Howl (Monster Boyfriends #1)

Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

JAMIE

B y the time I reach camp, I’ve already sweat through two pairs of clothes. My first stop was to open the coffee shop and make sure everything was squared away for the next few days. Typically it takes a day of sleep to recover after a shift, but as much as I’ve been fighting this one off, I need to allow for a longer recoup.

I waited impatiently for Layton to show an hour after opening and asked if he was comfortable running the store alone for the next few days. I knew he would be, but I needed the verbal confirmation from him that he could handle it.

Layton has been a great assistant manager since I hired him two years ago. Eventually, my goal is to make him the lead and hire another assistant so I can take more time away from the store. Layton is patient with all the customers, incredibly organized, and a stickler for details. It’s why he called out my sweaty appearance as soon as he saw me. I waved it off as an oncoming flu, which also worked as a great excuse for why I wouldn’t be at the store. Leaving him to run the shop, I went to my office to change into something less sticky.

At this point my temperature was so high I could probably fry an egg on my forehead. The longer werewolves fight the urge to shift, the more our bodies fight against our will. Eventually, when the moon is high enough in the sky that its light illuminates my clammy skin, I won’t have a choice. No matter how much I try to delay the inevitable, the moon has the final say. That’s why I had to get out of town before that happened.

But there was one more stop I had to make before that could happen. If I couldn’t be with Raegan to protect her, I needed someone else to watch over her. My rational mind knows that Patrick is currently sitting in a jail cell and out of Raegan’s reach, but the irrational wolf inside keeps reminding me that anything could happen. What if he tries to break out and kidnap her? What if he has friends? Someone I don’t know about to do his dirty work.

Both sides of my brain volley the possibilities back and forth to the point that I can’t think straight. So just to be safe, I make a quick stop by Aidan’s apartment and ask him to keep his eyes on Raegan while I’m gone. Though he agreed, that didn’t dissuade him from giving me a ten minute lecture on why I should have told her about all of this sooner.

Knowing Raegan would be carefully watched over gave me a mild respite, but what truly makes my tense muscles finally relax is stepping onto werewolf territory.

Now that I can see the open expanse of woods in front of me, it’s like someone has opened a window in my head and let my thoughts finally breath fresh air. The smell of damp soil and maple trees calms my racing mind, and my body finally starts to relax.

Only I’m still sweating.

No longer where anyone else can see me, I strip off my shirt and rejoice at the feel of October wind whipping against my skin. Autumn is my favorite time of year. Something about the transition of seasons makes shifting so much more freeing than when it takes place in the dead of cold or the extreme heat of summer. That in-between shift of summer to winter, or vice versa, brings a semblance of relativity with our nature and nature itself. We are both changing, ushering in a new season of life.

I close my eyes and feel the pin prick of a drizzle nip my nose and cheeks. The morning has been overcast, so the chance of rain is high, but it only makes my wolf more eager to run wild. I’m about to take off the rest of my clothes and get ready to let go when I hear footsteps approaching. Human footsteps.

Rhett, our alpha and leader of the Shadow Hills pack, steps out from behind a giant Maple and gives me a warning glare. “You’re testing my patience, boy.”

Rhett is in his fifties, but is in incredible shape with a towering presence. He’s a good six inches taller than my five foot ten frame, and his permanent scowl framed by a bright red beard tends to keep anyone from getting too close. That’s the version of Rhett most see, but I’ve been lucky enough to see the softer, more gentle side of him.

Not the wolf, but the man.

My uncle.

He approaches me with steady strides, flattening the fallen leaves in his path with a foreboding crunch. He looks like a warrior on the battlefield breaking the bones of his enemies as they fall beneath him. His long auburn hair is pulled back into a low ponytail, and he’s wearing one of those leather bomber jackets with fur around the collar. He’s the stereotypical gruff outdoorsman, only he doesn’t own a motorcycle, or anything in plaid.

“Jamie.” Uncle Rhett greets me with an extended hand and an open mouthed smile too big for his face, having left his rough exterior behind. “I thought for sure you’d show up at the last minute with your tail already sprouting from your behind.”

I snort and take his hand firmly. He pulls me into a tight embrace and pats my back. “You stay away for too long, nephew. You should visit more. The pack howls for you on cold nights.”

“No they don’t.”

It might sound like a joke, but I know there’s some truth to what Rhett is saying. When I am separated from my pack for too long, it feels as if I’ve gone too long without eating. Their presence means nourishment.

I’ve heard it’s similar to being without your mate. However, that feels more like a wound that won’t heal until you can touch them again. Lately, I’ve begun questioning what precisely that wound feels like, because ever since my first encounter with Patrick, being away from Raegan makes me feel…uneasy. It’s not painful, just a dull and constant ache. But I can’t deny that it’s grown in intensity. I’m afraid after I shift, that wound might grow a bit bigger.

