After walking back to the cabin, Kier shoves the door open and stands beside it.
"In," he snaps.
I don't move.
"Hallee, now is not the time to push me. Get in."
I take in the tension in his jaw, his compressed lips, and the fury building in his eyes. Without a word, I turn and walk into the cabin.
Kier doesn't follow. He pulls the door closed behind me, and seconds later I hear the heavy tread of his steps moving away from the cabin, though not toward the farmhouse as I'd expected.
I'm guessing that he's probably going to go on a run, or punch a tree, or do whatever alphas do to rein in their violent need to kill something.
I wait until he's moved far enough away that he won't know what I intend. Once I'm sure, or almost sure, I push the door open and step out again.
Standing near a tree a few feet away are the six burly shifters who've been following me and Kier around for what feels like forever now.
Frankie, however, is missing. I'd bet Jaxon is chewing him out about his and Kier's near challenge over breakfast. From what I've seen so far, he seems like the sort of alpha who would blame his beta for any and everything, regardless of whether he was at fault or not.
The memory of breakfast has my mind-and my rumbling stomach-reminding me that none of the food made its way past my lips.
At nearly eight in the morning, I'm starving, and with no food in our cabin, it's doubtful if we're going to be guests of honor at lunch. Even if we are, who knows what might happen then?
"You don't mind me going for a walk, do you?" I call out to the burly shifters.
They regard me completely without expression.
"I'm going to take that as a no. Just so we're clear, I'm not running away, so you don't need to jump me or tackle me to the ground, okay?"
I'm met with more silence.
Not unfriendly, Jaxon says. I snort.
Hoping for the best, I head toward the other cabins, where-my nose tells me-I'll find the rest of the Stone pack. It seems criminal to not take advantage of my being here to learn something.
Given that this is a pack with an alpha who thinks women should remain invisible, I may even find some who want to leave.
While I can't guarantee I'll be able to help them right now, I'm sure that if I went back home and told Dayne what was going on here, I'd have the rest of my pack's support to come back and help.
"I should let a pre-pregnancy Talis on Jaxon, and see how he copes," I mutter beneath my breath. Then I think back to Talis' million-fold increase in aggression and hair-trigger mood swings from being Dayne's best friend to being ready to gut him. "Nah, pregnancy version would be more fun."
Although I hear the shifters trailing me, they don't respond to my mutters, nor do they, to my relief, tackle me to the ground.
Like the town of Dexter, the Range is a ghost town. Except worse.
Worse in the sense that I can tell there are people in the cabins I pass, but despite them likely picking up my scent as I wander around, none of them open their doors to investigate, or even peek out of the curtains.
All of which is concerning because it's normal to be curious, to want to know why some strange shifter is wandering around your home. But there's nothing, which has me thinking that Jaxon's need to control his pack means they're either hiding or he told them to stay put while Kier and I were here.
He seems too much of a control freak for him not to have said something.
My stroll is only amplifying my need to get away from this place as soon as possible. But not until we do something about this alpha who will probably stab us in the back if we leave him alive.
So, for several minutes, I wander around aimlessly.
Eventually, I spot a group of shifters, all of them male, standing near an open cabin door. If they were talking before, they stop long before I get anywhere near them. Since their hard stares don't invite me to venture any closer, I don't.
I can't help but think of an old comedy show I watched once. What was it one of the characters said? This is a local town for local people. There's nothing for you here. That's how I feel, completely unwelcome, like an outsider who's stumbled onto private land or something.
Maybe they're all inside eating breakfast. Maybe that's why no one cares about me being here.
Although I could knock on someone's door, I can't quite bring myself to do it. It's one thing wanting to explore, but I don't want to intrude on someone's cabin when it might be the only sanctuary they have to escape from Jaxon. Which is exactly where I'd be hiding out if Jaxon was my alpha.
"You lost?" a woman calls out from behind me.
I'm already smiling as I turn around because the last thing I expected was a woman to be the first to approach me.
The dark-haired woman wearing worn flannel pajamas standing in the doorway of an open cabin does not look like she knows what a smile is, let alone how to make one. Her face is granite-hard, fierce, and uncompromising. It also bears a striking resemblance to the Stone brothers, and not only them.
"You're the alpha's mother," I murmur, wondering how I missed the resemblance between the Stone brothers and Jaxon. It's the eyes, I realize, that's what they all have in common.
"And you're the one who came with Kier," the hard-faced woman says, her hazel eyes narrowed in suspicion.
So, despite the pack staying tucked in their cabins, they know me and Kier are here. I wouldn't be surprised if they all knew the reason why.
"Hi, I'm-"
Before I can finish introducing myself, she spins on her heel and walks into her cabin, leaving me staring after her.
Rude.
"You coming in or not?" she snaps from inside.
Okay, maybe not completely rude, then.
I follow her into the cabin. It doesn't take me long to realize it's as worn and in need of love as the rest of this pack is. Everything looks old and tired, just as she does.
