P.S I'm a WOLF! (Paranormal Shifter Romance Book 1) Page 8

  Kip rose up slowly and took a few gradual steps toward her as he talked, monitoring her heartbeat and her scent for any increased levels of fear. She only watched him closely, and he took a seat in a chair nearest the door.

  “All packs have a name that they go by. It’s kind of a surname. We all use it, and we keep fake ID’s with changing birthdays, though with the advances in technology today, that’s become a bit tricky. We’re still ahead of the game though, and we have quite a stake in cutting edge technology so that we can have the advantages that we need at our fingertips. We don’t ever want to be found out, so we keep a low profile and we make sure that all of our public lives are in cadence with the order of the day.” He spoke truthfully to her, hoping that it wouldn’t come back to bite him.

  “So, your pack’s last name is Ardelean?” she asked in a quiet voice, as everything that he was telling her sank into her head and she began to accept it.

  “Yes.” He nodded. “It’s a very old name, eastern European. It’s been passed down for a long while, and I suspect that it will continue to be passed down, if I ever start a family. There are other packs all over the country, and we call them either by their pack name or their region.”

  She leaned forward again, resting her elbows on her knees as she peered at him. “How do werewolves survive in public? I mean… how do you make money? I see you walking around in your nice clothes and your leather jacket… do other werewolves do that? Do they have jobs just like everyone else? Bills? The trappings of living in society?”

  Kip nodded. “Yes, most people in the packs have jobs, and most packs have a fair amount of money, especially since we’ve all been around for so long. We take care of each other, and some packs don’t do so well; some packs don’t have much, but our pack is well off. We’re always going to be okay, and yes, we do work. Actually, our family business is global, and it does very well.”

  “Is there a leader of the pack?” she asked, growing ever more curious about him as she bit her lip and tried to work out all the details that she was learning.

  “Yes,” Kip answered, deciding in that moment not to tell her who he was within his own pack. “There is a hierarchy. A leader of the pack, so to speak.”

  She lifted her brows. “Are you the leader of your pack?”

  He shook his head, glad that he could answer her question honestly. “No, I’m not.” At least, he wasn’t at that moment. He wouldn’t be until his grandfather passed away, and then he would transition from prince to king.

  She looked at him darkly for a moment. “Have you ever bitten anyone?”

  Kip gave her a tender smile. “Not to change them, no. I’ve never bitten anyone.”

  “If you did, would they die?” she worried, wondering if she had ever come close to death with him.

  “That depends on how I would bite them and when I bite them. If I am trying to kill someone, my bite is an attack, and it will kill the victim. If I bite someone to change them, I can only do it on a full moon. Then it changes them.” He wasn’t sure if he should be handing off trade secrets to her, but he wanted her to feel as comfortable as possible with him. He wanted her to trust him again, though he was fairly certain that that might never happen again.

  She sighed then, and her shoulders sank low as she took it all in and considered it. He looked at her in concern.

  “How are you feeling? Are you all right? Do you have any other questions?” He wanted to go to her and touch her, hold her, but he knew it would be bad if he did. She wasn’t ready for that, and she might never be ready for it again.

  She arched her shoulders up a little as she tried to work out some of her sore muscles. She hadn’t slept well at all the night before, sitting up in the bed watching the door, waiting to see if he would come bursting through it or not.

  “No, actually, I think I’m done, to be honest. This is all so much more than I can take. I think the best thing for me to do is to go home and sleep. I need time to process all of this. Please, take me home,” she asked in a tired voice.

  “Of course. I’ll do that right away.” He stood up and gave her a sympathetic look. “I do want to say that I’m so very sorry. I never wanted to scare you, and to be honest, I didn’t even ever want you to know, but now you do, and here we are. Just know that there will never be a time when you are in danger with me. You will always be safe with me. I would protect you from anything, and I will never, ever hurt you.”

  She only looked at him and then nodded. “Okay,” she said quietly. He left her then and went up to the deck and she followed him carefully, knowing that he was going to need help sailing the boat back, and also wanting to be near him at least to keep an eye on him. She helped him with the rigging and sailing of the boat, but she kept her distance from him and didn’t say much to him as she mulled over everything that he had shared with her. Her own personal version of reality had been shattered, and she had to work it out in her mind and make some kind of sense of it somehow.

  They sailed back to the harbor and she walked behind him as he led her to the car. They said nothing on the drive back to Seattle and all the while both of them were thinking deeply about all that had happened.

  When he reached her house, he turned to look at her, his heart in his throat and every bit of emotion in him surging to the surface. “I’ll just leave you here, and I’ll watch you walk in.”

  She nodded, and he bit at his lower lip for a moment. “Will I see you again?”

  Janine furrowed her brow. “I’m not sure right now. I don’t know. It’s a lot to think about. I don’t know if I’m ever going to see you again.”

  Kip sighed. “I understand. I guess I should just tell you again right now then. I love you Janine. I love you very much, and if the choice were mine, I would see you every day.”

