Krissy

I changed into sweats and a t-shirt before pouring myself a shot of Jack Daniels. My kitchen, dining room and living room were all one big open space and I could see the door to the garage from my kitchen island. It was closed but I kept glancing at it as though I might see through it, everything Jase told me spinning in my head.

He thinks I'm a shifter. Or rather, that I smell like one.

I thought Jase smelled quite nice. Like the mountain forests outside of Denver when I was a kid. Did I smell like that to him?

I made a mental note to ask him just what exactly made me smell like a shifter and what other kinds of things he thought he could smell. Was the old saying about animals smelling fear a real thing for shifters?

And what if I was a shifter somehow? What did that mean for me, for my life? Would those other shifters hunting Jase come after me next? I pounded back the straight shot of whiskey, convincing myself Jase had to be mistaken, therefore I couldn't possibly be in trouble. I'm a normal human woman.

But humans aren't supposed to know about werewolves. So where does that leave Jase and I and whatever that kiss meant?

I got another tingle just thinking about that kiss. His eyes changing, that was his wolf showing. Something about me brought out the beast in him, and not just through his eyes either. I discovered in that moment I found the idea thrilling. But if I was just a human, and knowing about shifters was taboo, did that mean Jase was going to walk away when his leg healed in two hours? He'd said something about vampires, that they could make people forget things. Would he do that to me? I poured myself a second shot, gulped it down. I forced myself to focus on making something to eat. I quickly realized I had nothing to truly satisfy a carnivore's appetite. So I picked up my landline phone and dialled my favourite pizza restaurant. Hopefully an extra large Meat Lovers would hit the spot.

Jase

I called the pack's alpha, Garrett, to warn him about Malcolm and Mort. I explained the encounter this afternoon at the shop—although the trusty beta that he was, Tank had already offered his report—and the SUV on the cliff. I left out Krissy however, just as I'd promised I would.

"Where are you now? I don't recognize the phone number." Garrett tried to put alpha command in his voice.

But over the phone it was easier to resist. And he wasn't really my alpha. Not at the moment anyways. "Safe, for now. Out of sight." Then I outright lied. "Swiped the phone from someone's car."

"Can you get to Eclipse?" Garrett was persistent.

"No." With my leg healing it wasn't another total lie. "I think it best I stay put anyhow."

I could hear Garrett growl faintly. "I don't like it."

"Take my word for it." I told Garrett where he could find my bike. If he went quickly he could follow my scent trail, find the "accident" site and hopefully from there follow their scent trail. "You might try asking Parker if they approached him as well. Though that was probably a bullshit story to begin with."

Garrett agreed, begrudgingly. "I'll give your physical descriptions of them to Kylie as well."

I nodded though I knew he couldn't see me. Kylie McDaniel was a pack friend/panther shifter/hacker extraordinaire. If anyone could dig up more information about the two traffickers, it was most definitely Kylie.

When I assured Garrett he couldn't change my mind about staying put he hung up. My wolf snorted, feeling triumphant. Just because I didn't see myself leading, didn't mean my wolf was quite ready to be led.

I examined my healing leg again, tested it by bending my knee and flexing my thigh muscles. The cuts were nothing more than red marks, my ribs no longer sore. When flexing didn't twinge any pain, I decided to try putting some weight on it. I slid my backside over to the edge of the downed tailgate, dangling my legs over, which were long enough to touch the floor. Bracing myself I slowly rose to my feet. There was still some pain, but it was manageable. I really should have chosen to leave then.

Krissy's doorbell rang and a moment later the aroma of pizza drifted into the garage. My empty stomach growled.

Krissy

While I waited the standard thirty minutes for the pizza and salad I'd ordered to be delivered, I'd opened up my laptop to find something to watch online. I ended up picking a nature documentary about wolves. I just couldn't help myself. I was embarrassed enough to use my ear buds, for fear of how good a werewolf's hearing might be.

When the doorbell finally rang I left my computer open on the coffee table. I paid for the food, set it on the kitchen island to grab a plate for Jase, a fork for myself, and a couple bottles of water from the fridge.

I yelped when I turned back around. Jase was standing by the sofa, grinning from ear to ear. Not the least bit uncomfortable being bare chested and in scrubs too short at the leg and snug enough to plainly outline his manhood.

I narrowed my eyes at him, channeling the adrenaline rush into indignation. "You were just checking out my ass."

The smile never waned. "Just getting reacquainted with what you were showing me last night."

I flushed in spite of myself. "So you were watching me dance."

"Just like you wanted me too."

He had me there, so I changed the subject. "I hope you like pizza."

I brought everything over to the coffee table and realized the laptop was still open on the paused wolf documentary. Lucky for me, Jase couldn't see the screen from where he was standing, so I casually closed it when I sat down on the sofa.

I gestured to the space next to me. "Maybe you should stay off your feet for a while longer. Just to be safe."

