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She stayed barefoot despite the cold weather, ignoring when her toes started to tingle. Yet another sign that her wolf physiology was failing her. She walked along the waterline letting her toes sink into the wet earth. She welcomed the feeling of the sand grains smoothing her rough calluses as they slid over her skin, though the sand was still cold. It wasn’t too bad if she avoided the waterline.
“A desperate animal will chew off its limbs to escape when it feels caught in a trap.” Kelly fought the urge to jump. She should have heard him coming, but she hadn’t.
“As the trap, are you feeling remorseful?” Her tone was bitter and disrespectful but his treatment of her had made her cynical.
“I am still your alpha Kelly.”
“Sorry.” she conceded, as she dropped her gaze automatically, showing him the deference that his tone and position demanded.
“As the alpha, it falls to me to ensure the wellbeing of the pack.” She bit back a sharp retort as he went on. “I’ve reconsidered your request to leave the pack.”
“You have?”
“Not permanently, I still believe your place is here in this pack, but if you feel this is something you need to do, and something that you feel can help solve our fertility crisis then I can respect that. So, I’ve overturned the ruling of the council.”
She wasn’t sure if it was remorse or relief that she felt surging through her. She squeezed her eyes shut and forced a smile before he could decipher her expression.
“You might not be so keen to leave once you find out where you’re going.” he warned.
Kelly eyed him warily but then decided that there wasn’t anywhere that he could send her that would be as bad as staying here, watching him galavant around with other women while refusing to claim her. She might have reconsidered that opinion if she’d realized that he was sending her to the pack they’d feuded with for decades.
The Yellow Claw pack.He’d sent her to find a mate among wolves who until recently had been their enemies. She was tempted to ask him if he hated her, but in the end, it didn’t matter because it gave her a measure of freedom. Her wolf wasn’t seeing things in the same light. She was mourning their mate sending them away and she was bitter.
It was what you wanted, she reminded herself, as she pulled her luggage down from the closet. Ryan had negotiated with Julian for her to stay for a month. If she hadn’t found a mate by then she was to come back and they would repeat the process with another pack.
“I can’t believe he’s making you leave. A whole month with those animals. Oh, my poor baby.” Ellen folded a sweater and put it in Kelly’s suitcase. She had insisted on helping her daughter pack for the trip as if she were still a small child.
“Mom, you’re being dramatic. I’m the one who asked him to go.”
“Kelly, you never asked him to send you to enemy territory.”
“SHE IS A valued member of this pack.” Ryan regarded the other Alpha closely. He didn’t like the thought of sending Kelly to the other pack. He’d deliberately picked the Yellow Claws expecting that she would change her mind and refuse to go. When she hadn’t done what he’d expected, Ryan seethed with silent rage. His wolf urged him to make her relent and stay where he knew she’d be safe.
“Then why let her leave?” Julian’s gaze seemed to bore into him as the other man studied Ryan’s reactions. Julian’s nostrils flared as he scented the air even in human form.
Ryan swirled the amber liquid in his glass, ignoring the tightness in his chest. “She longs for a mate.” He spoke the truth knowing that Julian would sense a lie and if he did there would never be true peace between their people.
“It’s true then, your pack only forms true pairings?” Julian’s question hung in the air while Ryan paced to the window. “We had heard the rumors but it seemed so unlikely that we assumed they were false.
“No, we don’t always wait for our blood-destined mates. Though some prefer it.” He rubbed the ache in his chest absently. “There is no one here for Kelly though despite the large size of my pack, and she’s grown impatient with waiting. She is past the age where most would take a mate even if it meant they were not blood mates.”
“Hmm, then I will gladly accept her into my pack even if it’s only temporarily.” Ryan froze, stilling the hand that was on his chest. Julian cast him a look Ryan couldn’t decipher. It was filled with amusement and perhaps pity, yet before Ryan could become offended it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. Julian stuck out his hand and they shook on the deal. Both silently accepted that if harm should come to Kelly while in the Yellow Claw territory the tentative peace between their packs would end in bloodshed.
CHAPTER NINE
KELLY LOOKED AROUND at the house she would live in for the next four weeks. It was smaller than her home but then she didn’t expect that they would roll out the red carpet and offer her the best accommodations that they had. She jumped when there was a knock at the door.
She opened it a crack peeking around at the visitors. Julian stood there with another tall man, the bright afternoon sun glinted off the second man’s blond curls turning them nearly golden.
“You’re settling in ok?” Julian asked, clearing his throat slightly so she was forced to tear her attention away from the other man. Julian’s style as alpha was very different from Ryan’s. She could feel the difference the moment she met him. His energy was present in everything he did, seeming to spill over from him where Ryan only let his power flare as alpha when needed. Julian wore his power like a second skin.
“Yes, so far so good.” She kept her tone respectful and her eyes lowered to show Julian she could abide by their pack structure and rules. She didn’t know what Ryan had told the other man to get him to agree to her visit, and she couldn’t stand the idea that he would think Ryan sent her away because she was trouble. News of her altercation with Dawnecia had no doubt spread through the packs, a juicy bit of gossip that would arouse the curiosity of most. She tried to hold back the shame so that she would give Julian a decent impression of her.
“This is my Beta, Clay. He’ll help you get used to how we do things around here.”
He reached out to shake her hand and Kelly was surprised when it was only slightly uncomfortable. Contact with men other than Ryan had been increasingly difficult and often painful. Just nature using another of its resources to ensure she bonded with him and not another wolf.
It would make what she was attempting that much harder, but the alternative would be giving up and she wasn't ready for that yet.
