The Alpha Wolf's Sacrifice (Wolves of Anchorage 1)

"Okay. I went to an Academy for young males coming-of-age where they taught us everything we needed to know to run a pack and then some. I got to know several shifters very well. I consider them my extended family. They are my brothers in every way that matters."

"Well, that's a great thing. Having more inter-pack unity would be a good thing. But what’s the problem now?"

He took a deep breath. "The first issue was that we were too rural. We weren't close enough for any of the pups to go to public school or even private school. We didn't have decent Internet or even satellite so that they could do online school and several of our older pups wanted to go to college. The pack gave the blessing with the understanding that they would come back. And then they stopped coming back. They want access to colleges and universities and some of them want jobs that only benefit humans. One of them wants to be a dentist, of all things. We don't even go to the dentist!"

"Did you know that most of my clients are humans?" she asked just as their food arrived. They’d both ordered medium rare steaks, and they smelled divine.

He lifted one shoulder. "I hadn't really thought about it."

"They are. And I feel exactly the same way about selling property to humans as your pack members feel about being a dentist. I love living among humans. I like having a little bit of anonymity. I like it that my neighbors don't know what I looked like when I was five years old or who my best friend was. I like that they don't know my mom."

"So you didn't like that close sense of community?" he asked.

"It’s not that I don't like it. It's just that for me, there were more negatives than positives. For you it might feel like closeness and belonging to a tribe and having someone who always cares about you, but for me, there were shifters trying to control me all the damned time. And I don't even mean that in a bad way. They mean well."

She felt a little guilty for portraying her family like this. "My family is good. They love me and they want what's best for me. They just won't listen to me and understand that what's best for them, isn't what's best for me."

She kept going. "Some shifters want to be part of the wider world, and some don’t. Some want to form their own secret society, made up of only shifters, all working together. And maybe achieving that would be possible, if we all agreed on how to go about it. But so many packs want to be completely isolated and insular, so there's no opportunity for us to intermingle. For example, my pack was less isolated than yours, but they will absolutely lose their minds if they find that we are dating."

He chuckled. "Yes, we've never done any dating across shifter types. It’s actually forbidden by our pack rules."

"Rules aside, what's your opinion on it?" she asked

"Well, I’m obviously open to it." He spread his arms. "Here I am."

"But what about mating, and what about sharing a life together, theoretically? What about dating humans?"

She could tell he was trying to control his reaction, but he had visibly recoiled.

"Those are complicated questions," he said.

Ugh. She hadn’t expected him to react so viscerally. She forced herself to smile; she wasn't going to judge him for the way that he'd always lived. It would take time for him to learn to change his attitudes. "Just think about it," she said. "I'm not in favor of mating with anyone at all, but if I were, then I would not limit my options to bears only."

He nodded. "I'll think about it."

She could tell he meant it, and she appreciated that. Now it was time to change the subject. "Have you found anything you like about Anchorage so far?"

He chuckled. "Not too much so far – just you. And this restaurant too. If I'm going to eat human food, then this steak is amazing. Would you like me to take you home or back to the office?"

"You can take me back to the office,'' she said. "My car is there." She intentionally did not suggest her apartment, so that she wouldn't be tempted to invite him in. And she was most definitely tempted to invite him in.

He paid the bill and then drove her back, and then he walked her to the office door. He was going to kiss her, she just knew it. "I don't want my boss to notice anything on the footage," she said. That would be really embarrassing. "Especially because you’re a client. It would not be a great look for me. But I do appreciate you waiting until you’d already made the offer to ask me out."

"Would you have said yes before?" he asked, moving in closer. He wrapped his arm around her waist.

"I'd like to say no, that I would not have, but the truth is I was very interested." She put her hand on his bicep and trailed it down his arm. "I definitely would not let it factor into my work, and I wouldn’t do it to make a sale. But you have me intrigued. I liked what I saw, and I’ve never dated a wolf shifter before."

He tugged her to the side of the building. "The cameras can’t see us now." He moved closer, still going slowly, but pressed his lips against hers.

The heat from his lips ignited her passion. She kissed him back, moving her lips against his. He tasted like peppermint. She wondered what the rest of him tasted like. She intended to find out, later on.

He tightened his arm around her waist until her body was pressed against his. He was giving off so much heat that he warmed her skin. She inched closer, feeling his erection. Her stomach flipped. She wanted more.

But it wasn’t time. She stepped back, still kissing him. She let him devour her mouth, and then she pulled away. "I’ll see you soon," she said.

She had to get away before she tackled him right there on the sidewalk.