by Mandy Rosko
"Okay, I get it."
He didn't think she did. "Your breasts are heavy and full, and I want to kiss, suck, and bite them until you moan with pleasure for only me."
"Garret!" Miranda spun her head around, as if expecting an audience to suddenly appear.
"And I also enjoy a woman who can eat as much as I can, though to be honest, I could still eat more than you. I would have eaten ten of those sandwiches and gone back for more. You are not fat. I'm shallow enough to know the difference, and I will not have my woman insulting my mate in such a way."
Miranda said nothing. She stared up at him, big bright hazel eyes blinking wide and doe like.
Then a small noise left her as she jumped up and curled her arms around his chest.
Garret didn't move. He held perfectly still and even held his breath.
What was she doing? He did a mental scan of his body to ensure she was not actually attacking him and he simply didn't know it yet.
No. He felt no knives or needles pressing into him. Without any weapons, there was zero risk of any attack she inflicted on him succeeding with her hands around his back like this. There was nothing tender or fragile there, no veins he needed to protect.
She was actually hugging him.
He didn't get it, but he still curled his arms around her. She felt good to hold. "Does it please you so much to hear the truth?"
A small laugh escaped her throat. "We'll debate on whether or not it's true later. I just like… I like that you seem to believe it."
Garret growled, gripping her body tighter. "Tell me which human made you think such terrible things about yourself, and I will rip their fingernails out and force them to eat them."
Miranda laughed. Did she think he was joking?
"No, no, you don't have to do that. Just, whenever I'm embarrassed and naked in front of your friends, do me a favor and keep telling me how great I look. It helps."
Ah, so that's what that was about? Just leftover humiliation from being exposed in front of Jax and Dane?
Garret would wait until a proper time before he revealed to her that nudity was far more common among the pack than she was probably going to be comfortable with. Even then, Jax was too much of a gentleman to embarrass Miranda over it, and Dane was a former Navy Seal; he knew how to show proper respect for his alpha's mate.
He also decided not to reveal to her that she was naked right now. The sheet she had been wearing had fallen down her body, revealing her round, perfectly swollen ass cheeks to Jax, who had walked back into the dining room, spotted her and Garret, and then promptly walked out again without another word.
Chapter 6
The clothes came sooner than Garret had said they would, and Miranda sighed and thanked God for that. She didn't think she could handle walking around with a bedsheet around her middle for one more minute. She was pretty sure it made everyone who saw her think she'd just come from Garret's bed, which was only kind of true.
Miranda had never really been one to care too much about what people thought of her, but walking around like this seemed a little too on the slutty side for her liking.
She just hadn't expected so many clothes to show up, or for Anna, the woman who'd gone out to buy them, to take Miranda by the hand and insist on bringing her to her room for a fitting.
Garret's eyes clouded, as if he wasn't pleased over the idea of letting Miranda go, but he did. Miranda wished he wouldn't. She didn't know this girl. Anna couldn't have been older than twenty.
And she was beautiful. A total knockout.
Despite that, Anna had several men and women follow them to her bedroom, carrying the three-dozen shopping bags that presumably held Miranda's new clothes.
It was the boxes that concerned her especially. Boxes were the sort of things expensive clothes went into.
"You're going to like all the stuff I got you, but first I bet you want a shower," she said, opening the door to her room. Miranda was not shocked at all to see pink walls and teddy bears on a princess canopy bed.
Garret had a canopy bed, but maybe it was all the dark colors that made it look manly compared to the white-and-pink lace on that monster in the middle of the room.
Anna didn't seem to notice Miranda staring at her bed. The trim blonde, who had her hair up in a high ponytail, bounced around her bedroom and actually pulled out a folding screen with flowers and butterflies painted on the white wood.
"You can get changed behind this after. Then you can model the clothes for Garret if you want."
The mention of Garret's name, in a tone that suggested Anna wasn't some jealous ex-girlfriend, kind of made things a little easier. "Oh, so, do you know what kinds of things he likes?"
