Monsters of Durnbone

2. The Proposition

An explanation?

An explanation?Nerves zipped through me, and I found myself stepping back farther into the room. The four wolves followed me, their mere stature so much bigger and more confident than I ever remembered.

What kind of damn explanation did I have for leaving them?

None.

“My dad made me leave,” I whispered, holding my hands up, as if to show them I wasn’t dangerous. Hell, I didn’t even know why I was doing it. A human like me could never be dangerous to four ruthless wolves like them. “He smashed my phone and moved me across the country.”

“You didn’t say good-bye,” Darius said.

Dark skin, a single cuffed earring, and a fade with three-inch dreadlocks, Darius stood a bit stockier than the others. If it wasn’t for his gold family ring that he wore around his right thumb, I wouldn’t have recognized him.

“I didn’t think I was leaving,” I said.

“You left on your eighteenth birthday,” Thayer said, his voice deeper than it had been since I’d last seen him.

Last time I had seen him, he had been skinnier than the other guys, his skin free of any ink or scars and his dark brown hair cut short. But now, tattoos covered his pale skin from head to toe, his hair was messy on top of his head, and he had a large scar that cut straight through his left eyebrow down to his mid-cheek.

Thayer said the words like they should’ve meant something to me, as they seemed to mean to them.

“I didn’t have any choice on the matter,” I said, wanting them to believe me.

“We have been searching for you,” Gaian said, green eyes softening at me. He ran a hand through his dirty-blond scruff. He might’ve been the only one who hadn’t changed as drastically, the calmer and more collected one of the bunch.

I lowered my hands and sighed softly to myself, hating that Dad had taken me away from them. If it wasn’t for them constantly on my mind for the past four years, I probably wouldn’t have come back. I sure as hell still would’ve been off Dad’s estate though.

Annoyed slightly because they couldn’t see that this hadn’t been my doing, I turned toward Calder and crossed my arms. “Do you have anything to say to me? Anything you want to get off your chest?”

Calder and I had never really gotten along. Sure, we tolerated each other, but Calder was always off, learning how to be an alpha with his father. Growing up, he had barely spent any time with me.

Calder clenched his sharp jaw and growled, “You’re staying at my pack house.”

My eyes widened. “What?”

“That’s what I have to say to you,” Calder said, turning on his heel and heading back through the door. “Say good-bye to Maxine. We’re bringing you home with us, so no other guys like that fucker”—he hiked his thumb back to the stairs, where Jaroth had disappeared a couple of moments ago—“can hit on you again tonight.”

“You know, you don’t get to boss me around now that I’m back,” I said, handing my drink to Darius and following after him with my arms crossed over my chest. “I’m not one of your wolves that you can order to do things and expect me to do them.”

“Oh, really?” Calder said, stopping at the bottom of the stairs and turning toward me.

He towered over my body, his frame so much bigger than the other alphas I had seen around town since I had been back.

I craned my head back and stared up at him, tapping my foot. “That’s right.”

Before I could react, Calder scooped me up and tossed me right over his shoulder. “Bullshit. You’ll do as I say, Pretty Bird. You’ve been gone for too long.”

But something deep down told me that there was more than just that. His tone and touch were nothing but possessive, overflowing with jealousy and rage. I scrambled to try to get out of his hold, but he easily walked up the stairs and back into the hazy party.

“Tell Maxine she’s staying with us,” Calder ordered Gaian, “then get her s**t and bring it back to the pack house.”

“This is not fair!” I shouted, banging on his back. “Let me down! At least let me walk!”

“No,” he growled, chest rumbling. “You’re not leaving us again, Pretty Bird. You’re ours.”

Forty minutes later, I found myself standing in an empty bedroom with my two suitcases spread on the bed. I looked from my suitcases to the guys who stood in the doorway, all with their arms crossed and their gazes focused on me.

“If I’m going to live here until I find a place of my own, then I need—”

“You’re not going to find a place of your own.”

Ignoring Darius’s comment, I continued, “Then I need some personal space.”

Calder nodded to my suitcases. “Unpack your s**t, then meet us downstairs. We have things to talk about.”

After successfully pushing them out of the bedroom—where I would supposedly live in forever now—I unpacked my belongings and put away my clothes. This was definitely not how I’d expected my first night back in Durnbone going.

I’d thought I’d get drunk off Midnight Moon, then sleep with some vampire or something.

Not this.

Once I unpacked everything, I placed my diary underneath my pillow and vowed to find a lock to put on it. If they were this forward with me, I didn’t doubt that they would snoop around my stuff at some point. And I would die if they found what was in there.

die “You ready?” Gaian said from the doorway, watching me intently and smiling softly. “I’ve calmed Calder down. We don’t have to talk about anything tonight. It’s just going to be a … reunion of sorts, a time to get reacquainted.”

“Reacquainted, huh?” I asked, stepping closer to the doorway.

He paused and stared down at me, those golden eyes still the same. Memories flooded through my mind of the night before my eighteenth birthday, the night before Dad had changed my life forever. The guys and I had played an innocent game of Truth or Dare.

And the last thing I remembered before falling asleep was Gaian kissing me.

“Do you remember the last time we got acquainted?” I asked playfully.

Gaian placed his hand on my back, his touch gentle at first. “I do,” he said, guiding me down the stairs, fingers curling around my shoulder. “But this time, it’s going to be different, Pretty Bird. This time, we all get you.”