Page 4 of Bone Collector’s Mate

Maybe this place was special after all.

I needed to explore more. Tonight, I would stay here in the forest. I had some beef jerky left in my pack from stocking up miles ago. I would feast and perhaps make a fire and sleep in a tree, the same night as I’d had year after year.

Whisper Grove. Even the name sounded calming. Groves were special places, and I was already used to the whispers of others. They calmed me and reminded me I was alive.

I took one more look at the family as they headed into their cabin and nodded.

I started a fire far into the forest, near the river I’d stepped over before. I went over the scene in my mind.

The alpha was a monster by human standards. Like me. Despite that, he’d found a way to have a family and an omega and a life.

A life.

The fire snapped and popped to life, and I froze at the realization. My horns had stopped throbbing. My body no longer weary.

Something new pumped through my veins.

A feeling I hadn’t experienced in a long time.

Hope.