Page 91 of All Packed Up

Alpha.

She sensed the alpha before she heard him, and she jerked in Nic’s arms to lay her gaze on him. Griffith was stopped several feet away, but when he met her gaze, he stepped back even farther.

“We’re going inside,” was all Nic said.

Embarrassed, she hid her face in Nic’s neck and let her cheeks burn and tears spill until the safe scent of her nest surrounded her. Nic buried them in blankets and held her while she cried.

It wasn’t even moments later that thunder shook the house.

The storm was coming. And Wendy just hoped the Sterling Pack wasn’t coming with it.

Chapter 23

GRIFFITH

Grif heard Wendy’s sorrow long before they exited the woods. Dropping the armful of wood he was in the middle of moving, he raced toward the edge of the trees, spying Nic’s jacket through the foliage and branches.

Wendy was in his arms, shoulders shaking with the force of her sobs.

“Nic? What’s wrong?” he asked, brows furrowed with worry. What the fuck happened? Did Wendy fall? Get hurt?

As they drew near, Wendy jolted in Nic’s arms and jerked her head in his direction.

What he saw made him take a step back. Then a few more, before her expression crumpled from fear to sadness again and lowered her head back to Nic’s shoulder.

“We’re going inside,” was Nic’s version of an explanation. The beta carried Wendy across the yard and up the steps into the house. The door shut behind them with a slam of finality.

Griffith’s pulse was pounding in the residual silence as he stared at the closed door.

Wendy was scared of him?

Turning back toward the direction he’d come, Grif set his gaze on the logs he’d dumped in the dirt. What had happened?

Stacking them back in his arms, he carried the load to the porch and ignored the pinch in his stomach. Dropping them somewhat centered on the pile he’d been working on for the last half hour, Grif spied through the frosted glass, but didn’t see any movement.

Thunder rolled, and he straightened before turning back to the yard and jogging to the pile of wood. It was kept at the edge of the trees behind the house. An old tree had come down with a storm months ago, and he was just now getting to put all of it to use. With the rain crawling their way, he wanted to make sure he had enough firewood to keep them warm, just in case.

It wouldn’t be the first time a storm had knocked out his power. Though he supposed he was much more grateful for it in the winter. He could stay warm and dry and safe in front of the fire. But in the summer when it was already scorching out? Having no air was the worst.

Call him spoiled, but once Grif had gotten out of prison, he enjoyed the little things more and more. And air-conditioning was one of them.

Wendy’s face flicked across his frontal lobe, and Griffith winced. The omega had been terrified of him.

And while he knew it wasn’t him she was scared of, rather his designation, it still made his chest tighten at the thought. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen that same kind of emotion flit across someone’s face.

Griffith huffed, pushing away sneered faces peering through scratched plexiglass, and stomped off the porch.

Thunder struck again, and Grif lifted his head to the sky as he made his way through the yard. Daisy yipped and came barreling around the house for the porch.

Griffith couldn’t help his chuckle. The mutt was afraid of storms, and he knew he’d be in for a crowded bed when she slept with him tonight.

Daisy wasn’t afraid of him, hadn’t been even after he’d gotten out of prison and he’d feared she’d forgotten him.

Instead she’d greeted him with a wagging tail and excited yelps and painted dusty paw prints across his jeans and shirt as she jumped with joy. Daisy was his girl.

The first rain drops splattered against his back as he leaned over to collect more wood from the pile along the side of the house. The rough wood scratched at his hands, but he gathered as much as he could fit in both arms before making his way back around the house.

He was drenched by the time he dropped the wood on the porch. Each step he took left behind a muddy print, and Daisy yelped from where she waited by the front door eagerly.