AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Shaking my head in denial, I said, “No. I do not know this. But perhaps you can explain it to me?”
The look she shot me implied that I was daft. I wanted to laugh, and I would have if I wasn’t so afraid of putting her on the defensive.
“Luca, I am part something else. Not fully wolf.You,” she punctuated the word you, “are the regional alpha. Tell me that you would want to mate with someone who wasn’t 100% pure wolf. Tell me that others would accept me, that the council would be okay with our mating?” When I started to speak, Ivy held up her hand. “No, you don’t have to say anything. Caroline warned that I should stay away from all super-naturals if I wanted to live. And taking a mate would be dangerous for, not just me, but also my mate.”
I took her hand in mine and tenderly kissed the palm. Electric sparks arced between us. “Feel that Ivy? That is our bond strengthening. Fate has made you for me and me for you. So, no…not only do Inotunderstand, but I alsorefuseto accept it.”
“Luca…” she said breathily. Her scent slowly changed to desire, washing away the smell of fear that permeated the air.
Gently cupping her face, I leaned in and kissed her lips softly giving her all the tenderness she deserved before breaking that kiss. I rested my forehead against hers and could feel her breath against my face. “Ivy, I want you as my mate and I want to help you. To do that, I need to know everything. Tell me about Caroline. Tell me about your life. I want to know, and I promise, it will not change anything between us.”
She swallowed hard, then pulled away. I refused to let her go and tugged her onto my lap, brushing her hair away from her face. “Tell me,” I urged again.
“There’s not much to tell, Luca. I was in and out of foster homes until Caroline took me in. She didn’t really want me, but she had recently lost her mate, and I guess I gave her something to focus on. She taught me to fight, which helped me get a job with The Agency. She also explained all she knew about the shifter world, which wasn’t much.”
“Why was that little wolf? Why would she not know much?”
“We lived off-grid in a small cabin. There were never any visitors. In the summer, I chopped wood so we could keep warm during the winter. We hunted for food and raised a garden. When I wasn’t doing chores, we trained.”
My entire body tensed before I forced myself to relax. Wolves were social and meant to live in a pack, not in a remote cabin in the middle of nowhere. I struggled to keep my ire at her guardian in check since Ivy was finally confiding in me. She didn’t need to feel or hear my anger.
“And Caroline is a….” I prompted.
“Puma.”
I internally groaned as I relayed the message to Trace. Puma shifters were loners, barely affectionate with their mate. And if Caroline had lost hers…I hugged Ivy a little tighter, now really noticing her reaction to my touch.
“And these foster homes, they were.…”
“Humans.”
And…it keeps getting worse. The first sign of anything different, and a human family would freak out and send her somewhere else. So how had Ivy ended up in the human world, away from her own people? Who were her parents?
“Okay, so you were in human foster homes until Caroline took you in at the age of.…”
“Twelve,” she answered.
Twelve! I really wanted to punch something. Or even better, I wanted to kill the bastard who placed her with the first human family.
“And Caroline taught you what she could about wolves. What else did she teach you?”
“Respect,” she answered immediately.
“Please explain,” I asked softly. After this, I needed to spar with one of my guys to let off the mounting anger.
Ivy shrugged. “We had our personal space, lines that were never crossed unless you were itching for punishment. She taught me to fight and gave me the skills I needed to live in the world alone. I hunted, fished, and chopped wood. And when I turned eighteen, she gave me enough money to live on until I found a job. So when I met Kelly and realized how bad she had it, I knew how fortunate I was that Caroline took me in.”
Fortunate!My eyebrows shot to my hairline as I tried to take slow, calming breaths.
“And what did Caroline tell you about wolves?”
“Not much. She knew that the most dominant wolf—the alpha—led the pack. They are social animals and mate with one person for life. But she told me not to worry about any of that if I wanted to live.”
Right now, I wanted to throttle Caroline. She may have thought she was helping. But if the Puma cared to live in the real world and not be reclusive, she would have known that Ivy would’ve been placed with a loving wolf family, regardless of her dual nature.
“Okay, a couple more questions and were done for a while. First, do you know your parental lineage or the nature of your other half?”
Shaking her head, she whispered, “No.” Emotions played over her face, and I knew she was holding something back.
