I parked my truck in the lot of the Welcome Center and walked the path along the side of the building until I reached the pupcare. This was the fifth time in two weeks that I’d left the ranch and found myself here. I don’t think I’d been here more than twice before Janine arrived in Madow. I was unmated and without any pups; I had no reason to come here. Yet, here I was.
The second time I’d shown up, Alicia had asked me what was wrong. It was a fair question. She’d worked at the pupcare for four years, and my sudden visits had to be confusing. I told her that I was keeping an eye on the newest member of the staff, and that seemed to satisfy her. My wolf snorted at the excuse. You’re keeping an eye on her, alright, he’d said. And I’d shrugged away his sarcasm because, well, I was. Alicia was the most hesitant in the Hurst pack to accept strangers into the fold, and I played on that distrust to keep her from asking me too many questions.
Fancy, on the other hand, wasn’t so easily fooled. After I showed up that first day following Janine’s tour, Fancy already had it in her head what I was there for. She took one look at me and smirked.
“Baby room,” was all she said. She wasn’t a member of my pack, but her alpha and I were friends and she knew me well enough to make the assessment.
I didn’t even waste time trying to argue that she didn’t know what I was there for. It was bad enough that my wolf had given a self-satisfied smirk at that. He knew, Fancy knew, and I knew what—or who—I was there for. I’d stayed away for a couple of days after my last visit. Janine had spoken some truths that had been a hard pill for me to swallow, but I needed to hear it. Somehow, she’d hit the nail on the head without even looking.
I was grateful to find that the front of the pupcare was empty today. I passed through the multi-purpose room, waving at Fancy, before making my way to the baby room, stopping just outside the open door. Janine was inside, sitting in a rocking chair next to the window with a baby in her lap, reading softly from a book. She was changing her voice for the different characters, and the baby was squealing with laughter. Unbidden, a smile rose on my face at the sight as my wolf knocked against my chest.
That’s us, man. That’s our mate.
He’d verbalized that sentiment several times since I first laid eyes on the stranger from the east and at this point, I was inclined to agree. How could I not?
“You’re late.”
Janine had looked up from the book, and both she and the baby’s regard were on me. Her eyes, the shade of a double shot of whiskey, observed me with something that looked like amusement. I glanced down at my watch. It was approaching noon. Every other day, I’d come first thing in the morning and stay for a couple of hours before heading to the ranch. Had she been waiting for me? I grinned, stepping into the room fully.
“One of the sows went into labor this morning, and I helped with the birth. I had to stop by the house for a shower before coming.”
She stood as I approached and handed the baby over. He was about five months old, and he and I had become friends as he had gotten used to seeing me. He reached for me and snuggled into my chest, rubbing his nose into the crook of my neck. Once he was settled in my arms, I looked up at Janine. She watched me with an indecipherable look on her face but she couldn’t fool me. I could clearly sense her wolf hovering just below the surface of her skin. I don’t know if Janine was fighting with herself about how she felt about me, but her wolf definitely desired me. She emitted pheromones that had my wolf scratching at my chest to get out.
“Did you miss me?” I teased.
She blinked and turned to check on the pile of sleeping babies in the corner of the room. The pups were strewn all over each other, and although it looked uncomfortable, it was the only way they would sleep. The need for closeness was an inherent part of our existence.
“I’m leaving for lunch soon. Alicia’s going to cover the babies for me. Sorry that you made the trip for nothing.”
Noting how she ignored my question, I walked over to her, gently rocking the baby, left and right, in my arms. His eyes had begun to drift closed, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before he was out just like all the others. “Who said the trip was for nothing?”
Her shoulders lifted as she shifted the head of a baby from an awkward angle and checked his diaper. Satisfied that he wasn’t wet, she straightened and looked at me.
“Well, you won’t have the opportunity to interrogate me and make sure I’m not posing a threat to your pack so…” she trailed off on a shrug, and I frowned.
“Is that what you think I’ve been doing?”
“Isn’t it? I mean, nothing else about these constant visits makes sense.”
