Chapter Two
“You!” Ken spun to face his assailant, shoving his mate behind his back. “You’re the one who shot me.” Who could forget that hair?
The pink-haired human tossed the greasy bag at him. “Run, Betty.”
He bared his teeth at her, not a human gesture and something his alpha discouraged doing to humans, but she had taken him down for no reason. There were laws in place to prevent such misunderstandings. “I was within my rights to be in the park. There wasn’t any reason to fire on me.” He sniffed the bag. “Are these from Sarah’s Diner?”
“Yes, and you’re naked.” The human female’s cheeks colored to match her hair. She stared at the ground, avoiding eye contact.
Public nudity was discouraged. Once his alpha was finished beating Ken’s hide, he would offer him to the local dragon as a snack.
Tossed in a dog pound. He would be the butt of every joke for the next month. This incident couldn’t leave this room ever.
Laughter bloomed behind him. Betty pulled a blanket out from the kennel he’d been occupying and wrapped it around his hips. “Go finish your shift, Trixie. I’ve got this covered.”
Like a balm, her good humor soothed the rage boiling in Ken.
The human hesitated, her gaze traveling between them. “Are you sure?”
“He’s got burgers. All should be forgiven, right?” His mate elbowed him in his side.
“It is?” He cocked his head. This hazard in pink couldn’t be ignored. She might shoot another shifter.
“See, we’re good, but, Trixie, don’t touch the tranquilizer gun again.” Betty pulled open the bag in his hand and took a burger.
His mouth watered. Shifting took a lot of energy and he hadn’t eaten since yesterday. Part of him adored how she took care of him, the other part was wary how easily she’d just manipulated the situation.
He plucked a burger from his mate’s hand. “Forgiven, but if it happens again, I’ll report your human to my alpha.” He grinned, showing all his teeth. “Not the authorities. Trust me, he’s not the forgiving type.” His father was more of a tooth for a tooth wolf shifter.
The pink-haired human visibly swallowed. “I’ve learned my lesson.” She backed out of the rescue and closed the door behind her.
“So…” The female shifter backed away to her desk. “Who do you need to call for a ride?”
He narrowed his eyes, biting the burger in half. Oh, that was good. “Want one?” He spoke with his mouth full. It just couldn’t be helped, he was that hungry.
She held her cell phone. “I’m fine.” She seemed determined for him to leave. He didn’t understand. They had just met. He’d been told things went better than being tossed a burger when soulmates found each other. Like why was she still wearing clothes?
Scratching his head, he took the phone. His dogs were still running free to terrorize the city. At this hour, he could think of only one person to call.
On the third ring, she answered tentatively. “Beth, it’s Ken.”
“This a new number?” She sounded half asleep.
“It’s a number you can use to reach me.” He chuckled at Betty’s frown. “My dogs are loose and I need you to find them.”
Beth groaned. As pack omega, she wouldn’t say no. “No. Call someone else to catch your mangy mutts.”
He growled. “You do realize I rank higher than you.” That meant he was more dominant in pack order. “I have a situation I have to take care of.”
Beth made kissy noises. “What’s her name?”
He ground his teeth. He didn’t believe in bullying his weaker packmates around, which was why Beth was comfortable teasing him. Normally, this pleased him, but not tonight. He needed to figure out his mate’s lack of interest and he wouldn’t leave this rescue without an answer. “My dogs are all alone and possibly scared.” Beth pretended not to like his pets, but guess who baked them homemade biscuits? “Can you gather them before they get hurt?”
“Fine,” she dragged out the word. “But you—”
He hung up and turned his full attention on Betty. “And you—”he pointed “—never answered my question. Why haven’t we met if you live in New Port?” There was no way his alpha would tolerate a lone wolf in his territory, even if female.
“I’m not invited to pack functions.” She leaned toward him, eyes sparkling with dark mischief. The more time he spent with her, the more intrigued he grew.
“What could you have possibly done to be banned? Are you a bad wolf?” he half-joked. They all had weaknesses and his apparently was a tattooed, pixie-sized werewolf.
“Because I am considered human.”
Betty smelled of truth. Shifters could smell lies and she honestly believed she was human. He recalled what had happened to his best friend, Angie. She had thought she was human with a little shifter blood. Turned out, she was a cursed full-blooded dragon.
Opening his mouth, he inhaled deep and tasted Betty’s scent. He had been drugged so maybe his senses were off and he had made a mistake? Soulmates couldn’t be human. It was impossible. They just didn’t have the biology.
She busied with dog bowls, filling them with kibble. “Not many shifters bother with pets.”
“It wasn’t intentional. They were strays and starving.” The nose knew things and smells didn’t lie. He wasn’t wrong. She belonged to him. No doubt about it. “I fed them and eventually caught their fleas.”
She snorted.
“It’s not funny. They itch like mad and crawl through your fur at night like ghost fingers.” He shuddered. “If I had to take a flea bath then so did they. Then they never left my home.”
Leaning against the door frame, she eyed Ken as if seeing him for the first time. Her gaze caressed his flesh and he couldn’t help but flex. “That’s a nice story.”
“What’s your story, Betty, because you definitely hit my radar as a werewolf.”
“That’s not surprising.” Many had claimed the same thing back home, yet pack law still declared her as human. “I’m a half-breed. My father is a wolf shifter in the Riverbend Pack.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“And your mother?”
“Human.” If her mother had been a different type of shifter, Betty would have been able to shape change into one type of animal or the other. There were no tiger-wolf hybrids—Tilf? Woger? She shook the disturbing images from her head. With her parents, that meant she was either human or not. Voilà. It sucked to be her, because inside she yearned for pack, but was denied it.
“Oh.” Ken paled. His shoulders slumped and he set his half-eaten burger aside. Maybe the tranquilizers had made him sick.
“Do you need to lie down?” Because if he fainted, she couldn’t catch him. She been raised as a pack child and knew shifters better than humans. Ken was tall. At least six and a half feet. Shoulders like a linebacker and sculpted with lean muscles. Very pretty. Too pretty. Probably had a girlfriend in every New Port neighborhood.
“You never shifted?”
Old wounds she’d thought healed ripped open once more. She didn’t want to stroll down nightmare lane. “No, and at eighteen the pack kicked me out. Happy?”
He strode across the space separating them and grasped her in a bear hug.
Her face pressed to his lower chest since she was cursed with her mother’s lack of height. Her bones creaked.
“Not one bit.” He stroked her hair.
She pushed against him, his skin warm, his body hard, but she might as well have been caught in a werewolf version of a Chinese finger trap. The harder she shoved, the more he hugged until she was breathless.
“Fine.” She patted his back. Werewolves could be such sensitive mush heads about weird things. “This is my problem, not yours. I’m over it, Ken. I’ve moved on.”
He took a deep, shaky breath. “It’s my problem too.” He bent almost in half to rest his face on top of her head. “You’re my soulmate, Betty. Can you even sense that?”