Page 15 of Unknowingly Adopting the Alpha
Cassian
“I just can’t believe you aren’t freaking out over this?”
Did he seriously think I was taking thiswell?!
“I had you stay a wolf last night so I wouldn’t have to deal with it, and I’d spent yesterday thinking that I’d either imagined you, or that you were real but had decided to leave me. And trust me, both were equally hard to think about. So, if you think this is me not freaking out, then it’s because the first two thoughts were so devastating to me that this reality is a huge relief.” I was panting at the end, staring him down, daring him to say something.
His eyes were wide and then they changed somehow, guilt took over and once again he wouldn’t meet my gaze. “I’m sorry for leaving you.”
“I’m still waiting for the explanation ofwhyyou did it. You could’ve easily shifted and told me you had a wife and family and didn’t care much for being treated as a pet.” I was both embarrassed and mad that he’d acted like a real animal and not just told me outright he was a man. Well, a man who could turn into a wolf…But still!
“I was called back home by my dad. I had certain responsibilities that I needed to take care of. The fact I was gone for so long left many to doubt my place in my pack,” he explained. It sounded genuine enough, and with the power my own father had held over me for so long, I understood the urge to submit and do whatever he asked.
“And you couldn’t have left a note?” I tried, knowing it was a last-ditch effort to keep my anger at him going.
He smiled knowingly. I both hated it and loved it at the same time.
Letting out a deep sigh, I decided to ask the thing I dreaded to know the answer to the most. “Now that you’ve explained that you aren’t just a wolf, will you leave me behind for good?”
His smile fell. “You want that?”
I quickly shook my head. “Never! I want you to stay, but…well, it was easier to adopt a wolf. I can’t exactly demand you stay here and buy you a collar, now, can I?”
A new much bigger and brighter smile took over his face. “I wouldn’t be opposed to getting collared by you.”
I almost swallowed my tongue at his reply.Words… I needed to speak words!
Clearing my throat, I tried to sound unaffected as I said, “We’ll get back to that… but for now, you’re saying you want to maybe hang out? Be friends?”
I really needed a friend. The last girl I’d been seeing had taken all our friends with her when we’d broken up, and I had one friend that was employed by my father, so he was out, too.
“Just friends?” he asked with a wink.
I blushed, “I um…I’ve never been interested in a man before…well, before you, that is.”
“Wait, never?”
I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. He didn’t seem surprised that I liked him, which oddly made me feel better.
“So,” he began, “you not only have to deal with knowing shifters exist? You also have to deal with the fact you’re attracted to me?”
“Pretty much, yeah,” I shrugged.
“Then I think we should be friends first,” he declared, and I felt both relieved and disappointed by that, but we didn’t really know each other anyway, so friends was a good place to start. Hopefully, he wouldn’t date anyone until I knew for sure if I wanted more with him or not.
“Friends,” I agreed.
For now.
“I do have some questions about yesterday,” he said, stabbing a fork through his eggs.
I eyed my own plate of now cold food. “Ask away.” I had about a thousand questions for him, and that was only the wolf related ones.
“What were you doing with Rowan and Greg?”
“Oh, they kidnapped me.”
Shoot, I forgot to get their numbers!