I froze mid-swing.
I’d heard it. Her heart had stuttered—just barely—and I heard it. She was good, and if I hadn’t been listening for it, I would have missed it. She was lying. My smile was triumphant and my wolf thumped his tail excitedly. She knew exactly what this was but was trying to lie to herself about it.
The baby hung limply in my arms, mouth hanging open as he slept soundly. I turned to add him to the pile of pups on the carpeted floor, tucking him into a space between two other babies. When I faced her again, her back was to me as she grabbed her phone and keys from inside the drawer where the cloth diapers and wipes were stored. I opened my mouth then snapped it shut immediately.
“I’m here, Janine. You can go on your lun—” Alicia appeared in the door but stopped mid-sentence when she saw me standing there. Her entire demeanor changed when she saw me. She straightened her shoulders and cocked her hip to the side as she leaned against the open doorway.
“Oh, hey, Langston. I didn’t know you were here.”
“I haven’t been here long, but you weren’t at the front when I came in.”
“Aww.” She pouted for a second then seemingly remembered why she was there. She took one look at Janine, noticing her keys in her hand then looked back at me.
“Are you going to lunch with her?”
I blinked at the obvious censure in her tone. It was almost hostile in the way she had referred to Janine. My wolf bared his teeth at the perceived threat, and I worked to calm him down. Before I could respond to my pack member, Janine spoke.
“Alicia, is there anything you need from me before I leave?”
As I watched Alicia flinch, curling into herself and exposing her neck, I felt the cause for her reaction. The power emanating from Janine was jarring but not surprising. It was exactly as both Adrian and Alicia had described to me. Even Lenny had mentioned feeling something in the air although, she didn’t feel it as intensely as the other two had, due to her empathetic abilities.
“No, I don’t need anything,” Alicia responded meekly, which was a far cry from the attitude she had just displayed.
Janine rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, leaving me to help Alicia relax before I jogged out of the building behind her. She was halfway down the path behind the pupcare when I caught up with her. I wanted to ask her about what had just happened, but I also wanted to talk to my mother about it first. I fell in step beside her, easily keeping up with her brisk movement.
“So, where we eating today? The diner or Sam’s?” Sam’s was a sandwich shop near the nursery about two miles east of the Welcome Center.
She glanced at me out the corner of her eye. “Oh, I actually planned to let my wolf out during my break.”
I nodded. That wasn’t unusual around here.
“Cool. Mind if I join you?”
Her steps faltered momentarily before she continued on into the wooded area that was thick with trees.
“You… you want to shift with me?”
“Yeah. Is that a problem?”
She stopped at a bench and sat down, bending over to untie her sneakers. “No,” she spoke toward the ground. “Not really; I just don’t usually shift with others around me.”
I watched her pull off her shoes and tuck her phone and keys inside of them. My wolf began to salivate at the prospect of seeing her animal.
“Oh yeah? You don’t want me to see your wolf?” My tone was teasing, and I waited for her to look over at me before I pulled my shirt over my head and dropped it onto the bench. It was a strategic and vain as hell move, and I wasn’t ashamed at all for utilizing it. Simply put, I wanted to see her reaction to me. Despite how loud her wolf was, Janine had an admirably tight hold on her emotions, and I found it hard to read her.
Those bourbon browns widened for a second and I swear I saw a flare of want in their depths before she averted them hastily. That was something, at least.
“Nah, that’s not it. I haven’t shifted since that second night I was here, and my wolf is feeling a little… aggressive and a bit cagey. I’m just giving you a heads up.” She pulled her shirt over her head, and I suddenly found the canopy interesting. Folding my arms across my chest, I faced the opposite direction to give her some privacy as she finished getting undressed.
“You don’t think I could handle her?”
The sound of her belt buckle hitting the steel bench alerted me to her state of undress. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before she shifted. Her voice caught me off guard.
“On the contrary. I think you would probably handle her too well, and that’s what I’m afraid of.” Then the air was thick with magic as the sick sound of bones cracking followed by the heavy thump of seventy pounds of muscle hit the ground.
