Chapter 7

T urns out that Seb's idea of helping me to get ready is very different from my idea. However, I have never laughed as much as I have in this last hour, my cheeks aching from smiling too much. I don't make friends easily. Sure, I can talk to people at work and care for my patients and their relatives—building a rapport is important in my profession—but in my personal life, I like to keep to myself.

I'd always been alone until Tori came barrelling into my life, and I couldn't have turned away her friendship even if I wanted to. She's like me, isolated and different from her kind, which is why we stick up for one another. She is the closest thing to family I have.

Garett is the only other person I would consider a true friend. We met when Tori was taking me ‘out on the town' at the start of our friendship. I was still bewildered by the large city, with all the sounds, smells, and people. It was so different from the small British town where I grew up, not that I had seen much of it, having been kept in isolation for so long. Having only just turned eighteen when I flew to America, I had not tasted alcohol before. Turns out the rules in the shifter community are more lenient than the American laws on alcohol. As shifters, we have a higher tolerance and it takes much more to get us drunk than humans. What I wasn't warned about was the fae drinks. Those are lethal. Feeling high as a kite after my first one and just about to accept a second from a very attractive Summer Fae, Garett intervened, saving me from a nasty headache and some very unpleasant side effects. I later discovered that fae drinks bring our animals closer to the surface. Problem with that? It leaves shifters stuck in half-animal forms. Not nice.

Ever since that night, a tentative friendship developed as he helped me adjust to being a lone wolf in the city, showing me the best places to shift. Tori is amazing, and I will always be grateful to her for what she has done for me, but she isn't a shifter. She will readily agree with this and is always trying to get me to expand my social circle.

Seb pulls me out of my musing by wolf-whistling as I stand in front of the mirror. I glance across at my new friend and grin. He has a way of making me feel at ease. Sure, he flirts like it's going out of fashion, but I know he won't push me for anything like so many male shifters do. There are also no domination battles with him, he doesn't care I'm stronger. Glancing back to the mirror, I focus on my reflection and have to agree with him. I don't look half bad. I've settled on wearing the smart jeans and shirt that Alexander brought in. The jeans fit well, showing off my legs and ass nicely, with some little black boots that Seb stole from somewhere. The top is a white, oversized women's shirt, which cinches in at the waist with a small brown belt. With the top two buttons undone, it shows off a little cleavage, and the belt accentuates my shape nicely. After I showered, I left my hair to air dry, so it falls in natural waves to just below my collarbone. I don't have any makeup with me, but I rarely wear any, so I don't feel like I'm lacking anything.

Turning around, I smile at Seb and walk to the bed where I left Garett's leather jacket. Picking it up, I slide my arms into it as I walk towards the door, feeling comforted as the leather surrounds me.

"You can't wear another man's jacket to a shifter social," Seb says. "Especially not a bear shifter. They'll think you belong to him."

I stop in my tracks. "I don't give a flying fuck what they think. I don't belong to anyone. Not Garett. Not the pack," I fume, my walls slamming back in place. I hadn't even realised I had let them slip. I need to be more careful. Seems I can't escape from judgemental shifter thoughts.

"Whoa, girl. I wasn't saying you were." His smile fades as he senses my frustration, and a small part of me misses his happy-go-lucky expression. "I'm just telling you what they're going to think if you walk into your presentation to the pack wearing the jacket of a bear shifter. You may not like it, but gossip travels fast, and you're a powerful, unattached, unmated female. People are going to want to know you, and if you go barrelling in there in that jacket with the ‘fuck off' expression you currently have on your face, it is not going to give a good impression," Seb explains, walking slowly towards me with his hands out to the sides like he is taming a wild beast. Maybe that's what I am.

"What impression do I want to give them?" I ask tentatively. I don't even know. I'm in uncharted territory here. I don't want to join this pack, but I have an opportunity to interact with my own kind. "I don't have the best track record with packs," I say, not liking how vulnerable my voice sounds.

Without a word, Seb walks up to me and wraps his arms around my shoulders. I stiffen immediately at the sudden contact, not moving, not even breathing as I suppress the urge to fight. Seb must feel it, but he doesn't mention it, just rubs my back softly. I relax ever so slightly into his arms. This is…nice. I breathe in his vanilla scent.

"Just be yourself. Give the pack a chance. They're a good bunch."

I feel his voice rumble through his chest where my hand rests. His T-shirt is thin, and I can feel his muscles shift as he rubs my back. I move my hand slowly over his chest and relax further into the embrace. I freeze as I feel a hardness press against me. Seb clears his throat and shifts his weight slightly, and I bury my face into his chest to prevent him from moving away, worried I'm going to lose a friendship that has only just begun.

"I could really do with a friend right now, Seb," I mumble into his chest.

Pulling away from me, he gently takes hold of my chin and lifts it so my eyes meet his. They are soft, understanding.

"And that's exactly what you've got." He winks at me, his usually cheeky expression returning to his face. "I can't help it when I've got a beautiful woman pressed up against me."

I laugh and step away from him, feeling reassured, although I'm not completely sure what just passed between us.

Reluctantly, I pull Garett's jacket off and drop it on the bed. I may not be trying to make a good impression here, but I shouldn't actively try to piss them off.

Straightening my shoulders, I prepare myself for what I may face this evening. Thankfully, my wounds are pretty much healed, so other than stiff legs and a sore shoulder, you wouldn't know I had been so badly injured only the night before. All thanks to a naked puppy pile of guys. Who'd have thought it? Confident, strong, but non-threatening is the look I'm going for. Let's hope it works.

"Let's do this."