by Kamryn Hart
Casey popped a meatball into his mouth and immediately decided it was the best he had ever tasted when Cora asked, “Are you Karol’s boyfriend?” Her big green eyes were gleaming with curiosity. It was a simple enough question. Innocent and like a child.
“Ah, no. We’re just friends,” Casey replied when Karol almost choked on her spaghetti. Oh, it killed him to say they were just friends. He wanted to come out and say he was a wolf. He wanted everyone to know she was his Fated Mate. He wanted to claim her so every shifter who ever met her would know she was his.
“Karol’s never brought a friend home before,” Sarah joined in with a little smirk.
“You guys!” Karol cried. “We talked about this. Casey is a friend. He drove me to the job interview yesterday. I invited him over for dinner to thank him.”
“Friend or not, don’t even think about hurting my sister,” Dale threatened.
“I won’t,” Casey said, looking Dale dead in the eye to let him know he was serious. “I will never hurt her or any of you.”
The house went silent. Casey rarely spoke with such authority. It was something that seemed reserved for alphas, but he needed them to know. He needed them to know this wasn’t a game. He wasn’t playing with Karol’s heart. He wasn’t here to destroy their family. Something must have gotten through to the family because the collective fear in the room seemed to die down.
“How strong are you?” Greg asked, finding his voice. “You look like a tank.”
“Pretty damn strong,” Casey replied with a grin.
“You work out?” Dale asked.
“Not really.”
Dale’s mouth dropped. “Then how?”
“Guess working long hours in construction will do that to a guy,” Casey offered. It would have been so easy to just say “because I’m not human,” but how would they react? His first time meeting them couldn’t be the right time to say it.
But would there ever be a right time?
“What about your family, Casey?” Mary asked.
“I don’t have one.” It was as close to the truth as he cared to get at the moment. He was sure he was dead to Blue Pack. No matter how much he missed his parents, his packmates, he could never go back.
“That sounds lonely,” Taylor, the blonde in the family, said quietly.
“I bet you guys never get lonely,” Casey countered, not interested in bringing any gloom to the house.
“Sure, but we get on each other’s nerves sometimes,” Dale said.
The other kids laughed and Casey laughed with them. Then he felt Karol’s hand on his leg. He turned his gaze to her, and she said softly, “I didn’t know. I didn’t even think to ask.”
Her feeling sorry for him was frustrating. He hated seeing her sad. She didn’t know the whole story, and he wanted her to before she looked at him like this. Maybe she wouldn’t after she learned about Willow. But, God, she was perfect. Already she had warmed up to him so much. Her fleeting touches were whispered promises of things to come. His body, his heart, wanted all of her so badly he could barely contain himself. Fuck willpower. He couldn’t stop himself from getting a boner when Karol did things like this, when she smelled so good, when she was so close and he could feel that hint of a powerful emotional connection.
Getting her to open up to him, even this much, didn’t take much time at all. He vowed to be patient, but how much faster could he go? When could he tell her the truth about him?
He didn’t want to wait anymore.
“What happened to your family?” Karol asked.
Everyone’s attention was on him again. Casey swallowed, but the lump in his throat stayed where it was. Was this it? Did he tell the truth? Or did he lie to a woman who would probably never forgive him for it?
“I’m not allowed to talk about my family,” he said carefully.
“Why not?” Mary pressed like she had been waiting for this.
“We’re… different from most people.”
“Different how?” Cora asked.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, and I’d scare you if I showed you,” Casey stated.
That made the house dead silent again, but this time the silence was filled with unease and confusion.
He had done it now. He could go back and say he was just joking and make up some story. That would have been the coward’s way out, but he had come this far. He couldn’t afford to lie. He had to take things even further, gauging the family’s reaction every step of the way. The Moon said Karol was meant to be his. That meant everyone here was his family too. It was risky to reveal he was a shifter to so many people, especially if word got out. Maybe he’d get in trouble with Trinity. Casey wanted to be selfish. He didn’t care about “the right time” or whatever else Isabelle had said about Trinity and its ideas about unity, he just wanted the family that was meant for him. No more secrets. Everything out in the open.
