he wasn't sure why the scent of her anger hung in the air.
"Well, you know." He started, no longer sure of himself or his opinion. "He's a lone wolf. Shapeshifters like him don't want to be pack. They don't know how to be pack, and they don't know how to care about anyone but themselves. He didn't know what to do with himself at a gathering like this."
She clenched her jaw and ground out her next words. "He is working on one of the key protections for your territory."
Ben approached, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Now, Carri, that's the way of it with loners."
Even angrier, she shrugged off Ben's arm, turning to face him. "Did you ever ask why he's a lone wolf? What happened to his pack? He had to have come from one."
Ben shook his head. "Jason works on consult. He's been in our territory from time to time, and he's good at what he does. We don't pry into a man's past."
She wouldn't accept that. It smelled like an excuse, even to her human nose. "What I saw this afternoon was an entire pack unified in the effort to ignore one man. Of course he left." She looked around at each of the males. "I don't see any of you concerned about him roaming the woods alone, but I can't even be allowed to walk the distance from the house to the surveillance station on my own."
"The man can take care of himself.” Ben pointed out. "You know the situation, Carri. We can't risk you with the hunters out there. All of the packs and prides are on alert, and you are even more vulnerable out in the open."
"But you're not as concerned about losing him." The thought made her center grow cold, seeping from her core outward. "He's just another lone wolf.”
"He's a skilled technician." Ben touched the sleeve of her coat, attempting to calm her down. The gesture only made her more tense, angrier. She stepped away, and he let his hand drop. "Of course we want everyone safe."
"He's lower on the priority list than pack and me." She stalked towards the edge of the clearing, headed in the direction of the house and her guest room. Silence filled the clearing behind her, and suddenly her anger left her empty. She turned around, filled only with the sadness her fury had left behind. "Did you think maybe a person might be a lone wolf because you never gave him the option to be something else?"
Too keyed up to head back to Ben and Jenna's home, Carri let her momentum carry her out of the clearing, then she oriented herself and headed back to the surveillance tower. At that point, she wasn't going to be good company for anyone considering her mood, so figured she might as well get more work done on the coding and configuration for the surveillance system.. At that particular moment, finishing the project that much quicker was the most positive thought she could muster.
After a few moments, Carri stopped in her tracks. She hadn't heard anything, didn't have the enhanced senses of a shape shifter, but she had common sense. Someone followed her.
A moment later, Jenna stepped out of the shadow of a tree. "Never let it be said you aren't your mother's daughter."
Partly relieved Jenna didn't sound mad, partly annoyed her mother's mentor hadn't understood Carri's frustration with the pack, she scuffed a boot in the snow bank on one side of the trail. "I apologize for letting my temper get to me." Her mother also ran a hot temper, phenomenally explosive, but quick to burn itself out.
"No dear, not talking about your temper, although several males found it interesting." Jenna approached, her thumbs hooked in the front pockets of her jeans, her posture relaxed. She didn't seem angry at all, Carri thought with relief. She cared very deeply for Ben and Jenna which made it hard to see them lead by example, thoroughly shutting out a good man. Then, Jenna's next words surprised her. "I meant your ability to reach beyond the barriers people set between each other to take everyone into your heart. You teach us what pack should be, not just what it is. Your mother could do it, see past the differences between human and shapeshifter and simply care about people."
"Jason isn't only a shapeshifter. He's..." Uncertain what he meant to her, shook her head. He wasn’t just another wolf. "He shouldn't have to be