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  It took Marcus another half an hour before he shifted back and joined Isaiah in the hall. Isaiah hadn’t moved, which surprised Marcus. The floor couldn’t have been all that comfortable on his butt for that long.

  “How much of the legends are true and how much is total BS?” Isaiah asked as Marcus got his shorts back on.

  He shrugged and offered Isaiah his hand to get up. He didn’t take it, but he did stand. Marcus led him to the bedroom and nodded to the bed, but Isaiah didn’t go to it. “I’ll tell you about being a werewolf if you lie down. I just want you to be comfortable. Omegas shouldn’t ever be anything but.”

  Isaiah’s movements were stiff, and as he lay down, he wrapped his arms around himself and curled up. It was by far the saddest and most pathetic thing Marcus had seen from him so far that night.

  “I’m going to call someone, my beta—my highest ranking one anyway—and she’s going to come stay here tomorrow for the renovation. Once she gets here, I’m going to take you to the pack. Do you have any questions?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “Not really.” Marcus couldn’t just leave an omega who didn’t even know he was a werewolf out there in the human world to struggle through life on his own, as he apparently was doing now. No, everyone needed a pack. Especially omegas.

  Marcus stepped out of the room to make the call, but he didn’t go far. Isaiah might need something from him in the meantime and he wanted to be close enough to hear him call out to him if he did.

  Sam picked up right away. “Marcus?” She sounded tired, but not necessarily like he’d woken her up.

  “Why weren’t you asleep?”

  “Because I just got done watching a marathon of my favorite show. I was about to head to bed now, actually. Why aren’t you asleep right now? What’s your excuse?”

  He decided to save time by going with the shortest version of the events of that evening that he possibly could. “An omega who doesn’t know that he’s a werewolf broke in tonight. I want to bring him back to the pack to get settled but I need someone here to oversee the cabinet installation tomorrow.”

  Sam yawned loudly. “Sure. I’ll send someone. Are you okay?”

  Marcus was surprised by her lack of interest. “I’m fine. Tired but fine. Aren’t you going to ask about him at all?”

  “Nope. I’ll meet him tomorrow. Right now my only concern is how quickly I can go to bed. As long as you’re safe and don’t need anything from me other than a phone call to a lower beta, of course.”

  Marcus really appreciated how straightforward she could be at times. “No. That’s fine. Goodnight.”

  “Night.”

  She hung up, and Marcus put his phone back on the charger in the kitchen. He went back to check on Isaiah and found him only slightly more relaxed than when he’d left him. “You need to take it easy right now. You’re safe here. Stretch out and get comfortable. Get a nap in before we go,” Marcus said.

  “Yeah, I don’t trust you or anyone else that easily. I’m not just going to fall asleep right now. And you’re a...I can’t even say the word.”

  He would have to get used to the idea of what he was sooner or later, but Marcus didn’t push for it to necessarily happen tonight. “That’s alright.” Marcus wished he’d bothered to ask Sam how long she thought it would take whoever she sent to get here. He was anxious to get Isaiah to the pack where he could be taken care of properly. “Didn’t your parents ever tell you what you are? We don’t just pop out of the sky. Both of your parents had to be werewolves for you to be here.”

  Isaiah shrugged. “Maybe they were, but I never really knew them, so I couldn’t say for sure one way or the other. They died in a car accident when I was a baby.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Isaiah didn’t look bothered by it at all, but Marcus was. No wonder he didn’t know who he really was. He had no pack. Maybe his parents hadn’t even been part of a pack. That was rare, but not entirely unheard of, especially if neither of them were omegas or alphas. Most betas could come and go as they pleased, and if they didn’t want to live in a pack that was their business. It made sense to Marcus that Isaiah would find himself all alone in the world now, even if it broke his heart to think of an omega lost among the constant shuffle of the human world.

  “Did you have a good human family that adopted you, then?” Marcus tried for any lightness in Isaiah’s life.

  “I wouldn’t be living on the streets if I had. I’m twenty-four. I’ve been on my own for almost a decade.”

