Chapter Six

"Do you wanna stay for dinner tonight? It's been a few days and I'm trying out a new recipe." Laurie asks Kate as they load groceries into the back of her car.

Kate hadn't been over for dinner in a few days. She had told Laurie it was because she had a family thing, and really it was. There had been a full moon and it had been best that she was away from Laurie for a few days.

Now that she'd found her mate, it was damn near impossible to stay away from her. Kate had already been on edge from the moment she met Laurie and the full moon took every ounce of control she had and shoved it out the window.

Kate loved the feeling of letting go and shifting, but the full moon made it so werewolves had little to no restraint over their baser instincts. It was also when they were at the peak of their abilities.

She wanted Laurie so bad it hurt. It was a miracle her pack members had been able to stop her from doing something crazy like breaking down her mate's door.

Kate knew she would never hurt Laurie, even in her deadliest state; but she'd also never been in this position before. Never wanted someone as much as she wanted her mate. Kate was so much stronger and far more aggressive than she usually was when she was dealing with a full moon.

If she was being honest, Kate did not know how she was gonna stop herself next time. She wasn't sure if Iris could knock her out again after another month of all this tension building inside her. Of course, should it come down to it, she'd think of something. Kate would protect Laurie from anything, even herself.

"Hello, earth to Kate. You still in there?" Laurie says, waving her hand in front of Kate's face.

"Uh, what?"

Kate was still reeling over the kiss that Laurie gave her inside. It was only on the cheek but it was the closest she had gotten to initiating something between the two of them. There was also the fact that Kate's self-control was hanging by a thread and with only a few days between the last full moon and today, she was still suffering a little from the after-effects.

"Dinner tonight?" Laurie asks, smiling when Kate nods in confirmation.

"You know I'd never refuse anything you made."

"Yeah. I still don't know how you can eat so much and look like that." Laurie says, making a gesture towards Kate's body with her hand.

"Look like what?" Kate asks, a smirk starting to form on her lips.

Kate may have been waiting for Laurie, but she wasn't stupid. She knew her mate found her attractive. In fact, she had taken to wearing more sleeveless tops when she discovered Laurie's fascination for her arms. Kate was surprised she hadn't asked about her tattoos yet, considering the amount of times she'd seen Laurie ogling them.

"You know, just-that you-I'm not doing this," Laurie says, a blush rising to her cheeks as she turns towards the car and shuts the backseat door with a little more force than necessary.

Kate takes pity on her mate and decides to let up. "So do you need anything else?"

"Nope." Laurie shakes her head, twisting the keys to her car around her fingers.

"Well okay then. Let's go." Kate reaches for Laurie's hand and starts walking, taking a confused Laurie with her.

"Where are we going?"

"I'm showing you around. This place is amazing and you haven't seen much of it. Almost everyone knows each other so if you're gonna live here then you might as well meet a couple of people."

Kate was determined to show Laurie around. The smaller blonde wasn't as familiar with the town as Kate would have liked her to be and she was making it her job to show her everything. There was also the added bonus of having people see her with Kate. The more people saw them together, the better.

Some people were starting to get curious and the last thing Kate needed was someone coming to see Laurie and slipping up. Her mate would not find out about her from someone else. Of course, it was only a matter of time before someone did or said something. Laurie had managed to move to the most supernaturally inhabited place on this side of the planet and Kate knew she would have to tell Laurie soon.

Laurie nods in agreement, letting herself be led into what looked like an antique store. The bell above the door rings as Kate opens it and guides Laurie in.

A woman who looked to be about her age emerges from the door behind the counter. She had dark hair that went down past her shoulders and brown eyes. She smiles as she sees Laurie and Kate walk towards her.

"Good morning Iris." Kate chirps, dropping Laurie's hand, much to her dismay, and reaching towards a glass bowl on the counter to grab a handful of what looked like candy.

"Hey, Kate. You gonna introduce us or..." Iris asks, throwing a discrete wink towards the brunette before turning to face Laurie and giving her a warm smile.

Iris knew exactly who Laurie was. After all, she had the unbelievable pleasure of knocking Kate out not three nights ago to stop her from running to the smaller woman's house and all but jumping her.

