FATED ESCAPE

Slowly, I turn in a circle and my eyes connect with the guy filling up a battered truck at the gas station. Or at least, that was what it looked like he’d been doing before he scented me, just as I scented him.Without taking his eyes off of me, he shoves the gas pump back in its slot and straightens from his lean against the truck.When he takes a step away from the truck he’s filling, I get my first unobstructed view of his body.He’s big. At least six feet, which puts him about the same height, if not build, as Shane. This shifter is more heavily muscled than Shane is not that anyone could describe Shane as lean.My mate has the sort of muscles most women sigh over, something I know all too well because before I knew what my life would be like in the Dacre pack, I sighed just as loudly as they did.I feel panic surging at the sight of this shifter’s heavy muscles and the narrow-eyed steel-gray stare, which tells me he can only be one thing.Alpha.My duffel slides off my shoulder a

Since Shane came to our room, which was really only my room three times a week, I guess it has to be recent. If I was a couple of months along, there’s no way I wouldn’t have known it before I left.Even if I’d somehow overlooked it, one of the packs would’ve noticed my scent changing. I’m sure I only missed it when I was running because every day meant being somewhere new, with unfamiliar scents and smells. That and my desperate fear distracting me that Shane or his father were only one step behind me, ready to drag me back to a place I’d have no hope of leaving again.Soon I’ll start showing, and then eventually they’ll be a child which brings with it another fear. A deeper one that never leaves me. At twenty-two and being a rare type of shifter, I’ve never had to fend for myself before since I went straight from my father’s pack to Shane’s.I need to find a way to support us both. If I can’t, then I’m going to have to go back to Shane and that’s something I swore I would never do.

For the first time, he talks directly to me, like I’m stupid, but he talks to me. Which I guess is something. “I don’t understand why. In your pack doesn’t your al—”“What Bennett means,” Mack interrupts, making my eyes widen with shock because a beta interrupting an alpha like that is practically unheard of, “is that there are different dynamics in all packs. His role doesn’t mean he’s always the only one giving orders.”I stare at him in confusion. “But that’s what an alpha does. Give orders.”Penny has a coughing fit and Mack turns to clap her on the back. Once she’s stopped, he continues speaking. “Things are a little more fluid here.”Since I’ve never heard, or seen any pack dynamic like this—where the beta can order the alpha to do something and there’s no pushback, I shift my focus back to Bennett to see what he’s making of all this.Bennett’s expression is completely blank. “Alpha,” he murmurs.“Alpha,” Mack repeats with a wide smile. “Now, did you want more bacon, Aerin?”I l

Soon it gets dark enough that Mack returns to lower the blinds and draw the curtains. I pretend to be asleep when he switches on the lamp beside my bed and turns off the overhead lights. I lay perfectly still, taking slow measured breaths until he leaves. His steps are light, unhurried, as he makes his way down the thickly carpeted hallway.After a short time in the bathroom, the sounds of running water stop and he moves into what must be another bedroom further down the hallway. The sounds now are quieter as he readies himself for bed.And then the house is still.Even then, I don’t move. Not until I know he’s gone to bed. Not until I’m sure he must’ve fallen asleep.Then, only when the house is completely silent do I sit up, peel the covers off me, and use both hands to shift my injured leg to the floor.At the first contact my toes make with the floor, I suck in a breath at the sharp pain. For several minutes I sit on the edge of the bed, just breathing in and out as I work myself

I guess protein bars aren’t a real food after all. “So, what do you want to do today?” Mack asks. I shrug. “I don’t know.”Although Mack has said it’s okay for me to read and watch TV and do nothing for three days, it’s hard to know what I actually want to do.Since I left the Dacre pack, I’ve spent all my time either moving to the next place or thinking about where I’d go next, because I knew staying in one place for too long would make it easier for Shane to track me.Although the Dacre pack is in a small town in Minnesota, the bus station doesn’t go to a lot of places. A determined shifter could track me, and Shane has every reason to be determined. His father taking away his position as alpha would do it.Winter Lake was supposed to be my short break. A place to catch my breath before I headed east to lose myself in New York. A city where there must be so many places to hide that no shifter nose could track me if I lost myself there. At least I hope not.I could even ask Mack to b