Okay, she'd gotten over her kidnapping fear pretty quick and was willing to admit she thought Garret was cute and she might be so insanely attracted to him that he'd been able to smell her arousal back at that stream.
"Not really, but that's what you're for, right? You're his mate. Anything you wear, I'm sure he'll like. The bathroom is through that door. I stuck out a fresh razor for you if you need to shave."
A shower and shaving her legs sounded amazing. It was almost enough to make the word mate sound a little less jarring.
"Thanks," Miranda said, quickly rushing to the bathroom as the men and women carrying the bags and boxes set them all down on that wide pink bed before leaving. They shut the door behind them, as if this was the most normal thing in the world.
Were all those seriously for her? Miranda hadn't thought Garret would have so much purchased for her. Even if he'd had someone else do the actual shopping, it seemed way too generous.
It felt like Miranda hadn't thanked him nearly enough for it all.
Though Miranda wanted to stay in that shower for hours, she was still aware of the fact that she was in someone else's bathroom, and she didn't want to be rude. She scrubbed her hair quickly with the shampoo she'd been given, and though she didn't know Anna, Miranda was desperate enough to shave her legs that she was willing to trust a stranger on the fact that this was a fresh razor. It was a real one, not like the one that had been in Garret's bathroom.
She hoped someone had picked that up before a little kid could get at it.
Miranda stayed in the shower for a solid ten minutes, too long and not long enough, but she felt great when she emerged, like how a caterpillar must feel when it emerges from its cocoon as a butterfly.
She took a few minutes to look at herself in the mirror after toweling off.
Garret had seemed so sincere when he'd talked about liking her curves and hips and breasts. She looked at herself from a side angle, searching for what it was he'd claimed to see.
She supposed her legs and hips weren't so bad. The stretch marks she could do without, but Garret had definitely seen those and didn't seem to mind. When she straightened her back and sucked in her stomach, her breasts lifted, and with her hair tousled from the shower, she looked pretty good.
Huh.
"Are you almost ready?" Anna called. She sounded excited. "I want to see what all this looks like!"
Anna was still arranging the boxes and bags on her bed. There were six pairs of shoes. A pair of runners, two pairs of heels, two pairs of sandals with beads on them, and some stylish boots.
Below all that were the jeans, the T-shirts, sweaters, socks, and more embarrassing, the bras.
Anna smiled at her, as if nothing was amiss. "Feeling better?"
Miranda clutched the towel a little tighter around her body and nodded. "I think so."
"Great. What do you think of this haul I got you?"
Didn't she buy it all with Garret's money? Did they share it?
Miranda told herself not to panic. Maybe as the alpha he shared his money with the members of his pack?
That didn't seem likely.
"It's very nice, thank you so much."
It was very nice and way more than Miranda would be able to pay back. No matter what Garret said about this being her home, she'd
only been here for… well, not long enough to think of it as her home. She was still waiting to wake up.
Even if she did wake up and the sexy Prince Charming with a beastly secondary look turned out to be real, well, she was still going to have to be careful with all the gifts he wanted to bestow upon her.
Just because he happened to have a ton of money didn't mean she was going to let herself go insane with it. Mate or no mate, she didn't want to be one of those girls who used their boyfriends for their wallets.
Even though he wasn't her boyfriend. Not really.
Ugh.
Miranda had some questions about that now that she had Anna all to herself. "So, before, you said mate, right?"
Anna pulled another gorgeous blue sweater from one of the boxes. It was a relief to see she hadn't bought everything in pink. "Yeah?"
Miranda figured she was only getting over her kidnapping fear because of the… unique circumstances, but she had to know for sure. She had to know what was going on from more than just one source.
"So, that's like, a real thing? I'll be with him for the rest of my life? That's what it is, right? No one else seemed shocked when you used that word."
Anna's eyes widened. She put down the sweater and turned her head to look at Miranda.
