“I live in the mountains,” he answered, realizing that he hadn’t really thought it out about her wanting to go to his home at any time. He was so comfortable and at ease in her home that he had never considered taking her to his, aside from the simple fact that he couldn’t.
Janine grinned. “I love the mountains! I’d like to see your place sometime. Can we do that?”
He stopped massaging her and reached his hand to her arm, giving it a gentle rub. “I’m not sure that can happen.”
With a frown, Janine tilted her head at him, her eyes searching his. “Why not? Are you hiding something from me?”
Kip gave her a half smile, thinking to himself; if she only knew. He spoke to her earnestly, wishing that he could tell her all of it but knowing that he couldn’t. “Well, I have a big family, and we all kind of live in the same house. It’s a big house, but we’re all there, all the time. That and we have guests from out of town right now that will be staying for a while, so it would be awkward to have you there, as much as I wish I could take you. You see, it’s not private because everyone is around, and I know that there is no way that I could keep my hands off of you if you were there or anywhere else.”
Janine laughed softly, and he leaned over to kiss her, pausing for a moment as he looked at her curiously. “Are you wearing a new perfume or something? You smell… different.” He eyed her in puzzlement.
She shook her head. “No, nothing new. Is it bad?” she asked in concern.
Kip shook his head. “Not at all; in fact, it’s… it’s sweet. It’s delicious.” He wondered what it was, never having smelled it on her before or on anyone else for that matter. It seemed to linger with the scent of her desire for him, a scent that he was swiftly becoming addicted to. He didn’t mind the new scent mingled in with it; they complemented each other, and it only served to draw him in more to her.
He pulled her to him, tasting her mouth slowly and sensually as he rolled her onto her back and parted her thighs. He moved in between them and pushed himself into her inch by slow inch, teasing her with pleasure until neither one of them could hold back any longer, consumed with desire for one another.
They rocked together, their mouths moving greedily together as their skin beaded with sweat, their hands gripped skin and curves tightly, their breath grew so short that they panted, and at long last, he came deeply in her, holding her tight against him as his release filled her.
In the quiet minutes afterward, when they were savoring their sweet afterglow, he gave her a smile and took her hand in his. “I was just thinking that I could take you out to breakfast. Spoil you a little. Are you hungry?”
“I’m starving!” She laughed as she pushed herself up from the bed. He watched her walk out of the room nude and groaned softly just at the sight of her. If he could keep her in the bed all day, he would do it.
They readied, and a short while later, they were sitting together in a restaurant not too far down the road from her house, both of them with considerable appetites. The waitress came over as they were perusing their menus and offered to take their order.
Janine raised her eyes to the server. “It all looks so good, I barely know what to get! I think I’m going to go with the full breakfast. Sourdough toast with real butter. Scrambled eggs with cheese, and… let’s do the bacon with it, please.”
The waitress nodded and was just about to take Kip’s order when Janine raised her hand and smiled. “Actually, now that I think of it, could I please substitute ham for the toast? Just forget the toast, no toast, and bring ham in place of it.”
“So, you want bacon and ham together…?” the woman asked in confusion.
“Yes, please.” Janine smiled up at her. “Oh, and actually, while we’re working on this, can we please scratch the eggs altogether?”
The waitress looked at her in surprise. “So, no eggs?”
“No.” Janine shook her head. “Let’s trade the eggs out for a steak.”
The waitress stared at her in silence for a long moment. “So, you want bacon, ham, and a steak?”
Janine nodded. “Yes. That sounds amazing. Um… well-done on the steak, please.” Then, she hesitated a moment. “Wait…”
The waitress narrowed her eyes at Janine, and Kip narrowed his eyes at the waitress. “I’m sorry. Let’s make the meat medium-rare. Can we do that please?”
The woman nodded. “Yes.” Then, she turned her attention to Kip immediately and smiled winningly at him. Kip ignored the looks of adoration.
“I’ll have a steak as well. Rare. It sounds good.” He smiled lightly, and the server wrote it down.
Janine interjected again then, giving the lady before her a sympathetic smile. “I really am so sorry. I was just thinking that rare sounds really, really good. In fact, make all of my meat rare. Don’t even cook it.”
Kip blinked at her in surprise, and the waitress gaped in horror at her. “We have to cook it at least a little for health standards.”
Janine gave the woman a sharp look, and her voice took on a dangerous tone. “Don’t cook it.”
The woman looked dumbfounded but said nothing and instead turned and left their table.
Kip was astonished. “Do you usually eat meat that way?” he asked curiously.
She shook her head, a little surprised at herself. “No; in fact, I normally only would have gone with the bacon, and I would have asked for it to be crispy, but I’m just really hungry for meat today. I’m craving it something fierce, and it just sounds so good uncooked.”
