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Tristan
No matter what she claimed, this hot female shifter clearly wasn't fine.
She looked like she was going to pass out. Her face was white. Actually, it wasn't just her face – her entire body was ashen. And she was trembling all over. Her heart was thundering.
That was some kind of fear response, but she didn't seem afraid of him. He tried taking a step back, just in case, and she shook her head.
"No. It's not you," she whispered.
Was this a panic attack? Tristan had heard of them, but he hadn't seen one. Roman had really struggled after the forest fire, but he just went kind of blank. Almost catatonic. He would still carry out his duties during the day, taking care of necessary tasks to run a pack, but he was just kind of vacant while he did it. It had been like there was no one inside.
But she wasn't blank. She was staring right at him, making steady eye contact. "Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked.
She was so beautiful. That sounded trite, but it was true. He couldn’t stop staring at her glossy hair and her full lips.
She gulped in a breath of air. "Tell me about your pack. The one that allows your brother to go away to University and doesn't exile him."
So that's what this was about? Tristan was starting to get the picture. Her pack obviously wasn't the same as his. That made him appreciate Roman even more.
He opened his mouth. He didn't want to lie to her. Even though it seemed like there was a very small chance she would ever make her way thousands of miles across Canada into Alaska to meet his pack. But a pack’s history was part of who they were. He didn't want to deny it. But he also wanted to reassure her that there were packs out there that might be more compatible with her beliefs and her way of life.
"My pack wasn't always open-minded. There was a time when my pack was pretty damn terrible about letting any of us interact with humans. But all of that was decades ago. And we have changed, for the better.” He didn't want to get too overzealous, because things weren't perfect, but they were at least tolerable.
“My Alpha is young. I consider him my brother. It's been tough on him to hear that some of the pack members want to go out and experience the larger world. But he listens to them. And he gives them support. If my little brother were to call and say that he needed money or help, from all the way over here in Canada, then our Alpha would be right there. In fact, he's with me here somewhere.”
She stiffened. Her entire body went rigid. "Your Alpha is here?" Her eyes darted around.
"Yes. Don't be scared." Maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned that.
"Is he coming here? Is he meeting you here?" She scrambled to her feet.
Jesus, what had this guy done to her? Tristan was starting to think that maybe he and Roman needed to have a little chat with her Alpha. Not that a talk would go over well. As a rule, shifters did not get in the business of another pack.
But this young female was really scared. He wasn't sure he'd ever seen a shifter so scared of an Alpha. Well, they'd been scared of Roman’s dad to an extent. But not like this. And, of course, no one was scared of Roman. They respected him. They took him seriously. But they weren't terrified of him. And that's exactly what this girl was – she was absolutely terrified down to her bones.
"Hey." He put his hand on her leg. "He won't come here, okay?"
"You won't be able to stop him. Don't let him see you with the humans."
Wow. She was worse off than he had expected. She really was caught inside her own head.
He decided to keep talking. "Anyway, my brother did some online courses for high school. He got his GED and then he started applying to schools. He didn't think he would get accepted into any international schools, but apparently, he's pretty smart.” He kept rambling, and finally she spoke again.
"So you didn't fake his school records?" she asked.
"Nope, not a bit. The only records we had to fake were his immunizations for obvious reasons, although I suppose we could've just gotten them. They wouldn't have affected him at all.”
"You're really lucky,” she said. She took a minute and then she took a deep breath and stood up. "Let's start over. I feel like I just fell apart in front of you and I don't even know you. You're not going to have a very good opinion of the park or the shifters here if I don't redeem myself."
"You don't have anything to prove. We all fall apart sometimes and that was barely a breakdown."
"I disagree. Let me show you around.”
With new confidence, probably faked for his benefit, she gestured toward him, indicating that he should follow her. After a few minutes, she even linked her arm through his. Just that small touch was electrifying for him. He'd fooled around with plenty of females but nothing had ever hit him this hard.
And then she smiled up at him. His brain was buzzing. No, his entire body was buzzing.
She still wasn't totally relaxed, but she wasn't terrified anymore either. She showed him the lakes and the streams, and the area where they had campers. There was an area for families and an area just for adults. And then farther down, there was an area for kayaks and canoes and an expansive kids’ playground with a fort built into the trees and swings. "I bet this is popular during the day,” he said.
