15. Chapter 15
Chapter fifteen
“I’ve always wondered why guys love throwing a football back and forth,” Lark said as she, Violet, and Khaki relaxed in the lounge chairs by the pool, watching Kal run around the backyard of the mansion with Tuffie trailing him, catching everything Jasper, Connor, and Carter threw in his direction.
Khaki took a sip of her coffee. “It gives adult males permission to act like ten-year-olds again.”
“I’ve never noticed they need permission,” Violet pointed out with a laugh.
Lark laughed, too. Her sister was right about that. She sipped her coffee, watching Kal, Tuffie, and the guys play catch. As much fun as she was having, she couldn’t keep from worrying about Mike and his pack mates.
She knew they were extremely capable when it came to their jobs, but Roman was a cold-blooded killer.
Worse, the man was now also some kind of supernatural, which made him more dangerous than ever.
She wanted to believe Mike could handle anything Roman threw at him, but she and Kal had just gotten him back in their lives. They couldn’t lose him again.
“Mike’s going to be all right,” Khaki said, interrupting Lark’s spiraling thoughts.
Lark gave herself a mental shake. “What?”
“Mike’s going to be fine,” Khaki said again. Like she knew exactly what Lark had been thinking.
It must be a werewolf thing.
Or maybe simply a woman thing.
Either way, Lark only hoped she was right.
“Don’t you worry about Xander?” Violet asked, looking at Khaki. “I mean, I know you SWAT cops face danger every day, but it’s got to be different going up against someone like Roman.”
“Of course, I’m worried,” Khaki admitted. “The same way Xander worries when I’m out there. We both accept the danger because it’s our job, but also because it’s worth any risk to be with The One.”
Lark got what Khaki was saying. Then her mind replayed the other woman’s words again, and she couldn’t help noting the emphasis on two particular words.
“The One,” Violet repeated curiously, obviously picking up on the same thing. “Why does it sound like that means something more to you than it does to us?”
Khaki looked back and forth between Lark and Violet, dumbfounded, but then understanding dawned on her face. “I guess it makes sense your pack has a different way of referring to soul mates since you’re a different kind of werewolf.”
“Soul mates?” Lark said, feeling out the word even as her sister continued to regard Khaki with a baffled expression. “You mean, like soul mates in a romance book?”
Khaki frowned. “Are you saying you don’t know about the legend of The One?”
All Lark could do was shake her head. Beside her, Violet did the same.
“Legend says that every werewolf in the world has a soul mate, aka The One for them,” Khaki explained.
“It’s that one person out there who accepts them for who and what they are, fangs, claws, and all.
When it’s another werewolf, it’s easier for sure, since they already know the big secret.
For obvious reasons, it’s trickier when the other person isn’t a werewolf, but they’ll still somehow find a way to get together. ”
Lark opened her mouth, then closed it again. Her sister appeared to be equally speechless.
Khaki looked from Lark to Violet and back again. “Are you telling me no one in your pack has ever found their soul mate?”
“I don’t know. If they have, I’ve never heard about it,” Lark admitted even as her sister shook her head in agreement.
“Even though our packs aren’t isolated, everyone sticks close to home, and when we fall in love, a lot of time, it’s with someone from our pack or one of the others.
Most of us don’t stumble across someone from the outside world and fall in love.
Especially not with a person who’s not already a werewolf. ”
Khaki shook her head. “Wow. I don’t know what to say to that. I can’t imagine how awful it would be to never have found Xander. He makes my life complete. Everyone else in the Pack feels the same about their soul mates.”
Lark exchanged looks with her sister. “Your whole pack has found their soul mates?”
“Uh-huh,” Khaki said. “Well, except for Mike. Though I’m thinking he and his soul mate have already met. It’s just taking a little while for both of them to realize it.”
Lark blinked. Was Khaki talking about her?
“How did you know Xander was The One for you?” Violet asked, interrupting Lark’s musings.
“At first, I didn’t know. Neither did he,” Khaki said with a grin. “It took a while for us to recognize there was something special going on.”
“What do you mean?” Lark asked. “Don’t you like kiss or something, and then, boom, you just know.”
Khaki laughed. “I wish. But it doesn’t work like that.
Just because werewolves have soul mates, it doesn’t mean they don’t have free will.
Or in our case, that we were both too stubborn to see what was right in front of our faces.
First, I was a female werewolf, which at that time was a complete novelty to the Pack.
For reasons that would only make sense to a man, the guys assumed all werewolves were male.
Second, there was the issue of my being assigned to Xander’s squad, so he decided that meant he should ignore anything he was feeling for me.
