What was it with these guys and meeting their gaze, anyway?
“It is a challenge.”
Well, fuck yeah, it was. I opened my eyes, just as he pulled my head back and settled his jaws over my throat. The next growl vibrated through skin and flesh and blood, and I whimpered.
“Do you yield?” echoed through my head, and I felt those jaws tighten.
“Yes?”
The pressure did not ease, and I realized it was an all or nothing question.
“All right! For now, yes!”
And he let go, letting his arm settle back over my shoulders as he sat beside me.
What the fuck had that been all about? I thought, turning my head to look up at him.
He slid me a sideways glance, his lips lifting in an almost smile.
“All my lupar swear their allegiance that way.”
I’d just gotten suckered by a wolf tradition? Well, great. But what had I just agreed to? I looked up at him, letting my gaze skitter across his eyes, before choosing a point a little past him.
“What did I just swear to?”
“You?” and his lips lifted into a full grin. “You just agreed to not try to escape while in my custody, to do what I tell you, and that your life is forfeit to me, if you break your word.”
I. I just what?
He brought his muzzle close to my ear.
“Why? Do you wish you hadn’t?”
I didn’t know what to wish. I felt like my life had just taken a very unexpected turn, and I didn’t want to make the same mistake I’d made on an arach ship, when I’d refused the offer of protection by refusing a meal.
“What are your obligations to me?” because I knew he had them.
“To let no harm come to you while you are in my custody.”
“None?”
“To the best of my ability, but you are bound to obey, and that involves you not deliberately endangering yourself.”
“And does this agreement have an end?”
The scope of it left me short of breath. I had to do everything he said, or die? Not even Mack...
“It ends when my custody of you ends, or when I fail in my obligation.”
These words brought a series of protesting growls from the wolves opposite, and he sighed, raising his free hand towards them in acknowledgement.
“… and it binds my lupar to stand in my place, if you have done nothing to breach the agreement.”
I looked from him to the wolves and back. I’d just scored myself a squad of werewolf protectors?
Oh. Fan-fucking-tastic.
“Don’t push it.”
“You going to uncuff me… boss?”
7—Part of the Pack
There was a soft shudder as the shuttle touched down, but my wolf escort lifted his arm from around my shoulders.
“Turn.”
I turned, and he undid the cuffs.
“Stay seated, until I tell you otherwise, and then stay beside me. Understood?”
I turned to face the front, massaging my wrists, as I did so.
“Yes… What do I call you? Do I need to add something like ‘boss’?”
“You will call me Pack Leader.”
I nodded, and he snarled.
What the… Well. Fine.
“Yes, Pack Leader,” but I gave him a glare as I said it, and found myself picked up and slapped into a wall.
Oh. The gaze thing. Crap.
I dropped my gaze.
“Sorry.”
And he shook me, before setting me back on my feet.
“Do not forget when we go on board. That sort of look counts as insubordination. Lomis, Keromil, see that she remembers. She has much to learn of being pack, and no time.”
Two sharp barks greeted him, and I guessed they had the term ‘pack leader’ built in, because two wolves flanked me, and my original escort nodded—which was when I realized I did not have his name.
“I am Pack Leader Rovan,” and he gave me a wolfish grin. “You should really have worked out who you were yielding to, before agreeing.”
Like that would have made any difference, when the choice was having my throat torn out. I narrowed my eyes, caught myself before I could do anything more insubordinate, and looked down at the deck. The dark-coated wolf to my right patted my shoulder, and then draped his arm across my back. I shot a quick glance at him, frowning.
What was it with these guys and all the touchy feely shit?
“Touch is part of a pack’s communication,” Rovan said, picking up the thought, “and you will need to let both Lomis and Keromil into your head. They cannot keep you out of trouble otherwise.”
I ducked my head, pressing my lips together.
Honestly! It was bad enough having him in my head. Why would I want more?
“Pack,” Rovan said, his tone of voice suggesting that was all the explanation I needed. “I would suggest it was a closer bond than family, but that would be a poor example in your case.”
It would? Just how far had he dug, anyway.
“That information is not from you.”
Then who?
“I took it from Mack.”
He had? And how in all the Stars had Mack known?
“That is not for me to say.”
Hell, yes, it was!
And he snarled. Lomis gave me a slap over the back of the head, and Keromil nudged me in the ribs with an elbow.
Okay. So maybe it wasn’t. I hunched between them, and kept my head down, glancing up at him from under my brows.
“Eyes down,” Keromil whispered, and Rovan snapped a short bark at him.
Keromil dropped his head and whined.
Like that? There was no freaking way, and Lomis slapped me again, harder.
“Hey!”
Damn these guys moved fast!
I found myself flat on my back, Lomis’s hand in the middle of my chest and his face two inches from my own, his snarl washing over me as well as Rovan’s. I stared at him, squirmed, and tried to look up at the pack leader. Damn wolf was smirking.
“Looks like you’re a slow learner. I might need all the squad to keep you in line.”
“What-thefuck-ev—”
And he had
