across the meadow. Growling, Jason didn't release Bradley but he changed position so he could scan the woods for the new danger. Ben stepped out of the trees, radiating dominance the way only an alpha could.
Reluctantly, Jason released his hold on Bradley. The other wolf scrambled to his feet and staggered to his alpha, left arm hanging limp at his side. A clean break, Jason concluded with his experienced eye, the other wolf would heal quickly and be ready to use the arm again in weeks. A human, with slower regenerative ability, would have lost the use of the arm for months. He experienced a fierce satisfaction seeing the proof he’d left his opponent with decisive evidence of his strength and skill. Carri was his and he was strong enough to take any challengers to his claim.
Ben's eyes scanned over Bradley in a similar assessment before he gestured for the defeated wolf to leave. Bradley took himself away with due haste, his head down and shoulders bowed.
Warily, Jason waited to see what the alpha would do next.
After another moment, Ben spoke calmly, offering no violence. "Carri is yours, you say."
"Yes." The right of it surged through him to the very marrow of his bones.
"You're her choice," the alpha acknowledged. "But what can you offer her, wolf? She's human, delicate. She's from the city, used to the luxuries that technology has to offer and comforted by the high walls humans build to keep them safe. How will you keep her safe? And happy?"
No answers. Jason didn't have them. Hell, he’d asked himself those questions over and over again since kissing her at the BBQ.
"She's going back to the city, wolf." Ben made it a statement of fact, one Jason knew without asking. She’d only come to visit, to set up the surveillance system. The brightness she’d brought into the grey of Jason's world would fade back into city lights.
"I know." His doubt must have shown in his face, his body language. Jason saw the hard twist in Ben's expression as the alpha growled low.
Ben made a sharp gesture with his hand, slicing through the air between them. "She deserves better."
The words slashed Jason to pieces, because he believed them to be true.
Carri waited.
She lingered for about ten minutes, cognizant of Jenna's warning for her safety. She even choked down a sandwich from the picnic basket, not hungry but needing something to do. She didn't doubt the effect her presence would have on Jason and Bradley, especially if they were already fighting, but it only made waiting harder.
She knew a lot about shapeshifters in general, more about pack wolves specifically. Her mother told her next to nothing about the behaviors of males competing for a female's attention, and it wasn't as if dating was the same as with human males. Not only faster, stronger, or driven by the animal aspects of their nature, shapeshifters felt with more intensity, as if some deity turned the volume up on their emotions, and she responded to Jason as if he resonated with some chord deep inside her.
"Jason." A whisper of worry touched with need. She needed to know he was okay.
Refusing to wait any longer, she barreled out of the surveillance building and strode towards the nearby clearing.
Ben met her beyond the trees, his expression neutral. "It's done, for now."
Suspicious, she approached him with caution. "You sent Bradley out here on purpose, Grandpa Ben."
Ben ducked his head a fraction, a huge concession from an alpha. "Jenna will tear into me for sending him, I'll admit it." He spread his hands wide at his sides. "I wanted to be sure you had choices, Carri. Safer choices."
"Where's Jason?" Carri looked past Ben's shoulder, even more worried she didn't hear any sounds to tell her where Jason had gone. Even the forest remained silent.
"I sent him to think on some things." Ben shrugged. When Carri made to walk past, Ben stepped in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Hold up for a second and talk to me. I need to hear, officially, what your choice is, and I'll support you."
Looking directly into the alpha's eyes, Carri felt the impact of his dominant personality bore into her, penetrate directly to her soul. He spoke to her, not as Grandpa Ben, but as alpha, a pack leader asking for her choice. "Jason. I want to find Jason."
"He's a lone wolf, Carri. Do you know what it means?"
Shaking her head, her frustration sharpened. "I'm getting the idea,