Jase gave me a mock salute and plopped down next to me. He opened the square box and perused the contents. Taking three slices at once, he stacked them like a sandwich. Half the stack disappeared in one massive bite. He nodded his approval at what remained in his hand, but quickly frowned when he looked over and saw me nibbling from the salad in my lap.

"Is that all you're having?" He asked around a mouthful.

I frowned back. "That a problem for you?"

Jase swallowed. His frown remained. "Only if you're doing it because you think you need to lose weight or some bullshit like that. You're sexy as hell just as you are."

My face softened a little at the end compliment. "I'm not trying to lose weight."

"Are you a vegetarian?"

"No, not really. I mean, I still eat eggs and dairy. I'll have chicken or fish occasionally. I just don't like red meat."

Jase glanced down at the remaining pizza. "Oh."

"Oh! Don't worry, it doesn't bother me that you eat it! Circle of life and all that." I offered him a reassuring smile.

After a short hesitation, Jase sandwiched three more slices together, but he turned away from me slightly and ate them hurriedly in silence.

I nibbled a little more of my salad before speaking up. "What's on your mind, Jase?"

He scratched the back of his head. "It's just…I've never met a shifter that wasn't a tried and true carnivore."

My heart sank a little. "Oh."

He turned his hulking frame back around to face me head on. "Tell me more about yourself. I want to know everything about you."

I laughed, feeling shy. "I don't know where to start."

"The beginning is always a good place."

There was something in Jase's eyes, an eagerness, even a yearning to know everything he could about me. When I thought about it, I felt the same for him. He'd already shared possibly his biggest secret with me, so who was I to deny him some of myself in return?

"Well, I grew up outside of Denver…in a convent."

Jase's eyebrows rose. "Like nuns and stuff?"

I smirked and nodded. "Nuns, crosses, holy communion, confession, all that is Catholic."

Jase looked away and his mouth fell open. He started to chuckle and I slapped him lightly against his naked chest. "I don't mean to laugh but I just can't picture it. Even looking around here I don't see any of it."

"I don't follow the faith anymore. Not since I was able to leave the convent at eighteen. Maybe I stopped a little bit before. Like sixteen ."

"What happened when you were sixteen?"

I chewed my bottom lip, focused on the salad I still held in my lap. "Lost my virginity."

Jase lifted my chin with a gentle finger, concern flashing in his eyes. "By your own choice I hope."

I reached up and touched his hand. It was cute that he worried over my honour. "Yes. Call it teenaged rebellion. Truthfully I only did it to prove that I could without being struck down by lightning or whatever." I rolled my eyes at the memory. From the motley gang of horny teenaged boys hoping to strike gold with a fabled naughty Catholic girl, I somehow found the boy who was quiet and rather sweet. We danced around the subject of sex for a couple of months before the day it happened. He was nervous and fumbling the whole time. Newsflash, we were both virgins until it was over. It wasn't a very romantic or moving experience. The only thing that made it memorable was just how bad it had been. I didn't have sex again until I was in university. None of the few times I'd had sex since that first time were much better. When I really assessed them all, none of those were better than the sensation of simply kissing Jase.

Sorry, not sorry, every other guy.

"I always felt out of place going to Catholic school." I said out loud. "But there aren't many places for an orphaned girl to go."

"Orphaned." Jase echoed, not really surprised by my admission. "Did you know your parents at all?"

"No. From what the sisters told me, my mother showed up already in labour and in distress. She'd refused to go to a hospital. They did what they could but she died a few hours after I was born." I told Jase what little I knew about my mother, which was everything the nuns could remember from the few hours they were with her and what they could interpret from the contents of the single backpack she'd carried.

Her name was Annabelle Scott. She'd travelled to Denver most likely from California: indicated by bus tickets in her bag. She was an artist: there was charcoal and a sketchbook with half its pages torn out and one beautifully rendered drawing of horses in a field. She was also possibly an aspiring photographer. She had red hair and green eyes just like me and it seemed like her favourite colour was purple, if her sparse clothing was any indication.

I set down my now empty container and left the sofa to retrieve a small picture frame. I handed it to Jase as I sat back down next to him. The photo inside was a worn Polaroid of my mother, about eight months pregnant with whom I could only assume was me. The Golden Gate Bridge was in the background.

Jase smiled softly. "You look like her. Any idea who took the photo?"

I shook my head. "It's possible she took it herself. You could get those cameras with a timer."

"You weren't tempted to go into art yourself?"

I crinkled my nose. "I don't think artistry is genetic. Or if it is, it skipped me. My brain liked biology. Medicine. Maybe I'm more like my father that way."

"You put yourself through veterinary school?"

A shrug. "Didn't have much choice if I wanted to go."

"How did you end up in Tucson?"

"Took a road trip after graduation. Decided to follow the Rockies down to New Mexico. Then I dunno…musta taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque." I held an imaginary carrot to the corner of my mouth.

Jase tsked my poor impersonation.

I flicked my tongue at him and laughed. "The real truth of it is, I don't know why I ended up here. Maybe I just needed less snow."

