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“You must understand something, little mate,” Ryker said, and his face softened, “I have waited nine years for you. That’s nearly a decade since I’ve felt this emptiness inside me. Part of me began to wonder if you didn’t exist or you’d already died. And then I found you, right inside my own pack.” He used one of his hands to stroke my cheek and tingles erupted everywhere. “I’ve spent enough time without you and I will not let anything else keep us apart.” Kennedy has spent her entire life as the only human in the wolf pack. Eighteen years ago, her parents died in a freak car accident and her mother’s best friend steps in to become her guardian. Her mother’s best friend, Beth, is the Luna of the Silver Crescent Pack. Kennedy has known Beth and her husband James and their son Jeremiah her whole life, but thought pack life would be something she would only hear about. Kennedy has never felt like she really belonged in the werewolf world. But right as Kennedy plans to leave the werewolf world behind for good, her life gets flipped upside down by her mate: the feared Alpha of Dark Moon pack, Ryker. It doesn't matter how far Kennedy tries to run from her destiny or her mate - Ryker intends to keep her, no matter what he has to do or who stands in his way. -- "You'll always have a place here, Kennedy." That's what Alpha Jeremiah said eight years ago, when his Alpha parents took me in—a human orphan raised among wolves. I believed him. But the day he found his fated mate, everything changed. When the she-wolf snarled at me, her rage ignited by one innocent, thoughtless hug between Jeremiah and me, I finally understood. That promise was never meant to last. And this pack was never truly my home. So I did the only thing I could. I chose to leave. I walk my two bags downstairs and set them by the front door and grit my teeth. I need to tell Aunt Beth or she will tear this whole pack apart looking for me. Come to think of it, I didn't see her when we got here to meet Rayna today. Weird. She probably would have made the whole introduction so much smoother. I follow sounds to the common room. It doesn't cross my mind to make myself known before I walk in. A moan and grunt and then "WHAT THE HELL?!" A female screech pierces my ears. "Oh sh*t! Sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt." I shield my eyes. "I was just looking for Aunt Beth before I head out." I start to back out of the room as quickly as possible. "Ken, wait! Come back." I hear a ton of cloth rustling and I move faster. "Nope! Not a chance. Continue, I will find her on my own, sorry for the interruption." I continue down the hallway heading for the door fighting tears. It took less than an hour for him to forget I'm even here. 'Important' is no longer a word anyone gets to use when it comes to how Jer feels about me. "Ken, stop." He's so fucking fast and right in front of me now, blocking my way to the front door. I slam my eyes closed. "Where are you going? Why do you have a bag packed? And why are you looking for Mom?" "I was going to tell her I was heading out. Are you dressed? I like my eyes where they are in my face. I don't need them ripped out." I squeezed my eyes tighter and ignored his other questions. "Yes." He laughs. "Now look at me and tell me where you are going. What's going on?" "I told you, I haven't been sleeping well. I'm going to go stay at Ben's so I'm not a problem." "What are you talking about? I left you my shirt, that usually works when I'm gone. And since when have you ever been a problem?" "Really? Are you that dense? The shirt isn't working anymore." I lied. "And It became a problem when you found your mate, who you very obviously forgot to say anything to, cause she didn't expect me based on the welcome I got when you brought her home. She doesn't want me here and you aren't going to choose." "I'm right here, you know. Don't talk about me like I'm not in the room." Her voice comes up close behind me. I close my eyes and take a deep breath in, then out. Don't get an attitude, don't get an attitude, don't get an attitude. I have to keep repeating to myself. This is not her fault, she's just as much a victim here as I am and she has just as much if not more right to be angry than I do. "I still don't understand the problem?" Jeremiah looks from her to me and back again. It's my turn to glare and growl and I don't even have a wolf. Jer's eyes go wide and he takes a step back from me. Hands up in a surrendering gesture. At least he's smart enough to know we are both pissed, even if he doesn't understand the problem. "Why are boys so stupid?!" I don't yell, but my temper is getting harder and harder to control. I let out another sigh and decided to get this over with. I