28 Future

Carrie

“Can I help you?” I asked in a false friendly voice.

“Yes, I think you can,” said the female of the pair. She looked unkempt, wrinkled clothing and fairly thin, but her brown eyes were steady as she met mine. She didn’t look feral. Still, I held myself ready in case she tried anything.

“What do you need?”

“Sanctuary. We heard there’s a new pack forming around here, and you’re the first wolf we’ve found,” she said, her voice a bit louder than I thought was wise in a place where humans could be around any corner. “You smell of pack.”

I looked past her to the male. He was quiet, but he seemed steady and in control of himself, although he wouldn’t meet my eyes. Our pack did need more members if we were going to be taken seriously, but allowing in a lot of rogues could be a messy business. Some rogues were perfectly normal, but others had done things that made it difficult for them to settle into pack life, and others lost their sanity along with their wolf’s isolation.

This pair didn’t seem aggressive or crazy. “I’ll talk to my alpha.” These sorts of decisions did typically fall on the alpha, but mostly I wasn’t stupid enough to out myself as luna in front of a possible threat. It was a good reminder that Jason’s unease with me being away from the pack wasn’t just paranoia. The luna was in many ways the pack’s greatest strength but also its weakness, as an integral half of the alpha pair.

“But, I should really get back to work. We’ll meet you in this parking lot at nine with an answer tonight.”

The female nodded, although she looked uneasy. “Before I go, I’m Theodora Walker and this is West Tyndale. I’m originally from Bluegorge. They wouldn’t accept him due to his rogue status, so I went with him instead.”

I wasn’t surprised to hear that. Bluegorge was one of packs who had refused me entry as well. I no longer cared, because I was glad that I found Jason, but that didn’t make me like them.

The next time Max came into the store to check on me, I relayed what had happened so that he could tell my mate. At the end of my final shift, I said my goodbyes to the coworkers I was closer to, thanked the manager, and walked outside. With my old apartment cleaned out, it was the end of my life masquerading amongst the humans.

Unsurprisingly, Jason was waiting outside for me. He kissed me. “Are you okay?”

“Of course.”

“They didn’t hurt you?”

“Does it look like they hurt me? I’m fine. Plus, they didn’t even figure out I was luna.”

“Well, who would expect a luna to be working in retail and reeking of humans?”

I rolled my eyes. “Come on, they’re not that bad. Plus, I guess you’re happy for the human stench now.”

“Not really. But I can fix it.” He nuzzled up against me. “My wolf also likes it when you smell like me.”

“Actually, you smell like humans now too,” I pointed out.

“Oh, so now you see the problem?”

“No. They don’t smell bad.”

“It’s not that they smell bad, it’s that I like how you smell better.” He paused and straightened, grabbing my hand and leading me off to his truck. A couple of humans were giving us judgmental looks for our public displays of affection. I sighed, he was really good at making me forget my blending in with the humans skills along with everything else. “But that’s not why I’m here. What was your impression of them?”

“They didn’t seem off kilter. If she was telling the truth, she was a pack wolf and left because they wouldn’t accept her rogue mate. That fits with what I know of Bluegorge. He was quiet, but he didn’t seem too jittery. If he’s not a risk, and she’s not lying, they’d be a good fit, I think.”

He nodded. “We’ll give them a chance unless we spot something off.”

“You’re just going off of what I say, just like that?”

“I trust your judgment.”

His words made me feel as warm as his hands on my body, but in a different way. He really was too good to be true.

“So, what should we do until it’s time to meet?” I asked. We had more than an hour to kill.

“I’ve got a few ideas.”

Jason’s ideas on how to kill an hour turned out to be a lot less x-rated than I would have guessed. Taking his truck, we stopped at a deli and grabbed a meal, and then he took me to a human park, complete with human children screeching on a play structure. We followed a trail and passed them as we made our way to a quieter part of the green space.

Leaning against a tree, we had an impromptu picnic together. When we were finished eating, he lay with his head in my lap. From where we sat I could still see the children climbing like monkeys, and their parents chatting together or looking at their phones.

Jason had his eyes shut. I brushed hair away from his forehead. “You know, I’m probably going to go into heat soon.” I hadn’t even thought about protection since the odds of pregnancy at other times was incredibly low, but it was a different story when a werewolf met her mate and especially when she went into heat.

His eyes opened and he searched my face. “Yeah.”

“And what do you think about that?” I prodded.

“What do you think?”

I glared at him.

He sighed and asked, “Do you want kids, Carrie?”

“Do you?”

“I’m not opposed.”

“Not enthusiastic then? What about the pack? Won’t it need an heir?”

Jason shrugged. “Before I met you I wasn’t planning on kids. When the time came, I figured it would be taken over by one of my ranking wolves, or by Kain if he wanted the spot. He’s a tough kid and comes from an alpha family so he’d be able to handle it.”

“Did he?”

“Yeah. He’s my former alpha’s nephew.”

“Poor kid.” He had clearly seen terrible things and experienced terrible losses.

“Yeah. It’s been rougher on him than most of us. None of us knew what we were supposed to do with him, but he needed us, right?” He shrugged. “So, do you want kids? I won’t push you, since it wouldn’t be easy to raise them while we try to build our pack.”

“What are we building a pack for, if not for future generations? They’re the life of the pack. I want kids, but only if you do.”

“Then we’ll have them.” He said it so casually it was hard to believe he was serious.

“For me?”

He chuckled. “You really overthink things, babe. If we have kids, I’ll love them; if it’s hard, we’ll find a way; and in the meantime, we should practice making them—a lot.”

“You’ve got a one track mind,” I scolded, but I was kidding. Mine wasn’t much better when it came to him.

“Only with you, Carrie.”

I could have stayed there with Jason forever, but first we had rogues to meet.