After a moment of enduring the awkward silence radiating between us, I finally muster the courage to ask, "Are you angry?" My eyes flick over his blank face. It didn't look angry per se, but it certainly didn't look like the face of a man who was on a date with his mate. "No, I'm just nervous." I'm taken aback by this."Why?""Because I want to be your mate very badly, and I'm trying really hard to not mess anything up. I'm worried Carla gave you the wrong idea." I find myself smiling at the sidewalk. He wasn't angry with me; he was just nervous. I never thought I'd have an Alpha of a pack nervous over me. It made me feel... funny.We walk in silence again for a moment. It looks like we're coming up on the center of downtown. "Where are we going? And what food did you get? You don't even know what I like.""Don't worry." Is all Ike says. It's clearly too late for that. "So. Cleo." He grabs my hand again, intertwining our fingers together. I look up at him, waiting for him to continue

"Do you have any siblings? Can I know that?" She rolls her eyes at my continued questioning but has a smile on her face."I have one, a brother.""Where is he?"She shrugs, picking up her grilled cheese again. "Dunno. I haven't seen him in a very long time. I hope he's okay though.""Younger or older?""Older. By six years.""What is his name?""Charlie." She smiles at the memory of him. "He was a warrior in my old pack. I always remember thinking he was so tough.""Was he a panther?""No. I was the only one blessed with that gene." Her tone is dry and sarcastic, and she rolls her eyes."I think you look at it in the wrong light.""What?" She raises a brow at me, and I shake my head at how clear it is that she truley hates what she is."You, being a panther. You see it as such a bad thing. Why? I think it's interesting, to say the very least. I've met a couple panthers before, but never got the chance to ask them anything. I've heard panthers are different from wolves and I would love

"I don't know what he's thinking, giving her that many clients, she'll only..." My cubicle neighbor Amanda is droning on about some new girl that the boss likes more than her, definitely because of her ass and not because she went to business school and actually shows up to work on time. We're sitting at one of the round plastic tables in the break room, both of us relaxing for a moment after eating our lunch and before returning to our desks. I'm barely listening to her though. I'm stuck on Ike's Instagram again, just like I had been since our date. "Holy shit, are you smiling?" I hear Amanda exclaim suddenly. I look away from my phone then to meet her bright blue eyes. I think for a moment. Amanda and I aren't exactly bff's, but we eat lunch together every once in a while, and sometimes go to the gym together. She was nice to me from the very beginning, showing me where the "good" coffee pods were when I first started here and telling me who not to trust in the office. She's human

By the time I got back home my anger had fizzled down to just plain ole sadness. What was I going to do? I needed a job, one that paid enough to take care of all my expenses. I was alone. I had no one to fall back onto if I came up short on rent. I would just be kicked out of my home. But considering the fact that I wasn't actually a legal citizen, it made finding something as good as my last gig kind of hard.I looked around my house then, taking it in. It wasn't a big place, one bedroom and one bathroom. But I liked it. I had a soft brown couch I had snagged from a flea market for only a hundred bucks, a flat screen TV I had bought from someone at work, posters on the wall, plants hanging from windows and tucked into corners. I had food in the fridge, all the things I liked and wanted. There were clothes in the closet, clothes I bought myself with my own money.I liked my life as it was. It wasn't particularly interesting, but it was comfortable and made me feel safe. But without a j

Her lips taste like watermelon.Her hair feels like silk as I intertwine it in my fingers.I love the way her soft flesh feels as I squeeze handfuls of her butt in my hands.God, her breathy moans make my dick hard. I can feel myself losing control as I grab a handful of her hair and yank her head back, forcing her to expose her neck to me. I growl as I begin nipping and sucking on her soft skin. My teeth graze just above her collar bone, right at the spot where I will leave my mark on her one day. The mark that tells everyone who she belongs to. The mark that will bind our souls together.My wolf begs me to sink my teeth into her. The smell of her arousal is driving us both fucking insane. The thought of taking her here and now makes me dig my fingers even harder into her ass cheeks. I'm struggling to control myself, and she isn't helping as she begins grinding against me."Cleo." I force out, letting go of her hair and instead grabbing either side of her face. Her eyes are wide and w