Page 91 of Starting a New Life

Gray laughed. “I can scent your fear.”

Great. Just perfect.

I rolled my eyes—he definitely couldn’t see that.

“I feel like I’m on a roller coaster. FYI, I’m not a fan of roller coasters.” Not that I’d ever actually been on one, but this was exactly what I imagined the ride to be like, and that was all the experience I needed.

Gray barked out a laugh, but the ATV slowed down significantly.

“Sorry.”

I breathed a sigh of relief as the ride became smoother and I could actually see something aside from trees swooshing by. Another problem with Gray being such a giant was that I couldn’t look over his shoulder. If I looked straight ahead, I was staring at his back, and while he definitely had a nice, muscular back, it didn’t help me in any shape or form to get a feeling for when we’d drive down a decline or over bumpy roots.

Where were we going anyway?

This wasn’t the way Gray’s dad and I had taken, was it?

No. We’d used a real road to get to the barrier, and the drive through the forest hadn’t been long at all, whereas we’d been driving through the forest for half an hour already now. Or had I just been so lost in my mind on my way to the battlefield that I completely underestimated how much time it’d taken us to get there?

“Uhm…” I said into the nothingness of the helmet. Gray had said mine had a microphone too. “Are we going back to the packhouse?”

Gray’s aura shifted a bit, the happy calm picking up speed, swirling with nerves.

“I was gonna show you my home. My real home. If you want to. Sorry, I probably should’ve asked, but I thought you could use a bit of time away from the packhouse to decompress and, you know, deal with what happened today in peace.”

He was… this guy… I hugged him tighter, pressing my cheek—well, more like my helmet—against his back. My eyes itched and prickled, and then tears welled over, running down my face and soaking the padding of the helmet. I didn’t care.

“Thank you,” I whispered, not sure if I’d spoken loud enough for the microphone to pick it up.

“You’re welcome,” Gray answered, his aura calming again, his wolf happy too.

I smiled through my tears and tried to enjoy the ride more. It didn’t work. I hated the bumps. I hated getting thrown around like I was trying to ride a mechanical bull. It was better now, but better didn’t mean good.

“You know what happened the first time Rhett and Levi rode one of these things?” Gray asked conversationally.

“What happened?”

Gray chuckled, and his raspy, dry laugh sounded tinny through the microphone, but it still made my pulse ease up.

“Rhett had to tie Levi to him. With rope.”

I laughed. “What?”

Gray chuckled. “It’s really not a fun story, but the picture of him having to cut his mate loose before he could dismount the ATV was hilarious. And since it all ended up being okay, I feel like it’s okay for me to laugh about that particular image. And honestly, teasing Rhett about trying bondage before he’d even had a real conversation with his mate is always fun.”

I giggled. “You do remember that the first thing you did when you first saw me was throw me in a cell? Does he tease you about that?”

Gray cringed, and I wanted to beat myself for reminding him of that. He didn’t deserve to be reminded about his mistake. Not today. Not after he’d freed me from the wolves who’d hunted me for so long.

“I apologize,” I said into the helmet. “That was uncalled for.”

Gray sighed. “It’s the truth. I fucked up. I need to own that. And no, Rhett hasn’t teased me about that. Yet. He will, though, once he can be sure it’s not a sore topic for us—as in you and me—anymore. Just like I waited for him and Levi to be mated before I teased him about pretending to be a normal wolf for three days to gain Levi’s trust.”

“Wait… what?”

“Didn’t Levi tell you the story about how he and Rhett met?”

I thought back. “He told me pieces. About how he was abandoned and how Rhett found him. But… I think he skipped a few details.”