Page 17 of Wrong Number, Right Valentine

“Sort of, but not really,” I explained. “In order to be truly bonded, I’d have to mark you by clawing your shoulder.”

“Wait, is that why I wanted to scratch you yesterday?” he asked, catching me off guard.

“You wanted to scratch me?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t. I thought it was… weird. But now I realize I knew, even before you told me, before I knew what it was. I just knew.”

I cupped his cheek, and he leaned into my hand. “Yeah, you knew.”

There was nothing I wanted more than to mark him right then, but he still had so much to learn. I couldn’t let him jump into this without understanding everything.

“There’s one thing we need to do first,” I said.

“And what’s that?”

“You need to meet my pack—my family. If you still want this after that, I’ll be 100% there. But this has to be your choice, and I won’t take that away from you.”

He laughed softly. “Oh, silly alpha. I don’t think I had a choice from the moment I saw you. You stole my heart, even if you did put me to work first.”

“Hey!” I protested.

He grinned. “I’m not wrong, and I have the dish hands to prove it.”

13

BANKS

I have to meet the pack. And not any pack, but Reg’s.

Tossing and turning in my bed during the nights when Reg wasn’t with me, nightmares haunted my sleep. Wolves drooling, saliva coating their sharp fangs, a low threatening growl that came from deep in their belly had me sitting up in bed, lathered in sweat, a scream echoing around the room.

I changed the bedding more than once until I curled up on the sofa with the lamps shining and the TV on, the low hum of voices reassuring me I was at home and not in the deep dark woods with wolves wanting to tear me to shreds.

In the morning light, with the dreams banished, I yawned and trudged over the kitchen floor to make cup after cup of strong coffee. I made light of the images that had filled my head since I climbed into bed.

Reg’s wolf was nothing like the ones in my head. Sure, he came from a pack, but that was what wolves did, they belonged to a group. Reg happened to choose a life outside the pack boundaries, but he was still one of them.

And he wanted me to meet them. I winced as my tummy reacted to me standing at attention before a bunch of wolf shifters inspecting me, maybe disapproving of a human mating with one of their kind.

I sank onto the couch and curled up under a blanket.

Reg insisted it wasn’t against pack law that he mate a human. They lived amongst humans, so it happened, and fated mates would never be shunned. Chosen mates wouldn’t either, but they tended to be shifter to shifter. Fate took precedence above all else apart from respecting the Alpha’s wishes. At least that was the theory. We were the first fated pair he knew in real life.

I gulped my coffee and welcomed the burn as it slid down my throat. Mates. Packs. Alphas with an uppercase A. The doors had been opened to a world I didn’t know existed, but I didn’t know the rules other than what Reg had told me.

Marriage wasn’t a thing. Instead, mates marked one another. And while that was a little scary—I got lightheaded at the sight of blood—I wanted to do it to prove to Reg that he was my one and only. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t felt the pull already. It was only when I thought too hard on it that I got squeamish.

Reg was busy at the restaurant and sometimes fell asleep on that couch in the back room I’d fantasised about. I could have met him there after the place closed, but he needed his rest, and I would have disturbed his sleep with my rolling around and screaming about being eaten by wolves. Besides, I didn’t want him worrying about my reaction.

Our relationship at the moment consisted of texts and snatched moments where we called one another if he was on a break. Theproblem with being the owner slash manager was he rarely got time to sit and have a meal or chat with me.

And I had been given my promotion which included a larger office, an assistant, and a heap more work. I preferred staying late at the office rather than going to bed early—alone—and with wild wolves filling my head.

“Hey.” Reg appeared on the screen, shoving the heel of one hand into his eye.

Gods, my mate was so tired. He was considering appointing one of the staff who’d been with him since the restaurant opened as an assistant manager but was still going over the budget, making sure he could afford it. The guy’s first big test would be when we visited the pack and he managed the Sizzle and Chill for a few days.

“I’m sorry to leave you alone every night, especially when you must have so many questions about our kind, the pack, and what to expect when we visit.”

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