“That will teach you to mess with adominant vegetarian,” he joked.
His brother sulked, then turned tome. “I’m Akash. Welcome to the pack.”
I smiled at him. “Thank you. I willtry to remember all of these names but remind me if I can’t, and thanks forbringing me the steak. It was very sweet of you.”
Akash blushed from head to toe… andwas that a low growl I heard from Kai? Akash looked at his brother grinningthen ran off to get his food.
“What part of India are you from?” Iasked Kai.
“Are you assuming because I have darkskin I’m from India?” His face was blank.
“Oh. I’m sorry.” I didn’t know whatto say.
He grinned. “I’m joking. I’m fromDelhi and so is Akash.”
I wanted to smack him but thoughtbetter of it. “I’ve been to Delhi. Amazing food. Wonderful people.” It was thenhis turn to look shocked with nothing to say. Five o’clock shadow dotted hisstrong jaw and I couldn’t help but think again of how attractive he was.
“You have been to Delhi?” he challenged.
“Yep. Six months volunteering. I setup a domestic violence shelter there. God, I miss the food.” My mind wanderedto my history with domestic violence. Snippets from my childhood rushed throughmy mind. I looked up and Kai’s jaw was clenched and his eyes turned from blackto golden yellow. I jerked my head back in fear but he recovered and forced asmile.
“That’s nice of you to do that kindof work.” His voice was raw. Had he picked up on my thoughts, my very privatethoughts? Anger took hold of me. I grabbed my plate and stood.
“I think I’m going to mingle, thenyou and I need to talk about my old life and what to do with it.” My voice wasclipped and I stalked off. Two words came through our bond and into my head.‘I’msorry.’
I shook off the conversation and satdown with Emma and Devon. I spent the next two hours talking and getting toknow the other wolves. I found that I could immediately tell which ones weresubmissive and which ones were more dominant. My inner wolf could sense it. Ifell into easy conversations, letting my inner wolf instinctually guide me.This was mypack, my new family. I felt more protective over the moresubmissive wolves. One thing was for sure; Sadie was shooting me daggers all night.I would have to ask Emma about that later. I was in the middle of telling Luke,a mid pack wolf, about my favorite hiking spot on Mt. Hood, when Kai placed hishand on my shoulder.
“We need to talk,” he whispered. Iglanced at him, and nodded.
“Luke.” He nodded.
Luke smiled. “Kai.”
We walked towards the house togetherand I passed Sadie with her straight black hair and muscular body. She was verypretty. I had fair milky skin and pale blonde hair. I felt plain compared toher exotic beauty. ‘You look like an angel,’Kai told me inside my headas we reached the door to his home.
I blushed but recovered quickly.“Okay, first thing on the agenda, you need to get out of my head.”
He led me to his office withoutanother word and closed the door. His office was nicely decorated with modernmasculine colors, dark blue and grey. I sat on the brown leather couch and Kaisat on the edge of the large wooden desk. He towered over me.
“I will teach you how to keep me fromreading your every thought. But I willneverfully be out of your head.What’s the next thing on your agenda?” He smiled.
Okay, he was willing to teach me tokeep my thoughts to myself. That was a start.
“I need to call my mother.”
Kai sighed. “It’s best that after awolf goes through thechange, that they fake their death. I took yourcar off of the road and hid it under some fallen trees. One call to the policesaying I found it while jogging would do the trick. Your blood… is all over it.They will think animals took your body.”
My mind was reeling. “I’m not fakingmy death!” I stood. “I am all my mother has.” I let images of my childhoodfilter through our bond, of my mother being beaten trying to keephimfrom hitting me. Then I stopped. “She’s all I have, too.”
Kai closed the distance between us ina second. Kai’s jaw clenched. ‘Who hurt you?’ he asked.
“Don’t,” I told him fiercely andtried to side step him. He moved in front of me.
‘Let me in,’ he pleaded andfor once looked vulnerable. He stared into my eyes.
‘No.’I pushed back into hismind. I stared back, not looking down like I should. Showing him that hecouldn’t force me; he didn’t own me. Alpha or not, I had a say and I could takecare of myself. He stared back unwavering. ‘Challenge,’my inner wolfsaid. Shit, what was I doing? My forehead broke out in sweat. That’s when hekissed me.
He leaned in slowly, keeping his eyeslocked on mine. When I felt his breath on my lips I closed my eyes insubmission and he grabbed the back of my hair and slowly tilted my neck back.He pressed his lips onto mine, ‘I win,’ he taunted playfully in my mind.A shock went through my system when our lips touched. He kissed me deeply for afew more seconds and then pulled away. I felt like I had been waiting to kisshim since I first saw him. He looked as stunned as I felt. Before I had timeto think of something to say, the hairs on the back of my neck stood. ‘ForeignWolf,’my inner wolf said.I smelled something off, something bad.
