Chapter 9

Jacob POV

I took a bit before I felt confident enough that I could walk through the party without embarrassingly showing how much this woman turned me on. That was all because of standing there with my arms wrapped around Raven, but it was worth it. Anything that was going to prolong having her press against my body was worth it, though. When I figured that I was getting to the point of pushing my luck, I reluctantly released Raven from my hold and took her hand. I started walking back towards the fire, enjoying even the simple touch of our joined hands.

“Do you want to go home or stay and talk with the others, Princess?” I asked as we drew near the fire. I was not sure what I wanted her answer to be. On one hand, I didn’t want to stay here and share her with anyone. But on the other I didn’t want to take her home and have our night end.

She scanned the area, probably looking for her friend Sara. I had a feeling, though, that if what I thought was happening, Raven most likely wouldn’t be hearing from Sara until at least tomorrow afternoon. “I think I’d like to leave. If that is OK with you?” She answered, turning her head down to avoid looking at me and sounding nervous. As if she expected me to be mad.

I stopped, turned and pulled her close. I hooked my finger under her chin, tilting her gaze up to mine. Goddess, she has such beautiful blue eyes.

“Why did it sound as if you were scared to give me that answer?” Raven tried to turn her head, but I gently tightened my hold on her chin. “Raven, Princess, I know you don’t know me very well, but I was brought up to respect women. I have a very healthy fear of what my own mother would do to me if she ever thought that I had done something that caused a woman to fear my reaction to something they said. So if you ever give me the honour of taking you out on a real date, please don’t be scared to speak your true feelings around me even if you think I may not like them. I’d rather know your true thoughts on things than what you think I want to hear. OK?”

She blinked at me a few times. It was in that moment that I realized that no man, maybe no one, had ever shown her the kind of respect that I had just talked about. It made my protective side flare up. I felt Coal push forward. I had to suppress a growl and close my eyes so she didn’t see them change. I took a deep breath, inhaling her tantalizing orange smell to both calm myself and Coal down. With my eyes still closed, I felt those tingles that seem to get stronger the more we touch slide along my jaw as Raven placed her hands on my face.

“For some strange reason, I believe you. And yes, I would like you to take me on a real date.” That was how one of the best weeks of my life started.

It started that night when I took her home. I didn’t drop her off at her house. We parked a few houses down and sat and talked. We talked until the first pinkish-orange rays of sunrise started to peek out from the horizon.

The guys and I were supposed to return home the day after the lake party, but I decided to stay behind for the week. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with Raven before she left.  Raven’s classes weren’t starting until the second week in September, which would have given us at least a month together. But she had been able to get a part-time job near her college that she could start early. She had made all of these plans before we met, so even though I may not have liked it, I wasn’t going to ask her to change her life plans for me. I wanted to stay in her life as much as possible at the same time giving her the space to become her own person. If I pushed too much, she might push me out altogether, which would make it very hard to be near her when she turned eighteen.

I am starting to have a whole new respect for what Zane has been going through. Waiting the next few months that I have before I can find out if Coal is right about her being a possible mate is going to be hard. How Zane has lasted four years is beyond me. It does give me a few months, though, to figure out how I can approach her about moving to Blu Ridge to live with me if she agrees to be with me. It will also give me time to come up with a way that won’t freak her out to explain to her that I’m a werewolf. Add to that the fact that she would help me run a pack of werewolves.

But for now, she has worked so hard to get where she is. She deserves to do this on her own if she wants to. It is her way of proving to herself that she is more than what her worthless parents have tried to make her believe she is.

Raven had saved up and bought a used phone, something she had never had before. Even if she hadn’t bought herself one, I had been planning on getting her one so that we could stay in touch. Sara’s parents had also helped her to get a good used car. At first Raven had refused it. But between Sara, her parents and myself, we finally convinced her to keep it. Letting me and Sara’s parents pay for the insurance for the next couple of years was another story, but we did it.