Chapter 2

Lauren

I toggled the light switch off and on three times.

“Kylie, we're going to be late. Let's go,” I signed.

She scowled at me and gave an inappropriate gesture back.

Sighing, I left the hotel we were staying in and walked out to the car and sat in it waiting for her.

My little sister had begged me not to come with her, but she'd never flown on a plane before, and I had to make sure she arrived safely. So I drove her here myself, all the way across the country. I just wasn't ready to let her go.

Kylie was four years younger than me. When she was five and I was nine, our family had gone out for a day of boating on the Hudson River. I had loved every second of it, but a drunken boater had turned its course at the last second and drove headfirst into our boat. My parents had been below deck at the time and their bodies were found downstream three days later.

My sister had been thrown from the boat, and I'd spent what seemed like hours and was probably only minutes searching for her. She'd lost consciousness, though rescue workers had been able to revive her.

I never really understood what went wrong or how it happened, but somewhere in the midst of the accident she'd lost her hearing. The human doctors told us she had an eighty-three decibels loss and was deaf.

We were wolf shifters, and even as children our hearing was far superior to that of humans. We relied on it for our survival, and here was my baby sister who couldn’t hear. It made her so vulnerable. I'd known it even though I was just a child myself.

My aunt said my natural maternal instincts had kicked in that day right there in the hospital. We may have grown up living with her, but I was Kylie's protector and her caretaker. I watched after my sister like a mama bear guards her cub. Maybe even a little too much.

I'd talked to every doctor I could and read everything I could get my hands on.

She'd been a candidate for Cochlear implants to give her back some of her hearing, but after careful consideration our Alpha helped me see how dangerous that could be. We had no way to know what a device like that would do when she started to shift.

Even at ten years old I'd understood his concerns. It would have been even more horrific had we given her the illusion of hearing only to have it ripped away from her once more when she finally shifted for the first time.

So instead, I learned American Sign Language and taught it to Kylie as well as anyone in the Pack who showed the slightest interest.

We weren't textbook perfect with it, but over the years Kylie and I had found our own ways to communicate, sort of like our own secret language.

For high school I'd even managed to get her into one of the best deaf schools in New York City. Maybe that had been a mistake. All of her friends there were human. She was closer to them than anyone in our Pack, well, except for me.

They'd put this idea of college in her head. All of her friends were going to Gallaudet University, so that had been her first choice too. After discussing with Matt Snyder, our Alpha, he and I thought the best option for her would be Archibald Reynolds College, an all shifter school, instead.

Kylie wasn't happy with me about it. But she needed to learn to live and interact with her own kind, or at least that's what I kept telling myself.

The ARC offered ASL as a course. We were going to talk to the professor and see if she could assist in helping my sister integrate better.

When I finally saw her step out of our hotel, I started flashing the headlights at her.

She stopped and gave me an incorrigible look before stomping over to the car and climbing into the passenger seat.

“ It about time. Are you trying to make us late? ” I signed to her.

She crossed her arms over her chest and sank back against the seat. For once I was grateful to see it. It had always been difficult to communicate with her while I was driving.

The map app on my phone guided us through the big iron gate of the ARC and to the building we were instructed to park. I'd gone over the itinerary so many times that I could see it when I closed my eyes. Every second of it was memorized to ensure we didn't miss a thing, and we were already late.

I parked and turned to her, waving to get her to look at me.

“ At least try, ” I signed.

I knew my face showed all the concern I felt. I was pretty sure I was building up an ulcer from worry. I hated the thought of being away from her and dreaded that inevitable moment I was going to have to hug her one last time and walk away.

My baby sister was all grown up now. I'd done everything I could to prepare her for this, and while I knew she was disappointed in her college choices, I was also confident that I had equipped her to not just survive but thrive in her time here.

“ You're going to do great, ” I signed to her.

“ You don't have to worry about me anymore, ” she signed back.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “ I will always worry about you. ”

“ I know. ”

“ Love you. ”

She held up her thumb, index, and pinky fingers to tell me she loved me too. It warmed my heart.

“ Now, let's go. We're late, ” I quickly signed as I shooed her out of the car.

Once we got moving, it was easy to follow the crowd to the quad where we were supposed to meet up for the kickoff to orientation.

I've never been to the ARC before and as I looked around, I had to admit that the brochure pictures did not do this place justice. It was even more beautiful than I imagined.

I dared a glance at Kylie, happy to see her just as in awe as I was.

There were a couple hundred people scattered around the large grassy area between buildings. Most of them were looking around, taking it all in, too.

I pointed out a few things to Kylie and she to me.

