Violet
She had been so stupid. She got caught up in her attraction and now the humans in the campground were in danger.
She got to the source of the fire and nearly sank to the ground in relief when she saw that it was not nearly as bad as she had feared. She had feared that there would be a roaring fire with monstrous blazes taking down trees and camps.
But the fire was fairly contained. It had moved outside the circle of stones the campers had used thanks to a gust of wind, but the only thing burning were two trees.
She and Tristan worked together. As upset with herself as she was, she was glad to have him. He had frozen for that initial first moment after they smelled smoke, clearly lost in the past, as he’d explained to her later. But then he had shaken himself and jumped into action.
There wasn't even enough smoke to cause an evacuation. One of the few groups of campers woke up and Tristan went to talk to them. His manner was easy and relaxed, and he would blend in easily with humans. After talking to them, the campers were satisfied and went straight back to bed.
"I'm going to stay here the rest of the night just to make sure everything’s fine," she said.
"I don't blame you," he said. "I'm sorry for distracting you from your work."
"It's my fault. It's my job, not yours. It’s not common for me to run into shifters out here so I was surprised.” That was an understatement. She’d been transfixed by him, enough to lose her head and forget her responsibilities.
“I'd like to talk to you again. I still would like to go on that date and that way you won't be distracted from your job.”
So he wasn’t giving up. Her adrenaline was still pumping from the fire. “Okay. That sounds good to me.” She told him her schedule and he agreed to pick her up the following evening. She would have enough time to sleep during the day and then get ready, and spend a little time freaking out, because she'd never been on a date before.
The shifters in her pack did not date. Their pairings were picked by the Alpha for the most part, and then they were forced to mate, live together, and raise children. No one cared if they were having a good time or if they were happy. No one cared if they felt any longing for each other, or any romance at all. In fact, they'd probably be punished if they spoke of such things.
So she’d never had the experience, but she was going to give it a try.
The next evening, he picked her up at the campground. She'd found that she was more excited than she expected. She’d spent the day getting ready. She washed all of her clothing and she washed her hair and brushed it out.
He was taking her to a restaurant, and she had not eaten in human restaurants very often. The few times that she’d eaten in a restaurant, it had a deli-type environment. She'd never been to a nice place.
He picked her up in a rental Jeep and started driving into town. “I assume you like steak,” he said.
She smiled. Most wolf shifters did. "Yes. Where are we going?"
"The steakhouse. I hope it's good."
She lifted one shoulder. “I wouldn't know." There was no way she could afford a steakhouse.
"That's right, you're new here. I guess we'll find out together.”
She debated telling him the truth, but then she decided it didn't matter since he was leaving anyway. She could be as honest as she wanted. "I've never been to a steakhouse before. I've read a lot of books and I’ve watched a lot of movies, so I know what they're like.”
"Really?” He glanced over at her. “Your pack was really traditional. Wow.”
"Even with your other Alpha, you were allowed to go to restaurants?" she asked.
“I don't know if allowed is the right word. We weren't forbidden. We weren’t supposed to date or mate with humans. But we were allowed to be around them. If we took off a few nights to visit a human city, our Alpha didn't mind as long as we didn't bring a human back with us."
She shook her head. "I can't imagine."
That was enough about her awful pack; she didn't want to think about them. "Tell me all about the places you visited."
He spent the rest of the drive telling her the various places he'd been in his travels. "There's plenty more I'd like to visit. I just haven't had the time yet."
She imagined herself visiting all the places he described. That sounded like her idea of heaven.