Chapter 9

Denny

Somehow, I knew Lauren was upset even without seeing her face. It brought me joy to comfort her.

“Come on. We can head over to the house. I'm sure they'll show back up there eventually.”

“Maybe.” She pulled out her phone and frowned. “I need to go back to the hotel and charge my phone.”

“What type. I’m sure we have a charger for it. There's basically a charger for everything there.”

But when she looked up at me, I saw the sadness in her eyes, and it killed me.

“Okay. I'll take you back to the hotel.”

“Thanks, but I drove here. I just need to get back to the cafeteria.”

I was not ready to let her go. I didn't say anything as I led her back across campus, but dammit I wanted time alone with her. We had a lot to talk about.

When we got to her car I opened her door and then ran around to the other side and climbed into the passenger seat while she settled in.

She looked at me, surprised.

“What are you doing?”

“Sticking with you. I think we should probably talk or something, you know, about all this mating stuff.”

She sighed heavily, leaving me with a not very good feeling.

“I'm going back to my hotel room, Denny.”

“Yeah, so?”

“So? So that would be like bringing you back to my bedroom, and that's not something I do,” she blurted out. Her cheeks turned an adorable shade of pink. “Oh my God. I can't believe I just said that out loud.”

As I considered her words, I realized I liked them. She wasn't promiscuous. That wasn't a bad thing, preferable even.

“We can just talk,” I told her.

“You're not listening to me. I'm not good with this sort of thing. I've never even had a boyfriend. My sole focus has been on Kylie since I was nine years old."

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay. Lauren, you're my mate,” I said, letting that word linger in the air between us.

“Exactly.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Mate implies certain things that I am absolutely not ready for.”

“Huh?”

“Do I have to spell it out for you?”

“Apparently you do.”

She groaned, looking completely mortified. I probably should have stopped and let her off the hook, but I had no idea what she was talking about.

“I've never even kissed a guy before. Just being alone in the car with you is way out of my element. I'm not ready for this. I’m not ready for any of this,” she confessed.

I heard her words, but they weren't quite having the same impact on me that I think she expected them to have.

I growled and leaned over to kiss her. My lips brushed lightly against hers, almost like a whisper. She froze and when I lifted my hand to gently caress her cheek, I felt a slight tremble as she relaxed with a sigh.

Slowly I kissed her lips, swiping my tongue along the seam of them until they parted and I was able to deepen the kiss.

She kissed me back fervently as we tested and teased one another.

It was such a new sensation for me.

I'd kissed a dozen girls before and none had compared to this moment.

I had only meant to kiss her.

One perfect first kiss.

But the fire of desire within me craved more.

I moved to somehow get closer to her. My elbow hit the horn on her steering wheel. I only vaguely noticed the blaring sound, but it made Lauren jump like we'd just been caught doing something we shouldn't, and the magical moment between us was instantly broken.

Needing a bit of space, I slid back into my seat and let it sink in.

I'd just kissed my mate for the first time and already couldn't wait to do it again.

A smile lit my lips.

“Now you have.”

“What?”

“Now you've been kissed.”

There was that blush again. I loved seeing it and knowing I'd put that color there.

“I didn't know what I was doing.”

“Could have fooled me.”

Her mouth fell open, but I needed her to know I had liked it. More than that, I had loved it. If it were up to me, we'd already be naked in the back seat, allowing me to memorize every inch of her. But I knew from the insecurities she had shown that doing so would be pushing her too far too quickly.

I could be patient with stakes this high. The last thing I wanted to do was rush her into anything she'd regret.

“Uh, I have to go.”

“Okay.”

She stared at me for a moment. “Are you going to get out?”

“No. I told you, we should talk.”

“That wasn't talking.”

She was cute when she was frustrated.

“Come on. Back to your hotel room—to talk. I promise I won't even kiss you again, unless you ask me to.”

I hated how uncomfortable she looked, but this was important.

“Just talk,” she finally relented.

