Page 21 of Married to the Wolf

“Who?”

“A few members of my pack and their families. Not everyone is an elite with potential to be Guard. Most of the pack are just regular people, working their nine to five jobs. They depend on me to lead them and sometimes to be a liaison between them and humans.”

She gasped. “You mean there are humans who know about you? I thought you kept your existence a secret.”

He hesitated as if he searched for how to explain. “You’re right in that we keep our existence a secret. There are a few who know about us.”

Hunters.

“However,” he continued, “some of my people have trouble keeping their true natures hidden. Sometimes they get into conflicts with humans, and I have to smooth the way. Damage control, advice, et cetera.”

“Damage control. What’s involved with that?”

He tipped her chin up and gave her a quick kiss. “Come on. We’ll go out and meet some of them.”

“What about the people in that room?” She gestured to the meeting room behind her.

“I have one of my men dealing with them for now.”

Sophia didn’t miss how he avoided the question about humans. She wondered if this was one of those situations Jack alluded to. Damage control when a wolf shifter revealed his existence to a human might involve eliminating

the human. She swallowed, thinking about the prospect. On one hand it terrified her to think Sebastian might order someone’s death. Then again it was hard to believe. Not in her world. It couldn’t be. Yet, she never would have thought someone like him existed in the first place.

They left the house to find a waiting car and all three of his Guard present. As they climbed into the car, she thought about the amazing fact that his people anticipated his needs.

Sebastian’s first stop led them into the Isle of Hope area of Savannah, a community that lined the Skidaway River. Sophia recalled looking into a house to rent in the area when she first planned to move to Georgia. Needless to say, the houses were out of her price range. Many of them sold for three hundred thousand and above.

They turned onto a quiet tree-lined road with modest houses, and Sebastian gestured. “Because I’m alpha, I run the real estate corporation that in turn owns most of these houses on this street and in other neighborhoods around the city.”

She gasped. “You own Isle of Hope?”

He chuckled. “No, I said most of the houses on this street, and no, I don’t own them per se. We have a corporation that is basically owned by the entire pack. A portion of the profits are distributed to every family with a generous amount to the alpha. That’s how we can afford to live in the mansion. The corporation also owns it. I’m sorry to disappoint you, my love, but if I weren’t alpha, we might live in one of these.”

“I’m not moneygrubbing if that’s what you’re hinting at, but wow, that shocks me. Everybody gets an allowance?”

“Yes, from the greatest to the least. Most of our people still work full time jobs of course because the corporation can only pay so much for so many.”

“Talk about taking care of your own though. That’s incredible.”

“It’s our way.”

The car came to a stop at the end of the street where a mini-park had been designed into the landscaping. Music blared, and benches, picnic tables, and people crowded the small green area. They all appeared to be waiting for them to arrive. Sophia’s belly tied into knots. These were animals, she reminded herself, wolves in particular.

“I don’t see kids,” she said. Come to think of it, there were no kids at the mansion when she arrived either. “You do have babies, right?”

“Few,” he said. “Our birth rates are declining, and so those who have kids are extremely protective of them. They’re not always allowed to come out during these gatherings.”

She stared at him. “Are you serious?”

He laid a hand on hers on her lap. “We’ve come under attack in the past. It hasn’t happened for a long time, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Today could be the day,” she snapped without meaning to. He had just taken her nervousness up a thousand notches.

The men all looked at her on high alert, and her throat dried.

“I mean just because you tell me I don’t have to worry isn’t going to make me not worry. Anything could happen.”

“No one will hurt you, Sophia. Not without being ripped apart by me.” He climbed out of the car and held his hand toward her. She took it with hesitation. The man was too quick to make crazy statements, but now she was distracted. In all this time she hadn’t thought of children. How could she condone the hunters hurting the little ones? She might need to call Jack and talk to him about it, but she wasn’t sure how she could do it without being overheard.

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