Kate had yet to introduce any of her pack members to Laurie. They were, for lack of a better word, a lot. She loved her pack and she considered them to be her family, but they weren't exactly discrete.

Iris had always been comforting in nature and she emanated a calming warmth that drew people to her. Kate knew she was the ideal person to introduce Laurie to first.

"Laurie, this is Iris. She was the one who helped me find your place a couple of weeks ago." Kate says.

Laurie reaches out and Iris leans over the counter to shake her hand.

"Hi. It's nice to finally meet the woman who saved my ass. I probably would have been stuck at Kate's if it weren't for you." Laurie says, smiling.

"Something tells me she wouldn't have minded," Iris mutters under her breath.

"I'm sorry?" Laurie asks, not quite hearing what the other woman had said.

"I said, I was happy to help. It couldn't have been fun. Getting lost like that." Iris has to hold back a smirk at the glare Kate shoots her way from behind Laurie.

"Iris," Kate warns quietly. Laurie's ears weren't as sensitive as theirs and she knew she didn't have to worry about her hearing them.

"Yeah, I just got here and woke up to this loud noise and found Kate banging away at something. It was something for a car right?" Laurie asks Kate, completely oblivious to the exchange as she inspects a small chest she had picked up.

Kate nods, popping one of the candies into her mouth.

"I bet that wasn't the only thing she wanted to bang," Iris murmurs, turning her head a little to stop herself from laughing as Kate chokes on the piece of candy she'd just put in her mouth.

Laurie sets the chest down, quickly moving to Kate's side and rubbing up and down her back as she coughs. "Woah. You okay?"

Iris pops up on the other side of Kate armed with a glass of water and an amused smile. Kate takes the glass, downing half the water and glaring at her friend.

It was official, Connor had managed to completely corrupt Iris.

"Do you guys wanna stay for some tea?" Iris asks as soon as Kate hands her back the glass of water. She was having fun teasing the Alpha but she also wanted to get to know her mate.

Iris could somewhat understand how complicated this was for Kate. Her circumstance was different from what she went through with Connor but she could understand the longing. She had met her mate when she belonged to a different pack. Her father was the Alpha and he wasn't too keen on letting his daughter leave. It didn't help that her pack resided on an entirely different continent. It had taken weeks to iron out the details but she eventually convinced her father to let her go.

Kate had jumped through all kinds of hoops to help and had welcomed her into her pack with open arms. Iris's situation with Connor Had been complicated, but they both knew exactly what the other was to them. Connor Knew she was his mate and they both understood the weight that carried.

Kate's situation with Laurie was delicate. One wrong move and Laurie could react badly or worse, completely reject Kate. Iris owed a lot to Kate and she did not want to see her friend get hurt.

"No no. That's fine, we're fine. We have a couple more stops." Kate says before Laurie could say anything.

"Are you taking Laurie to see the bookstore?" Iris asks as Kate gives Laurie a light nudge and nods towards the door.

"Nope." Kate's reply came quickly. She was not about to take Laurie there. Her family owned that shop and her mother would most likely be there.

She had been pestering Kate about telling Laurie and it had led to an argument ending with her mother threatening to tell the blonde woman herself should she ever see her. Kate understood where her mother was coming from but she wasn't ready. So the only logical thing to do was to keep her mate as far away from her mother as possible. At least until Kate mustered up enough courage to tell her.

"There's a bookstore? I wouldn't mind stopping by. I love my job but I'm gonna go crazy if I have to read another medical book."

"Yeah, just across the-you know what, I think they're closed today." Iris cuts herself off when she sees Kate shake her head subtly with a hard look on her face, a look that says stop.

It was rare for Kate to give any of them direct orders but when she did, they obeyed without question. Kate was a kind leader, she was never one to force anything on her pack but she was also ruthless and unyielding when need be. She commanded respect and had earned the loyalty of everyone in her pack; it wasn't often that anyone challenged her authority.

Iris had been with her pack for almost three years and in that time, she had only seen a total of four people challenge the Alpha. All of whom were left incapacitated.

"Oh. Maybe another time then." Laurie says, following Kate as she starts towards the door.

"Yeah, another time. It was nice meeting you, Laurie. I'm sure we'll see each other again." Iris says, showing them out.

"You too."

Kate nods towards Iris as she leads Laurie out of the shop.