Chapter Four
LANE
Jesse scowls at his mother as he pulls on the sweatpants. It's a relief. I was practically tying my eyeballs in knots trying to avoid staring at him below the belt.
His mother beams with friendliness. She comes from a clan that includes a lot of educators. I've done my research on shifters. Each pack generally consists of a few dozen clans, who are extended family groups, and each clan often has a specialty, like woodworking or sewing or medicine.
I glance around and see that the guy who'd been glaring at me earlier is gone. Everyone else here looks friendly, thank heavens. In fact, a small crowd is gathering and staring at me in fascination.
A younger couple in their twenties are hanging back, and a little boy with blond hair and blue eyes is leaning on them.
I wave at them, and the little boy suddenly breaks away from his parents and runs over to me.
He's wearing jeans, scuffed white sneakers, and a t-shirt with a picture of a dinosaur on it.
"Excuse me, miss," he says. I am utterly charmed.
"Yes, sir?" I say in a serious tone, looking down at him with a smile.
"Is it true you can never shift? You won't turn into a wolf, ever?"
I nod. "It is true. But you know what I can do?"
I reach behind his ear, pull out a quarter, and hand it to him. It's an old trick, one of the kids in one of my foster homes taught it to me.
His eyes are wide as saucers as his parents hurry over.
"We are so sorry!" the mother gasps.
"Mom, she's magic!" The little boy cries. He holds up the quarter.
"Oh, goodness, don't be sorry at all. I welcome any and all questions," I say cheerfully. The mother grabs him by the arm with an apologetic smile and they hustle him away.
As she does, a car pulls up, and Jesse's brother Cole parks and climbs out. He meanders towards us with a wave and a very amused grin.
"All right, everyone, show's over, nothing to see here!" Jesse's mother, Marion Ward, calls out. Everyone is still standing there, staring.
"Scram!" Jesse yells, glowering, and instantly they scatter.
"Hello, mother. Hello, Alpha's mate," Cole says to me, inclining his head. "I'm Cole, your new brother-in-law."
"Hello, delusional wolf." I stick my hand out. "I am Lane Davenport. Hopefully, your new schoolteacher. Definitely not the Alpha's mate."
"Not yet." His eyes twinkle with amusement.
Jesse lets out a low growl. "Move away from my woman."
His woman? I stifle a laugh. Is this how fast things move in wolf territory? He's going to find out that it's not like that for humans.
Even though his possessive glance may be the hottest, most delicious thing I've ever seen and I want to lick him from head to toe.
"Boys, boys. I am still your mother, and I can still ground you," Marion calls out. "And now, we can finally get to that interview."
"There is no interview. She's hired," Jesse announces.
We all stare at him.
I arch an eyebrow. "Pardon me? I mean, I very much want this job, but about twenty minutes ago you said that the day you let a human on the pack lands was the day that you danced the can-can. In a tutu."
"You what?" His mother bursts into laughter. "Oh, no."
"I didn't mean you," Jesse protests to me.
He doesn't get off that easy. "You said any human at all. You were very specific about that." I narrow my eyes at him.
"You did say that." Cole's got an enormous grin on his face. Jesse shoots him a murderous look.
"I'll skin you later, I mean deal with you later, hairball." Jesse turns his attention back to his mother. "I assume that if you had her drive all the way up here for an interview, you already did your due diligence, and she passed with flying colors."
"She did indeed. She's marvelous on paper, and in person." Marion's smile at me feels like a warm maternal hug, and I almost melt.
Jesse frowns at her. "Then what's the issue? She can start right away. Well, after the mating ceremony."
"What! After the what?" I yelp.
Cole is laughing out loud now. "Dude. This is fun to watch, but it's also painful. Slow your roll. She's a human, she's never experienced the fated mate thing, and you did not make the best first impression."
"I agree with all of that," I say, nodding.
"Excuse all of you. My mate and I have a lot to talk about." Jesse throws his enormous arm around my shoulders and steers me away.
The pack territory is wooded, with broad paved lanes weaving through the trees and houses scattered around among them.
I find myself walking beside him, breathing in his earthy masculine scent. I can't let this go on. I can't let myself want him, start to trust him, get involved with him in any way…can I? I need this job. What happens when…if…he gets sick of me?
"Stop calling me your mate," I tell him, with a tremor in my voice.
He gives me a puzzled look. "Why? I need to get the word out so nobody tries to claim you, because then I'd have to kill them."
"No!" I cry out in protest. "No killing!"
He heaves a martyred sigh. "Only for you," he says. "I'll just have to settle for a little light maiming."
"You – I – No! Here's the point. I am not your mate. You just met me. Wolves mate for life, right?"
"Of course we will be mated for life."
I stop in my tracks and stare up at him.
"You can not possibly be ready to make a lifetime commitment when you just met me less than an hour ago.
Don't make promises you can't keep." I want to tell him that I've had my heart broken too many times when I've found a new family and then been moved on with no warning, but I am not ready to open myself up to a stranger like that.
