Page 8 of Fated In Winter

And I had no one.

Conner, though, was surrounded by family. How could he have no one?

Our Betas had given us an order, and I wanted to give my Alpha something.

I didn’t know any way out of it.

“Fine.”

“Fine,” Conner growled.

Nick and Mitchell grinned at each other and nodded tightly. “Happy Yule, let the festivities begin.”

I looked at Conner and didn’t feel festive.

It would be an interesting few weeks, and I had no idea what the hell I was doing.

CHAPTER3

Conner

I stretchedmy arms over my head and winced before I looked down at the claw marks on my side. Mark had done a good job healing them, but because of where they were located and the fact that they were claw wounds, he couldn’t heal them completely. I wouldn’t scar, and I wasn’t going to die, but things still ached, and it was going to take a few days for the marks to go entirely away. So, every time I stretched, I tugged at the edges of the wounds.

I looked at myself in the mirror. My jeans were unbuttoned since I had just gotten out of the shower, and my shirt was behind me on the bed.

I was off kilter. Kaylee wasn’t here, and I had never spent this long away from my twin.

I hadn’t realized I’d become such a codependent prick until she had been forced to go on a track to find our last Packmate.

Now I felt as if I couldn’t function, and that wasn’t a good thing. I loved my sister, but I needed to not growl whenever she was away because I couldn’t protect her. She was an enforcer just like I was. She could defend herself, and probably better than I could protect herandme at the same time.

I needed to get over myself. But it was hard to do when all I could focus on was the fact that she wasn’t here and my wolf was acting odd.

It wasn’t that I was afraid of turning rogue just now, and while that was always in the back of my mind, because of how quickly I could shift and the way that my wolf reacted around others, that wasn’t the reason I felt off kilter today. No, it all had to do with a certain wolf I had met the day before.

I didn’t know this Romy. But I wanted to.

How could I not know who she was after spending so much time with the Talons? My cousins had mated into the Pack, and I spent more time with some of the Talons these days than I did with my own Pack. We were turning into one giant conglomerate of wolves, and I liked it. My wolf felt secure in that. And yet, I hadn’t met her before. She scented new, and yet she had said she was nearly a century old. A century on this earth, and I had never met her.

It didn’t seem possible. Although, the Packs were big enough, it made sense. I just would’ve thought someone who was on the trail of a rogue would be someone I knew.

And now it was someone I wanted to know.

She scented of cinnamon and honey, and I wanted to know who she was. My wolf clawed at me, not in aggression, but need.

Who was she? And why did I want her so much?

Something in the back of my mind whispered, but I couldn’t quite tell what it said or what it was.

Was it because she was sexy as hell? Maybe. Or maybe it was because of something else? Something I couldn’t quite name.

I shook my head, annoyed with myself, and moved to pull on my shirt. I was meeting with Romy later today, so I needed to get over whatever the hell was going on in my brain when it came to her and not act like a fool. I was usually good with women. I’d had dates before, I wasn’t a monk, but it had been a while. Maybe my wolf was just telling me that I needed skin-to-skin contact.

Shifters were sexual beings. We liked skin-to-skin, and we enjoyed being with one another. Usually, sex could just be between friends to scratch that itch without the emotional complications that came with knowing that, while you may love someone, they weren’t your forever.

Our wolves were always on the hunt for mates. Even if the human halves of ourselves weren’t quite sure we were ready yet. My wolf wasn’t sure what it wanted, and the human half sure as hell didn’t want to give in. If I did give in, that meant I could hurt someone. What if I did turn rogue? The first person I would hurt would be my mate. I wouldn’t mean to, but that’s what would happen. So I would do my best not to be that person.

Not that I was sure I could actually hold myself back.

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