We still had ten minutes before Dean Shannahan kicked off with his welcome speech to officially start orientation week.

There were a couple of guys sitting on a section of large rocks and with a girl that seemed to be watching us closely.

“ Why is that girl staring at us? ” Kylie signed.

I turned to stare the girl down for being rude. I knew my sister could be quite sensitive to the looks of others. Most of them didn't mean anything bad by it, they were just curious. I'm sure if this girl was raised in a Pack, then she might not have ever seen someone signing before.

It bothered Kylie though.

I sniffed the air around us. There was no smell of fear or anger, no reason to suspect we weren't perfectly safe. However, I was instantly reminded that we weren't in Pack territory any longer. In fact, we weren't even surrounded by wolves here.

The ARC didn't just enroll wolf shifters but shifters of all kinds.

To the best of my knowledge, I'd only ever met wolves, but here the scents of others were strong. I wasn't even sure the trio I walked over to were actually wolves.

“Hi,” I said to the girl who had been staring at us and her two friends. “Are you all going to be freshmen, too?”

To include Kylie in the conversation, I signed to her while I spoke aloud to them and then continued signing to translate everything they were saying back.

“Yeah, we are,” the girl said. “I'm Autumn. This is Oscar and Jett.”

Kylie waved her hand irately. “ I can read lips, remember? You don't have to do that. ”

“ I'm only trying to help. ”

“She looks pissed,” Jett said.

“Is she okay?” Oscar asked.

“Yeah. She would just rather do all of this on her own.”

They all smiled and nodded.

“Does she read lips?” Oscar inquired.

“Yes,” I confirmed.

He gave her a little wave.

“I'm Oscar,” he said deliberately as he over spoke the words on his lips and very slowly signed each letter to her. “I don't know anything more than the alphabet. Sorry.”

Kylie giggled.

“ K-Y-L-I-E, ” she slowly signed each letter back to him.

“Kylie?” he asked.

She nodded and smiled warmly at him.

My heart nearly swelled with pride, but I also felt sad knowing that the little girl I'd spent my whole life raising was ready to fly on her own.

“That's cool. Show me how to spell my name next,” Jett said.

Oscar carefully swooped his pinky and then laughed as Jett tried to duplicate it but didn't quite get it right.

Kylie reached out and physically walked him through each letter as Oscar relayed them to her.

“Way cool,” he confirmed.

My sister smiled and started to relax.

“Welcome incoming freshman class,” a man at the podium said.

I knew immediately it was the dean. I'd been in constant communication with him the last few weeks as I prepared for this.

“Parents and family members, we're going to ask you to stay here while we assemble the students into small groups to prepare for the campus tour.”

As Kylie started to walk away, I followed.

She scowled at me over her shoulder and then turned to communicate.

“ I don't need you to follow me. Parents and family over there, ” she signed.

“ Wow. You could read his lips from here? ”

“ Yes. ”

“ But I already explained to him that I would be staying with you as your translator. ”

She growled at me as she emphatically started to sign.

“ I do not need you! ”

An ache settled into my chest as she turned and stormed off.

I stood there and watched her go as tears burned my eyes.

You may not need me, but I still need you, I thought to myself.

I'd devoted my entire life to my sister. When she went off to high school, I'd taken a part-time job just to pass the hours she was away. I had no friends. I had no life outside of her. And while I knew she was angry at me and the world for not allowing her to go to Gallaudet, I didn't think she had any clue just how hard it was for me to let her go anywhere.

My sister was all I had left in this world.

I tried to listen to the speech Shannahan was giving but honestly, his words just went in one ear and right out the other.

I was standing there surrounded by hundreds of people and I'd never felt so alone in all my life. It was pathetic really.

The second he told us to meet back up with our kids, I practically bowled people over to get back to Kylie. I'd done what she'd asked, and now I had to assure myself she was really okay.

As I approached her small group of six, she was laughing with the rest of them. She looked young and carefree—happy.

I realized I'd froze when someone bumped into me and muttered an apology. I'd just been standing there watching her, mesmerized by what I was seeing.

She's going to be okay, I thought to myself. It was a bittersweet relief.

But my body was far from relaxed.

Mine! a small voice in my head said.

“No!” I said aloud without realizing it.

Kylie turned towards me when everyone else did. She had a worried look on her face when she realized it was me they were all staring at.

“ Are you okay? ” she signed.

I managed to nod and give her a reassuring smile, but no, I was not okay.

This could not be happening. Not now. I was already an emotional wreck watching Kylie take control of her independence. I couldn't handle a mate too.

I started to panic as I looked around. He could be anyone, but one thing was certain, he was here.