My gaze takes in the woman who's already sitting on a mauve couch in front of a large TV. On the far end of the cabin is a single bed pushed up to one side, and on the other, a tiny kitchenette, a little bigger than what Kier and I have in our cabin. But this one comes with a toaster oven and a microwave. It's basic, like cheap motel kind of basic.
It's so depressing that I can't help but pity this woman if her life is just sitting around watching TV in a far too small cabin.
"So, Kier sticking around this time once he kills my other son?"
For a second, surprise at her bluntness holds my tongue, because… well, she's talking about Kier killing her son and she's this blasé about it?
I lean against the wall just inside since she hasn't asked me to sit, and she looks so fierce that I'd rather not sit all that close to her if I'm being honest. "I don't know what Kier plans on doing."
"You're his mate. Of course you do."
"No," I correct her politely, "I'm not."
Her smile turns sly. "But you want to be? You think we haven't seen the way you look at him? Or is it just any guy who looks like he might be alpha that takes your fancy?"
Wow, this woman is just… wow.
I smile. "Unfortunately, I'm not built that way. I care about Kier and not because of what he can offer me."
"Well, then you're not as smart as I thought you were."
I stare at her. "You thought it was smart of me to use Kier to get what I want? And because that's not my intention, I'm stupid?"
She shrugs as she turns away and grabs the remote from beside her as if I've already bored her. "How else would you move up in pack hierarchy?"
"My pack isn't like that. Our worth isn't tied to who we're fucking," I tell her, figuring if she can be blunt, I can be just as blunt back.
Instead of turning the TV on, she turns to look at me. "A woman has a place in the pack. I don't think you or that alpha of yours understand what that is. Do you?"
No wonder Kier couldn't wait to get the hell out of here while he could.
"I'm guessing that includes cooking, cleaning, and raising children. Am I close?" It takes serious effort to throttle back my sarcastic tone because clearly this woman is living in the wrong century.
She turns the TV on and starts flicking through channel after channel. "Something like that."
"So, the raising kids part, does that involve protecting them? That kind of thing?"
Her eyes narrow on me. "What are you getting at?"
"I'm just curious. You don't seem the least bit upset about Kier killing your other son or him doing the same to Jaxon."
"It's his fight. If he loses, what's that to me?"
I open my mouth to speak, though I don't know how I'd respond to a comment as cold-blooded as that. Before I can, a voice at my elbow does. "Ah, I see you're getting to know the pack."
Of course it's Jaxon who steps in through the open door of the cabin.
He smiles warmly, shifting his gaze from me to the woman on the couch who's admitted to not giving a shit if he lives or dies. I'm expecting more of a response than a smile. A lot more. All I get is a strained silence.
"Something like that," I mutter. "Well, nice to meet you…" I wait for an introduction, but it seems the woman has found whatever she wanted to watch on TV and forgotten that I exist. She doesn't even glance over at me. "Right. I'll see you around then."
I walk out and am immediately followed by Jaxon.
With my only desire to get far away from him and his heartless mother, I ignore the sound of Jaxon trailing me to head back toward mine and Kier's cabin.
Before I've taken a handful of steps, a hand closes around my wrist, forcing me to stop and confront the shifter who was following close behind me.
"I don't think Kier would appreciate you doing that," I say, keeping my gaze on the hand wrapped around my wrist. "For that matter, I don't think I appreciate it either."
"You have spirit. Fight. I like that," Jaxon says, his grip tightening almost painfully in response to my attempt to pull free.
I raise my head to meet his hazel eyes. He looks like the sort who wouldn't mind stamping out all this spirit he sees, breaking me. "Yeah, sorry but I'm not interested."
"You don't know what I could do for you, what I could give you. You'd never be without."
He lives in a forest that's no forest, with cabins that look like army barracks, sterile, cold, and unloved. There is nothing he could give me, and I'd be without the most important thing of all. Love.
"I'm not interested."
He doesn't look convinced. Instead of releasing me, he lifts his other hand, maybe to brush hair back from my face, maybe to do something else. I never find out what because I feel a familiar presence at my back.
"I believe she said she wasn't interested," Kier says. He sounds calm, not about to lose control, but Kier can be hard to read, case in point what happened at breakfast, so I'm not taking his apparent calm at face value.
Jaxon smiles as he slowly releases me, one finger at a time. "I'll see you around, Hallee."
I nod and turn away.
Kier falls in beside me as we walk back to our cabin. I keep my head down, just thinking about everything I've seen and heard so far.
Although I feel Kier glance at me once or twice, he doesn't speak and neither do I. I can understand why my silence would have him glancing over at me since I'm never usually this quiet.
We're within sight of the cabin when I stop and turn to face him, ignoring the heavies, still minus Frankie, trailing us.
I meet Kier's eyes. "How are you the way you are, coming from this?"
He blinks at me, likely surprised by the suddenness of my question.
"Never mind." I turn away, but he stops me with a hand around my wrist. It's a similar grip to Jaxon's, but there's a world of difference in how it makes me feel. I don't feel trapped or threatened. I know the very second I asked him to release me, he would.
For several seconds neither of us speaks. We just study each other in silence.
Finally, he releases my wrist to grab my hand instead. "Come on. I have food for us back in the cabin."