New Pack Order – Sneak Peek
“I’ll never have my old life again. You told me so yourself. I’m part wolf now. It changes everything.”
“It does and it doesn’t. Just because you now have a wolf side to deal with, doesn’t mean you can’t lead a normal life, or as normal as you can expect considering you’ll need to let your other half run free a time or two a month to stay sane.”
“But only if I join a Pack and follow your stupid laws.” In the end, it all circled back to the same problem.
“Our laws are pretty simple. Mostly they involve don’t tell anyone about us and marry a wolf.”
“Or two. Or more. Kind of makes me wonder if I wouldn’t be better off with the vampire. I get the impression he probably has a harem of women.” The wolf in her head growled. “I’d probably only have to deal with him a few times a week, if that.”
His eyes widened. “You can’t be serious. You’d choose a bloodsucker over your own kind?”
“Your own kind helped Roderick keep me captive or have you forgotten?” she snapped. Dirty bastards, all of them, leering, touching, pinching, taunting. In some respects, they made her imprisonment worse than the monster himself.
“I can’t excuse what they did. Or what I did.” His head swung down, and he spoke in a low regretful voice. “All I can do is atone, starting with you. Let me help you with the Pack.”
“How?” He obviously didn’t have the power to bend the laws for her or he would have already offered.
“I’ll be your mate.”
It took her a moment to grasp his words. She eyed him up and down in his ill-fitting, borrowed clothes. Sure he was handsome in a rugged, boy-next-door kind of way. Sure she’d had some dirty thoughts since she met him, was it only twenty-four hours or so ago? God, it seemed like an eternity given all that’d happened. Still, though, she wasn’t a one-night-stand whore. “You know, I took you for a good guy, but I guess you’re like all the rest, wanting to use me.”
His brow creased. “What? No, you misunderstand.”
“You just said you wanted to claim me, as your mate, which if I remember my paranormal lore right, means marriage, which means sex. I barely know you. Why the hell would I agree to something like that?” She planted her hands on her hips and shot him a challenging stare.
Embarrassment on a redhead led to ruddy cheeks, and while the color wasn’t attractive, the fact he could blush and duck his head and stare at his restless feet was. “I wasn’t suggesting—That is—” He let out a heavy sigh. “Listen, I wasn’t offering so I could get in your pants.”
“I’m not wearing pants.”
Wow, amazing how his pale skin could turn a brighter hue than his hair. He cleared his throat. “I, um, that is, I wasn’t offering as a way of getting sex. What I’m suggesting was a bite exchange.”
“What would that do?”
“In our world, it’s seen as a mating mark. The exchange of blood and saliva between two Lycans of the opposite sex creates a type of bond, a mating bond. It’s how women used to get trapped in claimings. You don’t have to have sex to do it, although I hear it makes it more pleasant. Just a bite between us will do the trick.”
“You really don’t paint a pleasant picture of pack life if women can be forced like that.”
“That doesn’t really happen anymore. Especially not in the well-run packs.”
“But it could.”
He nodded. Brownie points for him, he didn’t lie to placate her.
“So, what you’re saying is you want to bite me. And have me bite you. This helps how? I thought you said the law was two or more.”
“It is, but, with at least one, there might be less pressure on you to jump right into a second, especially given how new you are to the whole Lycan deal.”
“And what do you get out of it?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re in effect marrying a woman who won’t have sex with you.” At least not quite yet. She’d perhaps insist on a few dates and dinner first. Or at the very least a shower.
He shrugged. “I won’t lie and say I wouldn’t like to be your lover. I’m extremely attracted to you. I would hope in time that perhaps, we could become something more. But if we don’t, then that’s your choice. Twenty-four hours ago, I was just about ready to give up living. Then I met you. Now, I’m not so keen on throwing in the towel. I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps there’s a way I can make amends for what I’ve done and start over. Maybe hope for a future.”
“A future with me? The girl who’s done nothing but hassle you since we met. You do remember I kicked you in the balls when you told me about the whole ménage thing right?”
His lips curved into a smile, and his eyes twinkled in a way she’d come to enjoy since meeting him. “Would you believe the fact you’ve still got the spunk to fight back after what you’ve been through is what I find most appealing?”
“Yeah, because it wasn’t my naked boobs or fat bottom keeping your attention.” As soon as she said it, she realized how it sounded. What is wrong with me? Am I now fishing for compliments? Appalled, she stared at her dirty, bare toes.
“The packaging is nice. Very nice.” He tilted her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. “But, I’m thinking it’s what’s inside the package that’s gorgeous. And the more I see, the more that belief is reinforced.”
“Says a man who’s not really seen me lose my temper.”
“But has seen you come out of an awful situation with spirit and courage.”
“Who smells like a gym sock left in a bag too long.”
“Like I said, it’s not just the outside I see. I. See. You.” He angled his head and his lips brushed hers. A light, fleeting kiss. One that ignited something in her.
Given all that had happened and still remained unclear, she should have pushed him away, slapped him or kneed him again in the groin. But there was something about the contact, something about the spark it lit, a sense of rightness, a flare of passion and a need to feel…alive.
I survived. Maybe, despite everything, it’s time I celebrated that fact.
Coming May 11th…
