Fated to My Mate's Uncle novel · Chapter 17 of 32

Chapter 17: Sanctuary

"Where's the boy?" I called across the water.

"In the car. Asleep." Her voice broke. "Please, Carys."

I breathed in.

The wind was coming my way, off the pack side.

Gardenias. Blood, a little, from the inside of her cheek. And fear, so much fear it was coming off her.

That much was real.

"Drive around by the bridge," I said. "I'll meet you at the cook shack."

I ran back to camp and banged on Patsy's door.

Then I woke Fraser.

By the time the car came up the burn road, the whole crew was awake and standing in the yard.

Charmaine got out holding the boy.

He was eight and too big to carry, and she was carrying him anyway, his head on her shoulder and his legs hanging down.

He was still in his clothes from the day.

Twenty wolves looked at the woman who'd tried to buy my pup out of me.

Nobody moved to help her.

"No," the gray-bearded wolf said. "Not her. Not here."

"Look at her face," I said.

"I'm looking. I'm looking at Gregor's woman standing in our yard in the middle of the night. You don't think he can find her here?"

"I think he knows exactly where she is," the medic said quietly. "I think he sent her."

"He didn't send her," I said. "Smell her."

"I'm not a reader."

"I am."

Patsy came down her cabin steps in her robe.

She took one look at the boy and held out her arms.

"Give him here. He can have my bed."

Charmaine hesitated.

"I won't eat him," Patsy said. "He's mostly elbows."

Charmaine let him go.

Patsy carried him inside and shut the door.

I turned to the crew.

"She stays tonight. Her and the boy."

"You don't get to decide that," the kid in the yellow shirt said.

It was the first time he'd ever said a hard word to me since the snag.

I looked at Fraser.

He was standing a little apart, arms folded, looking at Charmaine.

He'd been looking at her since she got out of the car.

"Boss?" the gray-bearded wolf said.

"Crew rule," Fraser said slowly. "One night. Same as anybody."

"She put you in the burn, Fraser."

"I know what she did." He didn't look away from her. "Carys says she stays. She stays."

The crew didn't like it.

They went back to their cabins anyway, slow, muttering.

The cook shack was cold.

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