The Wallflower Mate

28

It was midafternoon when Ryker headed to the community center to check on his pack members. Mary had left after breakfast to go home to change into her clothes. Ryker said nothing to her because his mind was back to what happened last night.

Abraham met him at his house shortly after Mary left and left together to the community center. The building was formerly used for educating the little pups, but when the new high school building was built, they moved everyone into that one building. It had enough separate sections to teach everyone.

Now, the building was used to host events and to hold meetings. However, they have cleared the space for everyone.

Abraham and Ryker entered through the double glass doors. Inside the main lobby, there were two hallways—the left one had the small meeting rooms, formerly known as classrooms, and the one on the right had the big gym space. The relief team had set up many cots for those who have lost their home.

A few pack members loitered around the main lobby chit-chatting quietly amongst themselves, but loud talkative noises were coming from the gym. They followed the right hallway to the open big double gym doors.

Inside, many pack members sat around conversing on their cots. The medical staff was making their rounds on everyone. Gary was in the middle of interviewing a few pack members with a small notepad, but when he saw Ryker and Abraham. He excused himself from them and walked over to report.

"Got anything new for us, Gary?" Abraham asked first.

"Well, many of them were having dinner or just doing their daily routine. They reported nothing out of the ordinary except for one individual who stated that they saw Mary standing in the back of the packhouse where the fire originally started."

Ryker scowled at Gary. They didn't think it was her, did they? Mary would never do this or was Ryker so bad at judging character that he didn't see it coming. It wouldn't be the first time, too. He thought he knew a female in the past and she turned and backstabbed him.

But Mary?

Could it be?

Loud laughter coming from the lunch line pulled all three males' attention in that direction. It was Mary. She was working the lunch line, ladling soup into bowls and handing them to the pack members. Right away, Ryker pushed his previous thought aside. Mary wouldn't have hurt his pack members. She had shown kindness repeatedly.

"It's not her," Ryker said.

Abraham and Gary agreed right away with Ryker's analysis because both of them nodded their head in agreement. All three males have been around Mary enough to know it wasn't her who started the fire. However, she was there at the crime scene. In fact, they saw her running out of the packhouse with a pack member wrapped in her arms.

The packhouse was far from her cabin. A few hours of walk time if she was walking at a leisurely pace. Ryker couldn't figure out why she was heading towards the packhouse. Was she going to meet someone there?

"She might have been there by coincidence. Everybody knows Easton has expressed an interest in her," Abraham said it so casually that Ryker knew he didn't say it to jab at him purposely, but more so as a point.

Ryker hated that idea even more.

"Speak of the Devil," Gary chuckled.

Easton was standing right next to Mary. Together, the two looked like the perfect couple—with bright smiles on their face and working to feed the pack members. They even wore matching colored shirts.

Ryker headed in their direction with Abraham and Gary scrambling to follow. Slowly, the sizeable crowd of pack members widened enough for Ryker and them to walk through. Mary finished handing over one soup bowl over to a pack member before she noticed everyone was looking behind them. She also looked in that direction to find Ryker standing in the middle of the crowd.