Jase reached over and hugged me against him, satisfied with my candour.

Briefly I closed my eyes, willing whatever Jase so adorably called mojo to peek at his leg. Astonishingly, it was like the break never happened.

Wow. Shifters really do heal fast. Faster than even Jase estimated.

Feeling a surge of relief, I snuggled into him, soaking in his warmth and security. I wasn't bothered anymore that his chest was bare.

"What about you?" I murmured against him.

"Hmm?"

He looked down at me and I craned my neck to look back.

"Being a werewolf isn't the only thing worth knowing about you. Not for me."

I gave him my sweetest smile, hoping to curb any hesitation.

Jase

The red-headed little minx knew how to wrap me around her finger, I had to admit. She settled back, forehead nuzzled against my neck.

"I hear the beginning is always a good place to start." She teased.

I chuckled and gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Touché."

I propped my nearly healed leg up on the coffee table.

"My father was our alpha. We weren't a very large pack, only two other families. We ran an orange grove outside of San Bernardino. There's a national park right there, ideal for a wolf needing to run."

Krissy's shoulder tensed under my hand. "Was? Ran? Past tense?"

A heaviness, unrelated to Krissy's form leaning into me, weighed my chest. "When I was a pup, ten years old, there was a fire. My mother woke me in the middle of the night, the house filling with smoke. She got me out and ordered me to run through the grove and keep going. I wasn't to stop until I couldn't run anymore. She wanted me to hide wherever it was I stopped and promised to come find me when the fire was out. That night was the last time I saw anyone from my pack."

"You were the only one who made it?" Krissy croaked. "What happened to you afterwards?"

"I had shifted into the pup I still was, when I ran. Found an abandoned foxhole. I stayed hidden, waiting, for three days. When another pack came to investigate the fire they found my scent trail and followed it to me."

Krissy clung to me. "You must have been so scared."

"No more than a four year old girl would be, faced with a mountain lion." I kissed the top of her head.

"Losing your pack, your family?" Her voice cracked. "That loss hurts more than any bite. I can't miss what I never knew."

I nodded to the photo of Krissy's mom. "I think you do miss her, deep down."

Krissy inhaled and exhaled a quivering breath.

I went on to tell her what happened after I was found.

The neighbouring pack chose to send me out of California, all the way up to Jasper, Alberta in the Canadian Rockies. The pack there was good to me, prepared me for life as a shifter. But after I hit puberty and my alpha traits started to take shape, I started to sew my wild oats. They encouraged me to consider venturing out, to start a pack of my own. I stayed until I turned twenty-one. I made my way back south over the border. Back to California. The grove and our homes had been completely wiped out, nothing ever replacing it in the years that followed, like an unmarked graveyard.

"You hadn't been told everything about the fire as a boy." Krissy surmised.

"I needed to try to understand. To make peace with it if I could."

Krissy sat up and gazed into my face. "Did you?"

"Somebody wanted something from my father." Anger rose from my belly. "Once they had it, they covered their tracks."

Remorse for me in her eyes, Krissy eased her arms around my neck and pressed her temple to mine. My anger faded.

"The other pack sent you away to protect you." She affirmed. "Any idea what it was your father had?"

"I was just a kid." I squeezed my eyes closed against the memories. "All I cared about was playing outside."

She pulled away. "I am so sorry to have asked you to relive it all."

I captured her face in my hands, forcing her to lock eyes. "It's always there. You didn't cause any pain I wasn't already feeling."

I tried to gage Krissy's reaction. I thought she might have wanted me to kiss her.

Instead I allowed my hands to drop when she pulled them away from her face and she stood up.

"Did you want to eat anymore?" She gestured to the remains of the pizza.

I shook my head no, so she busied herself with cleaning up. "You wanna watch a movie or something? You should stay off your feet a little longer."

I did my best to hide a smirk. She wanted me to stick around. She was trying to play coy about it, but my wolf senses ratted her out. I wasn't really in any hurry to leave myself. My wolf was ready to move in for moon's sake!

So I played it nonchalant. "Sure. Whatever you want to watch is cool."

Krissy returned to the sofa and picked up her laptop before reclaiming her spot right next to me.

I resisted the temptation to pull her into my lap.

When she opened the screen, I caught her little gasp and flying fingers across the mousepad. I briefly saw the nature footage of actual wolves on the screen before Krissy hastily exited the video. I choked on the laugh that threatened to escape my throat and had to cough instead.

She's trying to do her homework.

I didn't really pay attention to whatever movie Krissy had chosen, and neither did she; she was asleep within fifteen minutes.

Nestled against me, I had the perfect view of all her lovely angles.

She was at my mercy and my wolf stirred.

At some point before dinner she'd finally let her hair out of its restraints. With that simple action her heady seasonal scent had intensified, and now in the isolation of her home, it was hard to focus on anything else.

I had to adjust my cock in the unforgiving scrubs.

It was boiling to the point where I would have to make a choice. Either I would lock myself away from her…or I would claim her.