by Chant, Zoe
Her cheeks flushed again. “You wouldn’t be pining.”
“I would,” he insisted, leaning forward. “Endlessly. And so would you, admit it.”
“Wouldn’t,” she replied, smiling and folding her arms across her chest.
“You would be weeping into your pillow every night,” he said, grinning at her.
“Well, you’d be listening to sad love songs all day.”
“While weeping,” he agreed. “And I bet you’d write terrible, sad poems in your diary.”
“Hah, I don’t even have a diary,” she said with a triumphant grin.
“You’d buy one just for all your sad poems,” he insisted, feeling giddy and lighter than he had all day.
She looked at him, then leaned forward. “I bet your sad poems would be worse than mine.”
“They would be,” he agreed, staring into her eyes. God, she was so close, he’d only need to lean in to kiss her. “I mean, what even rhymes with Maddy?”
She burst out laughing at that, lowering her head for a moment. “Because so many things rhyme with Konrad…”
“Had,” he replied. “Sad.”
“Cad.”
“See, your sad poems would be far better than mine.” He smiled at her, and decided to take the chance. He leaned closer, watching her eyes widen as she realized what he was about to do, but she didn’t back away. Their lips were about to touch when the oven let out a loud beep.
Maddy jerked back. “The pizzas!”
*
After dinner, with Konrad finished before she was — Maddy tried not to think ‘wolfing it down’ but that was the only apt description for how quickly Konrad ate — Maddy put the plates in the dishwasher and leaned against the counter as she turned to look at him. They hadn’t talked much during dinner, and Maddy wasn’t ready for him to leave yet. She had been so relieved to hear him say that he would pick her over being Alpha, it had been exactly what she had needed to hear. “Wanna watch a movie or something?”
“Sure,” he replied, getting up. “I’d love to.”
They headed into the living room, and Maddy grabbed the remote from the coffee table. When Konrad sat down on one end of the sofa, he raised one arm and it seemed only natural to settle against him. She leaned her head against his shoulder, and smiled as he wrapped his arm around her.
She pressed closer, humming contently at the feel of his body against her. She flicked through the channels, pausing when a car blew up while some guy walked away from it while putting on his sunglasses. “This’ll do,” she said.
Konrad ran his fingers up and down her bare arm, just above her elbow. “Yeah.” He sagged a little further down the sofa, getting comfortable. “So, Maddy, I have to ask. When you asked me if I would choose you over being Alpha, did you mean it?”
She wrapped her arm around his waist, still holding the remote. “I had to know what mattered more, Konrad. Because from how you explained it this morning…”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, it sounded like I was happy enough dragging any woman back to Woodland Creek,” he muttered. “But now I want to know if you really never want to live there.”
Maddy sighed. “I’ve never been there, so I can’t say, can I?”
“Hm, so you want to get to know the town? Don’t blame you,” he replied.
That was a good way of putting it. “I’m sure it’s a nice town.”
“I think you’d like it,” he said, thumb running circles across her skin. “You should visit.”
The slight touches of his hand were starting to drive her crazy, making her feel hot all over. “I think I will, once my parents are back from their holiday.” She wanted to see this town that Konrad cared so much about.
“And until then?” he asked, turning his head so his lips were brushing her forehead.
She sat up, giving in to the urge to kiss him. His hand tightened around her, and she moaned softly his tongue slid against hers. She dropped the remote in favor of sliding her hand under his shirt, touching warm skin.
Konrad was the one who pulled back. “I asked you a question,” he murmured, grinning at her.
She flushed slightly, pulling her mind away from naked skin and back to the topic at hand. “Until then, I want to get to know you better,” she said. “We’ve still got a couple of days until my parents get back.”
“That seems fair enough,” he agreed. “And where will I be staying?”
Her first thought was that it was a weird question, because of course he would be staying here, with her. Then another part of her brain protested that Konrad was practically a stranger and could be a deranged serial killer for all she knew. She looked at him, and he raised his eyebrows slightly as if in question.
Tyler’s advice had been to go with her gut, and that, along with her heart, was telling her that she could trust Konrad. She might not understand wolf shifters, or mates, but she didn’t need to to know that Konrad was a good guy. “Right here. If you want to,” she added.
“Of course I want to!” he replied, wrapping both arms around her and pulling her even closer. His nose was buried in her hair. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
She couldn’t help but grin as she hugged him back. “There’s nowhere else I want you to be.”
“One question though.” He pushed her away so he could look her in her eyes. “Will I be sleeping on your bedroom floor?”
Maddy laughed. “Only if you want to.”
“You did have a comfortable rug,” he mused, smiling as well.
“More comfortable than my bed?”
“Hm, I think I’d have to compare the two to be absolutely sure,” he said, his tone mock-serious. “Extensively. Especially your bed.”
