Alrick could take her out to visit some others. Craig kept talking about the new mother. He should organize a meeting. He could deal with both by gathering everyone together.Maybe host a gathering that wasn’t just him welcoming them. He could find out their concerns and they could meet others of his pack.“Here’s a thought that will cover multiple needs. You want to see them. I need to know their concerns. A meeting hosted here would fix that. At the end, we host a gathering where both packs meet. A formal welcome and all the trimmings. What do you think?”Jessica-Lyn was quiet for so long that he feared she wasn’t listening. But she said. “It would help them. No one listened before.”“Good, that’s something that will happen. I’m going downstairs to get some things done. You’re coming with me. That water is only a stopgap. So, while I suffer paperwork. We’ll have food brought for you

                They sat there for minutes. Still connected to each other. Panting as their world returned to its previous norm. That’s when he felt her shudder. It was out-of-place now. He lifted her from his lap as the moment became awkward. Her hair hung in such away he never saw her face. But he needed to get things done. Not fuck the afternoon away in an attractive piece of entertainment. He needed to remember that he couldn’t. He wouldn’t get involved with a criminal. “It’s time to get dressed. I have things to do. Your jobs today is dusting the books in here. Leave my desk. Take the cart back to the kitchen. Don’t forget in a few hours we will gather to initiate the pack’s newest members.”                She couldn’t respond beyond a nod. Jessie was at a loss. She did

                Craig couldn’t understand why she’d left. Everything she’d come with lay discarded in her room. Jessica-Lyn’s choice must have come from her experience with Alrick. Craig felt his respect for his friend lessen thinking she’d felt herself better off alone and hunted that living with the Silver Ridge Pack. Jessica-Lyn has said nothing of her actual intentions to those that knew her. A couple received a goodbye, and she’d just walked out. No one questioned her or stopped her.Alrick returned with the clothes Craig was sure he’d last seen her in his hands not long after dawn. Jessica-Lyn left her people behind in Alrick’s care.Slacking his sexual need on her and then discarding her. Craig could not understand what words Alrick said to her. But for her believe she was better off outside of a pack?Stories were coming in from many

Alrick slipped out of his apartment and locked the door behind him. He felt bad for tying Jessica-Lyn to his bed. But look at what she’d done when he gave her a small amount of freedom. Alrick knew he couldn’t do that again until he had her trust. She must have misunderstood in her confusion or something. She thought dying alone was better than dealing with him. Then being a member of his pack.He’d to admit that he’d approached her the wrong way. But she needed to learn her lesson, not run from it. Alrick never hurt her. He worried she wasn’t in her right mind, and he feared what she would say if the investigator talked to her. She’d not understood what he was doing. Jessica-Lyn may incriminate herself in something she was not guilty of.This trip into her lands. Seeing the outer buildings and the state the Iron Hill Pack lived in did change Alrick’s impression. She was nothing like the other Alpha family members he’d ev

He’d seen no one do this before. She wasn’t crying, nor was she putting off any discernible emotional scent. It was almost foreign to him. No, he could see her fear. “Jessica-Lyn look at me. Talk to me now. What were you planning?” Now the fun was over. He’d lost where the pit of his stomach was. He couldn’t stop the dread from forming in his stomach. The thrill of the hunt and having her here with him. It was pleasurable to him. Now he saw something different in her. She wasn’t like the others. Jessica-Lyn wasn’t expecting him to play with her. She expected him to chase her, but not for fun and games.“Jessica!” She just flinched against the headboard but did nothing more. “What did you plan to do?”“Nothing.” Her head slid from his hand. She turned away from him. “I would do nothing. I know where I stand and what the laws say.” That was it. She fell silent again.&l