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Chapter Twenty-Two
The clock was nearingthe final minutes when Niko led the tall, eerily beautiful green-eyed man into the house. Shale, she remembered. His name was Shale. He smiled, a gentle expression that, oddly, set her at ease in a way nothing had since she'd realized Niko was about to plunge her life into chaos once more.
Niko, however, was not smiling.
His face was set in stoic lines that would have been unreadable, except that over the past day, she'd fallen back into old habits, learning to read cues she doubted many others would even notice.
“I haven’t formally introduced you, Zee,” Niko said, taking up a place at her shoulder, standing close—very close. “Zee, this is Shale, one of my lieutenants— and also a close friend. He'll be your escort for tonight. I'll have duties as Prime and you'll likely want to be someplace other than glued to my side.”
There was a grim note to his words that hinted he wanted her exactly there, glued to his side.
“Once we have a chance to make your status formally known to the entire pack, you won't need an escort, but everything has happened too fast for that to be viable,” he continued, gaze holding hers. There was a message in those words, but she didn't want to consider just what that message was right now. “All things considered, I'd rather you have one of my people with you, just in case.”
Twisting her lips to the side, she studied him and wondered if he thought she'd refuse. It irked her pride more than a little that he thought she needed protection, but she had to see herself the way he had, only a day earlier. And... even now.
She was still a little broken inside, had always been.
She'd found her strength during the years that she spent on her own, but she might never know who she could have been if her life had been different, if she hadn't had to stifle the growing dominance in her during her youth to avoid catching attention, then had her strength wither and fade when everything in her broke ten years ago.
One day,she told herself then. One day, I'll free myself.
Not for him. Not for a father who'd let her down time and time again, and then sold her out, all to catch the eye of a powerful man in hopes of saving their faltering pack—perhaps. Perhaps some might see it a noble cause, but they hadn't been the one used and sold out, then thrown away. Not for the brothers who hadn't come for her. And not for the lover who'd promised to always be there for her, then mere hours later, had tossed her aside.
She'd free herself for one person and one person only—herself.
So she could look in the mirror and finally find someone worthy of pride.
And, she had to admit, it wasn't just that. At the end of it all, she was a dominant wolf in a place where many didn't know her. Other dominants would be on edge, their innate instincts to protect those they perceived as vulnerable rushing to the forefront in the face of an unknown in their midst.
Life would be so much easier if I'd just been born human. It wasn't the first time she'd thought as much, nor it would it be the last.
Niko's hooded gaze held hers as if he had some sense of how deep her thoughts went.
Breaking the intense bond of their locked eye contact, she shifted her attention to Shale.
Once more, the impact of... something hit her and her heart fluttered, an infinitesimal link she'd never experienced until she'd met Shale, an inexplicable connection that made no sense—and yet felt so right.
It wasn't romantic, at all.
But it went deep, so deep.
He smiled and it formed deep grooves on both sides of his mouth.
“It's a pleasure,” Shale said softly, holding out his hand.
Slowly, she offered hers, acutely aware of Niko, standing by the side and observing in that way of his, taking in everything.
When she placed her hand in Shale's, there was a jolt of energy that went all the way up her arm, something like what she'd expect if she'd shoved her hand into a source of electricity and let it zap her. Shale's lids flickered, the only reaction, but she could tell he felt it, too.
After a brief moment, he squeezed, then let go of her hand.
“Shale will take care of you tonight. If you need anything, if anything worries you, if anybody worries you, tell him. Stay with him,” Niko said, voice curt. He went to turn away, then stopped, eyes locked on her.
She didn't have time to brace herself before he moved in, hand coming up to curve over the back of her neck as he pulled her in close.
Zee barely had time to suck in a breath before his mouth came down on hers, his lips claiming hers in a kiss so ferociously possessive, it threatened to steal away her very soul. His tongue thrust past the barrier of her lips, stroking the inside of her mouth with such possession, she felt marked, claimed.
Owned.
