by Price, E A
“With any luck they’ll just let them go.” Murmured Andy.
“Right, thanks guys.” Gabe murmured.
He walked away slowly. Why hadn’t Kira told him? His wolf roared at the thought of his mate being in danger. The thought of anything happening to her was unbearable.
Maybe he didn’t want to rush into taking her as a mate, but that damn well wasn’t going to stop him from making sure that she was safe.
*
18th November
Kira tapped on the door hesitantly. Rosalee opened it and smiled at her before dragging her into a hug.
“Hey, nice to see you. Come in!”
Kira opened her mouth to respond but slammed it shut as she was quickly pulled into the Alpha house and thrust into the living room.
“Kira you remember Liv and Carly right?” The two small females waved at her. Rosalee motioned to two other women. “This is Terri she’s mated to a wolf and this is Kim.”
Kira eyed the Amazon like Kim shyly. Growing up as an Omega female, the smallest and weakest of the pack, Kira was used to being picked on by the stronger females. She was naturally wary of larger female wolves who were generally aggressive and snooty. Survival of the fittest and all that. On average they were about five foot eight and fairly slender with sinewy muscles. Kim however was six foot and built like a warrior princess. She looked like she could take down male wolves without too much trouble.
To her surprise Kim welcomed her with a hug and told her it was lovely to meet her. “I’m sorry you didn’t make it to the run last night.”
Kira fidgeted. “Yeah I’m really sorry about that…”
Rosalee offered her a piece of red velvet cake which Kira gladly took. “Don’t worry there are plenty of full moon runs, they happen every month you know.”
The women laughed and Rosalee offered the cake round to everyone. Everyone except Terri took a piece. The small Chinese woman paled and clutched her stomach. “I better not, morning sickness and all.”
Liv happily munched on hers. “You poor thing, I don’t think I’ve had any morning sickness really. I’ve been eating us out of house and home.”
Terri groaned. “No offence Liv but I hate you right now.”
Liv shrugged and licked frosting off her finger. “None taken.”
Kira bit into her piece and emitted an orgasmic sounding moan. God the cake was delicious. The rest of the women stared at her for a second before bursting into laughter. She blushed like mad. “I’m sorry…”
Carly’s shoulder’s shook. “Don’t be sorry, I take it as a compliment.”
“You made this?” Asked Kira incredulously.
Carly nodded shyly. Rosalee patted her arm proudly. “I keep telling her she needs to open up a cake shop. It’s just what our town needs.”
“No!” Moaned Liv. “I’m already rounded enough, if I get to eat her cakes every day I’ll be the size of a house!”
Kim smirked. “You’re pregnant, you’re going to anyway. When I was pregnant with Jamie I looked like a freaking tank!”
Rosalee snickered and rubbed Liv’s belly. “And I’m guessing that considering who the father is that is going to be one big baby!” Alec was six foot three and built like a pro wrestler.
Terri covered her mouth as she chuckled.
Carly raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know why you’re laughing. No Tanner baby has ever been less than twelve pounds in weight.”
Terri clutched her stomach and moaned. “Oh god!” Terri’s own mate Mal, like all the full grown males in his family, was six foot six and beefy.
Kim rolled her eyes. “You might have girls! Even though I was big my Jamie was only eight pounds. That’s about average for a female grey wolf.”
“And what about a female red wolf?” Asked Rosalee archly.
It was a well known fact that Kim had been dating a red wolf shifter called Ed who lived in Alexandria. He was five years younger, two inches shorter and absolutely besotted with her.
Kim pouted and took a sip of coffee. “I’m sure I’ve no idea.” She said haughtily.
“Ummm hmmmm.” Chorused the other women before bursting in peals of laughter.
Kira listened to the banter with interest. She felt affection between the women that hadn’t been evident in her old pack. All wolves in Charming had been encouraged to be rivals and fight for ranking. The Rose pack members actually just seemed to like each other.