Though I’m happy to be with my pack again and finally have the opportunity to let my body take over my racing mind, I admit I have another motive for being here.

Rhett has been mated to his wife Paloma for thirty years. If there’s anyone I can ask about what it’s like, it would be him. Despite my need to have that conversation, I was hoping to get the shift out of my system before running into any more werewolves in my human form. Besides my closest brothers, the rest of the pack isn’t as accepting about my constant back and forth. They consider me to be a rogue wolf, given I don’t live at the camp.

Even though I’ve lived with my wolf over half my life, part of me still hasn't accepted what I am. I fear the loss of control every month, even though I know to expect it, and being around my pack would only insight the need to shift more often.

“Come on,” Rhett says. “Let me enjoy the time I’ve got with you before you run back to that little coffee business of yours.”

I give him an indignant expression. “I thought you liked my coffee business. And I broke even in the first year, thank you very much.”

“I know that.” His boisterous laugh echoes among the trees. “I just like hearing you defend it so proudly.” He pats my back again as we walk side by side deeper under the canopy of red and yellow leaves.

As we enter the camp, we’re greeted by several young omegas running around in their wolf forms. Rhett clicks his tongue and scolds them for being so close to the perimeter. They skirt off with their little tails tucked, and the sight of them being so disciplined makes my chest tighten. Is that how I would have been if I’d grown up in the pack?

As a young teenager, I never knew how my parents really felt about paranormals. I knew they existed, and I knew about Shadow Hills and the other towns built for them to live in around the country, but they weren’t talked about in my family or friend circles. After the ordinance declaring paranormals have separate land and freedom from human jurisdiction, there was a mass exodus of all paranormals from the major cities to their new small towns. After that, it was like they no longer existed.

It wasn’t until I first showed signs of shifting that I learned there were other werewolves in our family. My mother immediately pulled me from public school and moved us to Shadow Hills, fearing I would face bullying and judgment from the other kids. While there isn’t anything in the law that states paranormals can’t live among other humans, it’s pretty clearly implied that those small towns were created for a reason. Paranormals are free, but only if they live where humans tell them too.

My mom was the one to introduce me to her brother, Uncle Rhett, for the first time. He and my grandfather were the last two members of our family to have the werewolf gene. I felt such solace standing in front of someone who could truly understand what I was going through, but when Rhett offered for me to come live with the pack, I quickly said no, fearing what that would mean for me.

I was already so afraid of the changes happening to me, I desperately needed at least one thing to stay the same. So I chose to stay with my parents. During the day, I visited the pack and learned everything I needed to know about being a werewolf, and at night, I went home to my own bed and maintained some semblance of normalcy.

Some kids weren’t so lucky to have parents like mine. I’d heard of young werewolves who were forced out by their families, forced to leave home and having to find packs on their own. Those kids had nothing, while I at least had a choice.

Sometimes I feel guilty for taking it for granted, knowing those without a pack would give anything to have one, but I reminded myself that this was what I needed to stay sane. As a confused teenager, I wasn’t ready to give up complete control to something I didn’t understand.

I’m still not.

Rhett and I pass the first cluster of mobile homes and RVs with flat tires lined against a copse of trees. There are enough for each family to have one to themselves, and there are at least twenty different families I know of that live here. The pack has been here since Shadow Hills was founded, and over the years more families have found their way to the camp.

“There he is!” a voice calls out from a small garden of vegetables. Then Clay’s buzzed head pops up from behind a vine of tomatoes and gives me a shit-eating grin. “Where the hell have you been?”

“Running my business,” I answer. “I haven’t seen your face come by lately.”

“Dude, I know.” He stumbles mid stride as he steps over the small fence lining the garden. “Kyra just had the baby!” He opens his arms wide and slams into me with an aggressive hug. “I’m a dad!”

His joy is so pure, I can practically feel it radiating off him. Clay was one of the first friends I made here at the camp, and every time I see him I feel a pang of guilt for not spending more time with him.

“That’s amazing, man. Congrats. I wanna see them before I go.”

Clay pulls back and his joyous grin turns bitter. “You never stay long enough,” he confesses, and his words are like a vise around my heart.

Despite the exhilaration I feel every time I step onto werewolf soil, the moment I shift back to my human self, I feel the itch to return home. Only this time there’s something else pulling me back to Shadow Hills.

Yet again I feel that pull to get back to Raegan, but for some reason, she doesn’t feel as far away as she should.

I look around at my fellow werewolves and it occurs to me that we’re all still in human form. “Why haven’t you all shifted yet?” I always wait until the last possible second, but typically by sunrise on the day of a full moon, the rest of the pack is already bounding through the woods.

“We’ve been waiting on you, brother.” Clay says, looking to Rhett for confirmation.

Rhett nods and then looks at me. His eyes give the impression he wants to have a private conversation, and I’m eager to hear what he has to say.

He pats me on the shoulder. “Let’s get you some fuel before we go.”