Kyra
The kiss was… much better than she’d expected.
She was on a street corner, in the middle of town, and she’d just been kissed breathless by her target.
And she found herself wanting to do it again.
Unknown to Derek, their meeting outside the clothing boutique had not been left up to chance. No, Kyra wasn’t willing to sit around and wait for him to pick her up for a date. That was leaving way too much to chance.
She’d been following him. She knew better than to follow him on pack land. The wolves were even more territorial than the vampires. But in town? That was easy. She could find his scent easily, and he didn’t seem paranoid at all, like some of the shifters she’d encountered as a child, or even as an adult.
She didn’t want to think too hard about why she found his scent so easily. Based on past experience, she should have had to concentrate and focus to find him, since she’d only met him so recently.
But finding him among the people on the small suburban streets had been effortless.
She could tell he’d noticed her presence when he’d left the boutique. He’d stopped and looked around before finally spotting her. That time she was ready to be seen. She needed to let him get used to seeing her. Make him feel like she was safe and familiar.
Then he’d taken her books. It was cheesy, but her fourteen-year-old self was swooning. She’d been telling the truth about moving around as a child, and she’d never fit in. Once she lived with the vampires, they’d sent her to expensive private schools in New York City and London, but she’d been even more out of place. She’d never had a place to belong in her entire life. She’d read a lot, and although she preferred thrillers if she was reading fiction, every now and then she’d read a teen romance. The idea of a stronger, older guy carrying her books had been a fantasy.
It didn’t matter at all that she didn't need help carrying them, or that she was stronger than any of the human boys she’d gone to school with. She would have liked for just once, one of the well-liked boys to notice her. The drama star, or the hot saxophone player, or the captain of the basketball team. But none of them ever did.
The girls ignored her too. None of them were mean or cruel. They just didn’t allow her to get close to them, so she never had friends. As a small child, they’d moved around so much. And as a teen, she’d just stood out.
Because there was something off about her – that’s what the other kids said.
They could sense that she wasn’t quite human. And then once she’d started living with the vampires, she’d become even more odd.
She should have had the life that Derek had. She should have grown up in a warm, loving pack. It should have been a safe haven for her, just like it was going to be for this new baby Derek was so excited about.
But she was getting sidetracked.
Finally, a hot guy had noticed her. Then he’d kissed her. He’d pulled her off the sidewalk a little. He was smooth, she had to give him that. He was obviously experienced, far more than she was. She’d had a few boyfriends once she was in college, but lovemaking had been perfunctory with them. She had a feeling it would be anything but that with him.
They already had a date planned. There was no reason to kiss him in public. But he seemed enchanted by her, and she needed to capitalize on that.
During the kiss, her nipples tightened. Her core ached. She found herself leaning a little closer to him, wanting to feel his warm touch. She wanted to know what it would feel like for him to push his hand inside her shirt and for him to slip his fingers in between her legs. She was already wet. God, could he smell it out here?
She wasn’t sure if she wanted to be that obvious.
The vampires would not be pleased if they thought she was falling for him. If it got too out of hand, she’d be pulled from the mission and replaced.
No.
That couldn’t happen.
They didn’t even have anyone who could fill her role. Even if they tolerated the presence of a vampire, the wolf shifters would never allow one of them onto pack land. They had no other options, unless they recruited a new wolf shifter. But the ones they were planning to steal would be too young for years to be sent on any type of mission. And could they be trusted? They’d have to buy into the narrative the vampires were planning to tell them.
It seemed like a risky plan to her.
Whereas she was a sure thing. No one had needed to convince her of the shifters’ lack of moral code – she’d watched it unfold her entire life. No vampire needed to sell her a story about the wolf shifters. She’d lived it, day in and day out.
Derek’s hands brushed over her cheeks. “What’s wrong? You’re shaking.”
Dammit. She was letting her emotions get the better of her, once again. She couldn't say she was cold. That would never fly. “I’m hungry,” she said. “The bagel was good, but I need to eat something more substantial.” He would understand that. Any shifter knew how fast their metabolism ran. And though she was half-human, she seemed to require just as much sustenance as any typical shifter.
“Would you like to get something now?” he asked. “We can go get a hamburger.”
No. She needed to go. She needed to leave him wanting her. And she needed a break. If she was shaking so much that he’d noticed from thinking about her past, she needed to get home and regroup, far away from him.