Rosalee wiped away a tear. “I’m sorry Kira we’ve been babbling. Not that you’re not welcome to come round anytime just to hang out but did you come round for something in particular?”
All the women looked at her in a friendly fashion.
“Ummm, I was kind of hoping you could help me find a job. I don’t mind what the job is I just want to start earning my keep. I really appreciate your generosity but I do want to contribute to the pack.”
The female pack members nodded in approval. A pack was a family, and everyone worked together. There was no room for freeloaders.
Rosalee held up a finger as her face lit up with an idea, you could almost see the light bulb above her head. “Wait right here while I make a phone call.”
The bouncy female Alpha disappeared for a few minutes whilst the others made polite enquiries about Lilah.
Bounding back into the room Rosalee smiled triumphantly. “The Honeypot Diner needs a new waitress. Deedee the bear shifter owner says she’s willing to give you a trial. You start on Wednesday.”
“Wow thank you that was so fast!”
Rosalee waved her hand. “Deedee owed Adam a favor, no biggie.”
Kira couldn’t express her gratitude. “Really thank you so much. Well I guess I better be going…”
All the women cried out in protest.
Terri came and sat next to Kira. “Don’t go yet! I still haven’t told everyone the crazy things my husband's brothers have been up to this week. It involves a beehive, honey and no clothes.”
Carly nodded. “Ooooh you don’t want to miss that, stories about the Tanner boys are always worth sticking around for.”
Kira grinned. “Well maybe I could stay for a little while…”
She felt warmth and affection swell through her, and her wolf barked like a puppy. Yep, she could get used to this.
*
A couple of hours later Kira hiked back to Jolene’s house with a smile on her face. Just getting to know her pack mates had been fun. They gave her an open invitation to join their coffee morning whenever she liked and told her that extended to Lilah too.
She hoped she could encourage Lilah to join her. Socializing with other female pack mates might be just what she needed. From what Kira had gathered Joseph had not allowed her sister to really have friends. Not for the first time fury washed through her. She was just glad they left when they did.
Kira shivered. The weather was turning chilly; snow was forecast in the next couple of weeks. She picked up the pace. She’d decided against using her car. For one thing her little Volkswagen was getting a bit old and for another the bright lime green color was kind of unusual. It stuck out like a sore thumb. And they were trying to keep a low profile. Until she could trade it for something else it was going to sit in Jolene’s garage. Besides the town was kind of small, she could pretty much walk everywhere anyway if she had to. She looked down at her thighs sourly. And she could certainly use the exercise.
Kira stilled as a twig snapped. She anxiously scanned the woods as her wolf trembled ready to shift. She stood still not daring to move and her heart furiously drummed in her chest.
After a few moments she spied a rabbit. It was just a bunny. She was being silly. Surely no one from Charming would be crazy enough to sneak onto another pack’s land? Gingerly she sniffed the air, she scented a number of wolves but she couldn’t tell if they were all members of Adam’s pack.
No, she felt certain that no one from Charming would make it this far into Rose without being detected. There was no one out here other than her and Thu
mper.
Still she couldn’t escape a few niggles of worry. She hastened to get back to Jolene’s house, just in case…
Chapter Six
20th November
Kira smiled as she flipped the sign to 'closed'. It was 11pm and she had just finished her first shift at the Honeypot Diner. And she had loved every minute.
Before coming to Rose she had worked as a secretary for the doctor in Charming. Unless you considered finding out who currently had a sexual disease to be interesting it had been completely dull. But working at the Diner was fun. She got to meet people, talk to her new friends and free meals!
“Hey honey how was your first day?” Asked Deedee, the bear shifter owner.
“It was great, thank you so much for giving me a chance.”
Deedee smiled warmly. She was a middle aged mother of three who ran her kitchen with an iron first. Kira had been a little daunted by the six foot two Deedee at first but by hard work she soon got on Deedee’s good side.
“No problem, it was good timing. One of my regular waiters Dennis had to drop his shifts, he’s been training to be an EMT and just found a regular job at the hospital in Darlington. I’m sorry to lose him but I’m glad you came along. You sure you never waitressed before?”
