Cait crossed her arms. “I’ll walk by myself. Just point me in the right direction.”

  “Yeah, that’s not going to work for me and my wolf.” I picked her up again, this time cradling her against my chest instead of tossing her over my shoulder as we walked out the door. She punched me in the shoulder and, when that didn’t work, I caught a right hook in the jaw.

  “You can’t just keep kidnapping me,” she said when it didn’t appear as if her super strength was going to come back.

  “I’m not this time. I’m returning you. Safely.”

  You shouldn’t be returning her at all. We could just keep her at the cabin, my wolf said, and I smirked.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked as I began to slow. We were close to the house, but I didn’t want to leave her without making sure she wasn’t upset with me.

  “My wolf wants to keep you locked in the cabin,” I answered honestly.

  “Well, your wolf is even more psycho than you are,” she said.

  “Possibly, but it’s only because he cares so much. You don’t know what it means for him to find a mate.”

  Some of the tension left her body then, and I set her down.

  “I’m sorry for taking you, but at least it wasn’t wasted. We proved you can access the power within you.”

  That comment didn’t seem to make her feel better. In fact, she stepped further away from me.

  “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with what you did. We just need to figure out how to trigger it without making you upset,” I said.

  She laughed. “I think you rather enjoyed that part.”

  “Maybe parts of it,” I admitted.

  “How about you introduce me to Sam, and I’ll worry about the rest later?” she suggested, and I had no problem with that.

  “It would be my pleasure.”

  Placing my hand on her back, I guided her into the house and hoped like hell Sam was on her best behavior. I didn’t want to regret the two of them meeting.

  16

  Cait

  I hadn’t gotten a good look at Sam when she’d been wrapped around Roman, but what I had seen was stunning. The fury I’d felt at what I thought was Roman’s betrayal surprised the hell out of me, but a part of me was glad it happened.

  None of it had felt forced. The feelings had belonged to me, and a sense of control had settled within me when so many things had seemed out of my hands. The only thing I could have done without was the sudden burst of strength I’d had when I let Roman get really under my skin.

  That had scared the shit out of me but was also intriguing.

  Sure, learning about wolf shifters was a lot. Being told I was marked by their creator was even more overwhelming, but wielding the power the others kept talking about? That was a whole different thing.

  One I was determined to learn more about. Right after I met Sam.

  She was sitting at the base of the stairs, her long legs stretched out as she leaned back without a care in the world. Her skin was light, as if she hated the sun. Her short hair was an unnatural white-blonde, and her eyes were a bright blue that screamed trouble.

  When she stood, I realized she wasn’t all that tall—maybe a few inches over five feet—but she held herself like she was the biggest person in the room.

  “I’m Sam McIntyre. You can call me Sam or Mac, but never anything else unless you want to be punched in the vagina.” She held out her hand to me, and I smirked. Wolves had an odd way of introducing themselves, but I appreciated the bluntness.

  “Nice to meet you, Sam. I’m Cait Jones, and I only go by Cait,” I replied, holding her stare. Somehow, I could sense she was sizing me up, and I wasn’t going to let her think I was weak.

  “Fair enough. How did you meet my cousin?” she asked, taking a step back when Roman leered at her.

  “He found me on the beach and acted like a wet dog. I thought I’d lost him but ended up here by pure coincidence. Embry is my best friend.”

  Her eyes widened. “You’re that Cait? Well, shit. I can’t believe I missed all of this.”

  “Did you get the job done?” Roman asked her.

  She grunted. “Would I be here if I didn’t?”

  “Probably not. Now, are you done with your questions? I’m sure Cait wants to go back to Embry’s.”

  Sam’s eyes went up and down my body twice before settling back on my face. “I like her. For now. Maybe we’ll get to know each other better later. I have another job, and I’ll be leaving again within the next couple of days.” She spoke to Roman but continued to stare at me.

  I didn’t let her ‘for now’ statement bother me. I knew her type. She wanted a reaction, and I wasn’t going to give her one.

  I smiled sweetly at her. “I look forward to when you return.”

  Sam chuckled and walked off without making a noise. She was light on her feet, and I wondered what kind of skills she had that signed her up for secret missions or whatever it was she’d been doing.

  Roman reached for me when we were alone. His eyes said he had a lot to say, but I’d reached my limit for the day. I was ready for a break, and Ramona arrived just in time to give me one.

  “Ro, dear. Can you come help—” She cut her sentence off when she saw me. “Oh, I didn’t realize you were busy.”

  “Roman was just returning me after kidnapping me. He’s not busy now.” I moved out from under his hand that rested on my shoulder and dashed out the door.

  I heard a thud followed by low, hissing voices, but I didn’t bother to turn around. Freedom was more important than anything else in the moment.

  Within minutes, I was back at Embry’s and hoped I hadn’t missed her before she took off to the mill. I was curious about what went on there and how they interacted with the public.

  She was just coming downstairs as I walked in the door. “Oh, good. You’re back. I was afraid I was going to have to leave you behind. Vaughn is over there already, since you didn’t need a babysitter, and keeps texting me to hurry up. Let’s go.”

