Luna's Sokjan (Book one) (19 page)

A thought entered my fear
covered mind.

“Do you want to fight?” I
asked in hope. “Just drive us back to the house and I will fight
with you all night. We can pick up dinner on the way.”

I almost died when my door
opened. Jennifer reached in and took my hand with a
grin.

“Come on McKenna. I’ll
protect you if anyone tries to hurt you,” and this from the mouth
of a babe.

All in all, the trip
through the mall didn’t go that badly. Jennifer’s knowledge of the
mall’s layout helped us bypass the more crowded and nosier parts.
She also found the right store for us. It had dresses for every
occasion. It was perfect!

All we had to do was look
through the massive amounts of dresses. Find the perfect one and
then we could leave. It was kind of fun. Help me, Luna!

Gabriel did find a little
black dress that he liked, but put it back when Jennifer told him,
“I’m sure all the other men will like it too. It’s more of a date
night dress than evening gown.”

How did someone so young
know so much? First chance I got I was going to find out what else
she knew.

After thirty minutes into
the search Gabriel and the sales girl had a quiet chat. He kissed
me and left, before I could ask the sales girl what was
up.

“Finally!” Jennifer said
and held up a black dress with a silver embroidered design down the
right side.

I tried the dress on it
was snug, but not too tight. The dress covered my chest, with long
sleeves that would cover the tattoos on my arms. The long skirt was
split from mid-thigh to ankle on the right side and left the back
bare nearly to my butt. I liked it. It fit, and it was ready to go,
and so was I. I also bought the little, black dress that Gabriel
had liked. Jennifer gave me a questioning look.

“What? I like it and you
did say it was a date night dress.” I shrugged, “We might go on a
date.”

We waited at the registrar
for the girl to ring us and bag the dresses.

“Was that really the Alpha
wolf of the local wolf pack?” The sales girl asked.

“Yes.” Jennifer and I
answered together.

“So are you both are
wolves also?” She asked.

“Yes.”
Jennifer.

“No.” I said.

This was another reason I
didn’t like coming to the damn mall. Amazon never asked you if you
were a werebeing. It just took your card information, email
address, and would send you a confirmation email letting you know
that your order was placed, and when it would ship out. I loved
Amazon.

“What is it like being a
werewolf?” She asked Jennifer.

My cell phone rang. Thank
you Luna! I looked at the caller ID and placed a hand on the back
of Jennifer’s head to get her attention.

“I need to take this.” I
told Jennifer and walked out of the store.

“Adam. What’s up?” I
asked.

“McKenna.” Adam’s deep
voice answered me. “I have two things for you. One, I’ve emailed
you the information that I have found on our friend. She’s not
staying in the area under her true identity. So, she must be using
a slave's name or another identity. I’m still checking on that.
Second, you should have told me that you recently mated with one of
the most powerful Alpha’s in the states. He took me by surprise
when he called this afternoon.” He said to me.

I ran my hand over my face
and leaned back against the window of the dress shop. That was
quick I thought I’d have a few days at least.

“I bet he got your number
from my phone records. That’s what I would have done. I’m sorry
Adam. I just haven’t had the time to think all of this through yet.
What did he want?”

“He offered me a job.” He
chuckled, I grinned.

“What did you say?” I
asked.

“I told him that I already
had a job, working for you. He said, by working for you, I was
basically working for him.” Adam didn’t sound angry, just
amused.

I felt his presence before
I saw him.

“I’ll talk to him about
this.” I promised as I watched mister lethal walk up.

People moved out of
Gabriel's way as he walked towards me, clearing a path for him.
It’s good to be intimating. I ended the call.

“So you called Adam and
offered him a job. Huh?” I said when he was close
enough.

“I like working with the
best.” He said quietly, “Did you find a dress?”

“Yup, Jennifer’s talking
to the sales clerk about being a werewolf.” I eyed him
suspiciously. “What’s the real reason you want Adam to work for
you? Not trying to limit my information are you?”

He ran a finger along my
jaw.

“I don’t have to, you’ll
tell me everything.” He smiled at me.

I opened my mouth to tell
him “the hell I will”, but Jennifer came out of the shop with the
garment bags and giggled when she saw us.

“Now we need to get
shoes.” She announced.

I liked shoes, and I did
need some new boots.

“I could use some new
boots. What about you?” I asked.

I looked down at
Jennifer's well-worn tennis shoes. “You definitely need some new
shoes.”

“No.” She said softly,
looking away. “I am saving my prize for something else.”

Really?

“Come on we’ll see what we
can find.” Gabriel said taking the garment bags from Jennifer and
then my hand. I took Jennifer’s small hand in mine. If I had to
endure the mall so did she.

Werebeing’s love Chinese
buffets, actual we love any buffet. We can eat all we want for one
price. After we had gotten shoes for Jennifer and me, we left the
mall to my considerable relief and came to the Spring Moon Chinese
buffet. Having eaten my fill, I sat back and watched people move
around the full restaurant. I had recognized several members of the
pack, when they had come up and spoken to Gabriel and me. Sipping
on my coffee, I leaned back against Gabriel’s arm which had he,
draped across the back of my chair.

“Do we need to call
Jennifer’s parents?” I asked him.

It was late, and I didn’t
want them to get mad at her. It would suck to have to hurt them,
after she had been so kind in helping me.

“No.” He set his coffee
cup down, “I have been meaning to talk to you about that. You seem
taken by her.”

