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Outside The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 1) 66
Most wolves shift before their sixth birthday, but his birthday was right around the corner, and he still hadn’t managed to do it. He’d run away from his cabin when one of his siblings had teased him about it.My heart had broken for those teary, doe-brown eyes and the clenching of his little fists around his glass of milk. I sat next to him and wrapped an arm around him. While I had no experience being a wolf, I knew plenty about feeling left behind by my peers, so I could relate to Pax’s troubles in that way.“You need to be brave, little guy,” I’d told him. “Don’t you know that the best things take time?”He’d shaken his head, wiping at his tears with the sleeves of his shirt.I’d ruffled his golden blond hair and given him a smile. “I’m sure you’ll shift any day now. I can feel it in my bones.”“Really?”“Of course, Pax! You just have to wait a little while longer.”I was relieved that my words seemed to help, and he had finally been ready to return home. That night, he’d given me
Outside The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 1) 67
“It depends,” Jasper said. “Whenever we have time or if we badly need something that only the humans can provide. Colville takes a while to get to, so we rarely have wolves to spare for the trip. I think we go once every couple of months.”That was another difference between the Kings and the Wargs. The Kings had plenty of cities nearby that they frequented as often as they liked. Only male wolves were allowed to go, and from what I’d heard, the usual purpose of the trip was to fool around with human women, not bring back supplies. The Kings had so much excess material and clothes from the humans that the most fortunate families in the pack had to have small storage sheds just to have some place to store it all. Mom and I, of course, rarely benefitted from those sorts of goods.“Oh! There’s the schoolhouse,” Tavi said, pointing to a quaint brick building. “There’s a stubborn section of the roof that always leaks when it rains. Someone always repairs it, but it doesn’t help.” She turne
Outside The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 1) 68
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. “Did I take up too much of your time?”“Not at all.” He gave me a shy grin. “I’m glad I spent the day with you.”I smiled back. His words were so sweet, but I wished I were hearing them from a different man.“I have plenty of time to walk you back to Violet’s,” he said. “I’ll even carry your books for you.” He easily lifted them with one arm.“What a gentleman.” I giggled. “Thanks, Jasper.”The sky went from azure to a deep cobalt as we reached Violet’s cabin. As the three of us walked up the steps, the door opened. To our surprise, Night stood in the doorway looking down at us.His gaze landed on me first, almost in greeting, before shifting to Jasper. Jasper was holding my books in one arm, and the other was draped over my shoulders. Night’s nostrils flared, a low rumble leaving his chest. Jasper stiffened and quickly removed his arm from me. I tried to suppress another shiver. That deep growl should not have been such a turn-on.“Night, it’s good to see you
Outside The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 1) 69
And then there was a knock on the door.“Come in!” I called, finishing up the table. I suspected that I was about to see Dom. He came around often to have tea with me and Violet (though I knew he was there to check in on me), but when I turned to the door, it was Night who stepped inside.“Oh.” I straightened in surprise. Butterflies filled my stomach at seeing him again so unexpectedly, but I tried to calm them down. He was probably still mad at me for the way I’d snapped at him earlier.“Violet’s already gone to bed,” I said carefully. “Do you want me to see if she’s awake?”“No. I came to speak to you.”“Oh,” I said again, feeling dumb. “I…do you want to sit down at the table?”He nodded, silently taking a seat. I sat across from him, my hands in my lap.“Sorry that the table’s wet,” I said. “I just wiped it down.”“That’s fine.”I pressed my lips together and wiped my hands over my jeans. Why isn’t he saying anything? I squirmed, desperately looking anywhere but directly at his ha
Outside The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 1) 70
23BRYNOver the next two days, I took full advantage of every moment of my newfound freedom. When I wasn’t in the kitchens or working in the garden, I was in the library reading.In the afternoon of my second day of freedom, Pax came by to visit me with his mother, Lillian. Lillian informed me that there was a stash of board games hidden in a compartment of one of the chairs, so Pax and I had a fun time searching for them. Then we played checkers while Lillian relaxed with a book.“Tomorrow, I’m going to shift in front of the whole pack,” he said. “You’re still coming, right?”“Of course! I wouldn’t miss it for anything in the world.” I saw an easy strategy to win the game, but I chose to move my piece elsewhere to give Pax the win.“Yay!” Pax threw up his arms and beamed at me. “I can’t wait to show you my wolf!”“And I can’t wait to see him.” When I noticed he was debating where to place the next piece, I said, “Oh, no! You better not move to that spot there, or I’ll be in trouble.
Outside The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 1) 71
I must have lost track of time. I left the women to finish up and grabbed my jacket from the hook. Pax took my hand, and we ran out of the mess hall together. We gathered near the Elders’ cabin on the flat ground because there was plenty of space for the kids to wolf out.Pax let go of my hand and ran to the center with the other pups. I stood with the crowd of adults, my hands at my side. The first few shifts were always rough on young pups. But once they got the hang of it, they were so excited they tended to destroy tons of clothes while they practiced and showed off.Pax was one of the last to reveal his shift. It wasn’t because he was nervous—on the contrary, he was waiting to have most of the crowd’s attention so he could hop and dance around, working everyone up into an excited cheer. I laughed along, wondering when the shy, self-conscious boy I’d met had become such a ham.A deep, rumbling laugh sounded from behind me. I turned my head, but I knew Night was standing there. He
Outside The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 1) 72
All my life, the only physical affection I had ever received had come from my mom, who hugged and loved on me as often as I let her, and the pups I babysat who didn’t know any better. The Kings’ wolves, however, avoided touching me like I was dirty.But that had changed when I arrived here. Tavi practically threw herself at me at every opportunity, jumping at the possibility of holding my hand or hugging me. Jasper reached for me every once in a while too, and even Night seemed to touch my arm or my wrist when we were close. I used to watch how affectionate the Kings’ wolves were with each other and crave even a taste of the same treatment.But here, with the Wargs, I finally knew what it was like to touch and be touched by someone I cared about, someone who wasn’t my mom, and it felt like a door opening for me.When Lillian let go, she smiled at me once more before turning to her son. “Pax, it’s time to go home.”Pax whined, stomping his feet.“Pax, honey, don’t make me say it a seco
Outside The Pack (Mated To The Night Book 1) 73
“I hear you,” I said, “but for now, we should focus on how we plan on retaliating against the Kings for Iggy.”We’d buried Iggy in a plot of land in her favorite section of the forest. It was a small ceremony—just her family, me, Dom, and Iggy’s close friends. It was the first time I had seen Iggy’s family since I broke the news of her death, and the first thing they’d asked me was what I was going to do about her death. They rightfully wanted some retribution for their loss.Dom sighed. “Alright, what do you propose?”“We could do the same thing they did—send a special team to attack them while they’re unawares.”“I don’t know. I don’t think that’s direct enough.”“That’s fair.” I would never attack children, expectant mothers, or their infirmaries directly, but it was hard to know exactly how to respond when Iggy had meant so much to the community, and to me, as a member of my inner circle. “We could target someone who Troy keeps close to him.”“An assassination,” Dom said with a no
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