Page 88 of True North

“You’re the most perfect little thing,” I tell her, placing a chaste kiss at her temple.

She snuggles tighter against me, then instantly goes rigid. “Why are you so hard?” she asks, embarrassment seeping into her voice.

“Is that really something I need to explain?” I’d prefer not to go over all my various fantasies about tying her up right now. She didn’t exactly take well to being locked in a room, I’m not so sure how well handcuffs and rope will go over. Besides, if I start talking about those things, there’s a good chance I’m going to roll over and take her. And as good as that would feel, I noticed she’s been walking slightly bow-legged all day. I wasn’t exactly gentle with her last night; the last thing I need to do is permanently damage or traumatize her.

She’s mine forever now; I can let her rest one night.

“I guess not,” she mutters, her hand reaching out to stroke me through my boxers. I catch her wrist before she can do much more than graze me.

“Save that idea for another night. We’ve had a long couple of days, and I think we’re in for another one tomorrow. There will be plenty of time later for me to embarrass myself at your hands.”

“What does that even mean?”

I put my mouth next to her ear. “It means when those sweet little hands of yours are wrapped around my cock, not even able to fully get your fingers all the way around, I’m going to feel like a fucking schoolboy when I can’t help but come all over you.”

She shudders, not unpleasantly, and a little sigh escapes her lips. “I didn’t let you mark me because of the sex,” she says stubbornly as if I could have possibly gotten the wrong idea.

“I know,” I reassure her, pulling her tighter against me and getting comfortable. I’m very aware it wasn’t the sex that tipped her over the edge. And that’s exactly why, for tonight, I’m going to respect her by not pushing her too far.

I’m still playing the long game.

* * *

There's an eerie quiet that surrounds us as I drive my SUV down the nearly empty highway. Usually there’s more traffic this time of day, and I don't trust the fact that it’s quiet while we're driving through. I already mind linked the wolves stationed nearby to make sure they're on high alert as well. Something is definitely going on, it's just a matter of figuring out what.

Tess shifts uncomfortably in her seat for what feels like the millionth time. She's next to me in the passenger seat, with Tasha in the middle of the backseat so she can lean up and talk to her sister periodically. Something is bothering her, but I don't ask in case she doesn't want to bring it up in front of Tasha. Things between them feel a little uncomfortable after what happened yesterday.

Everything seems to be moving on fast forward.

A few days ago, I was the enemy. Now, Tess keeps glancing to me for reassurance. I'm under no illusion that all the conflict is behind us, but at least for a moment, we're in a sort of post-marking honeymoon phase that I have no intention of taking for granted.

Tess wiggles in her seat again, and it's distracting the hell out of me. I'm close to saying something. I can't have my attention on her and our surroundings at the same time. It's stressing me the fuck out.

"Tasha?" Tess finally turns in her seat to look at her sister in the back. "There's something we never finished talking about yesterday. We got, uh, a little distracted."

I know instantly what Tess is referencing. Glancing back in the rear view mirror, the way Tasha's face falls tells me she does too. A person can't just casually mention almost losing her sister and not expect to have to face questions.

"It happened after Alpha Roderick cast our parents out," Tasha begins quietly. "The child they took… she vanished into thin air. No one could figure it out, not even our parents. So the Alpha tried to make a bargain with the child's family. A child for a child."

I glance over in time to see Tess's face pale. I keep one hand on the steering wheel and reach for hers with the other. That’s a twist neither of us saw coming, though with her sitting here beside me, we obviously know how the story ended. Still, I squeeze her hand a little tighter, reassuring myself that no one can ever take her from me.

"I'm not sure why anyone would even take the deal, accepting someone else's child in place of their own. But they showed up to collect. This weird, rich couple. And Tevin kept saying he would take care of it, but I was so sure we were about to lose you." Tasha takes a shuddering breath.

"What happened?" Tess presses.

"They showed up and you…" Tasha's voice drops to almost nothing, "You shifted."

I jerk the wheel to pull the SUV off the road into a gas station parking lot. I have to throw my arm out to keep Tess from flying forward into the dashboard when I slam the brakes. I turn in my seat to stare at her sister.

"What the hell did you just say?"

Tasha's face is red. "We were told never to talk about it. Tevin and I were old enough to remember seeing the first time Tess shifted. We didn't realize we had done it too. But our mom explained that it was just a bad thing our family did, something we needed to hide. She said she trained us not to shift—to hold it in until we turned eighteen—so we could blend in."

"That's impossible. She was shifting at—"

"Birth. She shifted from birth," Tasha supplies sheepishly. "My mother was ready to force her wolf down too by the time Tess turned seven and was old enough to start having more control. She never got the chance. And then, those people came, and Tevin got Tess to shift in front of them. It freaked them out; they didn't want her anymore after seeing that."

"That's insane. Shifters don't shift at birth." The very idea of it is ludicrous. Having children shifting with no real control over their wolves would be disastrous, the kind of thing that could bring down the entirety of shifter culture.

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