Golden Bonds

Betty

This is going to be rough. I hope you guys like It.

Happy Reading.

Love
NJ Kuhr
XOXO

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Zeek sent me into one of the bathrooms on the main floor when we got inside. There was a backpack waiting on a table he grabbed for me and set on the counter next to the sink. "It'll be easier for you if you change here before we go downstairs."

Either by design or Gem and I had similar thoughts we both angled our head to the side at him. Instead of explaining he gave us a strange grimace and closed the door to wait. Zeek wasn't happy about something. For some reason changing into human was always more painful and slower. My theory was because Gem was a creature of the Moon so taking her form was more natural whereas I being human had to fight harder to get back to a form that wasn't shaped by pack magic.

Once on two legs I dug through the backpack. There was a basic set of sweats and an overlarge t-shirt with a Led Zeppelin cover on the front. One of the one-size-fits-all outfits strategically placed around the ranch so people didn't have to walk around naked after a change. Stepping out of the bathroom finger brushing my hair Zeek led me towards the back.

I wasn't expecting the basement to be so comfy. Zeek started across a huge lounge room half the size of the entire building. There were rooms to the left of the wide open stairs, judging by the lack of smell they were spares, overflow. Wolves didn't like to be underground for long. I would know.

There were windows along the tops of the front and back facing walls that let in light from outside so the room wasn't as confining. Along one wall was a giant projector screen.

Facing it was a sofa that was impressive in size. It looked like one of those mix and match sectionals that the pieces could be rearranged. It had been pushed together so it formed a huge square cushion that could sit over thirty people comfortably. Considering pack mentality and their proclivity for touch and connection they probably piled on forty or fifty people mingled together to watch a movie or a game.

The image of me curling up against Bash with the rest of our family crowded around us on the sectional made me grin instead of cringe.

Ha, I called them our family. This was pack.

Zeek kept going though. He was keeping a sharp eye on the windows. Even in the basement the windows left us vulnerable. I couldn't read his thoughts but I read his body language. Wolfy senses made every miniscule movement obvious to me. The hall he continued down wasn't any better. There were no exits this way. I wasn't a trained strategist like Alek but even I would want a second way out. If Bradley somehow made it into the basement we'd be trapped.

Stepping through the open door at the end of the hall I scratched my shoulder. The layout was almost studio apartment feel. Much nicer and more expensive than the one I had in Phoenix before.... Not the best time to relive that night. Scratching along the back of my hair line I looked around.