  Embry grabbed on to my hand, and we speed-walked to a detached garage on the other side of the pack house. She punched a code into the door and grabbed keys off the wall when we entered.

  “We’re taking the jeep. Hop in,” she said.

  I got into the passenger seat of the topless black Wrangler as she opened the garage door and started up the jeep. It wasn’t until we were headed down the paved driveway that she spoke. “So, are you going to tell me how your outing was, or do I have to force it out of you? Also, you should bring your phone with you in case you get lost.”

  Laughter bubbled in my chest as the wind twisted my hair around my face. I gathered it to one side and glanced her way. “Well, I went to the library in the pack house. I found some interesting books. I met Serene—someone who is either the most awesome old lady ever or batshit crazy. Then, I was kidnapped.”

  Embry grinned. “I was wondering if you’d mention that.”

  “You knew?” Oh, I was going to kill her.

  “Well, I didn’t have advanced notice. I heard your shouts and was going to go check on you, but Roman said I wasn’t allowed to save you or I’d be on dish duty for a year. I called him an asshole if that helps.”

  It didn’t really, but I understood why she hadn’t interfered.

  “Well, it wasn’t a total loss. I zapped the hell out of him by accident.”

  Embry tapped the brakes, but someone was behind us, so she had to keep going. “Okay, you totally should have led with that. What do you mean by ‘zapped’?”

  I shrugged. “Well, it didn’t feel like a zap to him, but it did to me. He pissed me off, and I sent him flying across the room with a shove I wouldn’t have been capable of before.”

  “Interesting. Did you only do it once?” she asked.

  I grimaced. “Unfortunately.”

  “Oh, man. This is almost too much fun.”

  “I don’t see anything fun about this situation,” I said.

  “You will. At some point. What’s important is you accessed power from the mark. We weren’t sure if you’d be capable of doing anything like that. Now, we can work on drawing it out and figuring out how you control it.”

  While I’d been curious about the power I held earlier, I wasn’t so sure now that Embry was planning on “drawing it out”. What if I couldn’t control it? The fact that there wasn’t much to go on when it came to the mark didn’t leave me super optimistic about trying again now that I’d had some time to think about it.

  “I promise nothing bad will come of it. We might not know everything, but I know enough that I wouldn’t ask you to try if I thought you were at risk of being hurt. If anything, I’m the one in danger.” She grinned, but I didn’t find her statement entertaining.

  I considered her words, and she quieted as we drove the few miles to the mill. When we arrived, she turned down a dirt road that led back to big warehouses and large machines I knew nothing about. There were various types of wood stacked everywhere and forklifts moving things around.

  She parked the jeep in front of the first building. “This is the customer area. They’re not allowed anywhere else on the property except here and the parking lot.” She pointed to a chain-link gate. “If there are big orders, trucks back up there and we bring things around.”

  “I guess privacy would be a big deal for you guys,” I said.

  “No. It’s more about insurance. We don’t need some idiot getting squished by a log because he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

  That made sense, too.

  We entered the building, and it reminded me of a hardware store. There were several rows of smaller, miscellaneous items and a wide counter toward the back wall.

  A young girl waved. “Hey, Embry.”

  “Hi, Chloe. This is Cait. She’s staying with me at the property.”

  I noticed Embry hadn’t said pack, and I wondered if they’d trained themselves not to use certain words outside of their land.

  “Oh,” was all the girl said before she busied herself with paperwork I wasn’t convinced actually needed attention.

  Embry didn’t say anything and took me around to the back. “This is my work office. I share it with Vaughn. I’m sure you can understand why I prefer the desk at my house.”

  Rumbling laughter sounded from behind us. “You know you’re secretly in love with me.”

  Embry gagged as Vaughn entered the room from another door at the back. “Only in your dreams, big guy.”

  He waggled his eyebrows and grinned wide. “Emphasis on the big.”

  I couldn’t stop my smile from growing even if I wanted to. I wondered if maybe Embry did have a crush on Vaughn. They were a lot alike. She was possibly too stubborn to admit it, though.

  “I finished the reports at home. What did you need to show me here that had you annoying me for the last hour?” Embry asked him.

  He pulled paint samples from his back pocket. “Our office is getting an upgrade. Which color do you like least?”

  She sighed. “You’ve got to be shitting me. You couldn’t have just asked me when you got back?”

  “Clearly you know nothing about design.” Vaughn walked over to the wall and spread the paint samples out. “You have to see them in the room to make the right decision.”

  Considering Vaughn was way into his motorcycle and sported a leather jacket that screamed bad boy, I wanted to say I was surprised by this side of him, but in some weird way, it made sense.

  I pointed to the soft yellow. “That one might make the two of you want to kill each other less.”

  Vaughn nodded. “Sexual frustration is a bitch. You might be onto something, Cait.”

  Embry threw her hands in the air and headed for the door. “I’m never working in this office again.”

  “Do you want to help me?” Vaughn asked.

  “I don’t actually think you need help,” I replied.

  He smirked. “Yeah, you’re right. I just wanted to annoy her.”

  “Job well done. Now, I’m going to go find her before she leaves me behind.”

  I turned for the door, but Vaughn grabbed my hand. “How is everything with Roman?”