Oh yes, definitely. She leaned in to kiss him again, feeling for the remote which she was sure she had dropped somewhere on Konrad’s other side. And if trying to find the remote meant sliding her hand across Konrad’s hip and down to his ass, well, so be it.
“If you’re trying to grab my wallet, that’s in my other pocket,” Konrad told her, kissing her cheek.
Her fingers finally found the remote, and she leaned back. “No, just looking for this.” She switched off the television, dropping the remote immediately in favor of touching Konrad again. Her hands were itching with the need. “So, do you want to do some extensive testing?” she asked, her lips inches away from his.
Konrad snorted with amusement. “That is a terrible pick-up line.”
She leaned back, disentangling herself from him to get up. “Is that a ‘no’?”
He stood up in one fluid movement. “We both know what the answer is.” He wrapped one hand around her neck and pulled her in for a kiss.
Maddy pressed herself against his entire body, running her hands down his back. Heat was coiling low in her stomach, and she wanted him, now. “Let’s go, then.”
*
Epilogue
Woodland Creek, One Month Later
The last couple of weeks of her life had been both the strangest and most amazing of her life, Maddy mused. She was staring up at the white ceiling of Konrad’s house in the small town he loved so much, while Konrad himself was still asleep beside her. He had flung one arm around her waist, keeping her close.
Explaining things to her parents had been complicated, especially her mother who hadn’t appreciated her dad keeping the existence of wolf shifters from her either. However, both her mom and dad liked Konrad well enough, and they had agreed that Maddy’s plan to spend a few days in Woodland Creek with Konrad was a good one.
Except Maddy hadn’t stayed for a few days. Whenever she called her parents to let them know how things were going, her mother would ask if she was planning to come back tomorrow or the day after, and every time the thought of leaving Konrad had made her stomach recoil in horror. Despite her own initial plan to stay with Konrad for three days at the most, she hadn’t left the town since her arrival. She needed to be with him.
And everyone was so nice and welcomin
g to her, asking her if she needed any help and if she could find her way around. Some of them, especially the older shifters, were a little too nosy when it came to her relationship with Konrad, but that was the only complaint Maddy had so far.
It was a smaller town than Crystal Springs, and it would take some getting used to seeing foxes or coyotes walk down the street, as well as the occasional bear, without having to worry about the animals attacking her.
She’d even been looking for jobs in the area, in two cities within an hour’s drive from here, and there were a couple of vet practices that had been looking for a new vet to join the team. She hadn’t applied for them or mentioned it to Konrad yet, since she wanted to talk about it with him first. She also wanted to know what he thought of her starting a small practice in the town in a couple of years. Would it be weird for her to treat people who had got wounded in their shifted form, or would they welcome her help like Tyler welcomed her father’s? Maddy felt Konrad stir beside her, and she smiled at him as he woke up. “Morning.”
“Morning,” he mumbled, blinking lazily. “What time is it?”
“9:20,” she replied, after a glance at his alarm clock.
He closed his eyes again, burrowing closer. “No one gets up before ten on a Saturday morning.”
His love for sleeping in had been one of the first things Maddy had learned from living with him. “Some people do.”
“Those people are wrong.” He kissed her shoulder.
Considering how comfortable she was right now, she had to agree with him. “True.”
They lay in silence for a while, Konrad lazily stroking her side, until he suddenly sat up. “Didn’t we run out of milk yesterday?” He looked down at her. “And I’m not sure about the bread situation either.”
She wasn’t entirely surprised he’d been pondering breakfast. “I went out for groceries yesterday,” she told him, “and yes, we have milk and bread.” The speed with which they had settled into a comfortable domestic routine was another thing that should’ve been strange, but wasn’t.
“Oh, good.” He lay down again, smiling at her. “Thanks.”
“I ran into that coyote shifter lady again at the grocery store,” she said, “the short one, wears a purple coat all the time? Keeps peering at you over her glasses as if you’ve done something wrong?” She had met so many people since coming here; it was a miracle she remembered even half their names.
“Mrs. Harris.” Konrad’s sigh said it all. “What about her?”
“She keeps asking me when I’m making an honest wolf out of you.” Maddy had to snigger. “I think she disapproves of an unmated couple living together.”
“She’s old-fashioned that way,” Konrad moved to wrap his arm around her again. “But it is a fair question.”
Maddy nodded. The thought of being mated to Konrad didn’t scare her anymore, nor did the thought of spending the rest of their lives together. Konrad had been right that first morning — mates were destined to be together. It was about time she let him know that. “And it’s one that deserves an answer.”
He tensed up beside her. “Oh?”
She could sense how nervous he was, and if she was honest, she was nervous herself as well. Yes, she loved him, and she knew he loved her; it was still a big step. “I think we should,” she said. “Become mates officially.”
