Alpha Without a Pack...

Chapter 22

                                              Gavin

The girl certainly liked to keep everyone on their toes that was for sure, I actually thought she'd been eaten by the devil dog, before she showed up leading him like a perfectly trained puppy. On one hand I wanted to strangle her for doing something so dangerous, but on the other I was impressed and curious as to how she got the aggressive wolf dog to obey her. 

When she had told us about her past at dinner a few nights ago I felt guilty for being one of the lucky ones. Sure I had been in foster care for a long time before I joined the pack but I had a decent foster home and I followed the rules easily enough. Beckett had it rougher than I did in the system but none of us really knew by how much considering he never really talked about it. I had to admit I was a bit jealous of him which was stupid, why should I be jealous that he shared something painful with Sid when my life had been better? 

Bowen had practically ordered all of us to keep an eye out for trouble in the area but give the girl some space for a few days as she got used to our agreed protection. We had all known there were details she wasn't telling us but Bowen didn't have to warn us when it came to not pushing her for answers, a defensive wolf was a dangerous wolf. The idea that she had spent eight years in a cage and not gone completely insane was more than proof of how strong she was. I knew a little about what being caged could do to our kind and seeing how strongly she felt about Spartan being caged made a lot more sense now. 

It was strange how easy it was to be drawn to the usually quiet and cool girl, and it was amazing to watch her open up bit by bit around us. In the two days since she'd had dinner with us Fletcher and I were practically glued to her whenever she was around and we weren't working our butts off. I was learning things about Fletch that I'd never known, he was usually so anxious and quiet around us but with her he seemed like a different person, more open and confident. What did it say about us that a nomad girl like her knew more about our youngest pack member than the rest of us did? 

"Hello, Earth to Streaks, can you hear me?" I was drawn out of my thoughts as I met her eyes. "About time, I thought you were going to scrub a hole through the cage floor. What has you off in space today my blue haired buddy?" Her hum had my face flushing. I couldn't tell her that I was thinking about her, that would just be weird and she'd probably kick my a** for it. "Nothing much, I guess I'm just getting hungry." I muttered, I saw her eyebrows raise in question, letting me know she knew I was lying. "Yeah, well Fletcher is a bit later today than he usually is." She nodded, it was all I could do not to sigh in relief as she let the subject drop. 

"These guys will be free to go back to the forest tomorrow." I nodded to the family of squirrels hopping around the enclosure above me, Sidney smiled up at them. I was quickly learning that other than Spartan she really liked to watch the squirrels play. "That's good to hear, I might love watching their acrobatics, but it's so much nicer to see them outside of a cage." Her smile was small but sweet and I found myself staring, I forced myself to look away before she could catch me being a creeper. "Well speak of the devil, I guess it's time for a lunch break." Her grin was directed at me as she nodded to Fletcher's car pulling up the drive. Seeing him was normal but it was who was with him that surprised me, he never came to the sanctuary.

                                                  Sidney