What the Storm Brought In
Sloane’s POV
"Kai, if you cancel on me again, I’m stealing your hockey stick and setting it on fire." I’m waiting at a red light, fingers tapping against the steering wheel of my old pickup.
At the other end of the call, my boyfriend laughs softly. The sound still settles warm inside my chest after all these years, making me blush.
"You wouldn’t dare."
"I absolutely would." My lips lift at the corners at my playful fib. "Neither is making your girlfriend eat dinner alone three nights in a row."
Shifting gears when the lights change, I take off.
"I said I was sorry." His voice lowers, smoother now. "Practice ran late. Coach has been losing his mind before regionals."
I can hear shouting in the background, hockey sticks slamming against the locker room floor, and distant male laughter.
Typical hockey players.
Kai Rhodes is a star forward of Black Shadow University’s ice hockey team and the future Beta of the Black Shadow Pack. Campus heartthrob. Need I say more?
And unfortunately for every girl who throws herself at him-
Mine.
"Well," I say, easing my car forward, taking the next corner, "you owe me tonight."
"I know." He pauses. "I’ll make it worth it."
Heat creeps into my cheeks, and I pull in my bottom lip softly between my teeth. Even after three years together, Kai still has a dangerous talent for doing that.
"Gross," I mutter weakly, but he knows I am playing.
His laugh deepens, sending butterflies in my chest, but he replies with, "Pick me up?"
"Already on my way."
A storm was in the forecast for later, so Kai staying over tonight would be the best for me. Cuddling tight with the one I love is the best way to spend time during cold weather.
"Missed me that much?"
Seeing a few droplets on my windshield, I duck my head to peek out at the slightly graying sky. "No, you need your hoodie tonight for this rain. You left it at my apartment."
Yes, my own place. I've moved out and got my own place- a one-bedroom, but my own, nevertheless. Where Kai did indeed leave his jacket, but he will not need it tonight...
Kai and I have known each other for more than half of our lives. After my parents died, the Black Shadow Pack became the closest thing I had to a home. They became my family.
At first, it was hell. I had been twelve when my parents died in a car accident on their way to my ballet competition. A car had jackknifed across two lanes after losing control around one of the mountain curves. Cars swerved. Brakes screamed. Metal folded into metal. Their SUV had been caught between the guardrail and another vehicle that spun across the median. The front end had crumpled almost instantly.
I never danced again after that night.
If Kai’s father, Beta Darren Rhodes, hadn’t stepped in and taken me into his home, I don’t know what would have happened to me, and to Beta and his wife. I will forever be grateful.
Kai is my age, and though we went to the same school, we never ran in the same circles back then. He was loud, reckless, impossible to ignore. He even stole half my fries the first night I moved in and announced, "You look like someone who cries too much."
I threw ketchup at him, and he grinned like we were suddenly best friends. And somehow… we became exactly that. By sixteen, the Moon Goddess decided friendship wasn’t enough.
Fated mates.
"Don’t forget," Kai says casually now through the speakers, "Mom invited you for Sunday dinner." Then, chuckling, he adds, "She keeps asking when we’re finally marking each other."
I roll my eyes. "Your mother has baby fever."
Having babies at a young age is normal in pack life. Our kind praises if you have an adult child when you’re in your late thirties.
'Of course she does.' My wolf clips silently but goes back into her private space in the back of my mind, content with the thought of Kai and me marking each other. 'She’s not getting them from me at this age.'
Technically, if I get pregnant now, I'll have the pup by twenty, but it's not the point. Kai’s mother had him at barely nineteen, herself, but that is not the life I see for myself.
We haven’t marked each other yet. Most couples do it immediately after finding their mate, unable to resist the bond pulling them together. Others wait, and Kai and I choose to wait until marriage.
The mating mark isn’t just symbolic among werewolves. It is permanent and soul-deep. A promise carried beneath skin and bone for the rest of our lives.
Kai and I already have our future planned out. We finish college, he takes over as Beta one day, and somewhere in between, we get married and build a family together. Simple.
We just want everything to be right when the time comes. Until then, we have each other. Time to grow, explore life together, and enjoy being young before responsibility settles fully onto his shoulders.
"I’ll be there," I check the rearview when I pass a patrol car because my taillight is busted, "Gotta go."
I hung up the call, but the patrol took no note of me, continuing on their way. Flicking a switch, I watch the blades swish the rain away from my screen as it starts coming down harder, streaking across the windshield in silver lines. One movement, then it stops.
A car honked its horn as it overtook me, clearly in a hurry, and a strange unease crawled beneath my skin when, just as suddenly, the place darkened around me. I slow the truck because I have to reach forward to wipe the frost from the glass so I can see the road ahead.
Thunder rumbles overhead, then headlights flash violently across my vision, jolting me. Pulling into the small mom and pop shop, I make our meal purchases, reverse, and am on my way to Kai.
Then everything happens all at once, it seems.
Another truck.
My breath snags. Loud brakes, impact, and glass exploding around me. Pain slams through my body as the world flips sideways as if in slow-mo.
Then darkness swallows everything whole.