Their conversation turned to other things and nothing more was mentioned about her breakfast. The waitress served Janine’s meaty meal with a barely hidden look of disgust and disapproval. “It’s as rare as we could legally make it.”
“Thank you,” Janine answered, wishing that it wasn’t cooked at all. She dove into it, eating nothing but nearly raw meat, and as she ate all of it, Kip watched her with wide eyes. He had never seen any human eat what she was eating.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, wondering how her system could take the meal she had ingested.
Janine frowned. “Not too well, actually.” She sighed.
“Well, it’s no wonder after eating what you ate.” He gave her a smile and a kiss on the cheek.
They left the restaurant, and they walked together hand in hand down the sidewalk. Kip turned his face to her and breathed in the scent deeply. “Are you sure you’re not wearing some new kind of perfume or lotion or something?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m not. I can’t smell anything different on me.” She sniffed herself and looked at him with a half-puzzled smile.
“I can.” He smiled at her in return. “It smells sweet. In fact, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever smelled.”
Janine gave his arm a squeeze as they walked along side by side. “Well, I don’t know what it is, but I’m glad you like it.”
“I love it.” He wrapped his arm around her and gave her a squeeze.
Janine rubbed her hand over her belly. “I’m a little embarrassed to say this, but I’m still hungry. Think we could stop somewhere please?”
Kip’s mouth opened just a little, and he tried not to stare at her. “Sure, of course. What are you hungry for?” He couldn’t believe that she had eaten all that she had at the restaurant and still come out hungry.
“Oh! That looks great!” She pointed to a butcher shop just down the road. Kip masked his astonishment, and they went inside. She chose raw steak tips, and the butcher wrapped them up for her. Kip bought them and walked outside with her, looking at her curiously.
“Do you want to go home and cook those?” he asked, pulling his car keys out.
She shook her head. “No, I’m going to eat them right now.”
“Raw?” Kip cocked an eyebrow at her.
“Yes.” She smiled, opening the package and popping one of the tips into her mouth. “It’s so good. I can’t believe how hungry I am. This is definitely hitting the spot. Thank you!”
“I’ll take you home then.” Kip smiled at her. Something was different about her, and he couldn’t put his finger on it. It was something he’d never seen or sensed before, and it puzzled and intrigued him.
Janine fell asleep in the car before he got her to her house. He tried to wake her, but she was solidly passed out. He laughed softly and picked her up, carrying her to bed. He made sure that her alarm clock was set at her bedside table and then wrote her a note on the notepad there.
‘Sweet dreams. I’ll see you soon. XO’
Kip kissed her forehead and again smelled the sweet, wonderful scent. He shook his head, wondering what it was but loving it all the same. He walked back through the house to the door, and Snowball growled furiously at him from beneath the sofa.
“Good kitty.” Kip chuckled as he walked out and closed the door behind him.
CHAPTER FOUR
Kip drove home, and on the way, he remembered that it was the night of the formal dinner between his immediate family and Petra’s. He thought about Petra and his obligation to her, and then he thought about Janine and how close he was becoming to her. It was a paradox that had begun to bother him more and more often, though he tried his best not to think about it.
Anytime the unification ceremony crossed his mind, or Petra and his impending marriage to her entered his thoughts, he felt a sickness and a tightness in his stomach. He was bound to his obligation and there was no way out of it, but at the same time, he had found a woman who fascinated him; who intrigued him, who drew out a passion in him that he had never known, and it was as if they had known each other for a thousand years instead of only a few weeks. He felt whole with her, as if nothing was missing, except for the fact that he was a werewolf and she was a human.
He knew that he was playing with fire even being with her. She could never be part of his life, and he knew that the closer he got to her, the more difficult it would be when the time came to tell her that he could not see her again. Kip didn’t want to hurt her, but he didn’t want to lose the brief window of precious time that they had together in the weeks leading up to the unification ceremony. Those few, numbered weeks were bliss to him, perfection with a woman who amazed him and who he could not resist. He knew that it would come to an end, but until it did, he was going to cherish every single moment with her that he could and hope that their time together would be worth it to both of them when the end came.
Kip pulled his car into the wide drive in front of the mansion and strolled inside. From the moment he entered the door, he could smell the Dalca family. Petra was there, as was her father. He sighed as he went up the stairs to his room on the second floor. It was a master suite, complete with a balcony overlooking the mountains and valleys that stretched out in all directions from the house.
Kip showered and dressed in one of his best suits, wishing that he could spend the evening with Janine, rather than with a woman he felt no attraction for at all, but she was waiting downstairs with her family for him and his family to join her. It would be the first of many intimate gatherings of their families, and the thought of what was to come weighed heavy on him.