Miranda wasn't sure she liked the pity she was seeing in those big blue eyes.
"You only talked to Garret about this, didn't you?"
"Well, yeah," Miranda said, and now that she'd been out of the shower long enough, she was starting to feel cold. "Can I put on some clothes?"
"Oh! Yeah, sure. Here." Anna opened a few boxes and grabbed several shirts, jeans, panties, and bras before walking Miranda over to the screen. "We can talk while you're behind this."
"Great, thanks." Miranda took the clothes, stepped behind the screen, and dropped the towel she'd been using.
"So, about Garret?"
"Yeah! Right, sorry," Anna said. "What did he tell you about it?"
Miranda looked over the lacy panties. There were thongs, boy-brief styles, and stuff with ribbons and bows. She took the lacy briefs.
"He told me that I'm basically his for life."
Anna snorted. "That idiot. Whatever."
Was she allowed to call her alpha an idiot? Maybe it was because he wasn't there to hear it.
"That's not true?"
Why did that thought make an icy hole appear in her chest? The fact that she wasn't his for life shouldn't have been hurtful in any way at all.
"Well, no, not really," Anna said.
And the painful hole closed. "Really?"
The bras all matched the pairs of underwear they came with. Miranda had only ever had one pair of panties match a bra before. Usually, she had to buy the three packs of bras for ten dollars at the local Walmart, so it was hard to find anything that matched.
Not that she'd been clothes shopping in several months.
"It's only kind of true," Anna said. "Don't let him trick you into thinking he can push you around. He's just as much yours as you are his. That's a big thing that all the guys like to forget to tell their mates."
"He's mine, too?" That thought brought a flurry of glee to Miranda's gut, but then she remembered how Garret had so easily ordered her to run on all fours out in the woods.
"Are you sure?" she asked. "He already had me do something, and I really felt like I had to do it."
"Nothing bad though, right?"
"No! No, not at all," Miranda said quickly, even though it didn't sound as if Anna was seriously entertaining the thought of Garret being cruel with his commands. "But, well, the point is the same. He ordered me to do something and I really felt like I had to do it."
"That's just 'cause you're not used to it yet," Anna said. "Here, try on this sweater. I bought you some necklaces and earrings, too."
Miranda tensed. "You what?"
"Don't worry, don't worry," Anna said. "Garret didn't give me a big budget, so the jewelry I got you all came from Ardene's and Claire's. I like their stuff better anyway, even though it's all fake. It has more color."
Miranda thought of those boxes and bags. What was this girl's idea of a big budget?
All the same, Miranda was familiar with those stores. She hadn't had much money even before living in her car, so they had become her favorite place for fake jewelry. The necklace and earrings Anna passed her were cute dangling hearts. "You're not allergic to the fake earrings are you?"
"No, my ears can handle them. Thank you," Miranda added, trying not to feel like a kid at Christmas.
Anna had picked all this out, but it had also come from Garret, too. It was flattering to be given presents from him that had been picked out with such care from a girl who knew fashion.
"That's good, because just so you know, you're probably allergic to silver now."
Miranda tensed. "Really?"
She peeked around the side of the screen, and Anna nodded solemnly.
Suddenly, Anna's love for fake jewelry made more sense.
"Oh." Miranda went back behind the screen.
"Yeah, so be careful when you go shopping. What were we talking about before?"
Miranda thought about it. "Uh, Garret ordering me around. You said I just obeyed because I'm not used to it yet?"
"Oh yeah, anyway, I've lived with Garret my whole life, right? I still feel the need to obey a command, and sometimes I do, but other times, when it's something dumb, I fight the urge. You'll get used to it. He doesn't totally control you or anyone else in the pack. He never will."
"That's good," Miranda sighed.
"Yeah, really good. Especially with more than one alpha around here, but like I said, I've gotten used to it."