turn around. "Rayna, I'm Kennedy, Jeremiah's best friend, his female best friend. I live here in the packhouse." I gesture around me. "I've been here for the last three years. My mom was his mom's best friend and I'm here because my parents died three years ago. I still have nightmares from that day and Jeremiah usually sleeps in my room with me…" I get nothing else out when she launches herself at me snarling and grabbing for my hair. She's strong but I don't know if she trains much, her movement is clumsy. We both fall back and I take the brunt of both our weights before flipping us both over trying to gain the advantage. I don't want to hurt her, but I also don't want to get hurt by her. She's clawing at everything she can and her legs are kicking wildly underneath me. She's snarling and growling but having a hard time getting words out. "You b*ch! You can't have him!" She yells as she swipes at my face with her nails and distracts me enough to shift our positions and move on top of me. I can feel the blood trickle down my face. She thinks I'm just a rando girl trying to claim her man. With all the time he has spent with her even since she found out about me, he still never explained who I was. Jackass. Now I understand her frustration, I would find that shady too, and I'm fighting to get words out to reassure her while not letting her hurt me. I can only get a few choppy syllables uttered here and there while trying to hold her off. "I don't f*cking want him you crazy ass. He's like my brother." I grunt as she gets a good punch to my stomach. "But you would know that if you two spent just as much time talking as you do f*cking! Now stop trying to claw my eyes out!" That made her pause long enough for me to thrust my hips and flip her on her back. I have her wrists in my hands and finally get them pinned above her head. She's still flailing as I'm straddling her torso leaning in almost nose to nose. We are both panting, but she's slowly stopped fighting me. Maybe she realized I'm not trying to hurt her back or my words are sinking in. Whatever, it's working. "Stop trying to kill me. He's like my brother." I say again, breathing hard, now that I seem to have some of her attention. "He should have told you about me and to be honest a heads up about you would have been nice. But sometimes these boys aren't the brightest." I rolled my eyes and finally looked up at him just staring at us and noticed we have a whole audience. "Oh Goddess! That is so f*cking hot! How did you get so lucky?" Tommy slaps Jeremiah on the back and bites down on his lower lip. Such a perv. "So all four of you assholes just stood there and let us fight? You weren't concerned for your best friend or your future Luna hurting each other? We should beat the sh*t out of all of you instead." Ben and Jason roll their eyes, then Ben walks over. "You two get it out of your system?" He reaches his hand out to me. "Maybe." I raise an eyebrow looking back at her, slowly releasing her arms and sitting back, straddling her waist, waiting for her to take a cheap shot. Nothing comes so I take his offered hand. Jason helps Rayna up. I fix my clothes and run my fingers through my hair, not looking at anyone. "I'm ready Ben, let's go." They need to talk and decide if this is something she can deal with. I don't want to walk away, but an Alpha needs his Luna. In this case she is more important. My friendship with Jeremiah is solely in her hands. If she says no, then that'st it, for now at least. I start walking toward the front door. I set my jaw, I will not cry again. I have said my peace and I can only hope she believes my words. This is for Jeremiah to explain and fix if he wants to keep me in his life. He has to make her see what he and I are, and she has to believe it's not romantic. "Wait, don't go." Her voice is sweet but confident and I don't know if I can do this. I shake my head and keep moving. "Please, we should talk." I keep looking at the door. "I really do need to try and sleep, that wasn't a line. Don't make this any harder for me. Please. I need to go." My plea came out barely audible to my own ears, but I know they can hear me. It is getting harder to breathe. "But you live here…" She's right behind me whispering. I know the guys can hear us though. I keep my eyes locked in the door. Each breath is controlled in and then out. "Yep… for now… and soon you will too. I need to learn how to work through the nightmares and bullsh*t on my own anyway, but this was kind of a shock." I bend over and grab my bags, my hands still sore from my impromptu workout earlier. She stops me, her hand on mine. The first tear falls. I shake my head side to side, my heart is breaking. "Let's go put these away and we can get to know each other. It seems like