1
Jax
Icould get used to eating like we had in Japan. The sushi was incredible, and I’d never seen anything sweeter in my life than the way Dakota giggled as I slurped up a perfectly thick udon noodle from my soup.
But truth told, the food was the only thing I’d expected to enjoy.
We’d come to spend time with Dakota’s birth family, and my time with the Igarashis thus far had been... eventful.
Back in San Francisco, I’d almost watched Dakota die because of his cousin’s machinations. It was hard to imagine ever feeling comfortable around his family.
Something had changed when Dakota became one of us, though. When I’d met him, he hadn’t even known he was a mage, much less how to wield magic. He hadn’t known werewolves existed. He certainly hadn’t been one of us.
Now, it was impossible to doubt he could take care of himself, and the confidence with which he handled his family was the hottest thing I’d ever seen. I was there for support, but all I could really do was watch in awe and feel so damn proud of him.
Well, and feel a bit like a fish out of water, but that was a familiar sensation. We’d moved from rural Idaho to the west coast, but that was nothing compared to sitting at an Igarashi family dinner while everyone around me spoke in such quick Japanese that I couldn’t hope to keep up.
Of course, that was why we’d hired Dakota in the first place—I wasn’t great at languages. Hell, even English hadn’t been my strong suit until I’d had to figure it out fast in college to avoid sounding like I was just waiting for someone to take advantage of me.
The saving grace then had been that I hadn’t had a lot worth trying to take.
So I sat there at the long table and ate, responding when Dakota or Minori would speak to me in English, as politely as I could. Sometimes, they’d send sharp looks around the table like they just wanted their family to realize how rude they were being.
Honestly? It was sweet of them to try. Dakota had never understood why mages were such assholes to werewolves, but to have anyone stand up for a shifter at a table full of mages—he had no idea how much that meant.
That evening, however, he kept shifting in his seat beside me. His neck was pink and flushed, his scent warm and stronger than usual. He kept rubbing his shoulder, picking up a bite to eat, and setting it down like nothing was quite right. Then, I’d catch him staring at the wall.
I’d never seen him like this—dazed and out of it and?—
Fuck, he was going to shift.
The full moon had crept up on us, and—I don’t know. Traveling halfway around the world made it feel like we weren’t even on the same planet. The moon no longer had the pull it did back in San Francisco, at least not for my disoriented brain.
We weren’t home. Back in San Franscisco, the pack owned a house north of the city, against a lake and in the middle of the woods where we could get away from the urban sprawl and any human eyes. We’d shift and run, and be back to work on Monday.
In Japan, I didn’t know what the fuck we were going to do. This wasn’t a safe place where I knew the best place to go so he could run and howl and let this frenzied feeling boil over without risk.
I’d been an idiot, not even allowing myself to fully believe that I was lucky enough for Dakota to be one of us. It still seemed impossible that the bite would work. That he’d be my mate. That he wouldn’t have to give up any part of himself to stand with my pack.
We were in the middle of Kyoto with his stuffy family, and I didn’t have the slightest idea where to go. I couldn’t let him bound one way and the other across the garden, just hoping the neighbors didn’t see a wolf sprinting about.
We couldn’t risk getting caught, and I didn’t think his family would allow it.
Hell, there weren’t evenwolvesin Japan. Hadn’t been in more than a century.
And if he was this close, there was no freaking way I was going to stick him on a plane to try and make it back home in time, just to let him wolf out in the aisle a couple miles off the ground with a bunch of humans.
We’d have to figure this out here, and holy fuck, did I wish I spoke the language or knew how to navigate this place better so I could find what we needed. Maybe Dakota could manage it, but what a hell of a thing to put on him, relying on him to explain something he’d never gone through to a family who wasn’t entirely happy that he was going through it.
Minori would help. She was about the only one who I was certain would. That Dakota still had magic—and a heap load of sexism from some of the older Igarashi men—had helped his family get to the point where they wanted him to run the Igarashi Corporation. It was something Dakota had adamantly refused to do while Minori was the much better fit—but I didn’t expect many of them would be enthused to help with a particularly wolfish matter like Dakota’s first full-moon shift.
After dinner, when his family started to disperse, Dakota leaned against me and turned so his chin dug into my shoulder.
“You wanna take a bath?” he asked. “I’m feeling kind of... weird.”
All I could do was stare at him. I was sure he did, and I needed to tell him why, but I didn’t want to freak him out right there at the dinner table with his whole family in earshot. Imightbe overestimating humans’ hearing, but no reason to risk it.
I put my arm around him and rubbed his shoulder. “Sounds good. You mind going and getting everything ready? I want to, ah, go find us something to drink.”