Casey sighed as he looked at his barely eaten and now cold plate of spaghetti. Then he stood up. “Greg, you asked how strong I am.” He walked over to the couch against the living room wall, grasped its bottom, and hefted it over his shoulder, careful not to hit the ceiling.
Everyone was staring at him with mouths and eyes wide open. Everyone but Mary who was merely smiling at the display like she had known this all along.
Casey placed the couch back where it belonged. He didn’t have endless strength or anything. The thing was still heavy, but he was pretty damn strong.
Greg jumped out of his seat and wagged his finger frantically at Casey. “He’s Superman, you guys! He’s an alien from another planet!”
“H-how?” Karol asked, barely able to speak. Then she went into thinking mode. Her brow was scrunched in concentration as she stared at her plate of spaghetti. Casey wondered if she was remembering that night with Otto. He and Otto hadn’t done anything to give them away as shifters at The Red Maiden, but they showed they were monsters of men when it came to their strength.
“You’re really a superhero?” Dale asked, dumbfounded.
“What’s your secret identity?!” Greg demanded, gushing.
“Is that how you don’t get splinters?” Cora asked. “Because you’re super strong?”
“Whoa, okay,” Casey said holding out his hands. “I’m not a superhero.”
“But you should be,” Sarah stated.
“Let’s think of secret identity names,” Taylor said in her soft voice.
The kids started shooting names back and forth, but Casey was hardly listening. He was concentrating on Karol, worried about her reaction to this. Had he gone too far? The kids and Mary took it better than he could have hoped, but Karol…
“Guys, I need you to clean up,” Karol said, tearing her eyes away from her spaghetti. She shook her head. “I mean, eat first and then clean up. Casey and I are going out.”
“What?” all of the kids whined in unison.
“No buts! There’s ice cream in the freezer for dessert.”
That seemed to ease the complaints some. Karol got up from her seat, grabbed Casey’s hand, and dragged him out of the house. He let her continue to drag him until they were well down the street from her house.
“What the fuck was that?!” she scream-hissed as she let go of his arm. “I don’t even know how I should be reacting right now! I just keep thinking about what happened at The Red Maiden the other night, and how you and that guy were throwing each other around and breaking things like it was nothing. Like how you hardly feel any pain and seem to heal fast.” She pressed her fingers to her forehead. “Is that man like you?”
“Kind of.”
“Kind of? What does that mean? What are you?”
That last question stung. She was scared of him. She wasn’t ready to accept him, but he had gone too far to back out now.
“I’m a wolf shifter,” he said.
“Wolf shifter,” she repeated, totally lost. “Like… you can turn into a wolf.”
“Yes.”
She brought bo
th hands to her curly hair and pulled it out of her ponytail, causing strands of red to fall on her face as she continued to run her fingers through her hair in a frenzy. “That’s crazy! People can’t do that!”
“Shifters can.”
“So there are other kinds?”
“Otto, the bastard at the bar, is an alligator shifter.”
Karol blanched. “I-I don’t believe you. So you’re stronger than the average guy, fine. But a wolf?”
Casey reached out for her, but she recoiled.
“D-don’t touch me,” she threatened.
“You have a mark on your left earlobe, right?” Casey asked, feeling frantic but trying to stay calm, trying to keep her.
“How do you know about that?” She automatically touched her left ear in response.
He tapped his right earlobe. “I have one too.”
“What? I didn’t think… it’s just some weird skin that lost its pigment like a scar or something.”
“It’s more than that.” Casey knelt down in front of her and held out his hand. “I’m not going to hurt you, Karol. I’d sooner kill myself. Please, take my hand.”