“Yup. I just want to talk.”

“Fine.”

“Fine,” I replied, then I looked out the window to hide my smile.

We didn't really talk on the way over to the hotel. I could feel her nerves spiking the closer we got, and she was completely on edge by the time she parked the car.

I was beginning to think this was a bad idea.

Instead of bailing out gracefully, I opened the door, jumped out of the car, and ran around to open her door for her. I reached out my hand and relaxed when she took it. I pulled her from the car and wrapped her in my arms. Her body quivered and instantly calmed.

“Better,” I muttered.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing. Look if you’re really this uncomfortable with me coming up to your room, then maybe we should just sit out in the lobby and talk instead.”

“And risk some human overhearing us? No way.”

“We could go back to campus and talk instead.”

Her shoulders sagged, and she shook her head.

I wished I knew what she was thinking.

“No, it's fine. I'm just being paranoid. I know you won't hurt me or anything. I'm just nervous being alone with you, then you touch me and it takes away the nerves but also freaks me out a little, if I'm being honest.”

“You don't need to be nervous around me. I couldn’t hurt you even if I wanted to.”

“Excuse me?” She pulled away from me.

“That didn't come out right. I'm just saying to hurt you would hurt me.”

Her nose scrunched up in an adorable way. “That's really not much better.”

“Sorry. I guess you can say I’m not very good at this kind of thing.”

“What do you mean?”

As she started to relax, so did I, and I escorted her inside. She guided us to the elevator, bouncing from one foot to the other despite our contact. But she didn't tell me to go away or change her mind as we reached her floor and then her door.

Her hand shook as she inserted her key card and waited for the light to turn green. The click of the door seemed to suck away all the air around me. A moment later we stepped through the threshold as I listened to the door close behind me.

We were finally alone. Entirely alone.

I desperately wanted to pull her into my arms and kiss her again. But I had promised not to do that unless she asked me.

As we stood there staring at each other, feeling the air sizzle around us, I thought she just might ask. Of course she didn't, but no one could blame me for hoping.

“Um, there's not really much seating in here. I hadn't thought about that.”

“It's okay. I'll sit over here, and you can sit over there. I promised I'd behave. Just talk.”

She licked her lips, making it very difficult for me to keep myself planted on that bed.

“Just talk,” she muttered. “Okay.”

I had taken the bed that looked untouched. I assumed that was Kylie's since I knew she hadn't returned last night. Meanwhile Lauren sat on the mussed bed looking sexier than I could ever imagine as she stretched out, kicked off her shoes, and tucked her feet under her.

“Okay then, let's talk.”

“Uh . . .” No words would come. That wasn't like me at all.

I noticed Lauren looked a little awkward and kept looking down at her hands and at one point she even sort of sat on them.

“Not used to talking without signing, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess. It feels weird actually.”

“You don't talk to many people other than Kylie?”

“I mean, sure I do, but a lot of the time she's there or I'm working where my hands are busy when I'm talking so I don't think about it much.”

“What do you do for work?”

She shrugged. “A bit of whatever.”

“What does that mean?”

“Currently, I waitress four mornings a week. Then in the afternoons I work at a small retail shop, and on the weekends I bartend at night. You know, whatever I have to do to pay the bills and put food on the table.”

“How old are you?”

“I don't think you’re supposed to ask a lady that.” She smirked.

I rolled my eyes.

“Twenty-two. You?” she finally admitted.

“Twenty-three.”

“And you haven’t graduated yet?”

“Nah. I love it here. And honestly, I still haven't quite figured out what I want to do yet, so I just keep switching majors so I don't have to.”

That sounded lame as I tried to explain it to her. What sort of mate was I going to make? How was I going to provide for her? I knew I had a decent savings account established and even had a job waiting for me back home. It was just one I didn't particularly want.

I'd never much cared what people thought of me before, but I did care about what Lauren thought. I wanted her to know that I was fully prepared to take care of her for once, because I got the impression no one really had.

