Wolf Home: Paranormal Werewolf Romance (2 page)

She started sliding the rings on before her mother could prod her again. There were enough that she had more than one on a few fingers, but they been chosen well for layering; most of them were plain or had only etched designs, so that the emerald and two that she was pretty sure were garnets, not rubies, stood out instead of looking too ridiculous. She knew better than to expect the colors to match. The majority of born wolves were just as color blind in human form as canine.

Finger rings on, she slid the two arm rings onto each bicep, glad her mother had thought to pick adjustable ones that she could close slightly to accommodate her changed physique. There were no necklaces – no doubt a concession to the halter top – so the last things she had to put on were two dangling ears and two studs, one of each in each lobe.

Nicole closed the jewelry box, put it into the pouch on the seat in front of her, and resolved to avoid looking into windows, mirrors or any other reflective surfaces until she was used to this again.

“So,” she asked, looking out the window at the eerily barren landscape – they'd cleared the roads before Nicole was called in, but the young trees of this section of the hill had been wiped out by the landslide. “What's the political situation you mentioned?”

“Well.” Her mother leaned her head back and turned to look at her. “The young wolf population has been getting pretty barren in general. At this point, there aren't many people from the alpha families to choose from. You're not the only one to leave, you know. The MacCrae pack's heirs left--”

I wonder why, Nicole thought sarcastically, but asked more neutrally, “What, both of them?” The MacCrae pack was small, with a single married couple and a handful of cousins. They'd had twin brothers around Nicole's age as eldest children, though.

“Yes, both. Anyway, their younger sister will be inheriting instead and she never even thought about leaving, but unless you've gotten interested in women...?”

“No, Mother,” Nicole said. She remembered vaguely that that would have been a big deal when she was a child, before Sheila and Dawn Fannon had married; wolf society expected total conformity to what social norms it had. But once it embraced change, it did it wholeheartedly and never looked back.

“I didn't think so. Anyway, they're out, and the Fannon's youngest, the one boy, went and joined the military and got killed in Afghanistan.”

“
Seriously?
” Nicole asked.

“Yes.” Her mother gave her an unfriendly look. “You've been away a long time. And of the unmarried male Fannon cousins in your age range, one of them married Katherine MacCrae and one of them went and eloped with the daughter of the guy who owns that gas station out on the highway. The human owned one, I mean. So they're out, and the Abbey pack is so
far
from here, and I don't trust the Villeneuves with my daughter – it was only one generation ago they stopped hunting humans, you know. There's a new pack in the empty area up north, the Hirsch pack, and I hear they have a couple of sons, so I guess if you hate this Adam Langley we can ask about introducing you to them.”

“What about the Priddy pack?” she asked, dredging up memories of who else lived in the Catskills and surrounding area in a desperate hope that her choices hadn't contracted so much in the ten years she'd put off the decision. “Or the Saller one?” She had sort of liked Joey Saller, not enough to want to marry him, but shed at least been able to hold a conversation”

Her mother shook her head. “Well, I thought it was going to have to be one of those if you came back, but then the slide happened, and, well. You remember where they live.”

Nicole's stomach lurched. “They're not
all
dead?” she asked in horror. Wolf encampments tended to be small and rural, without a lot of money to do surveying or build expensive infrastructure. Packs often consisted of a handful of families. An entire pack could be wiped out in one disaster, but surely not both?

“No, no. The Saller pack was out hunting, and they're all fine except that the woman babysitting the cubs has a broken leg, but their entire village has been knocked out and they're going to be a while rebuilding. The Priddies, though...” She shook her head. “I hear the younger boy's going to live, but he's too young for you anyway. The elder three were all killed.”

Nicole bit her lip and fought the thought that if she'd stayed this might not have happened. The pack's entire reason for sending some of their young to college was to acquire skills they couldn't afford to hire out for. She had specialized in Catskill geology for this very reason. Even if she hadn't intended on going home, she could have come back and assessed the hills.

“There was nothing you could have done, Nicole,” her mother said, warmth flooding her through the pack sense. “It happens, sometimes, that's what we get for living in the mountains away from civilization. It's worth it to stay wolves and not apes who occasionally grow fur.”

“Yes, mother,” she said, and told herself that she was here now, and she could make sure everyone rebuilt somewhere safer this time.

“So,” her mother said tiredly, “Given that, you might as well try out the first generation wolf. Sometimes they have as much power as any alpha family, you know.”

Nicole just nodded, head down. She remained subdued for the rest of the ride into town.

Chapter Two

When they got out of the car, they were met by her father, two more cousins, one of the Fannon alphas, and a man with startlingly blue eyes, like a wolf child's. His skin was either tanned or naturally light brown, and his hair was a dark crew cut.

Nicole had reunited with her family earlier in the day, before they all headed out to the fields to check the damage. Now, she trailed her mother over to the others, resisting the impulse to stare at the man. Either it had been way too long since she'd had sex, or her wolf was responding to being among her own kind again.

“Nicole,” Sheila Fannon greeted her, extending a hand. “Nice to see you again, how've you been?”

“Good, thanks.” Nicole accepted her hand and shook it. “I heard about Andrew, I'm sorry.”

“We miss him, but it gets better with time.” Sheila smiled tiredly, the lines around her eyes creasing. “Now. This here is Adam Langley, who your mother tells me you're interested in meeting. He's the first generation in his family, but he works hard, and you can hardly tell the difference when he's shifted.”

