Shifted Love Volume 1 - Fiona Davenport Page 0,34
her. The last thing I want to do is make her feel worse because she thinks I’m hiding something.”
He ran his hand through his thick hair. “If it’s that important to you, then we’ll figure it out.”
“Really?” I was surprised he was agreeing so quickly. It made me consider the possibility that he’d truly meant it when he’d said I was going to be the most important person in his life.
“As the alpha, I have the final say when it comes to sharing information about our existence with anyone other than human mates and their families,” he explained as he reached out to lace his fingers through mine. “Allegra already wanted permission to share with both of you, and I promised to consider her request after she got settled into the pack. Finding out you’re my fated mate makes the decision a fuck of a lot easier. If you say Calliope can be trusted, then I believe you.”
“She’s the softest of the three of us, but she’d never do anything to hurt Allegra or me,” I promised, giving his hand a little squeeze. “Calliope hates confrontation, but she took on this soccer mom who wanted me off the team my senior year of high school after I accidentally sprained her daughter’s ankle during practice. She was drawing in her notebook up in the stands, waiting for my dad to pick us up after practice. Usually when she’s in one of her creative moods, the rest of the world kind of fades away. But as soon as my teammate’s mom started to rip into me, Calliope came storming down the steps like an avenging angel. I can’t remember another time when she yelled like she did then. It was so out of character, but she was scary as heck. By the time she was done, my teammate was pulling her mom off the field to get away from Calliope even though she only had one good leg.”
Kace’s thumb brushed across my palm, sending goose bumps up my arm. “She sounds like a great friend. I’m sure we’ll get along great.”
“Oh, crap!” I reached into my coat pocket and pulled my cell phone out. Glancing down at the screen, I groaned, “I was supposed to call Calliope as soon as I found Allegra, and now she’s freaking out. She called three times and sent half a dozen texts.” I stabbed my finger against the screen to pull up her number. She picked up a split second after the ringtone began. “Allegra’s fine. I’m sorry it took so long for me to call back.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” she sighed. “I was going to skip class and order a rideshare to go hunt you down. What’s going on in this Timber Ridge place? I was almost afraid to go there since it’s like the Bermuda Triangle for my friends. You both went in but never came back out.”
Kace chuckled, and I realized he could hear everything my friend was saying. I shook my head and pressed a finger against my lips before turning my attention back to my best friend. “Don’t skip class. There’s nothing to worry about. Allegra got distracted because she’s all loved up on her sexy sheriff.”
A deep growl rumbled up Kace’s chest, and he yanked on my hand until I fell forward and sprawled on his lap. I let out a startled yelp, barely holding onto my phone. “Larissa? What happened? Please tell me you didn’t get into a fender bender, too. That would be bad...unless you also get rescued by a hot cop. Then it would be awesome. Especially if he has a partner for me.”
Out of the three of us, Calliope had always been the one who’d dreamed of finding the perfect boyfriend. Plenty of boys had asked her out in high school, but she’d turned them all down because no one lived up to her expectations. If she’d been the one who’d stumbled on a guy who could shift into a wolf and swore they were fated mates, she'd probably jump right in without any questions if she thought he was the one for her. Meanwhile, I still had plenty, but I couldn’t ask them while she was on the phone. “I wasn’t in an accident and didn’t get rescued by a hot cop. But I did kinda sorta meet Zeke’s”—I paused, scrambling to come up with a better term than alpha to describe Kace—“best friend, and we’re hanging out. So I won’t be back until later.”
“Dude. Seriously?”