Page 103 of Starting a New Life

I nodded, even as my stomach knotted and a part of me wanted to shake my head. Did I really want to know whether I could’ve had my freedom years ago?

Gray spread the blanket over us and reached for my hand.

“We don’t have to do this. We can just watch a movie, if you want.”

“I need to know,” I whispered.

Gray took a deep breath and nodded. “Packs come in all colours and sizes. There are packs like ours, packs we’re friends with. Some are close, some are far away. But we’re few and far between. I wish I could tell you most packs are run the way I run Cedarwood, and I truly believe there are more good packs than bad ones out there, but I can’t deny there are still plenty of bad packs. I would know, since we get plenty of members from bad packs.”

“So…” I swallowed.

Gray shrugged. “The answer is, I don’t know. Did your former coven purposefully send you to packs that were the worst possible places for a mage to be to keep you from running? Probably. Would you have found a good pack if you’d run earlier? I don’t know. I mean, those packs your coven sent you to… they are real. No matter how many good packs there are, those bad ones are real too. There’s no guarantee what kind of pack you would’ve encountered. And while I would’ve loved to meet you under different circumstances, you can’t imagine how happy I am you found your way to me. And I’m so incredibly glad our woods provided you shelter.”

“Even though I was a secret intruder?”

Gray wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “I was an asshole that first night. Maybe the next day too. I still wish you would’ve come to me right from the start. But I understand now. I’ve been thinking about your situation a whole lot over the past few weeks, and I understand why you didn’t. You didn’t know us. You didn’t know what kind of people we were.”

I nodded, thinking back to that last night in my tent. Barely half a month had passed since then, yet it seemed a lifetime away.

“Did I ever tell you that I was planning on turning myself in?” I said, playing with Gray’s fingers.

“What?”

I nodded, not looking at him, but at our interlaced hands, his so much bigger and broader than mine. “Levi had messaged me to tell me he was back in town, and I… honestly, I was at the end of my rope, so I asked Levi to meet up. I was going to tell him everything and then ask him to set up a meeting. I was desperate. I wanted one last night of freedom before I gambled it all away, and that’s when the barrier started going off, alerting me that there were two injured pups, and the rest is history.”

For a while, Gray didn’t say anything, and the emotions echoing in my chest were changing too fast for me to really grasp. His aura was swirling too, like a tornado was surrounding him, until the storm eventually passed and he gave me a crooked smile.

“I kind of wish you’d had the chance to come to me,” he said, his eyes filled with pain. “I’d like to believe that I would’ve reacted to the revelation of you hiding in my territory better. I would like to imagine I’d have listened to your story right from the start. But I can’t regret the way things went because it means Connie and Nick made it to us. And it means you got to save their lives.”

I nodded, squeezing Gray’s hand. “I’ve forgiven you, you know? I’ve forgiven you for the way you reacted to seeing me. And while I would’ve liked to reveal myself properly and on my own terms, I agree with you. Connie and Nick are special, and I’m so glad I was able to help them.”

“They like you,” Gray said with a snort. “I don’t think they trust anyone in the pack the way they trust you. Especially Connie. He’s almost an entirely different person when he’s with you. With me or Paul or even Oak, he’s this meek little thing. But I’ve heard you two talking. He’s not like that with you.”

I thought about the first real conversation with Connie. The anger he was harbouring. “We bonded over a shared dislike of shifters.”

Gray laughed. “That tracks. I’m glad they have someone they trust, and I think they found the best person in the world to put their trust in.” He raised my hand to his lips and kissed it, his warm lips heating my skin. “Speaking of Connie’s pack…” He stopped and raised his eyes to me. “Now that the threat to you is gone, I’ll have to take care of the threat to Connie and Nick.”

Take care of… That sounded a lot like a second battle.

“I thought Paul was negotiating with the council?”

Gray let out a bitter laugh, eyes blazing, his wolf pushing against his chest, thrashing in fury. “He is. But the councilman who’s ruling the case is very… conservative. In his opinion, it’s a family matter best resolved within the family. Which means handing Connie back to his brother.”

“But…” I opened my mouth to protest, but Gray was continuing already.

“Which is utter bullshit considering the fact that his brother is the problem. I know. It also fails to address the fact that the pack is keeping another human being as property. Apparently, the council feels like that’s not their jurisdiction, which is even bigger bullshit.”

My eyes grew wide.

Gray hadn’t forgotten about Callum. More so, he had been trying to address the enslavement of my people without me even having to ask. Without telling me what he was doing.

Because he wasn’t doing it for me. He was doing it because it was the right thing to do. Nothing to brag about, just something to get done.

How the fuck had I managed to find a mate like him?

“So… what’s the plan?”

Gray gave me a pained smile. “We’re weighing our options. But if push comes to shove—and it looks a lot like that’s what’s going to happen—I’m going to challenge Connie’s brother to a fight. I can argue that since he’s over sixteen and has sought refuge with my pack, I have a legal claim to him, which, in theory, grants me the right to challenge his brother. Unfortunately, I don’t have a legal claim to the mage. So, while I’m fighting Alpha Otto over Connie, someone else will have to sneak in and get the mage out.”