After we make love in front of the fire and then later in the stream, we clean up the cabin and put the fire out before shifting so we can run back to Kier’s cabin.
Along the way, we play a little, racing and wrestling in the quiet forest on what is a fresh and mild late morning. At least I think it’s morning. It could be afternoon, but since I’ve lost all awareness of time, I have no clue.
But before long, we arrive at Kier’s cabin. Without us having to knock, Kier is swinging the door open, looking relaxed in a flannel shirt, black jeans, and bare feet.
After Marshall and I shift and slip into sweats that Kier leaves out for us, I’m ready to go home despite his offer of a shower and a meal. Marshall isn’t eager to stay either and it isn’t hard to work out why.
Even though we’re mates now, Marshall’s narrowed-eyed stare if I venture too close to Kier gives him away, until I grab his hand and tuck myself under his shoulder. At that point, he stops glowering, not that Kier seems to notice.
“You look happier,” Kier says, as we walk out to his garage, a smaller wooden cabin beside another that must be his workshop.
I grin at Marshall because he’s the source of my happiness. It’s a smile that he returns instantly. “I am.”
Kier nods. “Good.”
“I heard a lot of stories about all the bad things that can go wrong between a dominant and a submissive. It made me think there was no way we could work.”
Kier unlocks his garage and motions us inside the wooden structure where a green truck sits inside. He crosses over to a worktable and retrieves a metal can sitting on top, presumably to refill Dayne’s truck since I told him about running out of gas earlier. “There are lots of reasons for a relationship not to work,” he says as he fills the container from a large drum shoved in one corner. “You don’t need to be a submissive and a dominant for it to fail.”
I dart a glance at Marshall, and he raises his eyebrow.
Presumably, he’s talking about himself. Maybe about him and Hallee, I don’t know. “Anyway, I wanted to thank you for coming after us-coming after me. After what Peter said… it made me appreciate my pack more than I have been.”
Other than the sudden tension I see in his jaw, Kier doesn’t comment on what happened after Marshall and I left him to deal with the brothers. I’m guessing they must be dead for him to be completely fine, and to have no visible injuries after his fight.
While it’s getting a little easier to tell Marshall what I want, asking questions of an alpha who’s a stranger to me when I can see he clearly doesn’t want to talk isn’t so easy.
But that’s me. Marshall doesn’t have that same hesitancy about demanding answers. “Those shifters? I’m assuming they’ve been dealt with,” he asks.
Kier finishes topping up the can and, after screwing the top on, thumps it in his truck bed. “They won’t be a problem anymore.”
“Permanently?” Marshall’s arm briefly tightens around me, making me think he’s remembering Peter choking me.
“Permanently,” Kier echoes quietly. “Now, let’s get you back to your truck.”
“If it’s still there,” I murmur as we climb into the truck.
Kier starts his engine. “It will be there. No one drives down this road since it doesn’t really lead anywhere. Mainly, it’s the tourists who are staying in the cabins nearby.”
When Marshall drapes his arm around my shoulder, I snuggle against him as Kier pulls out of his garage. He’s driving down the narrow road that I had such trouble finding when I glimpse something in the forest that has me sitting up.
“Jenna?” Marshall murmurs when I duck under his shoulder so I can slide closer to the passenger side window.
I peer into the forest but see nothing but trees. “I thought I saw someone. A woman.”
“A woman?” Kier sounds confused.
I lean around Marshall so I can see him better. “Yeah. I think she had dark hair. Not like-” I stop because I have a feeling he’s not going to want to talk about this, and I’m proven right when his expression turns blank. “I mean, I didn’t recognize her.”
Marshall tucks me back under his shoulder, and I can’t help but smile at this new overprotectiveness.
“There’s no woman who’d have a reason to come looking for me,” Kier says.
Although I try to shake off my brief vision of the dark-haired woman, I can’t help but wonder who she is and why she’d be hanging around Kier’s cabin unless she knew him, or he knew her but didn’t want to admit it.
We fall into silence as he makes the drive down the main road, and as he said, Dayne’s truck is still parked up at the side of the road, except while the hazard lights are still flashing, they look dimmer now than before.
“I hope that’s not a problem,” I murmur when I point it out to Marshall.
“It’ll be fine,” Marshall says as we all climb out of the truck. “If they were off, I’d worry about a drained battery, but even that’s got a fix.”
It takes a few minutes for Marshall to refill the gas and get the engine started.
Just before Kier leaves, I approach his truck, ignoring Marshall’s tension behind me. “I wanted to thank you again for your help.”
“Since they were after me, I’d say I was more the cause of it than deserving of your gratitude.”
Keeping my gaze fixed on his chin, I shake my head. “No, you aren’t to blame. They came here looking for trouble. Anyway, I guess you must’ve noticed that Marshall and I are mates now.”
I dart a glance in his face and catch his lips quirking in a quick smile. “I did.”
“We’re going to have a mating ceremony. Maybe this weekend?” I turn to Marshall, who’s waiting for me beside the driver’s side with the door open.
He nods. “Saturday, most likely. You want it that soon, jellybean?”
“Jellybean?” Kier asks.
I turn back to him. “I’m hard on the outside and soft on the inside.”
Kier barks out a laugh. “Right. No promises, but I’ll think about it.”
“Come on, jellybean. Time to go home.”
I lift my hand in a wave as Kier pulls out. “We’ll bring your sweats back.”
“No need, keep them,” Kier calls out as he leaves.