“Because you needed to,” Gabe said. “When I was first turned, it was from a violent attack by a rogue wolf. He bit me after he killed my mom and was in the process of raping me when he was interrupted by a trucker and the cop that was following him into the rest stop. I know a little about what it’s like to be forced and violated.” Gabe shook his head, lost in his memories for a second. “But to be abused by your own stepfather. Jesus.”

Jax nodded. “It started when I was twelve, and he kept after me for almost three more years. Not every night or anything, just…sometimes. I could always tell when he was about to start up again. He’d touch me a lot, and say shit. Rub against me. If I resisted, he’d…hurt me. He spent one evening burning me with a lit cigarette until I started screaming so loud the neighbors called the cops. He always had a story for them though, and they believed him—he had a good name in the community, after all. And I was just this weird kid he was trying to help. That’s what everyone thought, anyway. So this one night when I was fifteen, I’d just had enough. I took a knife from the kitchen, and when he tried to get into my bed…”

“Oh God, please tell me you cut his dick off,” Nicky said.

Jax huffed out a little laugh. “No, but I did cut him some. Man, he was so pissed. Scared him a little too, I think. He bled like a pig, but he never bothered me after that. I told him I’d tell the cops, and they’d make him show the scar. After that he left me alone.”

“But he started up with Mason?” Gabe asked softly.

“Not at first. Mason’s his own son, you know, so I thought he might be safe. I stuck around to make sure too, even though all I wanted to do was put distance between us. He wanted me out, but was afraid to ask me to leave. I got a job stocking groceries. It didn’t pay shit, but it meant I could stay with Mason until maybe he got old enough to defend himself. I don’t know—I didn’t really have much of a plan. I just couldn’t leave him alone with that. Anyway, last month I came home early and found my stepfather with Mason sitting on his damn lap while he stroked himself. He had a huge hard-on—for his eight-year-old son. Made me so fucking sick I jumped on him and beat the shit out of him. The neighbors called the cops, and I got put in jail. As soon as I got out I went back there and got Mason.”

Nicky cleared his throat. “Damn, Jax. He let you take him?”

“He didn’t let me—no.”

Gabe stood up. “Okay, I don’t think I want to know any more.” He thumped Jax on the back. “Good for you, dude. Whatever happened, you did what you had to do. Put that shit behind you now, if you can.”

Jax and Nicky stood up beside him, and Jax shoved his hands in his pockets. “I didn’t mean I killed him, or anything, though I kinda wanted to.”

“Are the police looking for you, Jax?” Nicky asked softly. “If they are, tell Cade. He’ll handle it for you. Don’t keep it from him. Believe me, I know from experience the wolves don’t handle secrets well.”

“Jax!” All three of the young men jumped a little guiltily and turned toward the sound of Cade’s voice. He was still down by the stream and beckoning to Jax. Cade shouted and made the sweeping motion with his arm again. Jax scrambled to his feet and moved down to the bank of the stream where Cade was waiting.

Cade handed Jax his own toothbrush and toothpaste, frowning down at him. “Are you okay?”

Jax smiled as he crouched down by the shallow, fastmoving water. “I’m good. We were just talking.”

Cade gave him a noncommittal little grunt and turned to follow Marco back up the trail to the camp.

The land where the house was to be built was on a little rise by their camp, and covered by thick forest. They left the campsite by the side of the trail and headed up into the woods with Marco in the lead. As they walked single-file behind him and Nicky, Jax could see that he was following some kind of footpath through the woods and one that, at closer look, seemed to be fairly well-traveled. The ground rose for only about fifty or sixty feet before leveling out and opening up into a small clearing. Marco turned to Cade to point out the stream that ran along the back of the clearing, and down by their campsite.

“You’ll have the trail at your front and water back here. Electricity will have to be from generators, but you can supplement that with oil lamps and propane heaters until you can get the power company to run lines in here. That would be pretty damn expensive though, so you may have to learn to live without it for a while. There’s a little cell service up here, so you’re not completely cut off. We’ll have to widen that trail leading up here.” He paused and gazed around, looking out over the treetops to the mountain view. “It does have its compensations, though,” he said with a grin. “It’ll take some time to get it the way you want it, but it can definitely be done with enough time and manpower.”

