Page 122 of Starting a New Life

Rounding the truck, I furrowed my brow as I found my two pack members still sitting in the bed of the truck, a slender man tucked between them.

Maim, my wolf growled when I first laid eyes on him, and I internally flinched at the rage that was bubbling up inside me. It took a second for his state to fully register with me, and then I was with my wolf.

We should’ve fucking killed that piss-poor excuse of a wolf!

Yes, turn around. Kill.

I wanted to. Oh damn, I so wanted to do just that. That asshole didn’t deserve to keep breathing.

The mage’s neck was rubbed raw, scars littering his throat, forming a fucking collar themselves. Wary eyes spotted me as I rounded the truck. His hands balled into fists against the metal truck bed, and he squirmed, his throat working, Adam’s apple bobbing.

A sour scent wafted over.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I needed to calm the fuck down, but how was I supposed to be calm if all I wanted was to go back and kill the bastard who’d done this to another human being?

I swallowed a mouthful of bile and tried the deep breaths again.

The mage kept eyeing me warily. His scent told me he was afraid, but his face showed nothing but bone-deep tiredness, which was probably the reason he was still sitting and not making any attempts to get up at all.

He could fight me. He could get up. He could run. Yet he was sitting between Angelo and Heath, his eyes tracking my every movement but otherwise completely still.

“Hi,” I said, climbing into the bed of the truck. I quickly sat down, so I was on an eye-to-eye level with the mage. “I’m Grayson, the Alpha of a pack called Cedarwood. This—” I made a broad gesture that encompassed all my pack members. “Is part of my pack. My mate probably already invited you to stay with us, but I’d like to formally extend an invitation too. We’d love to have you stay with us in Cedarwood for as long as you want.”

I held out my hand, giving him what I hoped was a friendly smile.

Callum’s throat worked, eyes darting to me, to Heath and Angelo, then further, searching for something. My smile widened. I felt Nix rounding the truck before I saw him, his demeanour purposely easygoing as he dropped into my lap and leaned against me. Closing his eyes, he let out a sigh. “I was so worried about you,” he whispered, nuzzling his face into my neck.

I smiled down at him, then looked at Callum again.

His eyes were wide as he watched Nix, whose hands roamed over my shoulder and my side, checking the exact spots the knife had sliced through my flesh.

Slowly, the other mage extended his hand and shook mine. His handshake had barely any pressure behind it, and he kept staring at our hands as if he couldn’t believe he was actually doing this, so I kept it short.

“You’re okay with coming home with us?” I checked.

The mage blinked. “Is it a choice?”

Nix finished my checkup, apparently satisfied when he couldn’t find a scratch on me, and turned to Callum.

“Everything you do from here on out is your choice,” he said, leaning forward. “You are your own person. You make your own decisions. I’d love for you to come with us and take time to recover—both physically and mentally. But you don’t have to. We wanted to free you, and we did that. You are free. It’s hard to believe, but you really are.”

Callum swallowed, his throat bobbing, once again drawing attention to his red and swollen neck. Immediately, anger bubbled up inside me again. Nix squeezed my thigh and pulled my arms around him.

“I… can I think about it? What I want?”

I nodded. “Of course. But we need to get going. We made sure no one was following us, but at some point, they’ll realize you’re gone, and I’d like to be as close to our own territory as possible when that happens.”

Callum nodded, biting his lip, uncertainty replacing the tiredness on his face.

Nix looked at me and winked, then turned to Callum and held out his hand.

“Why don’t you come with me? I don’t know how you feel, but I for one want to actually sit in a car for the rest of the drive. My ass is fucking numb from the vibrations.”

The barest hint of a smile flashed over Callum’s face before it settled back into uncertainty, but he got up and gave a quick nod.

“Okay.” The word was spoken so softly I almost missed it.

Nix didn’t. A grin split his whole face, and he jumped to his feet.