I Don't Come Back to My Alpha Again novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Market Day

We ran the whole two miles down the ridge.

By the time we got to Creek Street, the roof had already gone.

Half the pack was standing in the road watching it burn.

Somebody had a garden hose going. It was spitting on a bonfire.

Beck stopped dead at the edge of the crowd.

He didn't try to go in. There was nothing left to go in for.

The front window blew out with a pop, and a woman screamed, and the flames climbed up into the dark.

I put my hand on his back.

He was shaking. Just a little. Just enough for me to feel it.

"My grandfather built that house," he said.

I didn't say anything. There wasn't anything to say.

A black SUV pulled up at the end of the street.

Of course it did.

Ansel got out in his good coat and walked through the crowd.

"Terrible," he said loudly. "Just terrible. Those old wood stoves. I've told the trackers a hundred times."

"I don't have a wood stove," Beck said.

Ansel looked at him with polite pity.

"Electrical, then. Old wiring. These things happen, Lassiter. Thank God nobody was home."

He looked at me when he said that last part.

Nobody was home, because Beck had been at my cabin.

He knew exactly where Beck had been.

"These things happen," I repeated.

"They do."

"Then I'm sure you'll pay for the roof."

Ansel's smile froze.

"I'm sorry?"

I raised my voice so the whole street could hear.

"The Alpha looks after his pack," I said. "My father rebuilt a widow's barn after lightning hit it. Every board. So I'm sure you'll do the same for the man who was your head tracker for twelve years." I tilted my head. "Unless you had some reason to want it burned?"

Every face in the street turned to Ansel.

He stood there in the firelight with his jaw working.

"Of course," he said finally. "Of course the pack will help."

"Thank you, Alpha," I said sweetly. "Everyone heard you."

He walked back to his SUV without another word.

That night Beck moved into my spare room.

He had nothing to move.

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