Free The Trail Back by Ashley Malkin

shining with anger, Abbie, and you have good reason to feel that way,” Shane said. “We have been angry our entire lives, and it turned us into self-centered assholes.”
    “We’d like a chance to redeem ourselves,” Josh said.
    “I’d like the chance to kick both of your butts for the way you hurt our mate,” Brayden said.
    Abbie whined when Brayden strode into the clearing. She couldn’t help it. She was so happy to see him alive after witnessing him vanish. The vampire had said that the creature who took him was a friend, but vampires were not to be trusted, not even the pretty ones.
    “I’m here, little wolf, and I’m fine. Apparently Brody helped these two boneheads kill the vampire who came after you.”
    Brayden squatted next to Josh and opened his arms. Abbie didn’t even think. She jumped straight into the welcoming warmth and safety of her mate and burrowed her nose under his arm. He smelled of musk and man. He smelled of mate.
    She nipped at his shirt, her wolf wanted to taste him. She’d been unable to shift while in the cage, and she was enjoying being back in her wolf form after so long. Her wolf was enjoying being surrounded by her big white wolf—one of them anyway. Her wolf didn’t trust Josh and Shane, and neither did the woman.
    “We were just saying we should take Abbie home for a hot bath and some food,” Shane said.
    “We should. The doctor said to call her if you need anything from her, Abbie.” Brayden held her to his chest as he stood and walked back through the trees to the carpark she’d run through.
    “You can drive, Josh,” Brayden said.
    He threw some keys to Josh and got into the back seat of a big black truck. There was a badge painted on the door showing the truck was the property of the Pine Falls Fire Department. So, one of her mates was a fireman.
    The drive was short and silent. Abbie had questions for Brayden. Questions for all of them if she was honest, but she wasn’t ready to be naked around these men, so she stayed as her wolf and enjoyed being petted and held by Brayden.
    Their home was large and old. It was neat and well cared for despite its obvious age. A few horses grazed peacefully in the fields close to the house. The mountains rose up steeply behind the house, the forest thick with trees. It was a beautiful place to call home. Her wolf could have been happy here.
    Brayden carried her inside and straight through an open living room into a huge kitchen. The appliances were all new and gleaming. The big kitchen table was old and worn by contrast. It would have been the one belonging to their parents, maybe even their grandparents. It was lovely.
    “I’ll put one of my clean shirts in the laundry room for you, you can change into that while I get you something to eat,” Brayden said.
    “I’ll start a fire in the living room,” Josh said. “It will soon warm up the kitchen as well.”
    Brayden placed a shirt on the bench by the washing machine and laid her on top of it. He closed the laundry door on his way out. “Just call out if you need me. I’ll just be in the kitchen. I’ll hear you.”
    She waited to hear his footsteps retreating before she shifted back, then quickly pulled on the shirt. The same emblem was on the shirt pocket that had been on the door of the truck. The shirt smelled clean, but still carried Brayden’s scent. So Brayden is the fireman.
    Abbie found a large washroom off the back of the laundry, and after using the facilities she took the opportunity to wash her dirty hands and face. When she saw her reflection in the mirror over the sink she gasped. She hardly recognized herself. Gone was the fit, healthy woman who spent her days trekking through the Canadian woods. Her hair was long and dank, the deep red color lost to the dirt and grease covering every strand.
    Her copper-colored eyes shone out of sunken sockets. Black-and-blue bruises covered her face in a mottled pattern. Her neck was a mass of red, puckered bite marks.