“Does Kylie work a lot of jobs to help out too?”

She looked at me like I had just asked the dumbest question in the world. It would have been comical if it wasn't so sad.

“Kylie’s job is to go to school and make something of herself. She's capable of so much more. I don’t want her to have to bust her butt to make ends meet. She deserves better.”

“So do you, Lauren.”

The look on her face was filled with stubborn pride.

“I don’t have that luxury. I have responsibilities.”

“We all have responsibilities, love. But there are choices, too.”

“I don't want to talk about that right now. One thing you should know about me is that I'm a survivor.”

“And there's nothing you won't do for those you love,” I said, cutting her off. “I've already gathered that much. It's very admirable. I just worry about the toll it's taken on you. You've given up your entire childhood, and life really, to support your sister.”

Tears ran down her cheeks, and it took every ounce of personal restraint for me to stay on that bed and not cross over to hold her.

“You don’t have to feel sorry for me. I'd do it again and make the same choices every single time. She was so small and vulnerable. There were those that wanted to put her down, telling me that a deaf wolf would never survive this world. I'd already lost everything else I loved. I couldn't lose her too. I just couldn’t. So I fought every single day to keep her and prove them all wrong. Now look at her. She's an amazing young lady, and she's going to thrive here. I just know it.”

My heart ached for her.

“Spoken like a proud mama bear.”

She snorted and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

I leaned forward but stayed true to my promise just to talk.

“She's not the only amazing woman. You are truly remarkable and so selfless.”

She shook her head. “Don’t say stuff like that.”

She would lavishly praise her sister but was uncomfortable taking even a small bit of praise for herself. Well, that was definitely something she was going to have to get used to because I planned to remind her of it every day for the rest of her life.

There was this crazy need inside me to protect her the way no one else had.

She cleared her throat and deflected us away from this line of conversation.

“So, what Pack are you from?”

“New Orleans. Have you ever been there?”

“No. I've never really been anywhere outside New York until now.”

“It's funny. You don't talk like a typical New Yorker.”

“The hell is that supposed to mean?” she asked, exactly as I'd expect someone from her city to talk.

“Wow. There is it.”

She laughed. “Most of the women I'm closest to in the Pack weren't originally from New York. They mated into it, so I just wasn't really raised with the accent. I mean, I can do it.”

“Obviously.”

“It's just never been quite so natural for me.”

“Interesting.”

“You don't really sound like you're from New Orleans either,” she noted.

I shrugged. “It's there. It comes and goes. If I'm tired, you'll hear it.”

“Are you ready to graduate and get back home?”

“Hell no. Why do you think I chose to stick around another year? All my closest friends have moved on, but I guess my plan was just to never leave, or at least not until I absolutely have to. Or never. Never works for me.”

“You're just going to be a lifelong student here?”

“As tempting as that sounds, I have recently been considering switching my major to education and maybe becoming a professor here someday.”

“Is there a reason you don't want to leave?”

I chuckled. “Now that is a loaded question.”

“Sorry. If it's too personal, you don't have to answer it.”

“Lauren, you're my mate. Nothing in my life is too personal for you. But let's just say my Alpha isn't the nicest of people. I miss my family at times, but I do not miss being home. To me, this is home. It's like a safe haven, I guess.”

“I don't know much about other Alphas. You seemed to get along with the Alaskan one.”

I relaxed and smiled. “Damon's great. Even set me up with his old job before he moved away from here. And I know that if I ever wanted to give my allegiance to someone else that he would take me in without question. You too, of course.”

“Me?”

“Well, yeah. You are my mate.”

She started to stammer like she was trying to say something but didn't know how to get it out.

“Sorry. Too fast?”

“Maybe a little. I mean. I've never even been outside New York until now. Move to another Pack? I don't know if I could.”

Well, that could certainly be a problem, though I wasn't about to lay that on her now. We'd have time to sort things out before any major decisions needed to be made.