Page 69 of Wolf Forsaken

“Yup. Fell in love with it.” She parked and unhooked her seatbelt, glancing up at me. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Do you want pups?” When she raised her eyebrow in question, I laughed. “Babies. Do you want babies?”

“Haven’t given much thought to it honestly. I’ve been so focused on school and then my career that I hadn’t really thought of a timeline. It wasn’t like there was a person who made my ovaries weep.” She turned off the car and opened her door. “But maybe down the road. Far down the road.”

I followed her into the house and breathed in her scent. I could smell the others’ too, but hers was overwhelming. She’d made this house her safe place, and now she was letting it go.

“You could keep it.” I ran my hand over the original wood on a column.

“Keep what?” She walked over to the couch and sat down. She’d left some furniture for staging since she didn’t need it anymore.

“The house. Whenever we need some alone time with you, it can be our little getaway.” I sat next to her and pulled her against me so her back was resting against my chest. “It can be our fuck pad.”

She laughed. “We’d have to drive all the way here. I’m still not opposed to using my alpha mojo to get my way about a new treehouse being built.”

“I don’t think you need to use your alpha anything to get what you want.” I kissed the shell of her ear. “What should we do while we wait for the realtor?”

“Hmm… I could think of a few things…” She turned to face me, and I was about to kiss her when her phone rang. “Damn it.”

She pulled it out of her purse. “Cole?... No, we’re at my house to meet with the realtor, I told you that earlier.” She stood and looked down at me, color draining from her face. “What?”

“What is it?” I stood, ready to take the phone from her because she looked like she was about to drop it.

“There’s a fire.” She handed me the phone.

My stomach turned. “How bad is it?”

“Any kind of fire isn’t good. It started from the treehouse, which makes no fucking sense!” He sounded like he was in a truck. “I’m headed to get the helicopter. Silas and Eli are evacuating the pack in the surrounding area.”

“What do you need me to do?” I tried to practice the breathing technique I’d been working on. It helped. Barely.

“Stay where you are. We’ll come there as soon as we can. Hopefully, we can get it contained.” He hung up, and I stared down at the phone in disbelief.

“Hey, stay with me.” Ivy took the phone and slid it into her back pocket. “We should go help.”

“We can’t help with a fire.” I pulled her into a hug. “It’ll be fine.”

We stood in the middle of her living room, holding each other. There was a little comfort in knowing the pack had a fire station and the area had just had a really wet winter. Those things worked in our favor.

“Geez, my back has been itching today.” I stepped away from Ivy and reached for the spot on my back I couldn’t quite reach. I moved over to the corner of the wall and rubbed against it.

“Maybe it’s your shirt label.” Ivy grabbed my arm and made me turn around. She snaked her hand under the back. “Right here?”

“Yes.” I nearly hissed the word as her nails scraped over the spot that had eluded me.

“Did something bite you?” She ran a thumb over a spot, pressing it and causing me to gasp as it stung. “It feels like-”

There was a knock at the door, and she stepped away. “Finally. I don’t think it’s a good sign that the realtor is ten minutes late, but she's supposed to be the best there is.”

She went to the door to open it, leaving me trying to still scratch the spot. Maybe there was a spoon I could use.

The door squeaked slightly as it opened, and then their scent hit me.

Them.

But it wasn’t just their scent, but the faint scent of kerosene that made my wolf go nuts. My ears rang and my vision tunneled as I turned to find my mate… my Ivy being held with a gun to her head.

“Hello, sixty-four. It’s time for you to come home.”

No.

To be continued…