Page 43 of Wulf's Pack
Skylar’s eyes bulge, and she jerks back, looking all around us. “Now? Here?”
She’s so cute. I tug her back to me. “Bree doesn’t mind.”
“I will, if you stick your tongue down her throat.”
Skylar chokes.
I chuckle again. I like Bree.
I brush my thumb over Skylar’s lips. “Just a quick taste.” I cup her cheek and guide her mouth to mine. I move slowly, giving her plenty of time to pull away, and I thank the moon goddess when she doesn’t. I give her a soft, gentle kiss. It’s quick and polite, little more than a peck, but it’s enough to sate my desire for the time being. When I pull back, she licks her lips as if they’re tingling or she’s trying to get one last taste of my mouth on hers.
The smallest smile forms on her face. I can’t help matching her grin. We’re like a couple of teens experiencing our first relationship. It’s strange. I’ve never had such an innocent connection with a woman before. I’m a one-night kind of guy. I burn hot and fast. This is different. I’m enjoying taking my time. For the first time, I’m looking forward to playing the long game. “When we get home, I’m going to take you on a date.”
Her smile lifts until she beams at me. “I’d like that.”
“What would you like to do?”
She thinks about it, then shrugs in thisI have no ideaway. “What kinds of things can you do on a date?”
My brows climb my forehead. “You ask that like you’ve never been on one.”
She shrugs again, but this time it’s more a way to downplay the answer to my unspoken question. “I haven’t. I was trapped with vampires until Victor took me at fourteen. He likeddressing me up like a doll and taking me to dinner in the fancy restaurant at the ski resort, but that was hardly dating. I was to be seen and not heard while he had dinner with business associates. I was a showpiece or a powerplay. I was a tool.”
I grit my teeth, but try my best not to get angry. I don’t want to ruin the mood right now over something I can’t change. I hate her past, but I can fix her future. “Well, then, I definitely need to take you on a date. A real one. Dinner, a movie, a picnic, the theater, bowling, a sports game, fishing or boating, hiking, dancing, ice skating, a comedy club, museums, golfing, the Eastern Market…anything you can think of. What kinds of things do you like to do?”
I get another clueless shrug. “I don’t know. I’ve never done any of those things.”
She’s a blank slate. I hate that and I love it. She’s missed out on so much, but I’ll get to be most of her firsts. We’ll get to experience life together. “Then we’ll do it all. I’m off Mondays and Tuesdays from the club. We’ll have a weekly date night, starting with this Monday.”
“ThisMonday? But Victor’s still out there.”
I shake my head and take her hand again. “I know that. But chances are, there will always be some degree of danger for us. You’re an omega. That’s a rare gift that desperate people will do desperate things to get hold of. We’ll be as safe as we can, but we can’t shut ourselves away out of fear. We need to live our lives. And you and I especially need to spend time building our relationship. The stronger the bond between the alpha pair, the stronger the pack. Plus.” I soften my voice. “We’re fated. The moon goddess blessed us. She gave us a gift. We can’t take that for granted.”
Skylar swallows hard, and her eyes mist over. She doesn’t say anything for a long minute. I don’t want to see her cry, but I know she’s choked up because she’s happy. Or maybe it’srelief. Either way, I’m glad I’m able to give her something to look forward to. She’s been living a nightmare long enough. She needs to start dreaming of good things.
Finally, she whispers, “I think the moon goddess got it right.”
Damn right, she did. In all my years, in all my dreams, I never imagined I’d find a mate who was so exactly what I need, but Skylar seems to be just that. “I think she got it right too.”
The rest of the flight goes by with easy conversation. Bree chimes in occasionally, but for the most part she gives Skylar and me the chance to get to know each other. We do a sort of twenty questions thing. Skylar doesn’t know a lot about herself. She’s never been given the chance to make her own choices. She’s been denied the basic freedoms that allow a person to discover themselves.
I do most of the talking. I tell her about the world she’s missed out on. I tell her about what normal packs are like. Even though I’m a lone wolf, I still spent my first 45 years in a healthy, strong pack. It wasn’t for me, but I still experienced it. I tell Skylar all about my life. What it was like growing up as the alpha’s son and training to be Rook’s second. I tell her all kinds of stories about the trouble Rook and I got into as teenagers and then some of the trouble I managed to get myself into after leaving the pack. I tell her some of the things I’ve seen working at the club. There are plenty of stories to choose from.
Skylar soaks it all up, laughing more than I thought possible. It’s a nice reprieve from the last few days. It’s like we’ve paused everything, or put a time-out on our problems. I didn’t realize how much I needed the break, but I’m feeling much better when we arrive in Colorado.
We land just after sunset, and it’s full dark by the time we get from the airport to the downtown high-rise luxury apartment building that houses the Denver clan. The building is located on Denver’s restaurant row, and the nightlife is bustling. It’s clean,and fun. The overall feeling is younger and hipper than Detroit. It feels safer, despite the fact that we’re going to the home of the shadiest people in the city.
“It’s a nice city,” I say, as we roll up to the clan home. “But it doesn’t have the same atmosphere as Detroit. I think I like my city better. It has a unique feel to it with all the Motown influence and industrial history. It has…flavor. And it’s an underworld melting pot. The different races live together in a lot more peace than they do in other cities. It’s not so segregated. You can’t get Detroit anywhere else in the country.” I wave my hand at the trendy neighborhood around us. “You can probably get this in major cities all over the country.”
“You’re biased,” Bree says. “I like Denver. It’s so close to the mountains. All that space to run and hunt. All the fresh air.”
“I do love the mountains,” Skylar agrees. “It’s going to be an adjustment living in the big city.”
“It takes a while,” I admit. “But I think you’ll grow to love it. I can’t imagine living anywhere else now.”
The Denver clan’s building is thirty-two stories, and the bottom floor is home to a fancy steakhouse. “Damn, that smells good,” Bree says, rubbing her stomach.
I have to agree. The smell is mouthwatering, and reminds me that the only thing I’ve had to eat in hours is some airplane trail mix. “Maybe we should have dinner before we ask to see Samuel.”
