Page 11 of Outcast
Softly, I hummed an old tune that my mother used to sing to me about finding your true love.
Seemed fitting.
Ten minutes later, the platter was ready, and she walked back in and grabbed it, heading out to the dining hall without a word to me.
Grabbing my whiskey, I downed the remainder of it, enjoying the burn it left in its wake, and smiled. In my heart, I knew my words to her rang true, or else I wouldn’t have made such a proclamation. I was ready for this shift to happen already so I could kiss her senseless once more without this chasm between us that her fears kept in place.
Fireworks would explode when there was nothing separating us any longer.
Chapter Five
Kira
That annoyingly amazingman managed to light a spark of hope within me with his words before reality crashed back down on me with the weight of the world behind it. That brief moment of imagining the life we could build together, before reminding myself it could never happen, practically tore my heart open to bleed all over the floor between us.
I felt the conviction in his words when he spoke them, so I knew he truly believed it possible. Unfortunately, he seemed to have forgotten that a human has never been a fated mate for a wolf. That just isn't how it works.
My mind reeled, thinking about everything I had picked up along my life in the pack about mate bonds, all of it conflicting with Milo’s confidence in us. Though, if I was honest with myself, everything I felt for Milo was what the wolves said fated mates would feel for each other.
I couldn’t maintain my fake smile any longer with all of this on my mind, so I hurried to make my rounds again, ignoring the sneers from the women and the leering looks of the men.
What’re they going to do, kill me? Yeah right. Jameson wouldn’t let anyone rob him of the pleasure.
A light scoff escaped my throat, before my thoughts drifted back to mate bonds.
The way I’d heard it described was that each shifter was born with dual souls—one being their human one, and one belonging to their wolf. A shifter’s wolf soul was always within them but stayed dormant until their twenty-first birthday, when it merged with their human soul, the two becoming entwined in harmony.
The Goddess always blessed the packs with a fertile period of the year, so that each generation was born within the same month. This allowed each generation to go through their shift under the same full moon and establish the pecking order immediately amongst themselves. And tonight was the shifting moon for our generation.
I sighed wistfully, lost in thoughts of first shifts and fated mates as I walked back into the kitchen, my tray empty once again. The sudden appearance of a rock solid chest in my path knocked the breath from my lungs as I smacked into it. Strong hands gripped my shoulders to steady me, and my free hand flew out in front of me, landing on a chiseled abdomen.
“Miss me, Kitten?”
Fuck.
I disentangled myself from Seth’s arms with a soft sigh and placed the tray between us, needing space from his heady cedar scent and the feel of his clearly incredible physique.
Giving him a once over, I tried to paint a look of indifference on my face, but he made it difficult with that damned smirk, as if he knew exactly what he did to me. His eyes practically danced with challenge, and everything in me wanted to accept. It felt like every nerve ending in my body lit up, wanting to prove he didn’t scare me.
This man was a dangerous temptation, one that I knew would use and abuse me mentally before spitting me back out, a shell of a human, constantly craving that unhealthy toxicity.
Why was it always the ones that you justknewwould damage you irrevocably that you were drawn to? Was it the thrill of knowing it would be full of passion before it ultimately combusted in your face, leaving you in pieces?
Whatever it was, I needed to stay as far away from him as possible.
He tilted his head in amusement at my silent treatment and gave me a once over before saying, “I’m going to take your silence as a yes. You must have missed me so much that the ability to form words escapes you.”
My lips pinched together before I shook my head and answered, “Did you know that I really don’t like you?”
Once again, my ire washed over him, not phasing him in the least. He stepped back into my space and whispered, “That’s not what your scent tells me,” before walking away as the alpha yelled for everyone's attention.
Fucking wolves and their sense of smell. Just because my traitorous vagina liked him, didnotmean that I did.
There was more to life than physical attraction.
I pushed through the gathered crowd and walked to the back of the room to stand in a shadowed corner. Tucking a strand of hair that had blown into my face behind my ear, I eyed the alpha as Jameson stood next to him looking pained. Anxious energy rolled off him in waves as his jaw clenched and grinded.
The juxtaposition of their features made it near impossible to tell the two were related at all. The only thing they had in common was their tall frames and broad shoulders, but that’s where their similarities ended.