Jax turned and looked back down the way they’d come and through the trees he could catch a glimpse of the mountains stretching out in front of him. Way in the distance, he could see a lake. Once the trees were cleared a bit, the view would be impressive. He stepped closer to Cade and slipped his hand in his. Cade glanced down at him and grinned.

“It’s beautiful, Marco. Even better than I hoped for. It’s remote, but I like it.” “It’s not as remote as it might seem, actually.” Marco pointed toward the east. “Back over that way about five or six miles through the woods is a mountain resort with a good road leading up to it. We might even want to look at building a road to your lodge from that direction. We own the land next to the resort.”

Cad e nodded eagerly. “I’d like to run the perimeter later, if you’ll take me.” Zack nodded. “I need a good run. Sounds great to me too.”

“We’ll make sure they have firewood and something to eat,” Marco said, nodding toward the three younger men. “Then we can get started.”

“I can gather firewood myself, Cade, and I know how to fix myself something to eat if I get hungry,” Jax said. “You guys can go ahead if you want to.”

Ignoring him as if he hadn’t spoken, Cade spoke directly to Marco. “I’ll get things ready.”

He headed off down through the woods, back to the campsite and Jax glanced wonderingly at Nicky. Nicky was leaning against a tree, and he shrugged gracefully with one shoulder. “This is why I don’t even fight it,” he said with a little smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “Three alphas together riff off each other. Just save your breath.”

Jax shook his head and followed Cade down to the tents, anyway, coming up behind Cade as he rambled around in their gear. “Let me help, Cade.”

Cade looked around at him in surprise. “Okay, you can gather some firewood if you’d like. I thought maybe you and the others would like to go fishing later. Marco brought a couple of rods.”

Jax shrugged. “How long will you be gone?”

“Only a few hours. We’ll be back by lunchtime, probably, but just in case, the food is in this pack.”

“I know,” Jax said, rolling his eyes a little. “We’ll be fine.”

Cade straightened up and came to stand next to him, sliding his arms around Jax’s waist.

“Sorry. I forget you’re becoming an alpha now.” He bent to kiss the side of Jax’s neck. “My own little alpha.”

Jax pulled away and made a face. “Why do you always have to do that? I keep telling you I’m not a child.”

Cade smiled and held up his hands in mock surrender. “Okay, sorry. I’ll try to remember. ”

Marco called to him, and he regarded Jax carefully. “We’ll shift to run the perimeter. You’ve never seen that before, so prepare yourself.”

Jax swallowed hard but nodded and followed Cade out to the clearing. Marco was handing Nicky a shotgun. “This is just in case you need us for anything. Fire up in the air—we’ll hear it and come running, okay?”

Nicky nodded, and Marco caught him by the shoulders to make sure he was looking up at him. “Don’t fool around with it, and if something threatens you, get away—don’t stick around and try to fight it.”

“Oh for God’s sake, Marco,” Gabe said. “What could possibly threaten us up here?” “Snakes, bears, wild cats, trespassers,” Zack said, counting them off on his fingers. “I never had any trouble all the times I camped up in the mountains on my own,” Gabe retorted.

“And you were lucky. You probably won’t have any trouble at all here, either. We wouldn’t leave you otherwise, but the shotgun is just in case.”

“Okay,” Nicky said, tucking it back inside his tent. “Duly noted. Now go on your run—we’ll be fine.”

Cade was looking uneasy, his frown deepening as Zack had enumerated a few of the possible dangers on the mountain. “Maybe this is a bad idea. I don’t have to do this now. Maybe one of us should stay with them.”

Jax bumped his shoulder. “Would you go already? You stayed behind last time and absolutely nothing happened. Go on.”

Cade gave him a brief, fierce kiss, and turned to take off his clothes. Jax blinked in surprise and saw the other two alphas stripping as well. Jax had seen plenty of boys naked in the locker room at school before, but those had been kids, not fully grown, gorgeous men like these alphas.

He was fascinated and embarrassed at the same time, and saw Nicky smirking at him. He dropped his gaze and looked back at his own alpha mate, loving the look of his lean muscles and the impressive package between his legs. Cade sensed his regard and smiled over at him before straightening up to follow Marco and Zack to the edge of the woods.

Cade gave him one last look before he leaned over at the waist, and a strange popping and cracking sound echoed around the campsite. All of them fell to their knees and their bodies seemed to elongate and shift, bony protuberances morphing their forms into an animal shape. Jax took an involuntary step backward, a loud gasp leaving his throat before he could pull it back.