Kellan’s brows furrowed. “No good? Okay, I’ll keep working on the nickname.”
“I really wish you wouldn’t,” I muttered.
He ignored me as he pulled out of their driveway, and the quintet standing on the front porch waved their goodbyes. A part of me wanted to dive from the moving car and return to their warmth and security. With Annandale, there were no worries that I’d slip and lose myself in a bond, forsaking my life to turnmy scent matches into the most powerful alphas in existence.Nope.There was only food, laughter, and safety.
Three things I had sorely lacked in my life.
“You’ll see them again, sweetheart,” Kellan said, unexpectedly gentle in his approach considering I’d stayed with them after rejecting his pack. “I promise, we’ll keep you just as safe as they did. I don’t know what you’re running from, or what spooked you as a child to prevent you from even giving pack life a chance, but I’m going to change your mind about it. I never back down from a challenge.”
I forced myself to keep breathing evenly to hide my sudden tension. “It’s not a game to win, Kel. It’s my life, and I made this choicefor a very good reasonlong ago.”
Please believe me. Please take my word for it.
Kellan fell silent and I was afraid to catch his expression, so I kept my gaze firmly out the window. Hurting him felt like stabbing myself with a blunt knife, and I had never wished so hard that my life was different. Or at least my designation.
As he smoothly navigated us through the town, he finally said, “If your past was different, and you weren’t fighting a lifetime of pain and fear, would you want us? Our pack?”
I sensed how badly he was hanging on this answer, and for a second I was tempted to break his heart and damage his need tochange my mind,but I just couldn’t. “Yes.”
I want you.Every part of you.
The air was electric, and I couldn’t look away from him any longer.
His eyes blazed until they were almost a dark purple. “That’s enough for now.”
We didn’t speak again until he pulled up in front of a large, wrought iron fence that I recognized from Cora’sextendedtour yesterday. We were at the Reeves family compound.
Two shifter guards, wearing the same navy uniform as the ones in the council chambers, stood on either side of the gate. When Kellan glided to a halt, he powered his window down and a male with a shaved head, huge muscles, and a no-nonsense attitude hurried over. “Alpha Kellan,” he said with a brief nod. “Is everything okay, sir?”
Kellan might not be the entitled alpha in the Reeves pack, but he was powerful enough to be addressed similarly by the beta guard. “This is Emmeline,” he said, leaning back to allow the shifter a brief glimpse of me. “I wanted you to meet her so that no one reacts if she wanders around the compound.”
The security guard nodded, and his gaze momentarily took me in before it returned to Kellan. “Anything else?”
Kellan briefly hesitated. “Hunter has the full details to pass on. Emmeline is to be treated with respect and protected the same as you would for us. That’s all you need to know for now.”
The guard continued to avoid meeting my gaze, even as I leaned forward and said, “It’s nice to meet you. What’s your name?”
“Dave,” he replied with a snap, staring at a spot beside my ear. “If you ever have any trouble, head for our security hut right there.” He turned and pointed toward a small wooden hut beside the gate.
“Thanks, Dave.” I shot a smile in his directionthathe didn’t see.
Kellan and Dave exchanged a few more words, and then we drove through the now open gate and onto a paved, double-laned private road. “Our main pack house sits at the end of the street in the family compound,” Kellan told me as he idled slowly along.
The termfamily compoundwasn’t familiar, so I turned in my chair to take it all in as Kellan played tour guide. “My brother Tyson lives there with Ben, his mate,” he said as we passed thefirst house on the right of the road, a small rustic cabin sitting on a large parcel of green grass. “They refused a quintet and settled into mated bliss as a couple. They’re both accountants for Reeves Industries. Almost everyone in our extended families works for us.”
I was surprised by how close-knit they were with their extended family, but I schooled my features to keep it from showing.
“Over there is Hunter’s sister.” Kellan nodded toward the next house we passed on the left side. It was a cute cottage, painted in shades of pink, purple, and yellow. Bright and simple in design with another large plot of land around it. “Kassidy lives alone. Has no interest in finding a pack and refuses to participate in any scent-matching events. You’d probably like her a lot.”
I coughed to cover my laughter. With that as her introduction, I was more than looking forward to meeting Hunter’s sister. Maybe she’d give me a few pointers on how to torment her brother without getting myself killed. He deserved it after all but tricking me into living with them.
“My other brother, Julien, and his quintet live there.” Kellan pointed toward another house on the left. It was a single-level log cabin, expanding across half their fenced land. “He’s the entitled alpha,” he said with a fond smile. “The rest of his pack consists of two betas: Jemma and Gordon, and two deltas: Chastity and Lucas. Some of them are scent matches, others are just love matches, but they’re all together.”
That arrangement of designations was normal for quintets. One alpha, and a mix of betas and deltas.
The next house we passed was a two-story farmhouse, with light yellow walls and white trim, accentuating its huge wraparound porches. “Finley’s brother Kenzo lives in this beauty, with his two mates, Ness and Luce. They’re a lot of fun,actually. They have this massive teppanyaki grill out the back, and you haven’t lived until you’ve tried Kenzo’s cooking. His dad was a teppanyaki chef back in Japan before they moved out here.”
“I’ve never had Japanese food,” I admitted, without adding that I’d always wanted to try it but could never justify the price of takeout.
