He gave me a brief lesson about Shifter rules and how things worked, and I wasn’t sure if he was doing it for my benefit (being that I was completely ignorant of their culture), or his own so he wouldn’t have to deal with watching me cry. Men avoid women when the waterworks turn on the way a mouse avoids a rattlesnake. I could tell he wasn’t much of a social talker since he kept the conversation strictly about pack this and pack that. He made a few calls and reassured me they had everything under control. Denver would drive my car to their house for safekeeping, and they’d have surveillance on my apartment at all times, including when I finally went home. Which was a strange feeling. I didn’t even know these men and they were stepping in and taking over like I meant something to them. But then again, maybe I did. We didn’t know about Austin’s family, but they knew everything about ours. They supported Austin’s need to form his own “practice pack,” as Reno put it. We arrived at Austin’s house in the afternoon, and despite the fact there were people inside I’d never met, I went straight to the bedroom and shut the door.