She was trembling, but she did place her hand in his. He gently guided her fingers to his left ear, and his mark burned at her touch. Her touch always elicited a strong reaction from him, but the Lunas Sigil was unique, special, that feeling of simply knowing. The look on her face meant she felt it too—even if she didn’t understand it. This was a connection of their souls.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered.
“But you feel it,” Casey said.
She gave a little nod of her head.
Casey chanced standing again while holding on to Karol’s hand. She watched him cautiously, but she didn’t tell him to let go, and she didn’t look like she was going to bolt. Casey reached out his other hand to touch her left earlobe. She let out a little gasp when he did. Little electric pulses danced on his fingers as he touched her gently, moving his hand to her cheek.
“It’s like the first night we met,” she said, gazing into his eyes and unable to look away. “This feeling… You touched my ear like this right before you kissed me, and I couldn’t stop thinking about that feeling. I couldn’t stop thinking about you.” She swallowed. “So, what did you do to me?”
Casey frowned. “I didn’t do anything.” He looked up at the Moon, a fat crescent shape in the sky. “It was the Moon.”
“The moon,” Karol said and shook her head. She slipped out of his grasp and backed away from his touch.
“At least let me show you.” Casey’s heart was aching. He saw his Fated Mate slipping away from him more and more with each passing second. Was it really possible for one Fated Mate to deny another? Maybe the Moon chose them and gave them this connection, but it was up to both Fated Mates to nurture and accept that bond. Maybe they could sever it too if that was what they really wanted.
Those were dark thoughts he didn’t want to consider.
Casey held out his hand, praying to the Moon that Karol would take it, and he could show her what he was.
“I must be fucking crazy,” Karol muttered as she took his hand. “Where are we going?”
“The river. I don’t want to shift out in the open like this. It’s not usually a good idea.”
Karol shook her head, but she held his hand tighter. Side by side, hand in hand, they walked through Old Tree Creek as the sun completely faded from the sky and night settled in with the Moon as the largest celestial body in the sky providing light. Neither one said a word, and Casey figured maybe it was better that way. Touching her, even something as innocent as holding hands, spoke volumes on its own. This was the kind of thing he imagined doing a lot with Karol after claiming her, just enjoying her company. Well, he imagined lots of hot sex too, but everything had its place.
When they eventually reached the river’s edge, they stayed standing, staring at the slow moving water instead of looking at each other. Casey was reluctant to let her hand go. She came this far. She saw his strength. She listened to what he had to say, and now he was going to show her he was a wolf. He had no idea how she would react, but so far he was still hanging on to her. Somehow. Somehow he had kept her from running away from him.
Casey let go of her hand. “Thanks for coming with me this far,” he said. Then he proceeded to take off his shirt.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Taking off my clothes. I’d just rip them to shreds or get tangled up in them when I shift if I left them on.”
“Er, I’m going to turn around or something,” she mumbled as she twisted the other way, but Casey grabbed her hand and turned her back to face him.
“If you don’t see me shift with your own eyes, are you going to believe me?” he asked.
Karol bit her bottom lip as she glanced at his chest. He was still sporting a big bruise from Otto, but it was fading more and more all the time. Karol reached out and gently touched his bruised skin. God, her touch made heat flare up inside of his entire body. When she glided her hand across his skin, down his muscled stomach, his cock responded, pressing against his jeans incessantly.
“I have a question,” she said quietly as she rested her hand at his heart. “Why did you disappear for three years? You must have been watching over me or something. How else could you have saved me that night when that… alligator shifter attacked me?”
Casey grimaced. “I was being a coward. I didn’t know how to approach you. I didn’t have a job or a home. Even after I got those, I didn’t know how to approach you even though I wanted to. More than anything.” He looked down at her hand, resting on his chest. “You told me you never wanted to see me again.”
She flinched. “I did say that. Because I was scared too, scared of what you were making me feel.” She looked up at him sheepishly. “I’m still scared.”
