the pack or we will grow weak and die,” she admitted. “I was only twelve when my parents were killed, and I wasn’t mature enough to take over the pack. Nash was old enough to legally take over the land. So, he saved all of us that were left.”
“How did you even survive?” he asked.
“In our world, when your alpha dies, the ones who survive will have to find another alpha to do a blood ritual with, connecting them. The bears who came to kill us left the children to die out, thinking we didn’t have an alpha in the area.”
“Aspen, I’m so sorry,” he paused, clenching his fists where they rested on top of his legs. “How could they do that to you?”
“I told you…” She paused to swallow again. Crying wasn’t going to make things change, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to make it better, either. “The wolves are bad, and they have been for thousands of years. They cause havoc and chaos wherever they go. You’ve read the leaked information online. You’ve seen why we have to hide. It’s not safe for anyone to know about us.”
“There has to be a way,” he began, but paused when she held up her hand.
“Recently, a black bear clan moved into the area, and they set their territory right up next to ours. They know we are here, and they know we are wolves. They’ve sent us a warning already.”
“Warning?” His brow crinkled, and she saw his muscles tighten beneath the sleeves of his shirt.
“They came on our land and shot Charlie and Mason with arrows,” she explained, choking back her emotions. “There was a note attached, telling us they were watching us.”
“What the fuck, Aspen?” he bellowed, rising to his feet. “They attacked you. That wasn’t a warning. They could’ve been killed.”
“It’s okay, Booker,” she gasped as he reached for her, but she scooted her chair back and came to her feet. “Our kind is different. That was an actual warning. If they wanted to kill us, they would’ve done it. We are animals, and we can be vicious. Plus, the arrows were nothing to our bodies. We heal fast.”
“What?”
“Superhuman senses,” she said. “We can hear, scent, and see better than a human, and with that, we can also heal super-fast. The only issue we had with that night was Charlie. She’s human, and she was hit in the thigh. It caused her a few days of discomfort, and Mason was pissed.”
“I would’ve been, too,” he grunted. “So, what happens with the bears now?”
“We wait,” she guessed. “Nash and the others have been patrolling our territory to make sure the bears don’t cross our line again, and so far, they haven’t. I’m hoping they will stay in Cantwell.”
“Cantwell isn’t far,” he reminded her. In the great landscape of Alaska, the natives were used to driving sixty to a hundred miles like it was just a quick trip to the store.
“It’s far enough,” she promised. “Let’s finish eating. There’s more we need to talk about. Just know that we are okay for now.”
“For now,” he grunted and returned to his seat.
Booker watched Aspen as she cleaned up after their meal. He’d tried to get her to relax, but she insisted on splitting the work. He cooked, and she cleaned.
He honestly could get used to having her in his cabin, but he was also worried.
Her confession about what she was didn’t shock him as much as finding out there were other shifters who wanted to hurt her and her family. That didn’t sit well with him at all. If he thought he was protective of her the first time she was there, now it’d ramped up to a need he couldn’t even express.
“What do you want to do today?” she asked as she dried her hands on a clean towel.
“Thought about fishing