we will be spending a lot of time together." She pulls on my hand holding the strap to my duffel bag. It wasn't anything harsh or controlling, but something in me just snapped, and I don't have the energy to fight her anymore. There go my tears again, stupid emotions. She takes my bag and slides her gentle hand on my upper arm turning me around. I sling my backpack on my shoulder, eyes down just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. We both walk up the stairs to head back to my room, Rayna right behind me without a backwards glance at the guys. "Ken…" Jeremiah breathes. I just shake my head and keep walking. "I think your girls just left you hanging, I hope you finished whatever you started in here brother otherwise you're going to sleep with some blue balls." Tommy is always the charmer. But the rest of the guys laugh as well. We get to my room and I drop my bag by my desk and take a deep breath before I turn around. I move to take my duffle from her and drop it next to my school bag. "Were you really just going to leave? No fight at all?" She seems appalled. "He's my brother, not my boyfriend." I'm kind of getting tired of saying that. "There's never been anything like that between us. I may be human, but I've known him my whole life and we are tight. I understand how mates work, how integral they are. He's an Alpha and an Alpha needs his Luna. There is nothing more important than that for the future of the pack. I'm not getting in the way of that out of selfishness. So yes, I was going to leave, because you don't want me near him. You don't want me here." I rub my face and go to sit on my bed and pat the place next to me. "I have never once run at my brother like that. I'm usually more inclined to throw something at him." This has the effect of breaking the tension as I let out a strangled laugh. "But how close are you and your brother? In age, I mean?" "Six years difference. He's 26, I'm 20" I nod. " Jer and I are the same age, literally. We were born on the same day in the same hospital. That's how close our mom's were. My mom was visiting and they both went into labor at the same time. We are more like twins, basically raised that way." She nods. "That explains a few things then. Not why he sleeps in your room, but we'll get to that. What about the other guys?" "What about them?" I am trying to get my breathing under control now that she isn't growling at me. I have a headache from all the crying too. "Oh, come on. There's no way you left all of them alone! That much hotness and no mate yet. And they are all so protective over you. You are close with all of them, anyone can see it." "What are you talking about 'no mate yet?' I'm human, do you know the odds of me being mated to someone? I can't even be inducted into the pack, because the elders think it will kill me. I'm sure being marked would be just as bad." I chose to skip her other statement. I don't know her that well. "I don't think I've ever heard that before. We don't have any humans in our pack right now though, so I'm not sure how that works." "No idea, but Aunt Beth won't even entertain the idea. So I'm a human in a werewolf pack with no actual connection to the pack, living with the Alpha's family, but not blood related." I say darkly. "So…I believe you've never had any romantic interest in Jeremiah. It's written all over your face." She giggles, like an actual little girl. "But, you avoided my other question, that means you have given the other guys a test drive." She winks and I look at the door, sure someone is probably listening. "Test drive is a strong phrase." I try to dodge. "Oh give it up! I need to know these guys and I will get some of that in my own time here, but I want to know what kind of team the Goddess put around my Alpha. How they treat a woman can be a big indicator of the type of people they are." She giggles again. 'My Alpha.' Her brain has already made the switch. "They are all great, but I might be biased." I shrug and smile. "So which one are you dating right now? I feel like each one would bring something different. Who was your first?" My eyes go wide. "First what?" Still dodging, I'm sure they all talk but it's not something we talk about out loud as a group. "Yes!! I knew it! Who was your first kiss?" "Huh?!" "Don't play dumb, any red blooded non-mated woman would be a complete moron for not taking whatever they were offering. And you are beautiful, and they have definitely noticed. Who. Was. Your. First. Kiss?" "Jason." I covered my face. I don't know why I was embarrassed to tell her. It was nice and he was so sweet with me and everyone was around for that one. "But just the one, during a game of spin the bottle. Not something any of us talk about really." "What about Tommy? He doesn't seem like