He walked into the dining room and saw that it was decorated to the nines for the dinner. There were fresh flowers set about, candles throughout the room, and crystal and china laid out for their guests. He reached his hand down to touch the gold flatware set on the table and smiled, thinking of Janine when they had been at the Italian restaurant and she had been surprised by the gold flatware that he carried with him. It was part of the set that the house used. Carrying some with him made it much easier when he went out to eat.
Nicholai, Grigor, and Petra entered the room and all of them smiled at Kip. Kip made himself give them a smile in return, extending his hand to Grigor, kissing the back of Petra’s hand, and embracing his grandfather, Nicholai.
Petra ran her hand over Kip’s arm as he took her to her seat. He ignored it. “Welcome.” He pulled out a chair for Petra at the side of the dining table.
“Thank you, we’re so glad to be here,” she replied, giving him a wide smile. She was wearing a form fitting black dress that showed off her curves at their best, and before Kip could walk away from her, she took his hand in hers and smiled at him. “Do you like this dress?” She eyed him with faintly hidden lust.
Kip gave her a nod. “It’s lovely.”
He could smell her interest in him, and he did his best to ignore it. She watched him as he walked around the table and sat across from her. Nicholai sat at one end of the table, and Grigor sat at the other end of it. Dimitri joined them, along with Luca and Andrei, who all sat closer to the end of the table where Nicholai was.
Dimitri was stoic, but Luca and Andrei greeted everyone with a smile. Luca looked at Petra and paused for a moment, his eyes drifting slowly over her. “You look stunning.” He gave her a smile and a nod. She smiled back at him for a moment and thanked him, returning her attention to Kip.
Closer to Grigor’s end of the table, two of the highest-ranking members of his pack, Anton and Rune, sat with him. They were large men with shaggy hair and dark eyes. Both of them had been bitten by Grigor, who turned them from men into werewolves.
Pleasantries were spoken, wine was poured, and Nicholai held his crystal glass aloft in a toast. “To the unification of two great families, two packs, and two powerful regions.”
“Hear, hear!” Grigor and the rest of them answered the toast.
The meal was served, and conversation began when Grigor addressed them all. “This will be a tremendous unification. We will all become part of the greatest region in the country, and I for one cannot wait for it to happen.”
“It is going to cause quite a shift in the regions. Nothing like this has ever happened before. It will be interesting to see how it changes everything we’ve always known and done,” Nicholai replied.
“Not all of the packs in the regions will accept it. I’m concerned that they may fight it,” Kip replied evenly, knowing that his opinion may also be met with some disagreement.
“Have you heard of any packs opposing it?” Anton asked. He was slightly older than Kip, though not half as intelligent.
Nicholai shifted his eyes from Kip to Anton. “Yes, some of the regions are fighting it. Most of them are the central regions. The mountain packs are mostly in support of it. The southern desert packs approve. The Texas packs are against it, as well as the northern and plains packs. The Creole packs, the southern sea packs, and the Atlantic packs are all in full support of it.”
“However,” he continued, “It doesn’t matter which of them does or doesn’t agree with it individually because the Stroian has approved it, and that’s the majority of all of the pack leaders throughout the nation. With the Stroian in support of us, there is nothing to stop the unification.”
Kip looked pointedly at his grandfather. “Perhaps, but the Stroian approved it seventy-three years ago when I was born. There are new leaders in the Stroian now, and they may not approve of it. No one has spoken to them about it at all. We are all just going off of an approval done when Petra and I were born. One third of those leaders are gone now. Who is to say that the current representatives of all the packs and regions currently governing the Stroian will feel the same as their predecessors?”
Grigor waved his hand dismissively through the air. “It doesn’t matter who is in the Stroian now. Permission was given on the nights of your births, and the unification is happening. That decision hasn’t been reversed or even discussed to my knowledge. There is nothing to stop it from happening. We go forward with it, and when we do, we will become a super pack; the first in the country, and that is an honor.”
Kip said nothing else,
instead focusing on his meal and trying not to think of what might happen when he became King in the not too distant future. He wondered silently if he might be handed a feud that could escalate into a war. He didn’t want to begin his reign with a war that he did not wish for or cause. He did not want to take over the responsibility of every pack on the entire west coast from Alaska to San Diego only to send all of his werewolves into a war over the unification of the packs. He could see no reason for the combination of a super pack. He was not interested in power or in growing either region, his own or Petra’s.
When the meal was over, more pleasantries were made, and everyone said goodnight to each other. Petra slid her arms around him and hugged him, kissing his cheek softly before letting him go. Kip did not return her affection and instead went upstairs to his room with a drink in his hand.
P.S I'm a WOLF! (Paranormal Shifter Romance Book 1) Page 5