Moon Claimed (Werewolf Dens #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,91
tribe’s possible reaction. Except I couldn’t play the game without this team. If I wasn’t head steward, I wouldn’t care as much, but I still held the position and if these people stopped listening, the tribe would suffer.
“I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.” I stood.
At least I’d reached a new level of trust with my wolf. We’d gone through the new moon without mishap, and that relieved the last of my lingering worry. I mean, who wanted to black out for an entire night?
But we woke up where I’d requested, and she’d slumbered for most of the last few days, recovering and only speaking here and there.
I strode down the hall.
We need to keep going with the mating meets, I told her. If the tribe finds out about our link to Sascha and Greyson, at least then I can tell them it’s over and I turned him down.
I smiled at Heather from security, who barked a nervous laugh in return, hurrying past.
Entering Herc’s office, I settled into his chair. Over the last few days, I got a big chunk of my assignment done. Yes, the bad grades to weekly tests rankled, but if I could scrape through a pass, this degree would be the first accomplishment on my own. That meant more each day when so many wanted a piece of me or my time.
Before this, you’ve delayed the kiss meet, my wolf answered. Why?
The thing about having another being inside of you… lying was pretty pointless and hard. The reply of it means so much to Sascha died in my mind.
I leaned back. I can’t stop thinking of him.
You want the kiss to mean something too.
That sounded so stupid. A silly kiss. I don’t know what I want.
You fear that forming a deeper connection to him will lead to pain.
I lifted a shoulder. I’ve formed deeper connections in normal situations that have led to pain. The situation between me and Sascha is definitely not normal. It’s almost assured to end in ruin and hurt. Why would I do that to myself? Plus, he doesn’t want to sleep with me after the kissing meet, so I’ll need to reject him again, and that doesn’t actually make me feel great.
So don’t do it.
My jaw dropped. Are you serious? I can’t give in to the heat. Are you insane?
Having sex with him after a meet doesn’t mean you’ll become his mate. That is only decided after all seven meets in a ceremony.
But Mandy told me… She told me that to deny the heat, I had to do the cleopatra thing. She didn’t say a thing about sex sealing the deal.
Likely on purpose to limit how much I knew about the mating process.
I’d just assumed the rest.
Sex with him will complicate everything more and he’s already said no, I told her.
Seems like your issue is more that he said no than anything else.
Whatever. Opening my lectures for the day, I played the recording, but my eyes soon drifted to my phone.
I picked it up and sighed.
We need to do the next meet.
Things are heating up here.
Three dots appeared as he read the message and typed back.
What’s happening?
What wasn’t happening?
Rhona’s telling people what happened in Sandstone.
She’s planning something.
Rhona wasn’t the subtle sort. Aside from this latest move, her efforts had proved clunky, loud, and explosive.
Would her next move be loud though? She wasn’t unintelligent by any means. Somehow, I expected a different approach.
What do you propose?
Reading his text, I rubbed my forehead as the lecturer droned on about enterprise development. Nothing could be further from my mind.
My answer really came down to one question: Did I believe Rhona would be a better leader than me?
If I put my pride and love of a challenge aside, was I the best possible leader for the tribe? At first, I’d leaned on Rhona’s confidence so much—in awe of her strength. She didn’t bat an eyelash before confronting a crowd who may disagree and dislike her. People looked to Rhona as a role model and a woman of power.
They knew her. With Rhona, they were sure. There wasn’t this need for her to convince the harder-nosed stewards.
And yet.
I sometimes wondered if Rhona valued the title of head steward more than the responsibility the role demanded. And sometimes her actions weren’t in the tribe’s best interest.
… Or was that just my pride talking? Did I just want to believe those things?