the type to stop at kissing. But I also don't get the feeling you slept with him." I shake my head no. And she smiles like the Cheshire Cat. "Yes! How far did you let it go?" "What are you, a mind reader?" I sit there and she just looks at me expectantly. It must be the alpha blood, she's just used to getting her way. I finally cave. "Far enough. Look, the guys and I really don't talk about this stuff. I don't know how much they've said to Jer, and I don't want him to get weird with me if he doesn't know and finds out. Or getting in a fight with them, he's super protective, if you haven't noticed." I stare again at her and she just stares back, lifting an eyebrow. She just waits, damn patience. "Fine. It was during a seven minutes in heaven game and didn't mean anything…" I look down at my lap, twisting my fingers together. "Oh, but it did! Look at your face!! How many times did he make you orgasm? He seems like a more-than-one kind of guy. Were they your first ever?" "Seriously, this is so weird." I scrub my hands over my face. She shoves me playfully and I almost fall off my bed. "How many times?" Her smile is infectious. I can see why Jeremiah would love her even without the mate bond. "Twice…" "In seven minutes? Using what?!" "Just his hand." I shrug again, giving up on holding out on her. She's clearly going to push for information until I give up anyway and it's nice to have a girl to talk to. "Also my first from someone who is not myself. And yes I had s*x with Ben. I didn't want to give my 'V' card to just anyone and I wanted to have some kind of idea of how it all worked. He was super gentle and patient with me. He's not a small guy. And again, I don't know if Jer knows. He probably does, but it's not something I discuss." "So hot!" She rubs her hands together. "Not nearly as hot as what I walked into downstairs a little bit ago. Did he forget other people live here or is that like a mate bond thing where you get horny all of a sudden and have to f*ck right where you are?" I was kind of joking, but it's her turn to blush. "Maybe a little of both. I mean I didn't know you lived here and his parents are still at the meeting. They'll be back in the morning so I didn't see anything wrong with it. And it is kind of hard to keep my hands to myself when he's around, you've seen him. Do you really talk to him everyday?" She's blushing, but there's a little tone of disbelief in her voice. "Yeah we have for as long as I can remember. Always checking in before school and before bed back, well before. Now we are at the same school and I train with them, so I'm with almost all the guys everyday." "Knock, knock! Is it safe? I would like to be able to have kids someday, Ken." My door cracks open and my best friend stands in the frame, but waits for me to give him the okay. "We're fine Jer. We just had to fill in some gaps you missed because you are a moron and let your d*ck take over thinking for you." He huffed a laugh and walked in with two mugs, set them down on the side table and climbed on my bed behind Rayna. "I brought tea, thought it might help. We have an early start tomorrow, we all need to sleep." He can't keep his hands to himself either and it's really cute watching him wrap her up in his arms. Her dark hair frames her heart shaped face contrasting with his light blonde hair. She leans back into his embrace. "What's tomorrow?" I ask, confused, grabbing for the cup of tea. It's a blend that the healer made when I told her I was still having nightmares and nothing else is working. "We are traveling to my pack so Jeremiah can meet my brother. He's the Alpha, but was dealing with another urgent matter so my dad and I went to the meeting in his place." "I'm glad you did." He nuzzles her neck and I can hear his wolf purr. "Okay please don't have s*x in my room. You have your own for those extra curricular activities. Jer," I slap his leg. "Thank you for the tea, I should be good. Did the guys leave already? I didn't even think to say goodbye." I'm trying to rush them out. As cute as it is, I have heard that new mates escalate from light touching to f*cking quickly. And that isn't something I want to see, no matter how hot my best friend and his new mate are. "Nah, they're all in the Media room. We figured it would be easier for everyone if we all just left from here in the morning." "Why do you all have to go?" I'm still learning all the nuances of pack politics, but the thought of all of them being gone makes my heart sink. "We are all going, you included. When an Alpha travels for more than just a couple days, usually his team goes as well as long as someone is here to run the pack and Beta Daniel is still here and my parents will be back tomorrow too." "What does any of that have to do with me?" "I'm