  Marcus came closer, intending to comfort Isaiah with a gentle touch, but Isaiah shied away from him instead. Marcus nodded. “I’m sorry for what you’ve been through. You will have a better life from here on out. For now, though, I’ll leave you alone so that you can rest. I’m here if you need anything.”

  “I don’t need anything. I just want to be let go.”

  As much as he might think he wanted that, Marcus knew better. He knew what an omega needed, and it wasn’t to be turned back out onto a life on the streets. Not as long as Marcus had a way to take care of him, or anything to say about it. “For now I’ll leave you alone so that you can rest.” He got up and went to the door. It was hard for him to turn his back on an omega who was hurting, but he also knew when his presence wasn’t welcome, and right then Isaiah didn’t want him around at all.

  * * * *

  Isaiah didn’t take a full breath until Marcus left him alone. This whole thing was so messed up. He wasn’t a werewolf. But he wasn’t going to say no to having a place to stay for a few days, even if Marcus was a monster. He just didn’t want Marcus to think he was that easy to get. He wasn’t desperate for a place. He knew where he could go for a night if he needed to. And if Marcus thought he was doing anything for the privilege of staying with him, then Isaiah would definitely be gone. But for now, Marcus was the preferable alternative, and Isaiah was okay seeing where this thing would go.

  Isaiah was surprised by just how okay with the whole werewolf thing he really was. He was definitely human, there was no question about that. Marcus was completely wrong in thinking that Isaiah was anything like him. But Isaiah also wasn’t going to pretend that Marcus was human, either. He was a werewolf. As screwed up and impossible as that sounded. If Isaiah had had any friends to tell that to, they never would have believed him about this at all.

  It wasn’t more than an hour later when Marcus came back into the room. “I need to get my clothes from in here. One of my betas will be here shortly. He called on his way, though unsurprisingly he got lost. He’s not the smartest of the werewolves in my pack. You’d think, given his age, that he would be completely fluent in computer speak and would know how to use the GPS that is built into the car, if not the one on his phone, but that’s a matter that I’ll talk to him about another day. I’m too tired to deal with anything else tonight.” He sighed and his expression softened. “Is there anyone you need to call? Obviously you can’t tell them about being a werewolf, or meeting one for that matter, but you could tell them that you got a job somewhere remote and you’ll be out of touch for a little bit, but you’ll call them again soon.”

  Isaiah slowly sat up and looked over at Marcus. “There’s no one to call. I don’t have anybody.” He didn’t feel ashamed or sad about that. People weren’t something that he needed. Sure, he relied on others at times for things that wanted, but more often than not they got something out of it, too. It was an exchange, one he was fully aware of and willing to do. The only people he knew that didn’t operate on that system were the people at the shelter he went to sometimes, but they got full quickly, and he didn’t like to take up a cot that could have been used for someone who really needed it.

  “You have a whole pack of people who are going to welcome you tomorrow morning,” Marcus promised him.

  Isaiah knew Marcus was trying to be optimistic and helpful, but it wasn’t going to work on him. “I’m gonna go finish eating that sandwich you made me.
” He left the room quickly and sat on the counter to eat his meal.

  Marcus joined him when he was dressed, and then he finished eating as well. “I’m sure you’ve got loads of questions,” Marcus said.

  But Isaiah really didn’t have all that many. He was getting a place to crash and probably some food too. As long as they didn’t end up trying to kill him, then he was pretty sure that he’d been through worse already in his life than anything Marcus and his pack could do to him. He did have one question though. “You don’t live in caves or something, right? You actually have running water and electricity where you’re taking me?”

  Marcus chuckled. “Yes, we bought a campground a few years back. Everyone has their own cabin. You’ll share mine until we get you settled.”

  Isaiah didn’t much care where he would be or who he had to share the place with as long as he could get a nice long hot shower. It had been a long time since he’d had more than the quick showers as the shelter. He wanted to linger under a hot spray. He wanted to have his own body wash that wasn’t a travel size. “How long until your guy gets here?”

