Chapter Six
Jillian
Turned out, there were more than voices in the bushes. As soon as we stood up, we were confronted by Ruston, one of the security guards for the alpha and for the pack. He demanded in a monotone that we follow him. My stomach turned as I knew where we were headed.
There was only one place where justice was served in this pack, though, for the life of me, I didn’t remember doing anything wrong.
When we got to the alpha’s house, we dressed before meeting others. Dean was clearly uncomfortable being naked, and I was impressed he’d managed to wait this long. Most shifters would shuck their shorts in a flat minute in front of the gods and anyone else. We simply weren’t skittish about such trivial things.
No matter how many times I’d been in the alpha’s house, it always seemed to make my breath catch in my lungs. The place was massive. It could swallow my place four times over and still have room for dessert. A hearth nested a blazing fire in every room, making the place warmer than I was used to. I pulled at my collar. The thin zip-up sweatshirt I’d found earlier all of a sudden seemed to want to choke me.
We followed Ruston through the obscenely large home in silence.
Mate. Scared. Fear.
My eyes darted to Dean to see him shivering despite the stifling temperature. He balled and flexed his fingers so much, the tips of them had become pale. His jaw worked as though he had a tennis-ball-sized wad of gum in his mouth.
He was nervous and so scared that even if my wolf hadn’t tipped me off, I could smell it from a mile away. That tangy and bitter scent reached my nose, so potent that I could taste it on the tip of my tongue.
If I was the talking type, I would tell him that it was going to be fine. Yes, the alpha was a stern man, tough but fair, I supposed, to everyone else. He could bark and snarl, but I’d never seen him be violent toward anyone in our pack.
Then again, I couldn’t see a lot of things from my cabin tucked into the darkest depths of the woods.
My wolf demanded I find some way to soothe my new friend, thoughfriendwasn’t the word she used. Still meandering through hallways, I reached out and barely touched my fingers to the tips of Dean’s. He sucked in a long breath but didn’t allow that smallest touch of mine to be just that. Instead, he took my hand in his and tangled our fingers together, shivering a little at the contact, the intensity growing with each time we touched.
My wolf rumbled at the feel of his warm skin against mine. My heart thrummed in my ears. Louder than a siren, louder than the loudest drum. I turned my head to take in his expression, sure Dean would be laughing at me when he heard my heart beating a rhythm that seemed to be unique to him, unique to his touch.
To my relief, his face had relaxed, eyebrows no longer drawn together. His shoulders were no longer tense and squared off.
And his trembling had ceased where mine seemed to have begun.
Gods, I had to get hold of myself. The alpha would be able to scent...whatever this sensation was on me. He might punish me, as though my whole life wasn’t one big punishment on the Earth.
“Jillian, it looks like you’ve discovered someone.” The alpha was a tall man, stocky, and I was being generous. He reminded me of one of those European kings in a history book, all husky and clearly well-fed. He stood behind his obscenely large mahogany desk and waved for us to sit down before settling in his high-backed executive-style chair.
This was only my third summons to the alpha’s office. Three times too many, in my opinion.
I nodded in response to his comment. It wasn’t like he expected an answer. Even when I was presented to him as a toddler, there were no words spoken, no whimpering or sniffling. Just silent tears that streamed down my face which seemed to last forever, until one day I was simply dry—all cried out.
“What is your name, newcomer?” A bit of his alpha power seeped into his tone. He was making his position in the pack clear, as though we didn’t already know.
Maybe Dean didn’t. He didn’t seem to know a lot about shifters in general.
“My name is Dean...sir.”
My gaze ping-ponged between the two. The alpha was sizing him up, and Dean just didn’t seem to care at all. Most males would at least puff out their chest or clear their throats. Not Dean. If I had to guess, I would think he had little ego at all.
“Dean. Dean, how did you come to be on our lands? How did you find Crystal Canyon pack?”
I swallowed against the boulder in my throat. It was a story I wanted to hear myself.
“Well…”
I flexed my hand as he began to speak. I hadn’t realized he’d let it go, and my skin was icy in its absence. “I was sitting in class. I went to Township College.”
The alpha perked up. “That’s at least forty miles from here, and I’m being generous.”
Dean sighed.