I spun around quickly but only caught a flash of a tail before it disappeared between some trees. I toed out of my boots and shucked off my jeans in seconds, running in her direction barefoot, and within five paces, I felt the familiar tug on my senses and my wolf came forth, grasping for purchase along my skin.
Mate. Find her. Our mate.
It happened so fast that I didn’t register the familiar pain as my bones elongated and splintered to make way for him. And soon, black fur sprouted along my body, and I dropped to all fours in a mad dash to catch up with Janine. My vision was sharper, hearing crisper when my wolf took over. I sensed instantly the direction she was headed and took a turn through the trees to cut her off midway.
She let out a bark of surprise when I jumped out in front of her as we reached a clearing, and I was momentarily struck dumb by the sight of her in her canine form. Slivers of sun sliced through the canopy and bounced off of her shiny red fur, making her look like some celestial being that came down from the stars to bless me with her presence. I expected her to run off, to give way for the inevitable chase because I was a strange wolf, but she surprised me.
She circled me, pressing her nose into my fur and inhaling my scent. I preened as she committed me to memory, cataloging me in her register as familiar. When she was finished, I playfully nipped at her, wondering where the aggression that Janine had warned me about had gone. She skittered backward, eying me momentarily, and I knew what she was going to do before she did it. This time, when she took off, I was on her tail. We ran through the trees, and though I split my time between watching her and watching the ground beneath my paws, I was caught off guard when she turned suddenly and charged me.
We flew through the air, a tangle of limbs and fur until we hit a bush and rolled to a stop. I landed on top of her and she immediately started biting and scratching at me. She wasn’t using enough pressure to draw blood, so I knew she wasn’t angry, but each attack did sting, so I barked to tell her to stop. Her responding bark was so thunderous, so full of that powerful authority that my ears lowered to my head, and I flinched. My full weight wasn’t on her at that point, and she took advantage, using her hind legs to kick me off of her and scooting from under me in a move so fast that I would have missed it if I blinked.
She once again took off in a run, but instead of chasing her, I laid there with my back on the ground and all four paws in the air, dazed at what I had just experienced. When her rough tongue touched the fur on my face, it startled the hell out of me. I hadn’t even heard her approaching me, and that was saying something. How had she managed to muffle the sound of her heavy footsteps against the dry leaves and branches? Who was this woman and what kind of wolf was this inside of her?
She bathed my face with her tongue, asking me in her own way if I was okay, if she hurt me, and if was done playing with her. She nudged my right flank in an attempt to get me to roll over, and I wondered if she even realized that she was different. That she was something special.
While she stood over me, I grabbed a hold of my wolf and tucked him back into my skin. As I adjusted to my shrinking flesh, Janine pressed the fleshy pad of her paw against my chest. I blinked up at the canine face nearly pressed against my own, those same, knowing, liquid-brown eyes peered down at me. There was a story behind those eyes, far beyond the few conversations she’d had with my sister. Janine was a complex individual, and I wanted to know the details that lie in every nook and crevice of her mind.
She backed about twenty feet away from me across the clearing we’d found ourselves in and sat on her haunches. Moments later, she shrank into her human form and stared at me silently. I sat up, taken with the vision before me. She looked amazing; hair wild and free, having burst from its puff when she shifted, skin dewy with sweat from the activities of her wolf, and those beautiful brown eyes only for me. I liked seeing her this way, unguarded and vulnerable.
I rested my elbows on my knees. “Do you feel better?”
Her eyes crinkled at the corners as the tip of her tongue peeked out to moisten her bottom lip, and the smile that lit her face as she nodded in answer of my question made me think of all the times my father had told me I would know my mate the moment I met her. “There’ll be no question about it,” he’d said to me. I’d scoffed back then at the notion, a young boy with more important things on his mind than mating, but right now—in this moment—with this blissfully arresting creature kneeling only a stone’s throw in front of me, I knew exactly what he meant.