  “Maybe fifteen more minutes. And he’s a beta. You might want to start learning the words. It’ll all be a major part of your life now. The pack, the betas...all of it.”

  Marcus seemed to think that Isaiah would be staying there permanently, but that wasn’t a given at all. He never stayed anywhere for longer than a few months at the most. One friend, a long time ago when he still liked people, had called him a restless soul because he always wanted to be going.

  Isaiah nodded, agreeing with Marcus because he seemed to be expecting it. But Isaiah still thought Marcus was crazy for thinking he was one of them. There was no way he was a werewolf. He would know if he was. “Aren’t there blood tests or something that would show that I’m a werewolf, if I even was? I know I saw doctors as a kid. I was probably born in a hospital or something.”

  “Our blood looks human, or close enough to it, at least. We don’t randomly just change, either. You’re either a wolf or someone who looks human. When you’re human your body everything about it is pretty much human, and when you’re a wolf that’s what you really are then, too.”

  Well, that was one mystery solved. “So people have litters of puppies then or something?” Isaiah joked.

  “No one who knows that they’re pregnant shifts if they can help it at all. We don’t have to shift that much, anyway.” Marcus shrugged. “We have the urge to go for runs and to go hunt, but most of the time those urges can be satisfied through a jog in the woods. Most of us don’t live out in rural areas where a wolf wouldn’t draw too much attention. You’ve probably met plenty of werewolves, actually. We live normal lives, a lot of the time in apartments like humans. There really isn’t that much difference.”

  “Except for being able to turn into a wolf,” Isaiah reminded him.

  Marcus shrugged. “Yes, of course there is that.”

  Someone knocked on the front door and Isaiah watched Marcus go answer it. He was curious about the other werewolves. Marcus made it all seem so normal, probably because he was one, but for a human like Isaiah the idea of werewolves getting together, of one man handing another a cup of convenience store coffee and knowing that they could both turn into wolves at any moment, was enough to make him nervous.

  He’d been scared in the past. Plenty of times. He’d been a teenager who looked much younger than he was, living without friends or family on the streets. He’d needed protection, and fast, and had done plenty of things he wished he could forget in order to stay alive and relatively safe that first year before he learned how to really take care of himself.

  This wasn’t fear, though. This was pure nerves. This was knowing that he wasn’t the strongest, or the fastest, person in the room. Isaiah didn’t feel like prey. Not really. Marcus hadn’t done anything to make him feel as if he was in any danger. He was uncomfortable, but so far he didn’t think that he needed to be afraid of him, or the man currently staring at him.

  “Hi,” Isaiah said, nodding to him.

  “Josh. Hi.” He took a step closer, then looked to Marcus and seemed to think better of his choice. “He’s the omega?”

  Marcus nodded. “He is. Get some rest tonight. The cabinet installers will be here between seven and eight. They know what to do, so you just need to be here, and if they have any questions, have them call me. Lock up when you leave. I’ve already scheduled someone to come fix the broken window. They’ll be here later this week, so for now we’ll leave it.”

  Josh was still staring at him, and Isaiah raised his eyebrows. There really was nothing all that interesting about him, but maybe this whole omega thing Marcus was convinced about was enough to override his innate plainness. Josh though, he wasn’t plain. And neither was Marcus. They were both well-built and in shape. Both had dark hair, though Marcus kept his nearly against his skull and Josh’s was a few inches long. Maybe the dark hair was part of being a werewolf. Isaiah was pretty close to blond. Another reason Marcus was wrong about him.

  “Do you need anything before we go? The cabins are about thirty minutes away this time of night,” Marcus said to Isaiah.

  Isaiah shook his head. He was ready to go. “Why do you have this place then? Shouldn’t your houses for your pack be closer to the cabins, or whatever?”

