As Kai exited the freeway to the new Safe Haven location, I could see a line around the block. Woman and children clutched pillow cases and teddy bears.

“My God.” Kai breathed.

My heart hammered in my chest. There must be thirty families waiting on the street. A few were peering in the glass doors. A large sign above the converted high school read, ‘Grand opening, Safe Haven.’ There were news vans and reporters. Seeing the little girl with her teddy bear brought back too many haunting memories. I shook them off. These women and children needed us.

A few cars full of pack members followed us. I didn’t expect such a big turn out the first day. Before Kai had put the car in park, I jumped out of the car and headed towards the door. Kai was right behind me and some of the woman backed away and looked down, fearful of his large stature.

“Welcome to Safe Haven, everyone!” I shouted to the crowd as a news camera was shoved in my face.

“You are safe now. You may stay here as long as you need to and there is no charge. Please come in.” Kai began to open the doors.

The camera went to capture a shot of the crowd entering when Kai plucked the camera out of the man’s hand and pointed it towards the floor.

“Some of these women have left abusive situations and that abusive person will be looking for them. You are not to film the women and children’s faces, only the volunteers and the facility. Do you understand me?”

The reporter had caught up to the camera man and they both nodded nervously to Kai.

The pack helped the women and children get settled into their rooms and began handing out water bottles, hygiene kits and welcome packets. This was so much bigger than I had ever imagined. I was overwhelmed with joy. This was good work.

Kai had warned me that the upcoming elder’s conference would be hard. There would be a lot of dominant males and very few women. Also, I was technically unmated so that would play a part. But today I didn’t care, in this moment, as I saw the little children jumping on the bunk beds in their new rooms, the mothers trying to cover their bruises with their hair, I knew I was doing good. If I died now, I would have left my positive mark on the world.

Logistics were set. The pack would take shifts guarding Safe Haven from any abusive persons looking for their family. We would all rotate teaching self-defense classes, to whoever wanted them, in the multipurpose gym. Kai had also set up a job fair for once a month for the jobless women to try to get back on their feet. It was more than my mother and I had when we tried to leave my dad dozens of times. In the end, it was death that parted us from my father. Luckily, not mine or my mother’s. I shivered thinking of that night.

“You okay?” Kai asked me. We had been driving home in silence. I was reflecting on the day. I reached over to grab his hand.

“I’m more than okay. I’m happy,” I assured him, smiling.

He grinned. “Good.”

He cleared his throat. “I knew opening Safe Haven would bring in women and children that came from abuse but… I don’t think I was prepared for what I saw today. I wanted to make them all a part of our pack so that I could take care of them and protect them. That one little girl had a bruise in the mark of a hand on her arm. Did you see that? I could kill whoever did that to her!”

I nodded. “That’s why I opened Safe Haven in the first place. So many women are dreaming up the day they can walk out of their abusive situations but they don’t have the money or the guts. At least we can give them a place to stay and some food on their tables.” I shrugged.

“We will give them more than that.” Kai turned to look at me. I held his gaze. “We will give them futures.” That’s when I knew, without a doubt, this man was made for me and I for him.

By the time we pulled up to the house it was dark out. I jumped out of the car and was halfway to the door when Kai spoke behind me.

“Wanna go for a run?” he asked.

I spun around grinning. “Yes.”

Kai looked nervous. He was fumbling with the buttons on his shirt.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He brushed me off and shifted quickly, dashing into the forest. Okay. Weirdo. I stripped down and shifted, taking off after him. He had confided to me earlier that he was nervous to take me to the council meeting. Hell, I was nervous myself! If my suspicion was correct, I was going to have a pretty crazy time there having visions of hundreds of mates and revealing my gift to the werewolf community. But Kai had become my rock, not just my Alpha but my mate. I needed him not to be weird. I needed him normal. To think of it, he had been weird all day.

I couldn’t see him anywhere. I picked up his scent near a cluster of pine trees and darted between them. I went around the back side of our property near Emma and Devon’s house. None of the pack members had backyard fences. We all roamed each other’s property freely. I was about to call out for Kai when I came out into a clearing and saw hundreds of tea lights. A soft blue blanket covered the ground and a picnic dinner had been set up. Kai had shifted to human form and changed into clothes. I gave him a wolfish grin. Music played softly from a cd player.

“Shift and then change. I brought you some clothes.” He had turned his back to give me privacy. This was super romantic. I thought he was acting weird and he was trying to surprise me with a picnic date. I shifted and slipped into the short red dress he had picked out from my closet. I walked barefoot over to him and wrapped my arms around him from behind. He spun around and I saw a small navy blue velvet box in his hands. My heart started pulsing wildly. My breath hitched.