“I am. She is smart,
funny, and she truly wants to learn how to fight.” I was watching
her pick out desserts and fruits. Even in the huge crowd of people
I could easily find her.

“Did you know that her
parents were killed in a car accident earlier this year? Did she
tell you that?” He inquired.

“No, she didn’t. When I
asked the puppies about their parents, Ben answered for the group.
I didn’t give it another thought. Where has she been living all
this time?” I had noticed a slight sadness about her.

I just figured Jennifer
would talk to me when she was ready.

“She has been staying with
some friends of her parents. Her parents didn't have any family
here, and she didn’t want to move out of state. They’re good to
her, but she is standoffish with them and unhappy. They don’t know
what to do to help her.” He played with my hair as he
spoke.

“They remind her of her
parents.” I said quietly. “It was like that for me after mom died.
Every time I looked at Angus and I could see her.”

“How did your mother meet
Angus?” He asked me.

“It was maybe a year after
my father died. We had just moved to a new town, and she was
working at this little diner during the day, and reading tarot
cards at night for this online thing. Angus came into the diner one
afternoon and saw me sitting there waiting for mom to get off work.
He came back a few days later and talked to her.” I laughed out
loud, “Oh, he tried talking to me too, but I set him straight real
quick. I told him that if he wasn’t careful I was going to kick his
ass.”

Gabriel laughed with
me.

“Yeah, Angus’ thought that
was very funny too. Next thing I knew mom quit her job, they were
mated, and we are all living together. I still hurting over dad’s
death and being eight years old at the time. I wasn’t the nicest
person to be around.” I took a sip of coffee.

“Angus took me out hunting
one night, and we had a long talk about the Sōkjan thing. He showed
me his three marks, and I showed him my three marks. We started
training the next day. Dad had already started training me, before
he died, but Angus took it to a whole new level.” I glanced around
the restaurant and spotted Jennifer talking to a young girl about
her age.

“Three years later mom was
killed by a rogue band of wolves that just happened to be passing
through the area. Angus and I hunted them down and slaughtered the
whole group. My first battle kill at the age of eleven, I learned
two things that day. I liked the taste of blood way too much, and I
was good at killing. After that it was just me and Angus.” I told
Gabriel.

“What did Angus do?” He
asked me.

“He made me train harder.
He told me that if I didn’t want to disgrace my mother’s memory. I
would get my ass in gear and make her death count for something.”
Lost in thought I ran my hand over his thigh. “He wouldn’t let me
lose myself in depression. Oh
,
I did try.” I laughed at the memory. “I was mad
as hell, at him and the world. We fought all the time. I hated him
for being alive, and she was dead, but I came around. I turned out
just fine, thanks to Angus.”

“We could do the same for
her.” He said.

My gaze found
his.

“We could offer her a home
that wouldn’t remind her of her parents.” He told me
quietly.

Shifters loved children.
Children meant the future and lots of children meant a stronger
future. It was because of this belief that the wolves here in the
states. Had doubled in numbers over the past twenty years and now
were the strongest of all shape- shifters. The European shifters
were still working out the politics.

“Have you said anything to
her about this?” I asked him.

“No, I thought we should
talk about it first. If you agree, then we could ask her tonight.”
He replied.

Jennifer sat down and took
one look at us, “What’s happened?” She asked stiffly.

I turned and smiled at
her.

“Nothing, we were just
wondering if you like to live with us?” I asked her.

She looked as if she were
going to cry.

“Did Mike and Julie
complain about me?” She sniffed.

“No. Did you do something
wrong?” Gabriel asked.

“What? Who the hell cares
what you did. Do you want to come live with us? You can pick out
your own room in the house and fix it up any way you want too. Do
you have your own room at Mike and Julie’s?” I asked
her.

I peered into her pale
face.

“No
,
I share a room with Marie, their
youngest daughter.” She looked at her plate.

“What did you do
Jennifer?” Gabriel asked not in the Alpha voice, but
close.

I elbowed him in the
ribs.

“I snuck out the other
night with the guys.” She peeked at Gabriel. “I wasn’t out long. We
just went hunting in the woods.”

This is what they had done
the night I had found them.

“You and the boys went
hunting?” I asked, “Just like the night I found you
guys.”

“Yup,” she
said.

That’s my girl, keep the
answers short and don’t give out too much information.

“You won’t be sneaking out
anymore, even if you don’t come live with us.” Gabriel’s tone made
the hair stand up on the back of my neck, it held a slight
accent.

“Yes Alpha.” She looked so
small my heart went out to her.

I reached across the table
and took her cold hand in mine.

“Come stay with us
Jennifer. I will take you hunting anytime you want to go, and the
boys too, if they want to come.” I heard Gabriel’s warning growl
and added. “You’ll have to learn all the rules, and by Luna, there
are a lot, but you will have fun, I promise.”

She stared into my eyes
and for the first time since I’d met her. Her eyes smile back at
me. I knew she would come, and I wondered if Fate. The mighty
laughing bitch, had given me something that I wanted for a
change.

“Yes.” She
agreed.

I took one of her little
cakes and fed it to Gabriel.

“I get to help her pick
out her first sword.” I told him smugly.

I drove Jennifer to my
house the next day. It was overrun with wolves. Okay five, but that
was three to many in my opinion. After we greeted everybody,
Jennifer and I went upstairs to my room. I opened the large wooden
chest at the foot of the bed.

“Most people keep blankets
and other keepsakes in those things.” She told
me
.