AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That’s one word for it, yeah,” Luna replied, not seeming to give an inch.
Adrian thought that was the end of the conversation, before Luna spoke up again, the cabins of the den village now appearing in his vision.
“Say, you didn’t happen to send your sister over to spy on me, did you?”
The accusation was innocently thrown out, but Adrian was concerned by the deeper implication. “Absolutely not,” Adrian replied.
“Oh.”
They stopped walking, and Adrian looked down at her, trying to get a glimmer of insight. She was still very hard to read.
“She showed up last night.”
“I figured that out, yeah,” Adrian said. “Sorry about that. My sister has a mind of her own. She knows she’s in a pack, but she’s still a very free spirit.”
“That’s a relief.”
Adrian cocked an eyebrow.
“Ever since I left my pack, I’ve always seen packs as overbearing entities whose only job is to police me and tell me how to live my life.”
Adrian nodded. “Well, not to worry. We’d never do that to you.”
He continued walking, but Luna remained fixed in place.
“Only, you sort of have.”
Looking back at her, Adrian shook his head. “What are you talking about, Luna?”
“The scariest thing about this mating bond thing is I don’t feel like I have control over my life anymore. I feel like I wandered into your village, and you’re deciding all these things for me.”
“But you could have left at any time,” Adrian replied. “Really, what on Earth is keeping you here if not your desire to see this out?”
She drew circles in the ground with her toe, now unwilling to make eye contact with him. She was hiding something. What it was, he had no idea.
“Just stop pressuring me to do things,” she said. “Your sister was fine. She’s a breath of fresh air, really.”
Thinking for a moment, Adrian nodded finally. “I’m sorry. I do tend to get carried away,” he said. “People expect me to have all the answers, so I tend to take charge of situations.”
She gave him a strange expression. He thought he saw a hint of desire in it, but it was probably his imagination.
“That’s not always a bad thing.”
Adrian chuckled nervously, still not fully sure where he stood with Luna. “Then I guess I’ll ask you. I’m going into town to meet with some of the children. Do you want to come? No pressure if not.”
She stared quizzically back at him.
“I thought you called them the pack’s wisest members?”
“Yeah … That was an inside joke on my part. Sorry.”
He took it as a good sign that she didn’t immediately say no but noted she took a long time to make a decision.
“Yeah, I’d like that,” she said.
The breakfast tables where outdoor picnic tables slid together and were fully stocked when they arrived, loaded with bacon, pancakes, and eggs, all cut up into smaller, more digestible pieces.
When she saw their audience, he could almost feel Luna’s cold and icy facade melt. She had never met these children, far younger than the “junior enforcers” of the pack.