sure that Rayna would like to have another female along. Traveling with all males all the time, can't be fun. Besides, you're one of my warriors and my best friend, I would like you there when I have to meet Rayna's brother." "Is that code for you're afraid of my brother?!" Rayna laughs at him. "Umm, yes Luna!" He growls in her ear. "No sass from you. She's always the buffer when there's too much testosterone in the room. Kennedy has actually been to several meets with me. She's really good with all the small talk and she remembers everything. It's very handy. It doesn't hurt that she's beautiful and typically earns attention quickly. And your brother has the biggest pack territory and is one of the most notoriously dangerous Alphas, not to mention I'm about to take his sister away. I need all the help I can get." I ignore the backhanded distraction comment and ask, "Wait, what pack are you from?" "Dark Moon." My eyebrows shoot up. Even I have heard of them. I can't remember the Alpha's name, but he is ruthless from what I have heard. He takes over weak packs and eliminates Alphas like I go to school and turn in assignments. "Relax, He's not that scary." "Maybe for you, he loves you, for the rest of the world he's intimidating. If the situation was reversed and someone came and told me they were Kennedy's mate and she's packing her stuff and leaving today. I would probably try to beat the sh*t out of them. Mate bond or not." I laugh with Rayna and then stop and stare at him. A thought just occurred to me, "Is that why no one here tries to date me? Cause you told them you'd beat the sh*t out of them?" "Uh…no…not exactly." "But pretty close to being accurate?" "We may have insinuated that you could handle yourself and we would take care of whatever was left over." "Good to know there's a 'we' to yell at." I look at Rayna. "How far is the drive to your pack? I need to make sure I have enough topics to yell at them for over the whole drive." She giggles again and Jeremiah blanches, knowing I'm not lying. He only calms when she turns her head and gives him a kiss on the cheek. "Okay go, you two are making me nauseous. I will see you in the morning." They both get up to leave and make it to the door when Jer turns, "Do you need a shirt? I can grab one." "I still have the one you gave me a couple days ago, I should be good. I have to start weaning sometime." And just like that, we're back to being weird. Even with a little history I don't know how Rayna will feel about him giving clothes that smell like him to me. "Let me know if you need me, alright?" I just nod my head. There's no way I'm yelling for him with his mate here. I fall asleep more quickly than I have in the last 3 nights. But, I'm not sure if that's from him being back in the packhouse or being so tired I had no choice. That was where the good night ended though. Screeching tires rattle my ears, acrid burning rubber singes my nose, blood slicked everywhere, screams from all around me… This time it's not my parents with me though. It's Jeremiah and Ben and Tommy and Jason. I'm screaming for them, but no one is answering, they are all looking at me, eyes wide open, but not seeing me. Then I'm screaming, I've lost them. They shouldn't even be here. They weren't supposed to be in the car. Why were they here? "Kennedy!! Wake up! Ken!! Come on girl, come back to me! KENNEDY!!" My eyes fly open and I blink slowly to focus. It feels like I'm moving through wet sand, my whole body is limp and I can't seem to control my muscles. "Kennedy, we're here, you're safe now, stop fighting." A calm washes over me the familiar sandalwood scent registers. Jeremiah. I breathe deep again, this time a sweet floral note mixes with the sandalwood making the calm feeling deepen, until I realize it's not familiar.. Who else is with me? No one can see me like this. It's bad enough Ben was subjected to it. A part of my brain is being logical, but then it's all foggy and slow. "Mmmokay!" I slur out. "Be okay. Go bed." "Why does she sound drunk this time? She's never sounded like that before." Ben, I think. "Jus tire, Ben. Back sleep." I can't move my body but I can feel myself collapsing backwards. I think arms are trying to hold onto me. "Kennedy, wake up for us, please. Just for a few minutes, then you can sleep." It's that soft voice again. Someone is brushing hair out of my face. The floral scent is really nice. The hands are gentle, like my moms. "Nice hands." I mumble. I can feel my brain working, but everything is all disjointed and confusing. I try to blink and I think I can feel something moving. There's tightness around my arms, but it doesn't hurt. I breathe in again, it seems to be the only thing I have control over. I feel a squeeze on my hands and my eyes finally open.