That was good. A lot of first generation wolves had problems, whether because they didn't get the trick of changing forms or just because they hadn't grown up around wolf behavior and never really understood it. Not everything was instinct.

Nicole smiled at him, careful not to show her teeth and maybe scare him, and he returned it confidently. “Adam,” Sheila continued, “This is Nicole Blackwood, the Blackwood pack's heir. She's been gone to school for a while now, but I remember her as a kid, and I think you'll get along okay. Just bring up your old job, and you should have plenty to talk about.”

“It's nice to meet you,” he said, stepping forward and offering a hand.

Nicole jumped slightly at the unexpected intrusion into her space and resisted the urge to snap at it. He hadn't even done anything wrong, even by wolf logic; she was just prickly. She managed to accept his hand before it looked too weird. “Nice to meet you, too.”

Just as his fingers were closing around hers, the wind shifted, and Nicole was hit in the face with his scent.

Oh.
Oh
. She breathed in slowly, flaring her nostrils to try to gather in as much as she could. He smelled like spices – curry and cinnamon, and overpoweringly of witch hazel, so strongly she wondered for a moment if he had been performing first aid earlier and failed to shower. She breathed in again, and verified that it was his scent. The spices mixed with the astringent plant to produce something that said
home
to her. She could imagine curling up with their pups while he cooked, something that actually had flavor. She'd grown fond of human seasoning while she was away, too.

She snapped back to earth and registered his hand tight on hers. Watching her from below lowered eyelashes, he raised her hand to his face and sniffed at the pulse point of his wrist, investigating.

Nicole was suddenly screamingly aware of their audience, particularly of her mother waiting to see if she'd jerk away from him and maybe bite him for the presumption. She didn't want to. He smelled like home. Her wolf wanted to shift and rub against his legs and feel his fingers scratching into their ears and neck.

“Apricots,” he said slowly. “You smell like apricots. And wild honey.”

“I know.” She waited a moment before tugging her wrist out of his hand. He whined reflexively, and when he stepped closer she slid to press into his side, feeling his arm around her. It felt right.

“Well,” Sheila said. “That's finally some good news. Not much of it lately.”

“What?” Adam said, disoriented.

“Our wolves like each other,” Nicole told him, nuzzling into his shoulder. “That's what the feeling is.”

“Oh. And that means, what?” Adam asked. His arms closed around her, holding her against his side.

“It's hard to say,” Sheila said. “But they usually have more sense than us humans. Don't get caught so caught up in drama and romance. Chris'd never have married that girl if he was listening to his wolf.”

“They like humans sometimes,” Nicole disagreed, breathing in again against Adam's chest, trying to memorize the scent. “And sometimes they
hate
someone and those relationships never work out well. My Mom thinks everyone has a wolf mate, but some of them haven't been made into wolves yet, so they can't be found.”

“So they're like soul mates?” Adam said.

“You could think of that way.” Nicole half smiled, trying to keep the bitterness from leeching into her tone. Five minutes of conversation and her choices had narrowed to one. She wanted to pull the bitterness around her mind like a sheltering jacket, but already she was losing grasp of it. “All wolves can feel each other, and for pack mates it's stronger, I'm sure you know that by now. For mates, it's stronger than that still, and our wolves already think of each other that way.”

“Cool.” He grinned down at her. “I used to daydream about finding a soul mate in high school, you know, before all this shit happened to me.”

Nicole giggled, imagining a young Adam doodling his name in hearts on a pink notebook. “Did you read romance novels?” He was cute. She wanted to want this. It would be easier if she could want this.

“By the dozen.” He laughed, too, chest rumbling against her cheek. “I thought it would be a little more dramatic, though.”

“Just wait until we're both shifted,” Nicole said teasingly, and reluctantly pulled out of his arms. She had so little touch when she was away. She felt like she was starved and someone had set a feast in front of her. “We should go sit down, I bet everyone's waiting on us. Aren't you hungry?” There hadn't been time to hunt like they usually did today.

“Starved,” Adam said, licking his lips and staring at her pointedly. Nicole felt herself blush, and turned her back pointedly to walk into the restaurant before they got distracted again.

The restaurant was a steakhouse and grill, the kind of thing that focused on quantity over quality. It was almost always the choice for pack meetings that included meals if they weren't hunting, because wolves ate a
lot
and liked most of it to be meat. The owners were humans, but over time had become accustomed to the way that there would sometimes be huge, wolflike “dogs” coming in with customers, the occasional howling, and infrequent bite marks. The wolves didn't quite make up a majority of the scattered population of the county, but they were close. The humans were used to it.

Two of the bigger tables had been pushed together, and much of the Blackwood and Fannon packs were either seated around the result, or hanging out at the bar watching the football game playing. Nicole tugged Adam over to sit by her father and the empty seat reserved for her mother.

“So I sit with you guys, huh?” he said.

“Yeah. I mean, nothing's set in stone yet, but that's sort of the idea of introducing us.” She smiled at him, and breathed in, trying to gauge if he was nervous.

A little, she decided, but mostly confident. That was good, if she had to do this. She
could
mate a beta guy, but it would leave her managing the pack by herself when her parents died, and a single alpha was never competitive.

There was also the fact that she really preferred guys who didn't need her to tell them what to do in her personal life. Especially in bed. Nicole much preferred being caught to doing the catching.

Adam slid out a chair and sat down, then tugged on her waist. She yelped and tumbled into his lap. “Hey!” Was he feeling her thoughts already?

“Just wanted to save you a spot,” he said, the innocence of his tone ruined by his smirk, and twanged one of her curls.