He had to maintain his professionalism, you know? ”
“So, you’re saying it took a while to get through to him?” Violet said with a laugh.
Lark couldn’t help remembering Mike fighting the attraction between them because he didn’t want her involved in his dangerous world. Though if she were being honest, she’d been a little hesitant about dragging him into her world, too.
“Longer than it should have,” Khaki admitted. “But in the end, we realized we were meant to be together, and that we should stop trying to get in the way of a good thing.”
“But how did you know?” Lark asked, an inkling of a feeling hovering in the back of her mind, telling her that she needed to understand all of this.
“Obviously, something first attracted you to him. Other than looks, I mean. What was it that made you realize you had this special thing going on between the two of you?”
Khaki looked thoughtful for a moment, her lips curving.
“The first clue was his scent. From the moment I met Xander, he smelled intoxicating. It was a blend of masculine and sweet, like coffee and donuts, but totally unique at the same time. And it turns out that I smell like frosted spice cake to him. And before you ask, no, the other werewolves in the Pack don’t pick up those unique scents.
It’s something exclusively between soul mates. ”
Lark tried to catch a whiff of the frosted spice cake scent Khaki mentioned, but apparently, she was right about only Xander being able to pick it up. She couldn’t smell any cake at all, spiced or otherwise.
“What does Mike smell like to you?” Lark asked.
Khaki smiled again, as if she knew exactly where Lark was going with this. “In general, he’d doesn’t smell like anything. Like a werewolf, of course, and he has a scent I’d recognize anywhere since he’s one of my pack mates, but it’s nothing unique. What does he smell like to you?”
Lark felt her face grow warm. “He smells like cedar, imbued with something masculine, something that’s completely...Mike. You don’t smell anything like when you’re around him?”
Khaki shook her head. “No. But the reason for that is obvious, isn’t it? Mike is your soul mate. It only makes sense that he smells special to you.”
Lark could feel Violet’s gaze on her, but refused to even glance in her direction. Was that why she’d felt drawn to Dallas a decade ago? Because her inner wolf had been drawn to her soul mate?
“Even if you’re right, and Mike is my soul mate, how do I know he feels the same way?” she said softly, absently playing with the engagement ring on her finger. “What if I messed it all up by leaving?”
Her inner wolf whined at the notion, even as she prayed that wasn’t true.
“Mike is your soul mate, Lark,” Khaki said. “The moment you came back, he welcomed you into his life, and will do anything to protect you and Kal. What other man would act like that in this situation, other than the guy who’s fated to be with you forever?”
Lark couldn’t argue with that. Most men would have lost their minds when they discovered their fiancée had faked her death, not to mention their child’s. The fact that Mike still wanted her in his life might be as much proof as she’d ever need that they were soul mates.
“Okay, assuming Mike and I really are soul mates, what do we do about it?” Lark asked, her mind racing. “I mean, do we have to do something official, like a commitment ceremony?”
That question earned her a laugh from Khaki.
“No, you don’t have to do any kind of ceremony,” Khaki said.
“You just have to be open to letting the relationship happen. Because, while you two might be fated to be together, that doesn’t mean you can’t screw it up.
Werewolves can be extremely talented at messing up a good thing.
Trust me, I’ve seen it happen more than once.
Not that I think you have to worry about that with Mike.
He isn’t going to do anything stupid. But you still need to do your part.
Because right now, it seems like both of you are standing back and waiting for something to happen.
Someone is going to have to take the first step. ”
The idea that she could ruin the bond between her and Mike, simply by pretending it didn’t exist, was scary. But Lark decided not to think about that. Instead, she focused on how to rebuild her relationship with him and trust that everything would work out somehow.
Of course, that was assuming they could figure out a way to deal with Roman and his supernatural crew of goons.
Khaki was suggesting ways Violet might find her soul mate, too, when Kal, Connor, and Jasper came over to join them, Tuffie at their side.
“Did you see what I did?” Kal asked excitedly, hyped up like he’d eaten a five-pound bag of sugar. “I caught the football on a deep pass from Jasper, right in between Carter and Connor!”
“I did see that,” Lark said with a laugh, standing up to sweep her son into a hug. “You were amazing!”
A huge smile spread across his small face. “Do you think Dad’ll be back in time for us to throw the ball around before dinner?”
“I’m sure he’ll be back soon,” Carter promised. “He and the other guys are just looking for a guy who might know where to find Roman.”
Kal’s brow creased, his excitement quickly replaced with worry. “He isn’t doing anything dangerous, right? He’s just looking for someone?”
“Definitely nothing dangerous,” Connor promised. “They’re just looking for an accountant. Nothing safer than that.”
Lark hoped so.