She kept referring to it, but what did Anna mean about living with him her entire life? There had been other women in the building and a lot of men. There were also quite a few bedrooms in this enormous house. Did she mean she lived with him because she was pack, or something more? Did the regular members of the pack live in this house? Or did they have their own houses?
"Can I ask you another question?" Miranda pulled the long-sleeved red shirt over her head. It really seemed to make her boobs stick out in this bra.
"Sure thing."
Was she always so chipper and cheery?
"Are you… related to Garret?"
It wasn't exactly the smoothest way to pry about her and Garret's relationship, and the second the words were out of her mouth, Miranda thought for sure Anna would see through to her real question.
Were they seeing each other? Was Anna part of his harem of shifter girls that Miranda had just joined? What was she?
"You could tell, huh?" Anna asked. "Garret's my big brother."
"I…" Miranda damn near choked on her words. "Really?"
She hadn't been able to tell that at all. Okay, sure, they both had blond hair, and Miranda recalled how brightly blue Anna's eyes were….
But they were nothing alike. Anna was chipper and sweet and Garret was dark and gruff.
Both were good-looking people though, so there was that aspect of it.
"Yup. I'm the baby sister."
"Oh, so you must be what, ninety years old?"
Anna laughed.
"What?" Miranda asked. "Garret said he was 102." She stepped out from the side of the screen when she finished dressing. Anna was nearly bent over at the waist, slapping her knees.
"I know, I know, I'm sorry. It's just weird sometimes, thinking about how old he is compared to me."
"How old are you?"
"I'm twenty-three. See? I meant I was the baby sister, get it?"
Miranda got it, and though Anna's age was probably the only normal thing about her, it was hard to swallow after Miranda had seen so much already.
Then something else got her curious. She might never stop being curious with everything that was around her.
"Hey, you mentioned more than one alpha in the pack?"
"Mmhm," Anna said. "There's a couple of alphas in this pack,
so it's always good to know when you should fight back. Keeps you from being bossed around."
Miranda didn't get it. "I thought there could only be one alpha? I mean, that's what I heard…"
Heard from nature shows, movies, and books. She didn't want to reference those as her sources just in case it was offensive.
"Yeah, we're weird like that," Anna said. "I don't know if you met Dane yet, but he's not even a wolf. He's a bear shifter. He used to have his own pack, but then left it behind. He's a Navy Seal, so he knows how to take orders from someone else."
"Are you serious?" Miranda had to look around the screen again just to see if Anna was messing with her.
She looked serious as she nodded. "Yeah. I guess being in a boot camp getting screamed at teaches an alpha when to follow and when to lead. That's how he described it."
"You said he was a bear shifter?"
Anna opened another box, pulling a shirt out and holding it over her chest. "Yup."
Miranda thought about her attack. So many things had happened, it was hard to see things clearly in her mind, but two of the shifters had looked so much different from the others. One could have been a bear, but she also remembered wings.
"What about the other alphas? What are they?"
"The only other one is Jax. He's a dragon shifter."
The big, sweeping wings she remembered made more sense, but it was still shocking to hear. "A dragon? Seriously?"
Anna looked at her, still smiling. "Get back there and get dressed!" she said, waving Miranda back.
Miranda stepped back behind the screen, her mind still reeling. A dragon. Wow.
"So, why is there a dragon here? Are there any other types of shifters in this pack?"
"We're mostly wolves. It's just Jax and Dane who are different."
Anna's voice changed. She no longer sounded so excited. "Jax has been in the pack longer than I've been alive. I don't know much about what happened to his nest, but Garret found him one day and brought him home. He's been part of the pack ever since. That's all I know about that. Do me a favor and don't bring it up though. Jax doesn't like talking about it."
"I won't. I promise," Miranda said quickly.
Anna's voice changed again. She was back to sounding chipper and happy. “Garret says there are two sorts of packs that take in shifters of a different species. Assholes like Dennis's pack who want the muscle, and good packs like this one who just want to help people out. The fact that three alphas can get along in the same space means my brother's a good leader."