Page 48 of Untamed

He’s been pushing the DNA test, and I agree with him. Asking my Mom and Dad to do that for me, though, is another thing entirely. It’ll hurt them, I’m sure of it. Shifters are proud beings, and my parents have already had to deal with this shit enough. What will having their own daughter asking for proof do to them?

He reaches out, tugs on my arm, and tugs me into his lap. I dust my hands off behind his back before wrapping my hands around him. He sniffs my neck. “You smell amazing.”

“It’s the dirt,” I tell him, biting my lip as he kisses a trail over the curve of my throat.

He chuckles into my ear. “It’s you, Kinsey.” He runs his palm up and down my back. It’s been hard to keep our hands off of each other after we broke that first time. “If I could do it again, I wouldn’t put you in here.”

We both know it wasn’t just him. It was the Pack Council, too. If they object to a match, they put through the same paperwork, and it doesn’t matter what the fated pairs want. Sure, he did it, and he’s apologized, but he was never the biggest problem. I’ve been holding my thoughts in about all this, but I’m bursting at the seams.

I pull back. “Can I talk to you about something?” He retreats and nods, so I blow out a breath. “Don’t you think it’s wrong that the Pack Council has so much say in pairings? If it’s fated to be this way, what can they even object to?”

He swallows. Jonah is very pack oriented, and it’s hard for him to see another way. I’ve been watching him wrestle with this, and I don’t envy him. I’m predisposed not to trust other people, but he’s basically a pack cheerleader, an enforcer. He’ll be the one keeping all of Lunar safe, so to think that something might be rotten internally is a big deal to him. “That’s how it’s always been.”

“But it hasn’t, though,” I tell him. “You know the history as well as I do. They only started instituting this when the packs started to die off.”

“And it worked,” Jonah cuts in.

“Did it? Maybe it was all coincidence. It’s wrong for us to believe that we know better than fate.”

Jonah’s lips thin. “I’m going to say something, but I want to make it clear first that I don’t think this is about you. Just as there are bad humans, there are bad shifters.”

I tune him out. I know where he’s going with this. It’s what we were told when we were young. They’re weeding out the bad apples. I stare down at my garden and the little pile of seeds I have. Some of these seeds won’t make it. Some of them might grow only to get an illness and die. But does that mean that they shouldn’t get a chance to live? Not planting them just because they might die seems like messing with fate too much for me.

He cups my chin and forces my gaze to his again. “I’m sorry, Kinsey. I don’t know what to believe in every case, but I know what to believe in this one. You were made for me. I have zero doubt fate got it right with us.”

His words make the hair on my neck stand at attention. I’ll be much more appreciative of his endearments as soon as we’re out from under the shade of Greystone Academy because right now, words do little else than make me feel good. I need more. I need the hell out of this academy.

“I’ll get you out,” he promises.

I smile at him, holding back. “Just be careful what you say to who, Big Guy.”

He wraps his fist around my hair and tugs me to him, lifting his hips at the same time so I can feel his erection. “No one is taking you from me.”

I bite my lip. Turned on is a constant state for us now. Fate keeps moving forward no matter where we are. We’ve been connecting in dreams where we fuck like rabbits. At least, I’m pretty sure it’s not purely in my imagination because if it is, I’m kinky as fuck, and I didn’t know it.

Voices drift toward us, and I glance up to find Mia and Nathan walking our way. I scramble off Jonah’s lap, and he pouts. “It’s hurtful to them,” I say quickly before my two friends approach. “Hey, guys, come to help me with my garden?”

Mia laughs. “No, we wanted to make sure you weren’t going to work through dinner again.”

Jonah’s eyeing Nathan with a hard stare, and I almost crack a smile. “Jonah, this is my friend Nathan. He’s from Daybreak like Mia.”

Jonah stands to his full height. He’s taller than Nathan by a few inches. Of course he is, he’s taller than most people. “Hello,” he greets, though it sounds more like a death knell than a welcome.

Nathan glares at me, and I can’t keep a grin off my face. When he turns to Jonah, he hints at a smile. “Good to meet you, man. You’ve got a good wolf there.”

“I know.”

I press on Mia’s shoe to get her attention. When she peers down at me, I gesture toward the school and plead with her using my eyes. Understanding dawns right away. She grabs Nathan’s arm. “Come on, we’ll meet Kinsey there. We didn’t know she already had company.”

“Bye,” I call after them. “See you soon.”

Jonah turns back at me with menacing, yellow eyes. “I could take him.”

I have no doubt about that. Jonah’s a beast, and Nathan doesn’t seem like the fighting type. I cock my head. “Hmm.” I pretend to think anyway because I love it when he gets all possessive.

Jonah leans over and scoops me into his arms. “Choose your words wisely, Little Mate.”

I love poking the wolf. Secretly, I think he loves it, too. He enjoys treading that fine line. “Maybe you should prove it to me with your stellar skills.”

---