Her head whipped towards him, and he watched the play of emotions across her face, wariness and that ever-present defiance, with more attention than was strictly necessary.Her scent intensified as he approached, sweetening with nervousness? Or attraction?
Probably fear, he told himself firmly.Humans find wolves intimidating. This is normal.
Most of the wolves had already claimed their places, but they were all watching him now, their attention shifting from him to the human female frozen in the doorway. Their gazes were a mixed bag. Some were openly curious. Some were indifferent. Elder Howard, seated at the head table near the fireplace, looked like he’d just bitten into a lemon.
“Alpha Moonstone.” Her voice was admirably steady, given the way her heart was racing. He could hear it, that rapid flutter, and his wolf preened at the sound. “I was just?—”
“You’re late.”
“Just a little.” She glanced at the gathered pack, at the curious faces turned in their direction. “Barely late. Fashionably late, even?—”
“Come.”
He didn’t wait for her response, simply turned and walked towards the head table, trusting her to follow. After a moment’s hesitation—he heard her frustrated exhale, a muttered complaint that might have included the words “arrogant” and “caveman”—footsteps hurried to catch up with him.
The pack watched their progress with undisguised interest. He could feel the weight of their attention, the speculation, the curiosity about the small human trailing in their Alpha’s wake. Several of the younger males tracked Harper with a predatory focus that made his hackles rise.
Mine,his wolf snarled.Challenge them. Make them submit. Show them who she belongs to.
He kept walking.
Elder Howard watched Harper approach with eyes that held neither welcome nor warmth.
“Alpha.” Howard’s voice carried the weight of deliberate formality. “I see our… guest has found her way to dinner.”
Ignoring him, Adrian gestured to the empty seat beside his place at the head of the table. “Ms. Bailey, you’ll sit here.”
She looked at the indicated chair and her eyebrows rose. “At the head table? Isn’t that… I don’t know, a protocol thing?”
“You’re a representative of TalkToMe. A guest under my protection.” He met Howard’s gaze steadily, daring the elder to object. “Protocol dictates you sit with the leadership.”
“I’m a cybersecurity consultant. I’m here to install your Wi-Fi.”
“Nevertheless.”
Howard’s lips thinned but he said nothing. Adrian pulled out her chair, waiting until she settled into it with obvious reluctance.
“This feels very… conspicuous,” she murmured as he took his own seat.
“Would you prefer to eat alone in the kitchen?”
“Honestly? Yes.”
“Denied.”
Her small huff of frustration made his lips twitch, but he focused instead on the meal being served—venison stew, freshbread, roasted vegetables from the pack’s gardens—and very determinedly did not think about how close she was sitting. How her scent wrapped around him in the enclosed space. How he could hear every breath she took, every shift of her body in the chair.
“You should know our ways before presuming to join us at table.” Howard’s voice cut through his concentration. The elder was addressing her directly, his pale eyes sharp with challenge as his gaze traveled pointedly over her t-shirt, her pink hair. “It is not a casual affair.”
Before he could intervene, she turned to face the older male, her chin raised defiantly.
“Are you always this welcoming to guests?” Her tone was mild, but her grey eyes had a sudden glint of steel. “Or am I just special?”
The entire table went quiet. He could feel the collective intake of breath, the ripple of shock that ran through the watching wolves. No one challenged Elder Howard. Not directly. Not with that kind of dry, detached sarcasm.
Howard’s face reddened, the veins in his neck standing out. “You are not a guest. You are a human intrusion, a necessary evil foisted upon us by your boss and our Alpha’s misguided loyalty.”
“Is that what we’re calling a multi-million dollar investment and a guaranteed income stream for the next twenty years? A necessary evil?” She took a deliberate bite of her stew, chewed, and swallowed. “Sounds more like basic economics to me.”