  Janine could only nod at him once more before going into her house and closing the door carefully behind herself. She had a lot on her mind, and her spirit and body were exhausted. She went to bed and closed her eyes as tears rolled down her cheeks. She had met the man of her dreams and fallen in love with him, and he had turned out to be a werewolf. The irony was colossal.

  Kip watched her until she was gone and then he drove home as the bright morning sun grew higher in the sky. He chewed thoughtfully and absentmindedly on his knuckle as he drove, working it all through his mind over and over again and coming to a million different conclusions while getting nowhere with any of it.

  When he reached the house, he walked into it quietly, not wanting to disturb anyone in case they weren’t up at such an early hour. He heard some noise in the kitchen and decided to have a look.

  He was surprised when he found Petra there, sitting in a lovely formfitting dress on a barstool at the breakfast bar. Luca was cooking breakfast for her and when he looked up and saw Kip, he blushed hotly.

  “Luca! You’re cooking breakfast for Petra?”

  Luca fumbled with the spatula in his hands and stammered slightly as he answered. “Oh… well, I was up anyway, and she came over here looking for you. I thought she might be hungry, so I just tossed a few things into a pan quickly. You know… it’s really an honor to serve the princess. Make her feel comfortable, I guess.”

  For the first time ever, Kip sensed something strange about Luca, but he couldn’t quite work out what it was. He nodded and gave his friend a half smile. “That was thoughtful of you. Thank you. I’m sure you appreciate it, don’t you, Petra?” He turned his gaze to his fiancé, and she nodded and grinned.

  “I do. Luca is so sweet. I love being spoiled.” She flashed them both a wide grin, and Luca blushed once more and turned away from her while Kip wished that she wasn’t in his house.

  Petra looked over her shoulder at Kip and then turned to face him fully, her knees parted seductively as she pulled her shoulders back just subtly enough that the silky fabric of her dress over her breasts grew snug and the buttons there were taut. “Where were you last night? I expected to spend the full moon with you, and you we
re gone. You left me alone and disappointed.”

  Kip shrugged. “I’m sorry. I was stuck. I couldn’t make it.” He knew that she could sense that he was telling her the truth.

  “Very well then. I guess things happen, and there’s nothing that can be done about it. You can make it up to me. Take me out to Seattle and show me around. I would love a private tour with you.” She gave him a flirtatious smile and a little nod.

  He sighed, a sense of obligation overwhelming him. “I guess that I can do that. Let me know when, and I’ll arrange it.”

  “Now. I want to go with you right now.” Her eyes were big, and her red lips widened into a grin.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Kip drove Petra in his car to Seattle, and she could not possibly have been more pleased about it. She did most of the talking on the way to the city from his lofty home in the mountains. He only offered an answer when she asked him for his opinion on something or when she asked him a direct question. Otherwise, he had very little to say. It seemed to bother her at first, but then she told him that he must be the strong, silent type, and he let her believe it rather than say anything against her opinion.

  As he began to get nearer to the city, he realized that he had no idea what he was going to take her to see. He glanced over at her as he moved the car through traffic. “Have you seen Seattle before?” He couldn’t ever remember having heard about her or any of her pack being in his region, though the packs didn’t always know when other packs were around if they were just passing through quickly.

  “No.” She shook her head. “I thought I’d eventually see it when I met you, so I went and explored other parts of the country and the world, saving this one for when I got here, and now here we are. Isn’t that nice?” She laughed a little, and he only nodded.

  “So, what do you want to see while you’re here?” he asked conversationally, his mind and heart focused solely on Janine, as he struggled to think about the woman beside him and not give himself away to her.

  Petra turned in her seat to face him slightly, and she lifted her hand to bring it to his cheek, running her fingers over the skin and very short beard there. “Oh honey, you make me laugh a little, saying ‘while I’m here.’ I mean, we haven’t talked about it or anything, but I thought you’d probably want to stay in your region after we’re married, so I wasn’t planning on going anywhere. I’m going to be here for the foreseeable future. I’m not thinking of going back to California anytime soon, though of course we’ll go there to visit. I would miss it if I never went back again.”

  His stomach tightened, and he felt as if he were tumbling through vertigo. In a few weeks’ time, she was going to be his wife and she was going to be with him nearly all the time, there in his home, with his pack, in his life, and she wasn’t going to leave. Longevity of life was prevalent in the Ardelean bloodline, and though his grandfather was two hundred and twenty years old, Nicholai still seemed very much to be just barely on the other side of the prime of his life. Kip at seventy-three would have about two and a half centuries with the woman sitting beside him. It felt to him as if a massive cold stone had formed in his stomach, and the weight of it had caused it to begin to sink slowly through him.

  “But to answer your question,” Petra continued blithely as Kip grew more and more concerned about his future, “I think I’d like to see the Space Needle today. I know that’s a tourist trap and I shouldn’t be concerned with it, but it’s just so iconic, you know? I want to see that. Then the Museum of Pop Culture and the Chihuly Gardens. I’d like to see Pike’s Place Market and Chinatown. Then… I guess after that, I would be interested to hear what you think it would be nice to show me.”

