The Space Between

Nathan 1

Nathan

I was just about to pretend my hand was my mate’s hand when Brendan knocked on the door to my room. My closet. He’d cleaned the place out for me and brought in a military cot for me to sleep on when he thought I had no place to go. I appreciated it. After my first paycheck I’d gone out and bought myself a mini-fridge and microwave. It would do for now, until I could get my mate and go home. I’d told her I would follow her to the ends of the earth, I’m not sure why she hadn’t believed me. The day I showed up at the club and stood in front of her and her brother, asking for a job, a job I didn’t need, I’d watched her face drain of color.

Yes, Brittany was my mate.

I still remember the first day I met her. I was in Denver with my alpha at some wolf summit meeting that had been set up between us and two other packs. As second-in-command, I was required to attend. I hated all the political bullshit that came with meetings, and Andrew, my alpha, knows this, so he tried to keep it short. Our pack was small compared to some others, but our land was huge, situated over many thousands of acres of prime hunting land. We fought off a lot of rogue wolves all the time trying to hunt our land without permission. Our pack may be small, but we were disciplined and trained. These packs we were meeting wanted permission to cross our land and go hunting because their land wasn’t providing enough. Because they didn’t take care of it.

“What do you think, Alpha?” I’d asked after the first meeting. The largest pack alpha had set up the meetings at a large ski resort in the mountains, just to show his wealth. Like that would intimidate us. We were standing in the common room, enjoying the view of the mountain vista. Normally, I wouldn’t use his formal title, and he wouldn’t use mine, but we were in a formal situation.

“What’s your opinion, Beta?” He’d turned and asked me. Alpha Andrew had been in charge of this pack for almost twenty years, and it had been my honor to serve under him for ten of them. Part of me wondered if he was hoping I’d accept the position if he nominated me for it. I’m not sure I’m interested in being alpha, but I love my pack.

So, I gave his question proper thought. Looked around at the resort we were staying in. The other alpha had paid for it all. And this place couldn’t be cheap. All inclusive. Food, drinks, Olympic size swimming pool, hot tubs, you name it. There was a chair lift to head up the mountain to go skiing if we wanted. “It seems to me, Alpha, that a leader who can pay for all this,” I’d swept my hand to encompass everything, “should be able to keep his own pack fed. If he’s not spending the money on his people, where is it going? And why would I allow that man to hunt amongst our pack?”

“What about the pups and younglings?” The Alpha asked.

“I would think that the other members of the pack should stand up to their alpha if he’s mismanaging their funds. If they came to us, seeking asylum, I wouldn’t turn them away.” I realized who I was talking to and lowered my head slightly, taking a step back. “Sorry if I overstepped my authority, Alpha.”

“Nathan, please,” the Alpha said, placing his hand on my shoulder. “What you said is exactly the same thing I was thinking. On Sunday, I’ll have word go out that our borders are open for those seeking asylum, but we will not tolerate rogues on our land. Until then, let’s go skiing.”

I went up to my room and changed into some warmer clothing and snow pants and went back down to the lobby to wait for my alpha. I was standing near the front desk, zipping up my coat, when I started to smell jasmine, which made no sense. It was November. In Colorado. The elevator binged behind me, and I felt my wolf spring to life as the door opened. The smell of jasmine got stronger as those doors slid open. My alpha stepped out first, but I almost didn’t see him because the scent wrapped around me, and I had sudden tunnel vision. Walking behind my alpha was a group of three women, but I only saw one of them.

She was tall, had to be close to six feet, which was good since I stood at 6’4. She was pulling her honey light brown hair into a ponytail and laughing at something her friend said. Her lips were plump and red, her cheeks smooth, her brows arching over her deep-set eyes. Even her teeth were perfect. Andrew stopped next to me and noticed what I was looking at. He knew better than to try to talk to me at that time. Her eyes caught mine as her and her two friends passed, and I saw the smile leave her lips when she felt the pull between us. Blue. Her eyes were blue. My nostrils flared at her scent, and I watched her porcelain white skin flush. My body turned to watch her as she went by, and she looked back at me for as long as she could before her two friends pulled her along, giggling as they headed towards the door.

My wolf instincts were going crazy, and I wanted to chase after her.

I growled when Andrew placed his hand on my shoulder.

“Easy, Nathan. You can’t go chase after her.”

“She’s my mate.”

 “I understand that. But you still can’t chase after her. That would probably scare her. She’s not human, but she’s also not a wolf.” My alpha turned and smiled at me. “Now, running into her and accidentally knocking her over while skiing…” Here he shrugged.

And that’s what I did. At my core, I’m an apex predator. A hunter. And she became my prey. I stalked her, followed her, set my trap, and sprang it on her. I knocked her over while skiing, pretending that I didn’t know how. I made it so my body landed on top of hers and I was almost, almost, nestled between her thighs.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “Are you ok?” I really made no move to get off her.

She pushed against my chest and I moved back a couple inches. “God, you’re heavy. What do you eat, rocks?”

If she kept touching me like that, I was about to be rock hard. This close, her scent affected me even more, and I could see her cheeks flush the longer I stared at her. I could smell her own arousal. “Allow me to take you to dinner tonight and I’ll show you.”

“What?”

“Brittany, are you ok?” I heard someone say and my mate craned her head backward, looking at her friend standing over us.

The way she presented her neck made it impossible for me to contain my instincts and I felt my eyes dilate as my head lowered closer to her skin. I inhaled her scent and felt my incisors start to elongate.

“Did you just sniff me?” she whispered.

“Yes. I couldn’t help it.” I whispered back. My voice was rough at that point. I was so close to shifting and claiming her.

“My friends are human.” Still, she whispered.

“Why do you think I’m not looking up.”

“f*****g shapeshifters.” She sighed as she said it. I shifted slightly so she could feel my erection against her leg.

“You’ve certainly got a mouth on you.” My face was still in her neck, and I saw her skin shudder when my breath blew against it.

“You can thank my brother. My very large, very overprotective, brother. Curses like it’s his job.”

“Have dinner with me tonight, Brittany.” I breathed the words into her ear, thanking her friend in my mind for saying her name.

“What is your name?”

“Nathan.”

“Nathan, I’m in room 715. Pick me up at 8pm. I do not want to eat in the restaurant in the resort. Now, get the hell off me so I can breathe. And the snow is cold.”

I rolled to the side and she reached up so her friends could help her stand after untangling her skis from mine. She was brushing off the snow from her butt when I expertly got to my feet. Her eyes went wide in disbelief and that was probably the moment she realized I’d run into her on purpose. “I’ll see you at eight then,” I said before skiing away.