Kira grinned. “Never, I really enjoyed it though.”
“Jeez, I wish some of that enthusiasm would rub off on my kids. Whenever I ask them to take a shift here you’d think I asked them to clean out a sewer with a toothbrush. Ungrateful mites.”
Kira wiped her hands on her apron. “Do you need me to do anything else?”
“No you take off, I think your ride’s here. Night honey.” Deedee nodded at the window chuckling as she went back into the kitchen.
Kira spun round to find Gabe tapping on the glass, a puppy dog look on his handsome face. Her stomach did flip flops at the sight of him and her wolf yowled in happiness.
Since the alarm incident she hadn’t seen Gabe, he had been busy working and Kira hadn’t really wanted to leave Lilah alone. He had called though and they had shyly made it through a few awkward conversations.
Kira mouthed ‘one minute’ through the glass. At record speed she ran to the back ripping the apron off. She quickly combed her fingers though her hair and applied some lip gloss before applying a bit of breath freshener. Well you never know…
Grabbing her coat and purse she eagerly ran back out to the Diner and breathing deeply stepped out into the cold night. “Hey! What are you doing here?”
Gabe flashed her a dazzling smile and she almost melted on the spot. “Given that you’re not using your car Alec said we should give you a ride home every night, so I volunteered.”
“That’s so nice.”
Gabe opened the passenger door for her and she hopped in. Such a gentleman. He slammed the door and oofed as he tried to walk away only to be pulled back against the car. He’d managed to catch his jacket in there. Kira stifled a laugh and pretended she hadn’t seen.
He opened and shut it again before quickly jogging round and jumped in the driver’s seat, pretending his face wasn’t on fire with embarrassment.
As he drove Gabe flicked glances in her direction. “I was hoping to see you at the full moon run the other night.”
Kira fidgeted. “Yeah we were planning on going but right before we left Lilah had a headache so we decided to stay home.”
Truthfully Lilah had a panic attack about being around such a large number of other wolves. She hadn’t attended a pack run in almost two years. Not long after Kira left Charming Joseph stopped Lilah from attending full moon get togethers. He became paranoid about other males looking at his mate and insisted she stay home. Apparently six months ago Lilah’s wolf had been desperate to hunt and had run to join the rest of the pack. After that night, for disobeying him, Joseph waited until she shifted and chained her to the ground every full moon. Kira was increasingly horrified by her ex-brother in law.
“I’m sorry to hear that. I hope she’s feeling better now.” Said Gabe amiably.
“Thanks.”
“So how did you enjoy your first day at the Diner?”
Kira beamed. “I loved it. I know it’s only been one day but I really enjoyed it.”
Honestly there wasn’t much she didn’t love about being in Rose. Although she had niggling doubts about Joseph she had never felt more at peace before. Her wolf yipped in agreement.
Gabe sighed. They were already at Jolene’s house. The journey was far too short damnit! There was so much he wanted to say. His wolf howled at him to tell her she was his mate, he wanted her mated and bonded to him and couldn’t understand the man’s reticence.
Kira deflated a little. “Oh we’re here already.”
She was kind of hoping that Gabe was going to make some kind of move on her. She was convinced that he was her mate. But at one time she had also thought that Airis was her true mate. She needed some kind of encouragement from him before she laid her heart on the line. After all she just moved to Rose, how embarrassing would it be if she threw herself at him and told him he was her mate only to be rejected? She didn’t want to draw any more attention to herself.
Kira unbuckled her seatbelt. “Well thanks for the ride.”
“Kira I…”
“Yes?” She said hopefully.
“I… ummm… I’ll pick you up same time tomorrow night.” Wuss.
“Cool. Good night.”
“Good night Kira.”