Casey stepped back from her so she was no longer touching him. He didn’t want to retreat from her touch, but it was time. He quickly shed the rest of his clothes and was about to shift, but Karol’s wide eyes made him pause. Then her cherry arousal hit him like a fucking freight train as her eyes rested on his cock. His dick throbbed, fully erect. He vowed that someday he would take this woman and please her senseless. He would trail his lips across her wonderful freckles. He’d feel that perfect ass of hers. He’d make love to her, and she’d understand how deeply his feelings for her went.
Anything. He would do anything for her.
Casey couldn’t help but grin at her reaction. “Never seen a guy naked before?” he joked.
Karol folded her arms and puffed out her lips like a child. “Yeah, drunk old men back at the bar.”
Casey laughed. He would have loved to touch her, to feel her touch him again, but he was here to show her his wolf. He called to his inner wolf and his body began to change. The crackling of bones as they popped out of place and changed shape. Shooting pain, especially in his left foot, as he reopened or stressed out his injuries; this would set him back on healing, but it was worth it. The dark brown fur growing from his skin. His face elongating, canines growing. In no time, he was down on all fours, a large brown wolf standing in front of the human woman who was his Fated Mate.
At first, Karol didn’t react. She simply stood, staring at him. He stayed where he was, not wanting to scare her. He would allow her the first move. He sat down like a good dog and wagged his tail. Surely, Karol would understand the friendly gesture.
“Oh. My. God,” Karol said with a little whimper. Her lips trembled, but she took a step forward. And then another. Slowly.
“Y-you’re really a-a wolf,” she said.
She was looking paler than usual, sickly pale. Concerned, Casey stood up just as Karol’s eyes rolled back and she fell. He moved fast enough to catch her on his back before she hit the dirt ground, but she was out cold. She hadn’t run away, but she fucking passed out! He didn’t know which was worse. His heart was pounding like a hammer in his chest.
Carefully
, he moved so Karol slid off his back and onto the ground softly. He sniffed her and listened to her heartbeat. She was fine. She really had just passed out. He gave her cheek a small lick but got no reaction out of her. Great. Now he was going to have to take her home unconscious. Why couldn’t things ever be easy?
He shifted back into his human body, got dressed, and picked Karol up in his arms. His foot was throbbing, but all he could think about was his perfect Fated Mate. She looked oddly peaceful in his arms like she had simply fallen asleep. She was beautiful. So beautiful. The warmth of her body next to his made him think about what it’d be like to wake up to her every morning. It would be perfect. That was what it would be.
By the time he had limped and carried his Fated Mate back to her home, the lights were off. He hated to wake anyone up, but he didn’t have a key. When he knocked on the door, he waited nervously, wondering who would end up opening it. The living room light turned on and Casey heard the familiar cane and limp Mary had when she walked around. Sure enough, she was the one to open the door.
She looked at Casey and then rested her gaze on Karol in his arms. She raised an eyebrow but didn’t seem alarmed. “What happened?”
“Uh, too much excitement for one night,” Casey said lamely.
“You showed her, didn’t you?”
“Showed her what?”
“You are a shifter, aren’t you?” Mary tapped his leg with her cane. “You shouldn’t be shifting like that when you’re hurt this bad.”
“You know about shifters?” Casey asked, intrigued.
“Yes.” She smiled. “And I pegged you as one the night you first came to this house.”
“You have sharp senses for a human.”
“No. I was close to a shifter once. That’s all.” She pointed inside of the living room with her cane. “Just lay her down on the couch. She can sleep there tonight.”
Casey did as he was told. As soon as Karol was no longer in his arms, he felt cold. He brushed her wild red hair out of her face, and then he kissed her forehead.
He whispered quietly so only his Fated Mate would be able to hear him, “Let me keep you.”
Then he stood up and turned to leave. Mary grabbed his arm before he exited through the front door.