Preparations

Miranda

I sat in his arms for a long while before I felt him tense beneath my cheek on his muscled chest. I was still having a hard time with his delicious scent.

"I must return to my pack." I could feel the rumble of his voice and I didn't want to move but I knew what he was saying was important somehow. "I have to prepare for your arrival."

I pulled away from him a little to look up at him. "My arrival?" She repeated. "What do you mean? You have a pack? What does that mean? Don't you live in the woods?"

He chuckled and pulled me back to his warm body. "We have a community in the forest, but we don't live full time as wolves." His voice sounded amused. "And my pack has been waiting for their luna for a very long time and are eager to meet you. I must return to prepare for you to join us."

I smiled a little. "I would like to see this pack. Are they all like you or are there any humans there?"

"Most are like me, but there are human mates there as well. You won't be the only one, just the most important one."

I flushed a little. I didn't really like attention on me. I had always been like that. I prefered to just live my life as quietly as possible and avoid as many people as I could. I hadn't had good experiences with them. Only a few and I never got close to anyone as a friend since my life had been so controlled by first my parents and then my ex.

"No one will try to control you." He told me softly. "You will be treated as the queen you are. You don't have to make friends if you don't want to, but there are quite a few she-wolves and human women that are really looking forward to showing you all the wonderful things at the Forest Moon Pack."

"Forest Moon Pack?" I thought about it for a second. I liked it.

"Yes, it was the first pack in this territory and has been here for more generations than I can count." He sighed contentedly. "It's beautiful and I can't wait to show you everything!" He sounded so excited that I laughed. How could anyone resist this man?

Careful, John was very charming too, remember. I couldn't help that thought and I felt Jackson tense beside me.

"I would never hurt you, and when I find this John, he will never use the hands that he raised to you again because I will rip them off."

My blood ran cold. It scared me, the way he wanted to kill John. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the bastard suffering, but I could never condone Jackson ripping his hands off or killing him. Not over me. "Please don't do that." I whispered. "I just want to be done with him. I don't want to feel guilty because you did something to him over me."

"Why should you feel guilty? He does not feel guilty for what he did to you."

That stopped me for a moment. When he put it that way, he was right. John never felt guitly for all the beatings, chokings, forced sexual encounters, or verbal and emotional abuse. But still, I could not let Jackson do that to him, because it was against everything I believed in.

I shook my head. "He's in the past. Just forget about him. I'm trying to."

He nodded and pulled me close again but I knew he wasn't going to let it go. I'd have to keep an eye on that.

He chuckled. "I don't mind if you keep an eye on me. Or a leg, or an arm, or..."

I laughed and playfully slapped his hard bicep. How did it feel this comfortable with him after I'd only just met him? I decided I didn't care why and snuggled deeper. This just felt good and I wanted to savor the feeling. Although, who knew if I was dreaming and would wake up at any moment? I began to breathe his scent in to memorize it so I wouldn't forget if I woke up.

I felt him chuckle again and knew he had heard all of that in his head. I let it go. I didn't really like him being able to read everything like that.

"Just the emotion behind it, little artist. But you are easy to read."

I flushed. I would need to learn to control those emotions, I thought in irritation. He doesn't need to know everything.

Jackson barked a laugh. "If you think you can hide them from me, go ahead and try, but the mate bond only grows stronger the longer I am with you and makes it so easy to read those emotions. Don't change because of me. I love you the way you are."

Tears suddenly stung my eyes. No one had ever said that to me before. I was always expected to change myself to suit others; my parents, my siblings, John, even the people I unfortuanately thought were friends. I had only just started to figure out who I was without someone telling me who I had to be. 

"You'll think different once you get to know me." I whispered. I knew this wasn't true logically, but a lifetime of being treated as though everything about you is wrong had my response become automatic through the years.

His hand cupped my chin and lifted my eyes to his. "I love you the way you are." He said firmly as he stared into my eyes.

And I believed him.