His hungry gaze meets mine. "Do you know what a fated mate is?"
My heart speeds up. I want this too much, and I've been bounced around for too long to easily believe in 'forever'. I was always the girl that nobody wanted.
Alexis came back for you, a little voice whispered in my head. Maybe you're not completely unlovable.
Alexis' paternal grandparents tracked her down when she was fourteen and adopted her, and my heart was broken when she left. She begged her grandparents to take me too, but they were in their 70s, lived in a tiny house, and could barely afford to take in Alexis, much less anyone else.
But she actually kept her promise to keep in touch. She wrote me letters every week. Remembered every birthday, every Christmas. When she was eighteen, we not only went to the same college, we were dorm roommates.
I swallow hard. He's waiting for an answer. "From what I've studied of wolf shifter culture, you believe that when you meet your fated mate, you just know."
"Exactly," he says, nodding solemnly, as if this is all perfectly logical and not the most insane conversation of my life. "And I know."
I blink up at him. "You know. From five minutes of conversation, two arguments, and one unauthorized naked encounter in front of an office building?"
His eyes gleam with amusement. "You seemed to appreciate the view. I didn't hear any objections."
"I was getting around to it!" I snap, heat rushing to my face. Yeah, sure, I was definitely going to tell him to cover up a naked body so sexy that my panties were practically melting.
That earns me a rumbling laugh from deep in his chest. It's annoyingly…nice. Like I could get addicted to that sound if I'm not careful.
He studies me for a long moment, all traces of humor fading. "Lane, I know this is fast. But my wolf—he recognized you instantly. It's not about logic or timing. It's fate."
I cross my arms, trying to block him from getting too close. "I need some time to think about this."
"No, you don't."
He leans down, close enough that I can feel his breath brush my cheek. "You'll be spending tonight with me. And every night."
Oh. Oh, hell no. My heart does this ridiculous somersault, and every cell in my body votes yes while my brain screams bad idea, bad idea.
I back away slowly, my pulse drumming in my ears.
I have no idea what the appropriate response is to being claimed by an incredibly hot werewolf shifter, but I'm pretty sure it's not fainting—or staring at his chest, which I'm still doing.
Before I can scrape together a single coherent thought, a sharp voice cuts through the air.
"Alpha! We need to speak!"
It's the angry man from earlier—the one in the expensive suit with silver streaks in his black hair.
His scowl could cut through steel, and the way he moves, stiff and deliberate, tells me this man isn't used to being ignored.
The air around him feels colder somehow, tighter, like the trees themselves are holding their breath.
Jesse doesn't flinch. His arm stays wrapped around my shoulders like he's daring the man to come closer. "I'm talking with my mate," he growls. "Back off, Jeremiah."
Jeremiah's eyes flick to me, and the disgust in them makes my stomach clench. "Your mate? But—you just met her, you can't possibly—Alpha, she's human."
Jesse's eyes flash with a light that's not human at all—an eerie, burning red that seems to pulse with his heartbeat.
His ears sharpen, the tips darkening with streaks of gray fur, and the hair along his arms bristles like an animal on edge.
"And she's my fated mate," he says, his voice low and dangerous.
"Do you have a problem with her, Jeremiah? Choose your next words very carefully."
For a heartbeat, the woods around us go utterly silent, the sound of insects and birdsong vanishing.
Jeremiah's nostrils flare; his jaw tightens.
He holds Jesse's gaze longer than anyone with a survival instinct should.
Then, slowly, he bows his head in a submissive fashion.
The movement is small but filled with tension, every muscle in his body quivering with suppressed fury.
"I'll take my concerns to the other council members," he mutters, voice rough with barely contained rage. "And they will agree with me."
A deep, guttural sound rolls through Jesse's chest—a growl so low I feel it vibrate through the ground beneath us.
His entire body trembles with barely restrained violence, and somehow, impossibly, I can feel it inside me.
His anger, his protectiveness, that fierce surge of possessive love—like our emotions are tangled together.
It makes no sense, and yet it's as real as my own heartbeat.
That can't be. It can't.
But I don't have time to figure it out. His muscles are tensing, shifting under his skin, and I know he's about to shift into a beast, and launch himself violently at Jeremiah.
I grab his arm, feeling the muscles swell and bunch, and plead "Jesse. Don't. Please. I don't want this."
Jeremiah takes advantage of the moment to spin on his heel and stalk off.
I tighten my fingers on Jesse's arm. "Listen! I – I want to see your house." Ok, that was a lie. The sane part of me does not want to see Jesse's house because there would be a bedroom in there, and there would be a bed in the bedroom, and my willpower is already on life support.
It's the only thing I can think of that would distract him from attacking the other man, though.
Some of the tension fades from his body. He turns to look at me, his brows drawing together.
"Of course," he nods. "What was I thinking? It's your home too now."
What the…
"Let's go." And he throws his arm around my shoulders and steers me down the road.