Patient Mates(4)

Kira sighed and flopped on her dilapidated couch. When she returned to Charming the welcome she received had been less than friendly.

The Alpha of the pack was a little old fashioned and was furious at her for leaving without permission. He said if she ever wanted to rejoin the pack she needed to prove her loyalty and show that she had left any rogue tendencies behind.

A wolf is considered a rogue when they have no pack. But in truth a real rogue is a wolf who spends too much time as their animal, and loses their humanity. Admittedly over the past two years in order to survive Kira had spent more time in fur than in skin. Towards the end of her vengeance fuelled journey she was finding it a little difficult to act normal around humans. She shuddered thinking that she might have turned fully rogue and been trapped in her wolf form forever. As much as she loved her inner animal she could never entertain the thought of fully giving herself over to her primal instincts. They were neither human nor beast, they were both. Her she-wolf barked in agreement.

Before leaving Kira had been living with her sister and brother in law Joseph. It hadn’t exactly been ideal, for one thing they were a new couple who wanted their privacy and for another she and Joseph did not get on.

When she came back the Alpha was adamant that Kira not be permitted to live on pack land. She had to earn that right. This meant she was not allowed to live with her sister. Kira was a little miffed that Lilah didn’t protest this. But to be honest Lilah had barely even spoken to her since she came back. The looks Lilah had thrown her whenever they saw each other had been positively arctic.

So instead Kira was renting a pokey apartment above the town grocery store. She woke up every morning at 4am when the deliveries came. It sucked.

Lilah must have been pretty damn angry at her. Since they were kids and realized they were both Omegas they had always shared their feelings with one another, but now Lilah was closed off. Not that it would have mattered if she wasn’t, since going a little rogue Kira had struggled to maintain her abilities, her powers had all but dried up. Another side effect of spending too much time as a beast.

Kira had tried apologizing but she could never get Lilah alone, Joseph was always there pouring scorn on her words. The sisters just couldn’t connect anymore. Maybe they’d grown apart too far.

She soon realized that the Alpha was never going to let her rejoin the pack. He was a strict son of a bitch and didn’t like the idea of any other wolf under his power getting it into their head that they could just leave whenever they wanted. Control freak.

The only reason she was hanging around was for Lilah, but her sister didn’t even want to see her. She couldn’t even pry Lilah away from Joseph for more than a second.

Angry jealousy shot through Kira. She hated the idea that Lilah preferred Joseph to her, that she chose Joseph over her. Her wolf snarled. She’d always hated the male wolf. Yes she knew it was silly to feel this way but she didn’t care.

Kira stomped into the bathroom and splashed cold water on her heated cheeks, washing away the tears that had escaped.

She should leave. There was nothing for her here. She could just go home to her family. After two years of being alone she needed to be around people who cared for her, people who would welcome her with open arms. She wasn’t going to find that here.

Then again she could go back to Rose...

The wolf yipped excitedly at that thought. Crazy beast. Although, Rose was in the same state as Charming, she would still be fairly close to Charming. Not too close that she’d have to worry about running into any of the Charming pack but closer than if she went back to New Mexico. It might ease her guilt about leaving Lilah again.

The more she thought about returning to Rose the happier she became. She was a little surprised at herself. What happened in Rose was hardly a high point of her life but there was something about the place that warmed her.

Her apartment was already paid up until the end of the month; she hadn’t been able to find a job yet. Not easy when the subject of what she’d been doing the last two years came up during interviews.

Yes, she should go to Rose. The Rose pack had been kind to her. Despite a rocky start she had soon warmed to them. She’d enjoyed meeting Mac and Carly the Omega, not to mention the Alpha Adam and also Gabe...

Her wolf pranced around. Silly puppy.

Kira felt a twinge of guilt about Lilah but her mind was made up. Tomorrow she would tell her twin she was leaving and then she would reach out to Adam about joining his pack in Rose.

Glancing at the clock it was now 3am. One hour before the delivery trucks arrived. She slunk into bed and pulled the covers around her tightly, grateful that this was the last night she would spend in Charming.