  Marcus smiled at him as Josh went to the bedroom and got settled in. “My pack—your pack now, too—is all in the cabins. That’s our home. It’s an old campground that has thirty acres around it. I like the lake the most. This is a rental property that I’m fixing up so that another alpha’s pack members can rent it out. That alpha only lives about five minutes from here, but he’s young and doesn’t have a good financial base just yet. We’ve been fortunate enough that our finances are secure. So he asked if I had any properties available to rent closer to him. I didn’t, but there was this house for sale for cheap, and we’re making it happen. We have a bunch of rental properties. That’s how we’ve made our money, and most of the pack knows how to do work that has to do with fixing up old houses. I’m glad you’re curious, though. I know this must be a lot to take in, and I’m happy that you’re asking questions.”

  Isaiah didn’t know why Marcus was so happy that he’d asked one lousy question. It didn’t mean anything. “Uh. Sure. I’m ready to go whenever.”

  “You don’t have to use the bathroom before we go?” Marcus pressed.

  Isaiah rolled his eyes. “I’m not five. If I needed to pee, I would have just gone and done it.”

  Instead of looking offended, Marcus just laughed. “Then let’s go. Josh, I’ll see you tomorrow. Drive safe. Remember to lock up when you leave.”

  “I’m not five either!” he called back.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Marcus shook his head, but he was smiling as they left.

  * * * *

  The campground wasn’t that impressive in the dark. Marcus wished he’d been able to show it to Isaiah in the daylight, but if he got up in time then he could see the sun rise over the poplar trees. Marcus was tempted to sleep in himself, which he hardly ever did, but as he pulled up to his cabin, he was really feeling the late hour and his lack of sleep.

  “This is me, and you too, until we get you settled in another of the cabins. They’re not that expensive to buy, which I’ll explain in the morning. They’re portable buildings that are finished out on the inside and attached to a main well and septic system.”

  Isaiah didn’t look like he had any idea what Marcus was talking about, but that was okay. He’d see soon enough. Marcus got out of the car and Isaiah followed in behind him. His cabin was two bedrooms and one bathroom, but the rooms were big and there was plenty of space for them both to stretch out. He normally kept his spare room as an office, but there was a futon in there for guests, or when he just felt like lying down while reading.

  “So everything is pretty much open and self-explanatory here. We’ll share a bathroom, and your bedroom is through
that door there. Feel free to eat anything you want. And you can borrow whatever clothes you want too. Any questions?”

  “Can I go get a shower?” Isaiah asked.

  Marcus figured he’d be too tired for that, but if he wanted one, the bathroom was open. “Sure. There’s towels and stuff in there. Use whatever soaps you want. There should be a bunch of different types in there. Have at it.”

  “Are you going to time me?”

  Marcus had no idea what Isaiah was getting at. “No. There’s a well, and we’ve got plenty of propane. I think we’re at ninety percent. Stay in there as long as you want. I’m heading to bed, but I’ll put some clothes on the futon in your bedroom for you to go through.”

  “Thanks,” Isaiah mumbled before heading off in the direction of the bathroom.

  Marcus waited a few minutes, in case Isaiah needed anything or had any questions, before he went into his room. He left the door open. Having it closed felt too isolating, and he didn’t worry about needing his privacy in general, but especially not while Isaiah was in the shower.

  He changed into pajama shorts quickly, then went through his small closet and the drawers under his bed until he found a few outfits that would probably work for Isaiah for a while. The pack had to share the laundry, but that wasn’t so bad.

  An hour later Marcus was starting to fall asleep when he heard Isaiah come out of the shower. It was a small cabin, and not hearing each other was pretty much impossible. He lay there, listening to the omega get ready for bed, until Marcus heard his breathing even out and felt sure that Isaiah was asleep. Then he fell asleep too, just a few hours before sunrise.

  * * * *

  Isaiah hadn’t been a deep sleeper in years, and that hadn’t changed overnight in the pack. He woke up close to dawn with the distinct feeling that someone was in the room with him. He slowly opened his eyes and found a lithe woman dressed in an oversized t-shirt and leggings sitting on the desk chair across from the futon he was sleeping on.