His Forbidden Human

Chapter 6: Visitors

The knock at the door came at nine in the morning.

Maya froze at the kitchen table, mug halfway to her mouth. Ethan, who had been standing at the window looking at nothing, went very still in a way that was different from his usual stillness. More animal. More alert.

"Stay here," he said.

"Who is it?"

He didn't answer. He moved to the door in that quiet, deliberate way of his and opened it before whoever it was could knock again.

Maya stayed at the table. She also turned her chair so she could see the front hallway. She felt this was a reasonable compromise.

There were two of them. She could hear their voices before she could see their faces — one low and easy, the other quicker, lighter. Both male. Ethan's body language shifted when he saw them. Not into something dangerous. Into something older. More complicated.

"Ethan." The first voice. Low and easy. "You weren't answering your phone."

"I don't answer my phone."

"Yeah we know, it's a whole thing." The second voice. "Can we come in? It's cold."

A pause. Then Ethan stepped back.

They came into the kitchen doorway and stopped when they saw her.

The first one was tall, broad-shouldered, with dark skin and close-cropped hair and the kind of calm in his eyes that made Maya think of deep water. He looked at her without surprise, which was somehow more unnerving than surprise would have been.

The second was younger-looking. Lighter build, sharp features, a jacket that was too thin for the weather. He looked at her with open curiosity, like she was something interesting he'd found.

"Huh," he said.

"Don't," Ethan said.

"I wasn't going to say anything."

"You were absolutely going to say something."

"I was going to say hi." He looked at Maya. "Hi. I'm Cole. This is Marcus. We're not going to hurt you, just to get that out of the way."

Maya set her mug down. "Good opening."

"Right?" Cole said, to no one in particular.

Marcus, the taller one, looked at Ethan. "You want to explain?"

"She walked into the forest four nights ago. Hollow Pack was tracking her." Ethan crossed his arms. "I brought her here."

"For four days."

"It wasn't safe."

Marcus looked at Maya again. There was something assessing in it, but not unkind. "Is she—"

"Human," Ethan said. "Completely."

"Then why were they—"

"I don't know yet."

Cole had already moved into the kitchen, pulled out a chair, and sat down across from Maya like they'd known each other for years. She stared at him. He seemed entirely unbothered by her staring.

"You're handling this really well," he said.

"People keep saying that."

"It's because it's unusual. Most people we've had to pull out of the forest are either catatonic or trying to call the police." He tilted his head. "You're just sitting here drinking coffee."

"It's good coffee."

Something shifted in his expression — surprise, she thought, and then a grin that changed his whole face. "She's funny," he said, to Ethan.

"I know," Ethan said, in a tone that gave absolutely nothing away.

Maya looked between them. "How do you know each other?"

The question landed in a small silence. The three of them exchanged something she couldn't read — a look that had history in it, weight.

"Old friends," Marcus said finally.

Which was clearly not the whole answer. Maya filed it away.

"The Hollow Pack moved last night," Marcus said, turning back to Ethan. His voice was different now. Quieter. Like they were talking around her on purpose. "Two of them crossed the eastern border. Rennick knows they're here."

Ethan's expression went flat. "What does Rennick want?"

"What he always wants. To handle it himself." Marcus paused. "He's called a meet. Three days."

"I'm not going to a meet."

"Ethan—"

"I'm not part of the territory. I don't attend their meetings."

"You are part of the territory whether you want to be or not, you live here—"

"Marcus."

The word wasn't loud. It didn't need to be. Marcus stopped.

The kitchen was quiet for a moment.

Maya looked at Ethan. His jaw was tight, his arms still crossed, something locked down behind his eyes. She recognized that look now. It was the one he wore when something cost him more than he wanted to show.

"Who's Rennick?" she asked.

Three sets of eyes turned to her.

She looked back, steady. She was getting better at that.

"The Alpha of the local pack," Cole said, when it became clear Ethan wasn't going to answer. "He runs the territory. Claims it, anyway." He glanced at Ethan. "They have history."

"Cole," Ethan said.

"What? She's going to find out eventually." Cole leaned back in his chair. "We all grew up in the same pack. Rennick took over after—" He stopped. Ethan hadn't said anything, hadn't moved, but something in the room shifted. "After things changed," Cole finished, more carefully.

Maya looked at Ethan. He was looking at the window again.

"Is this meet about me?" she asked.

"Partly," Marcus said. "The Hollow Pack operating in Rennick's territory is already a problem. A human who was seen by them—" He paused. "It complicates things."

"Complicates how?"

"There are two ways to make a human safe from pack politics," Cole said, with the air of someone explaining something very carefully. "Either they're declared off-limits by an alpha. Or they're made part of the pack."

Maya stared at him. "What does made part of the pack mean?"

"It means exactly what it sounds like," Ethan said, from across the room.

"That's not — you can't just make someone—"

"It's not happening," Ethan said. Final. Like the conversation was over. "She's not being declared anything by Rennick and she's not being brought into a pack. I'll handle it another way."

"What other way?" Marcus asked.

Ethan didn't answer.

Which meant, Maya was learning, that he didn't have one yet.

She picked up her coffee. It had gone slightly cold. She drank it anyway.

"Okay," she said, to no one in particular.

Cole looked at her. "Okay?"

"I just mean—" She set the mug down. "I just mean that I'm sitting here, and this is apparently my life now, and I'd rather be part of the conversation than not." She looked at Ethan. "Whatever you're planning. I want to know."

He looked back at her for a long moment.

Then he pulled out a chair and sat down at the table for the first time since she'd arrived.

Marcus and Cole exchanged a look.

Maya didn't ask what it meant.

But she had a feeling it meant something.