Thorn (Werewolf) ✔

Chapter Fifty-Two

The boat docks against a long stretch of abandoned beach. We haven't been intercepted by any soldiers yet but that doesn't mean that they're not on their way. We leave as quickly as we can, we don't even bother with the ramp. We just jump.

I hold Beta in my arms as I wait with the others on the shore. Thorn is the last to leave, he is checking the boat to make sure that we have everything. Now that we're all safely across, I'm very tempted to set the damn thing on fire, but it would raise attention. Plus, we might need it again one day.

My resilience to the cold might have changed but the poor children are shivering. The climate is different here, their parents start wrapping them up in thick blankets. I can just about bear it, it's the first indication that we're very far from everything we've known.

"Hey." Sky comes towards me, she strokes the dog for a few moments. "How are you doing?"

"I'm not sure," I admit. "It's. . . different."

"Different good?"

"I guess."

"What's wrong?"

I look at the others who are starting to walk across the beach, I wait until they're too far away to hear us. "Is it selfish for me to have wanted us to be alone?"

"You and Thorn?"

I nod. Thorn jumps down from the boat and carries the last bag across the shoreline. Luna is waiting for him with her tail wagging excitedly. That dog is obsessed with him. She follows him everywhere.

"The whole pack is going to be living with us."

Sky laughs. "That's how it works. Packs live together. They're your family now."

"Our family now," I remind her. "I know, I guess I had just gotten used to us being alone for so long and building this secret world together. Now there's not two of us, there's forty of us, and I'm not quite sure how to deal with that."

"Change is scary, in any context, but you're together, right? You're alive? Which is more than you both had last week."

I start smiling. "True. I'm just being stupid, ignore me."

Thorn stops in between us and his pack that are almost at the other side of the beach, he looks back to me, squinting his eyes.

"We're free!" Sky says, almost squealing. "Act like it."

I laugh as she skips away, breaking out into a fast run to catch up to the others. I make my way over to Thorn, releasing Beta from my arms so that he can run beside Luna. Thorn catches my body as I pass him, twisting my waist to face him.

"Penny for your thoughts, beautiful?"

I grin as I fold my arms over his shoulders. "I was just thinking about how much I really do love you."

"This mating bond has you all kinds of messed up, huh?"

I laugh for a moment. My eyes look down at his chest sadly. I start squeezing my fingers into his jacket, looking up to find his green eyes observing me with worry.

"Nothing is going to change," he says.

"Everything is going to change, Thorn."

"Not between us. Werewolves can be quite brutal and honest, it's hardwired into them, they can't help it. I know that there's still a part of you that's afraid of them but would it help if I promised you that they can literally never harm you? Alpha's mates are protected, they'll put your life before their own."

"What?" I mutter. "That isn't what I'm. . ." I rub my head. "I'm not afraid of them hurting me. I actually like them, well some of them."

"Then why are you nervous?"