*
Kira’s eyes rolled to the clock once again. She’d been checking it every five minutes since she started her shift. She’d been more than a little disappointed when Gabe hadn’t picked her up for work. He’d apparently been out on a call. So instead it was Jake who drove her. Kira had tried to probe Jake about what Gabe was doing but the serious wolf would not be drawn. Gabe did actually text her and apologized but promised he would collect her from the Diner later.
Jake could sense her discomfort, at being so hot and bothered, but merely raised an eyebrow, gave a knowing glance at the mark Gabe had placed on her skin and stayed silent. Kira was thankful it was Jake. If it had been Mac the she-wolf would have prodded until Kira gave in and told her everything. Jake at least was reserved and respectful of her privacy.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want people to know that she and Gabe were going to bond. Sooner than Gabe realized. But she was a little antsy about them knowing that she seemed to be going through a particularly strong mating pull.
The mating pull referred to something that happened to shifters after they met their true mate and lasted up until they bonded. It was nature trying to force mates to be together. It affected shifters in different ways.
From talking to Jolene she had discovered that the Beta of their pack had apparently tried to strangle a friend of his mate when he got too close to her. Like the Beta some nearly combusted with the need to mate while others found it to be a slow smolder. It kind of depended on the ferocity of the wolf inside. Until today Kira would have firmly put herself in the latter category but apparently her wolf doesn’t have that much patience… The desire to be with her mate had been blossoming and now it was a full grown flower desperate to be picked!
She wondered how Gabe coped with the need to be with her. Was his need for her as great as hers for him? The way her sex fluttered and liquid heat poured through her veins she found it hard to believe. He was always so cool so calm, she just wanted to find him and rub herself all over him, she wanted to smooth her hands down his taut body and kiss every inch of him…
“Everything alright Kira?”
Kira started as she found Deedee stood beside her with a curious look on her face. Kira had been gripping a spoon in her hand so hard that she had managed to bend it in half.
Kira plastered a smile on her face to hide her heated embarrassment. “Fine… umm don’t know my own strength!”
Deedee nodded, gave her a strange look and ambled back to the kitchen. Kira rushed to the bathroom and splashed water over her heated face. Looking in the mirror she was shocked at her appearance, her eyes looked downright wild!
Yes she’d always felt the pull of the full moon, since she was 19 she’d always shared the same urges as her fellow wolves. The desire to hunt and mate. But since the best forgotten full moon where she lost her virginity she’d always kept herself in check and now here she was virtually having a meltdown.
Maybe it was worse because of her burgeoning Omega powers. Before she’d always thought they offered protection from feeling the more extreme cravings of her wolf. But now that the floodgates were open… She felt a thirst inside that only her mate could quench. Her wolf wagged her tail and yipped.
Only a few more hours and Gabe would be here. If she could just last that long she would be in the arms of her mate and everything would feel better. Yep, keep telling yourself that.
*
Acksel Lucas, the pack’s Chief Enforcer sniffed the trap again. He had shifted to wolf form in the hopes that his heightened senses would detect something, or anything, from the bear trap.
The wolf whined and pulled away. Other than the scent of the deer that had been unfortunate enough to get caught in the trap he found wolfsbane. Painful in small doses to wolf shifters but toxic in large doses.
Acksel shimmered back to his human form and gladly pulled on the coat Gabe held out to him. He rubbed his hands together. “Wolfsbane.”
Adam looked at him sharply. “You’re sure.”
Acksel nodded. “It’s faint but it’s there.”
Alec stepped away as his phone buzzed.
Earlier in the day one of his Enforcers, a young wolf called Felicity had called in that she’d found an illegal trap whilst out on patrol. To Acksel’s annoyance it wasn’t that unusual. The pack owned a large area of private woodland. Over the years numerous human hunters and come and gone wishing to hunt on their land. The humans often ventured into the pack’s territory and set traps. It was infuriating. The traps could be lethal to the shifters who often ran through the territory as their wolves. Females or pups could easily be caught in them and they could bleed to death before anyone found them.