  Kip cleared his throat. “Oh, well… there’s a beautiful Japanese garden that we could go to. You mentioned Chinatown, so I’m guessing you like Asian culture. There’s a good deal of it in Seattle. I could also take you to see Bruce Lee and Brandon Lee’s graves. They’re at a beautiful cemetery in the city, overlooking the water and the mountains. They’re buried side by side. It’s quite fascinating, really.”

  She made a face. “No, I don’t want to see their graves. The Japanese garden sounds nice. I do like Asian culture. I’m sure we’ll make a point to see the first Starbucks as well. I do love fun little coffee shops, don’t you? When I was in Paris once, I was strolling down this tiny rue, still with cobblestone streets, and I saw this adorable little café squeezed into the first floor of this grand old building…”

  Petra went on and on as Kip drove, but he had tuned her and her story about the Parisian coffee shop out. At the mention of coffee shops, he immediately began to think of Janine and her coffee shop and how much he wished he could be with her. He bit his lip a little as he reached for his phone, checking to see for the millionth time that morning if he had yet received any kind of contact or message from her. There was nothing. He frowned and put the phone back down as his fiancé droned on and on about the difference between coffee shops in Paris and coffee shops in Rome.

  Kip let his mind wander instead to the incredible memories that he and Janine had made right up to the sunset the night before. They had shared so many fun and sweet times both out in public and in the privacy of her bedroom, her shower, or the sailboat. He began to grow heated in his groin, and he shifted himself slightly, as he tried to stop himself from growing hard just thinking about her.

  He felt a squeeze on his upper thigh, and he jumped, startled a little as he looked down and saw Petra’s hand there, her fingers tight on his leg. She gave him a big smile and eyes narrowed in sensual anticipation. “I can’t wait for it too, Kip. My god, I can smell the desire on you as if it was smoke blazing out of a burning tree. You are so hot for me! God, I can’t wait. I know it’s going to be some of the best sex I’ve ever had in my life.” Her tone dropped some as she eyed him curiously. “Are you sure you don’t want to have a little fun now before the big day? I would be so happy to give you a test run of what you’re going to spend the rest of your life coming after.”

  She laughed seductively and began to massage his thigh where her hand was. He pushed her hand away and shook his head, knowing full well that he had better not tell her that it wasn’t her at all who had turned him on but merely the thought of another woman, and a human woman at that. He was completely sure that she wouldn’t take it well at all.

  “Let’s not do anything until we’re official,” he said evenly, keeping his eyes on the road so that she might not detect anything in them that could give him away. “I guess we’ll have plenty of time for those kind of things for the rest of our lives.”

  Petra grinned and laughed silkily. “I know you’re right, but I’m just so… anxious… to feel you inside me, to feel your hands on me, and that gorgeous mouth of yours… and I really don’t like waiting. I’m not a patient woman. I want what I want when I want it. I hope you know what a serious favor I’m doing you in allowing you to wait until we’re married. If I didn’t respect you so much, I would have said to hell with what you think, and I’d have insisted that you start having sex with me now.” She laughed again and then gave him a keen look.

  “You’re not upset that I’m not a virgin, are you? I do love a good romp with a big man. In seventy-three years, I’ve gotten plenty of practice, so by the time you finally get to have me, you’re going to be very pleased with everything that I can do for you… or to you,” She chuckled, “and I already know that you’re going to be an incredible lover for me. I just can’t stand waiting, but I guess since it’s only a few more weeks, I can keep toying with play lovers until I can get my hands on the real thing.”

  She gave his leg another squeeze, and he pushed her hand away firmly. “I don’t care that you’re not a virgin, and to be honest, I’d rather not talk about our intimate future until after we’re official.” He didn’t like using the term ‘married.’ He didn’t want to be married to her, and saying it only made the reality of it that much worse for him.

  She pouted, and he pulled into
a lucky parking spot just beneath the tower on the opposite side of the street. “Most of what you wanted to see we can see from here. Let’s go.” He got out of the car, and she followed him, catching up with him and slipping her hand into his; weaving her fingers through his. He sighed in frustration, wanting to pull his hand away but also not wanting to cause problems with her that would lead to questions he didn’t want to answer, so he left it there until they got to the Space Needle and he let go of her hand to open the door to go inside. After that, he kept his hands in his pants pockets most of the time, though that didn’t deter her at all. Petra slipped her hand through the crook of his arm, standing close beside him and snuggling up against him every chance that she got. He wondered dully if she was going to be doing that to him for the next two hundred and fifty so odd years, and the idea of it sickened him.

  Everywhere they went, men stared at her, and women stared at him, and he wondered if it was how beautiful movie star couples felt whenever they went anywhere. He tried to ignore it, but it bothered him some. He attracted plenty of his own attention everywhere that he went, but with Petra hanging on his arm, the two of them were the definition of star power, and star attraction, and it was almost as if the city had become a parade of onlookers, so many of them wanting more than just a look. He could sense it and smell it, and the thick traces of lust in the air did nothing to help him keep his mind off of Janine, or Petra’s mind and flirtatious behaviors and mood off of him. It was a developing love triangle that was a massive pain in the ass.