Kira waved and jogged up to the front door. She turned back to see Gabe banging his head on the steering wheel. Slipping into the house she leaned back on the closed door and smiled. There was no way he wasn’t affected by her. She just had to be patient…
She jumped as the phone started ringing. She walked to the kitchen and reached to answer it but hesitated. Jolene hadn’t said anything but she might not like her guests answering her phone, and besides it might be Joseph on the other end.
Instead she dropped her hand and waited until the answer machine kicked in. She heard Jolene’s recorded message and then froze as deep breathing came over the line. After a couple of beats a low male voice said ‘sorry wrong number’ and hung up.
Kira exhaled loudly and willed her hammering heart to slow. Her wolf whined and Kira willed her to settle down. It wasn’t a voice she recognized; it wasn’t a member of the Charming pack. Kira shook her head and crept up to bed. The joy she felt only minutes before dulled.
*
22nd November
Kira hummed as she and Lilah raked leaves together. Last night the car journey with Gabe had almost been a repeat of the previous night. Alright so they hadn’t made any progress but for now she was just happy spending time with him.
Her wolf yowled in disapproval. If the animal had her way they’d be bonded, living together and expecting their first pup! But Kira shushed her. Slow and steady wins the race. She didn’t want to admit it out loud but Lilah’s experience with Joseph had soured her a little on male wolves.
Lilah and Joseph had met and married within two weeks. Everything about Gabe told Kira he was different and wouldn’t treat her badly, but then there really was no reason to rush things. But god knows it wasn’t easy, he was just so darn hot! Her sex fluttered thinking about him.
Kira yelped as something hit her back. She spun round to find Lilah grinning at her gleefully grasping a handful of slimy leaves.
“You just threw some leaves at me!”
Lilah stuck out her tongue. “You were just stood there staring into space dummy! I was worried you’d stop breathing.”
Kira raspberried. Scooping up some leaves she returned the favor. Lilah squealed and pelted some leaves back at Kira.
“That’s it! It’s war!” Declared Kira.
The twins yelped and giggled as they ran around Jolene’s yard hurling leaves at one another. Finally exhausted they collapsed onto the ground hiccupping with laughter.
Kira felt an alien surge of happiness flow through her and gasped.
Lilah turned on her side. “What’s wrong?”
Concern now rippled through Kira and she beamed excitedly. “I can feel your emotions again, my Omega abilities are coming back.”
Lilah’s mouth curled up. “Yeah me too. Why do you think I threw the leaves at you in the first place? All that lust you were emitting was making me jealous.”
“What?! I wasn’t… I mean… I…” Kira groaned and slapped her hand to her forehead. “There’s really no point in pretending is there?”
Lilah sniggered. “There really isn’t.”
Kira snorted. “I’ve missed this. I’ve missed us hanging out. I wish I’d been around for the last couple of years.”
Lilah sighed. “Me too. But I understand why you weren’t around. I’m sorry about what happened to Airis, and I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when it happened. Joseph…” She sighed again. “I never really noticed at first how controlling he was.”
Kira grunted. “All male wolves are pretty possessive.”
“Yeah but Joseph took it to an insane degree. Things just gradually got worse as time went by. He started telling me what to wear and who I could talk to. It got so bad that I didn’t have any friends. I didn’t have anyone.”
Kira’s wolf whimpered sadly. He opened her mouth to speak but Lilah quickly interrupted her. “And even if you were around I doubt it would have made a difference. Joseph would have just used you to control me.”
“What do you mean?”
Lilah closed her eyes and relaxed into the leaves. “Whenever I tried to get away from him he told me he wouldn’t let me shame him. He threatened to hurt you if I did anything stupid. When you were away I kind of thought you were safe and out of his reach and tried to leave a few times, so instead he started threatening our parents and baby sisters. I couldn’t stand the thought of anyone getting hurt because I’d married an asshole. Then when you came back to town, I kind of froze you out. I wanted you to just go back to New Mexico, away from Joseph.” Lilah sniffled. “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for.” Said Kira fiercely
“I’m just glad you came to me when you did. I’m glad you made me come here. I haven’t been this happy in a long time.”