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He was big. Way big. She’d grown up with large men, so she shouldn’t have been surprised at his size, but the touch-starved woman within took note. He had to be a few inches over six feet. With his wide shoulders and chest, he had a look about him that spoke of power and strength. That wide chest tapered down to a slender waist and hips, but his thighs were wide, all muscle, and looked strong as hell. She forced her gaze up even as she blushed, knowing what her gaze hadalsotrailed over.
Since her parents, uncles, aunts, and cousins were standing near her, she refused to acknowledge anythingelseshe might have seen. While his body looked fierce as hell and spoke of his dominance, it was his face—his eyes in particular—that told her he was an Alpha. It was as though the wolf wasalwaysnear the surface. Her uncle was slightly different, but that might have been because he had her Aunt Melanie to keep him steady. The gold rim around Gideon’s eyes told her of a strength she’d never seen before.
A strength she was sure she’d never see again once she left.
His black hair had been pulled back so it was away from his face, enhancing his sharp features. He wasn’t beautiful, but he was handsome in a brutal sort of way. A way that seemed to make her wolfverypleased. She met his gaze and sucked in a breath. She was a submissive and shouldn’t have been able to meet his gaze at all, yet her wolf pushed her enough to make it happen. It was as if her wolfknewthat the man in front of her would never hurt her. That was a lie though; he could. He could hurt her heart, her soul, her dreams—but her wolf didn’t understand that. Her body nearly trembled under the power, and at the same time, she wanted to bare her throat, crawl up his body and never let go.
Those vivid green eyes didn’t blink. Instead, he looked right at her.
Could he tell? Did he know that she’d been chosen by the moon goddess for him?
Oh, goddess. What had she been thinking? She shouldn’t have come with her family, even if her uncle had ordered her to. There was always a way out of these things. There were other submissive members of the den who could have accompanied the Redwoods to the Talon den.
Kade might have wanted it to be comprised of as much family as possible because he could trust them implicitly, but there could have been another way.
Instead, she’d risked it all because she’d wanted to see Gideon. She’d held back for so long that she’d been weak.
And now she’d have to deal with the consequences.
“Brie,” Kade said.
She blinked and pulled her gaze from Gideon, her heart hammering in her ears. What had her uncle said? What had she missed when she’d been staring at the Alpha like some schoolgirl who’d found her first crush?
Only she wasn’t a girl, and this wasn’t a crush. This was an eon’s worth of connection and promise in a single look. Yet that promise would come to nothing because it couldn’t. If she uttered a single word that pushed her toward what she couldn’t have, she’d be lost.
“What?” she asked, her voice breathless. Oh yes, that was going to make everyone think she was okay. Now they probably thought she was either going crazy, or worse, frightened of all the dominant wolves around her. Unlike some of the submissives in the Pack, she was never truly scared of those with stronger wolves. It was more of a strong embrace of power that surrounded her when they were near. Her wolf knew that they would be protected and fought for as well as the fact that they could also do some good with their own power. Her wolf would then want to ensure that the stronger wolves around her were okay and soothed. A dominant wolf couldn’t truly succeed in protecting if they didn’t protect their own hearts and wolves as well.
That’s what a submissive was for.
“I was just introducing you,” Kade said, his eyes narrowed. She knew he wanted to ask if she was all right, but that might show weakness or some other power play in front of the Talons.
Great. Her first shot at helping the Pack in a political arena and she was losing it because of the man she shouldn’t want.
Way to go, Brie.
“Thanks,” she said softly then turned toward the Talons. She made sure her gaze stayed below all of the others. She was the lowest ranked of the bunch, although in reality, submissives weren’t ranked the same way as dominants. There were stronger dominants and weaker ones, and the same applied for submissives. She was one of the higher ranked submissives because of the way she could care for a higher ranked wolf. That didn’t mean, however, that she wanted to meet all of their gazes and force a challenge. The ways of the Packs and wolves were complicated, and even though she’d grown up submersed in it, she still got confused sometimes.
Submissives were part of a Pack to be cherished and loved, not beaten down like some Packs thought. The Talons were like the Redwoods in the fact that they, as far as she knew, treated their submissives with respect. Unlike the Centrals—the Pack that had fought her own thirty years go and lost—the Talons weren’t rotting from within. That hadn’t always been the case, but that was before her time, and she hadn’t wanted to ask too much about them. If she did, the others might have surmised her obsession with a certain Alpha.
No, it wasn’t an obsession.
It couldn’t be an obsession if she never met him.
Only she’d just met him, so who knew what would happen?
You’re stronger than this.
The Talons each nodded at her, and she nodded back. Once they were out of the open area and in the meeting place, maybe they would be less formal. Only then, she’d be in a closed room with Gideon, and she wasn’t sure how she’d react.
For that matter, she wasn’t sure howhe’dreact. He hadn’t said anything. He hadn’t jumped across the space between them and picked her up in his arms, swinging her around with a smile on his face because he’d found his mate.
None of those childhood fantasies had come true.
Now Brie knew she’d been right in hiding.
No good would come from meeting her mate. She’d learn to deal as she always had and eventually, in another century or two, she’d find another mate more suited to her. The moon goddess made mistakes all the time.
Well, she’d heard of it only once, and that was with her Aunt Lexi years before she’d met Brie’s Uncle North. It could happen again.