He stared at her without saying anything for a moment, then a massive smile broke out on his face. “Please tell me you are not joking.”
“I’m not joking,” she replied, and then yelped when he wrapped her in a tight hug.
He kissed her cheek, her shoulder, anywhere he could reach. “God, Maddy, ever since you got here I’ve been hoping, and then you didn’t leave…” He sighed. “I didn’t want to pressure you by asking again.”
She was grateful for that. “It feels right.”
He smiled, brushing her hair out of her face. “I hate to say you I told you so, but didn’t I tell you?”
She ran her hands down his chest. “Yes, fine, you were right, but you better not be smug about this for the rest of our lives.” She waited for the voice in her head to tell her that that sounded wrong and she was moving too fast, but no, even the sensible, cautious part of her wanted this.
“I’ll try not to be,” he promised, kissing her.
She rolled onto her back, pulling him on top of her. “Good.”
He broke the kiss by leaning away from her. “Do you know what this means?”
“That I should ask my parents if they can help me move?” she asked.
“That too. But Maddy, it means I can become Alpha.” His smile managed to grow even wider.
She had learned more about the Alpha position and the council too, and after meeting Konrad’s uncle, she understood why Konrad wanted to replace him. The man spent most of his evenings in the local bar or out in the woods, and no one in the town seemed to have a high opinion of him. “If the other wolf shifters vote for you, yes.”
“Why wouldn’t they?” he asked. “Michael found his mate but decided to live with her down in Miami, and Christopher doesn’t seem as interested in it anymore ever since he returned with his mate last week.”
Maddy had met Chris and his mate, a sweet young woman named Lauren, who was human as well. They obviously adored each other, and Chris definitely hadn’t mentioned wanting to be Alpha. He and Lauren had mentioned children, an urge Maddy didn’t have yet. “I’m only saying you shouldn’t count on it. Someone else can still step forward.”
“Stop using logic,” he grumbled.
While Maddy was obviously biased, she didn’t see why anyone wouldn’t want Konrad to be the Alpha. There was one thing about the town council that still bothered her, though. “Maybe there should be an Alpha for the humans as well.”
There were about two dozen of them, and Maddy had spent most of her time with Alice and Henry, who were both in their early thirties and married to a wolf shifter and a fox shifter, respectively. After some careful prodding, they had mentioned that yes, there had been cases where the shifters had seemingly forgotten humans even lived in their town.
Konrad laughed, then noticed she didn’t laugh with him. “You’re serious?”
“Well, someone has to look out for our needs,” she replied.
His smile turned filthy. “Are you saying I’m not?” he asked, lowering his head to kiss her neck.
Her breath hitched, and she cursed the way he was always able to find her most sensitive spots. “Not like that,” she managed, pushing his head away.
He frowned as he met her eyes. “It really bothers you, doesn’t it?”
“Yes. You said you want to represent the wolf shifters and make sure they aren’t ignored when it comes to making big decisions. Why shouldn’t humans have a representative on the council as well?”
“Well, there’s only twenty five, including you,” Konrad pointed out. “However,” he added, when Maddy opened her mouth to argue, “you do have a good point. When I was a kid, there were maybe three or four non-shifters living here. But now you’re moving here, and Chris’ mate is a non-shifter as well. The number of humans in town has been steadily increasing, and I don’t see why it should stop.”
She was relieved he saw her point. “Exactly.”
“You’re this close to starting a petition, aren’t you?” he asked, clearly amused.
“Who says I haven’t already?” Alice and Henry already assured her she had their support. “The election of a new Alpha for the wolf shifters seems like a good moment to talk to the other Alphas about the humans.”
“You can definitely try to talk to them,” Konrad said, his smile fond. “I mean, I don’t think it’ll work, but they should be more aware of the humans living here.”
She didn’t expect things to change immediately either. “I’ll make sure they are.”
“And if I get on the council, I can always represent the humans as well where necessary.”
Maddy smiled at him. “You better.�
�
“Now can we stop talking about the town’s politics?” Konrad asked.
It was a pretty serious topic so soon after waking up. “Sure.”
“Good.” He kissed her again. “Because I think I was trying to look out for your needs.”
“Mm, you were.” She ran her hand through his hair, pulling him closer to deepen the kiss. There would be plenty of time to discuss the further details of her moving here later. Much later.
A note from Zoe Chant
Thank you for buying my book! I hope you enjoyed it. If you'd like to be alerted by email when I release my next book, please click here to be added to my mailing list. If you'd like to contact me, my email is [email protected]. I love hearing from my readers!
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Cover designed by: Laura Shapiro
Wolf photo © Christopher Brooks 2007
Forest photo © Roman Boed
Athletic male © aldra/Getty Images
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