“Okay.Food now.”
Food.The beast turned its head and sniffed.Its nose picked up on something coppery, fresh, with an inviting sweet grassiness.Its stomach grumbled, and the ache there seemed all-consuming.
Morlie could only think of searching out what smelled so delicious.
The wolf bounded off the bed, landed on its paws, and tilted to the side briefly before the beast got its body to move forward.Her wolf’s legs felt solid but strange and wobbly to a certain degree.
Easy.Being steady on your feet will take some getting used to.Chanin quickly matched the wolf’s slow, awkward gait as he rubbed a hand along the animal's back.
It seemed he couldn’t help but touch her wolf, and it loved having him touch it.
Morlie felt the difference of his touch over the fur.
Fur.The thought of it blew her mind.She knew mating with Chanin and agreeing to receive his bite would change her into a wolf, like the others in his pack.Before, she couldn’t process what it would be like.Or how it would feel.Morlie realized she should have asked more questions of her friends and Chanin.It was too late now.She was in it and would have to learn on the go.
Right now, the wolf led and was more interested in following its nose to a meal.
“Evening, Alpha.I got everything you need—”
The wolf barked.It smelled the person before the beast’s gaze locked onto the small-framed, human female standing in the center of the kitchen.Rudie smiled at the wolf and stepped toward Chanin.
He needed?Her wolf growled and launched in the young woman’s direction.The wolf’s feet went out from under her on the tile floor, and she found herself skidding on her side into the cabinets by the stove.A part of her was embarrassed by her ungraceful display, but it didn’t stop Morlie from snapping her jaw at the other female.
Mate,Chanin chided gently but in his leader-like tone.Her wolf’s ears picked up on the tone Morlie heard him use on others, which never brokered any argument and caused them to heel.
Her wolf heeled but crouched, ready to attack if given a chance.
Morlie knew the other woman was Chanin’s assistant, but right now, she didn’t care about Rudie’s position in the pack.Instead, Morlie’s wolf was more concerned with sniffing out the actual relationship between its mate and the woman.
Rudie’s smile didn’t waver.“A little unsteady still, I see.”
Why do I smell you on her?Morlie directed her question at Chanin.
The beast drew up its upper lip and snarled at the young, pretty woman, letting Chanin know it was not pleased with the situation.
Do you have two mates like Bleddyn?
For a brief moment, the wolf shifted its gaze from the woman still standing calm, for some strange reason, in the middle of Chanin’s kitchen and fastened them on Chanin’s soul-shaking, blue ones.
If you do, I will not stand for it.I can’t share you,Morlie declared.
The aching truth in those words took some of the bite out of her.She knew Chanin didn’t know much about her, that they hadn’t had a chance to talk in the days she’d been there, but in her life, she never had anything...nothing that belonged solely to her.
Chanin cupped her wolf’s head in his big grasp, holding it in place so he could search deep into Morlie’s eyes in the shadows.He began,I.Only.Have.One.Mate.You.
Could his words be true?Morlie wanted to believe him, but the same woodsy, earthy scent that saturated her body was light, but she noted it on the woman.But she speaks to you like a mate.Mentally—
He shook his head, cutting her off.“Rudie carries my scent because she is family.My family.”
“Ah.She picked up on that already, did she?She may not be the average new wolf.”Rudie’s voice interrupted.
However, before Morlie’s wolf could show the assistant its canines, Chanin angled the beast’s head toward the other woman.
“Look,” he ordered.
Rudie appeared even smaller now that she was squatting just out of snagging reach from Morlie’s wolf.However, the woman held one bare arm out with her fingers curled in a relaxed fist.
The wolf’s keen eyes zeroed in on what Rudie must have been trying to show: a small bite mark on her wrist.Chanin’s bite on her.
