I get up, pacing unhappily, and then I howl.
The pack joins in, but then her voice lifts to the sky, intertwining with ours.
If there were any doubts, they are completely gone now.
I love her.
I’m not going anywhere without her.
Casey
I stare at themfrom the safety of the doorway, watching the way they talk and move around each other, almost subconsciously. It’s different from the nervous, aggressive energy of my home pack. This is slinky, almost sexy, comfortable. Where one moves, another steps to fill the gap or shift out of the way. It's impressive.
What is their pack like?
What other worlds exist out there?
Are people like me able to live in those worlds without chains?
Riot catches me staring and winks. I shake my head, even as heat burns my cheeks. They always catch me out staring at them.
“Good morning. What poor fool am I dating today?”
They all stop moving.
“We thought maybe a couple of days off, you know, have a break.” Khaos speaks absentmindedly with a piece of toast in his mouth.
I cock my head to the side, trying to ignore the way my damn heart flutters like a bird. “That’s counterproductive.”
“No, what’s counterproductive is all this negative exposure you’re getting. It won’t be a terrible idea to vet these men a little harder,” Khaos says without turning around.
I lick my lips and consider my options, while I try to slow my racing heart and the strange warmth in my chest.
“Okay, but no more than two days,” I say slowly.
“There’s a moron out the front, too, by the way. The only reason he isn’t dead is because he swore up and down that you were friends,” Hazard says flatly from behind me. “I don’t like him, Casey.”
“I don’t have friends,” I mutter, and the wolves go on alert.
Any appetite I had for the food they are cooking vanishes.
“Right. Thanks.”
The walk to my front door feels like it takes forever, and when I push the door open, praying I’m wrong but knowing already I’m not, I see Liam.
He’s the last person I would have expected to be here.
He lifts his head, his blonde hair falling over his forehead. He stands up in a rush and reaches for my shoulders. I step back out of his reach.
“What do you want?”
“I just…I heard what’s happening, and I had to come up here and be sure. There’s no way you’re an omega wolf. I just…no.”
I sniff and look away from him, hurt all over again by his refusal to accept me. “I am.”
“But…you’ve never shifted.”
I bark a laugh. “I never shifted in front of the pack. Liam. I’m just not stupid, and, apparently, my survival instincts go deeper than even I know.”
