Page 50 of Starting a New Life

They looked at each other, back at me, and back at one another. This time, they seemed at a loss.

“We didn’t think this far ahead,” Nick finally said. “Our goal was to get here, but we didn’t think about what would come after.”

Of course they hadn’t. They were teenagers caught in an impossible situation. They’d gone through something no one should ever go through.

My wolf growled, angry with the Alpha who’d failed them. I wouldn’t.

No, my wolf agreed.

Taking a deep breath, I offered them a smile.

“How about you stay in the packhouse for now? We have a couple of shifters living here at all times. Also, you wouldn’t be the only newcomers. Our mage is a recent addition too.”

Very recent. As in, just as recent as they were, not that they needed to know.

“Wait… you let your mage stay here?” Connie asked in shock, mouth dropping. “You don’t like… keep him at your side?”

“Keep him…” What the fuck? “He’s not my prisoner.”

Now they looked at me as if I were the crazy one.

“He’s a mage, though,” Nick said very quietly, each word deliberate. “That means he’s your property. Or do you consider him the pack’s property?”

Proper…

My wolf’s hackles rose, and a snarl escaped that had the teens shrinking back.

“He’s a person,” I rumbled, thoughts of my mate so deathly afraid of shifters running through my head. The way he flinched away from me. The way he kept eyeing my hands when he thought I wasn’t looking. “He’s not property.”

“I’m sorry, Alpha,” Connie said, raising his hands. “Our old pack has a mage, and he… uhm…” He took a deep breath. “He’s our property. The pack’s property. Well, I guess more like the Alpha’s property. My dad acquired him three years ago. Bought him from another pack. They had his mother and didn’t need two mages, so they sold him. I didn’t know mages could be part of a pack.”

He didn’t know mages could be part of a pack?

His dad had bought a mage? Like it was common?

Blood drained from my face, hands shaking as I worked through the information. The picture I was getting was a grim one. One that was so abhorrent I didn’t want to believe it.

If what they were saying was true… I swallowed, my wolf whining in my chest as a lump formed in my throat. If what they were saying was true, Nix had probably stayed hidden out of fear. Because he’d thought we’d what… enslave him on sight? How would we even do that? He was a mage; he should be able to protect himself.

Then again, if it was so common, there had to be options, right?

A colourful swirl of problems was spinning in my mind. Suddenly, I longed to have yesterday’s problems back, when finding a thief had been the biggest of my issues.

The two teenagers were still staring at me warily, their scents a mix of fear and guilt.

“I’m not mad at you,” I said, taking a deep breath to keep my wolf under control. The lump in my throat was still there, making it hard to speak. “But in this pack, we don’t keep people as property. No humans, no mages, no shifters. We’re all people first. And people are not property. Got that?”

They nodded.

“Sorry, Alpha. Can you… Can you tell the mage thank you for helping us?”

I nodded.

“I can. And so can you when you see him. You don’t have to stay in your rooms. I’ll send someone up who can show you around. I only ask that you stay on the premises. If you want to go for a run in the forest, ask me first. I’ll find someone to accompany you.”

“Yes, Alpha,” came back in unison.

“Gray,” I said, giving them a smile even though I felt like vomiting. Packs kept mages as property. That information was entirely new and utterly horrifying. How was it possible I’d never heard that before. Hell, I’d visited plenty of packs during the past couple of years, and I’d never seen any signs that they kept people as slaves.