Dexter.
Claire stepped up next to me and the scent of her brought my wolf right up to the surface of my consciousness. I pushed him down with all my might, unwilling to squander the little time we had with her by running through the woods as a wolf.
And that was if she didn’t run from me screaming when she finally saw my wolf. The silver shifter animal I became could scare a full-size bear.
We walked down the steps of our home and along the road towards my parent’s place.
“Mom and Dad’s home is ten houses down.” I pointed, as we walked along the foot path.
Our town was made up of four long streets surrounding a central set of shops, and the town centre where we all convened.
Men started to appear from nowhere and the Alpha in me grabbed Claire around the waist and hauled her into my side.
We hadn’t had a woman under fifty in our town in years. No one brought the city sluts home, it was an unwritten rule.
Thomas and Grady stood on their balcony, gaping at us.
Grady called out. “Dexter, who you got there?”
Claire pushed at me. “Can you ease up? You’re going to break a rib.”
I let her go and waved at Grady, unable to answer his question.
“Yeah, sorry.”
She continued next to me, not moving too far away. “Why are they all looking at me? Oh God… you weren’t exaggerating, were you? The town really is all men, isn’t it?”
I laughed without humour. “Did you really think we were lying about that?”
“Um… no. But I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The pack was emerging from everywhere, across the square and out of the shops. They must be able to smell her.
I know I could. And it was making my balls ache and my skin tingle.
My mate was here! She was within touching distance, and I had to stamp down on my need and lust, and not take her in the street like my savage side demanded.
I wanted them all to know, to see that we’d found her.
And that she was mine.
Correction.
She was my pack’s!
Ours…
“There she is.” I pointed to my mother, who stood on the steps outside her huge home.
She’d raised all four of us in that house, my brothers and I. It now seemed empty without us. Or so she said.
Claire walked ahead of me up the path and my mother welcomed her with open arms.
Claire embraced my mom and they walked inside with their arms wrapped around each other, like they’d known one another their entire lives.
I looked over at Taylor. “What’s with that?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Some sort of woman thing?”