  I did not want to talk about this with Vaughn of all people.

  “Everything is fine,” I said while taking a step closer to the door.

  He sighed. “I don’t like to get involved in other people’s business,” he said, and I tilted my head to the side with feigned shock. “Okay, maybe I do, but Roman isn’t just my alpha. He’s also one of my closest friends. If he does something stupid, all I ask is that you try to give him some grace. The two of you were raised in different worlds, and there’s bound to be some bumps in the road.”

  Vaughn released me, and I nodded. “I appreciate the advice. I’m doing my best to keep an open mind. You might want to tell him it’s not polite to kidnap people, though.”

  Vaughn’s bellowing laughter followed me as I headed back into the main part of the building. Embry was nowhere in sight, and neither was the girl who’d been at the counter. I went to the door and saw Embry waiting in the jeep.

  After climbing in, I turned to her. “So, you and Vaughn?”

  She groaned. “He’s been getting under my skin since I started working at the mill, but it’s all in fun. We’ve never hooked up, and I don’t plan on changing that fact. Ever.”

  Her comment got me thinking. She’d never talked about boyfriends before, and I hadn’t had one since I’d known her unless I counted the guy from France who followed me around for a bit.

  “Do wolves sleep around like humans? Can you get diseases?” I asked. Okay, I wasn’t really concerned with STDs. The conversation made me wonder about Roman’s past, and I tried to ignore the growing jealousy caused by thoughts of him with other women.

  “Supernaturals don’t get sick. Like ever, and that includes nasty human diseases.” Embry shuddered. “As for sleeping around, some of us do and some don’t. We don’t think of sex and virginity like humans do. It’s more of a natural thing and nothing to be ashamed of.”

  Well, that didn’t really answer my unasked question, but it wasn’t something I really needed to worry about until I decided how exactly I wanted to move forward with things.

  Roman very clearly wanted me to consider being mates with him, but he was going to have to deal with the fact that I still considered myself human and needed more time.

  “What about you? You’ve always been so quiet about the topic, and given I had a pretty big secret of my own, I never pried,” Embry said.

  “Oh, well, there have been two guys, but one was a long time ago, and the other was Francis, the guy I told you about while I was abroad.”

  She hummed. “Yes, the yummy French. Gods, his accent was delicious.”

  She wasn’t wrong about that, but he’d been too clingy, and I’d finally cut things off after a few months.

  We got back to the pack and parked the jeep. When we came out of the garage, I heard loud noises and turned around. Chunks of wood thudded to the ground, and I moved closer.

  Roman was shirtless with his back to us, chopping logs. Why he was doing that when it was hot as hell outside, I didn’t know, but I forgot every reason why I didn’t want anything to do with him.

  His muscles rippled as he lifted the axe up and slammed it down into another piece of wood. There was a large tattoo covering nearly his whole back that I hadn’t seen before. It was a twisted tree, bare of any leaves, and there were layers of depth to the drawing. The finer details, I couldn’t see, but I noticed there was a moon behind the branches with fog rolling through.

  Embry nudged me. “You’ve got a little drool on your chin.”

  Roman froze mid-strike, and I backed up quickly. Given how much I didn’t want to accept fate choosing the person I was supposed to love, I didn’t want to give Roman the wrong idea by staring. He seemed to have enough confidence without my help.

  “You’re an asshole,” I muttered, hoping Roman hadn’t seen me running off.

  She caught up and swung her arm around my shoulders. “No, I’m just telling it like it is. You can fight this all you want, but I know you and I know what I’m seeing. Things will work. I’m sure of it.”

  Unfortunately, the more she said, the more my stubborn mind wanted to fight being with Roman. I might not be quite human anymore, but I also wasn’t a wolf.

  The sooner people stopped trying to pretend otherwise, the better off we’d all be.

  17

  Cait

  I hadn’t eaten yet, so we made sandwiches at Embry’s house. She didn’t say anything else about Roman, and I was thankful. I just wanted the subject to be left alone. Things were hard enough as it was. I knew a part of me was merely being obstinate—I’d been that way my whole life—but I needed to focus on one thing at a time. Whatever was inside me seemed most pertinent.

  “So, you mentioned something about training?” I asked Embry when we were done with food.

  “You want to start today?”

  I nodded. “No time like the present.”

  “Alright, then. Go change into some workout clothes, and we’ll head out to the fields,” she said.

  “Uhh, can I borrow some workout clothes?” I’d only set foot in a gym once. I made it a whole five minutes before I’d hightailed it out of there and never turned back.

  She shook her head at me. “Just wear pajama shorts and a tank top. We won’t be doing anything crazy.”

  Thank God for that.

  I quickly changed and met her by the door. She was wearing yoga pants, a tight tank top, and had her rose-gold hair styled in a messy ponytail. Basically, she looked like a model, and I was her frumpy friend in baggy black shorts and a plain white tee. Good thing I didn’t really care what anyone here thought of me.

  “Ready?” she asked with a wide smile.

  “No and yes,” I answered honestly.

  She looped her arm through mine as we made our way out the door. “Don’t worry, friend. I promise not to do anything too crazy. This is new for all of us.”