Run With Me

Chapter Six

While everyone in the Edgewood pack was coming to terms with the insights and evidence just leveled at them, Kirk was putting other pieces together with the knowledge he had gathered earlier. He was dumbfounded when, over the other alpha's shoulder, he saw the tiny woman's eyes shift from the vivid green to a startling ice blue. He had never seen a more beautiful colour in his life. As his wolf digested that small shift, other details filtered into his brain. 

She knew who he was. More specifically, of his scientific achievements. Most shifters in their community knew he had built the company and ran it, but very few actually looked at the science coming out of his personal lab. He rubbed his chest, pleased that she not only knew, but acknowledge those accomplishments. That pleasure was short lived when he looked over at the females from earlier and saw they were glancing at him with veiled attempts at being subtle. They were trying to gauge his reaction to Terri's comments about them sniffing after them. Terri had hit a nail on the head there: he had no interest in women like that. Even before he had scented his mate.

The little interaction this morning must have been about her leaving eligible bachelors available for other females to pursue. A glance over at John said that they were still the only two who were aware he had scented his mate, and could currently hear her crashing around above them.

"I would like to apologize for my sister's outburst," Darren was facing them now, talking more so to John than to Kirk, "you didn't need to see that drama." Kirk straightened before replying.

"Why are you apologizing for her and not for your pack? A display like that from an educated woman would not have been unwarranted if there wasn't facts and evidence to back it up." Kirk had respected Darren's need to protect his sister, but now he was beginning to question if it was more to do with keeping the peace in his pack at the expense of family than for her future happiness and wellbeing. Darren's eyes narrowed at Kirk before glancing back at the chaos behind him. The three other alphas had all walked forward, arms crossed in front of their chests, frowns or open displeasure apparent on their faces. Another man walked up behind them, having been in the other room for the tirade. This must be Michael, the middle child of the family. Kirk hadn't met him formally, but he looked like a less surely version of the alpha in front of him.

"How about we go into your office and leave Kayla to get dinner started?" He offered, sending an apologetic look at his sister in law, "You might as well tell them the whole story since our poor sister doesn't even know all the details. I'll drive her to town when she's ready." Kirk didn't even bother to hide his frown. He had intended to drive her back to the city, had been hoping to use the two hour drive to get to know her a little better. Darren just sighed, and held open his office door, gesturing for everyone to go it. Kirk waited until everyone was in and stood nearest to the door, in case Terri came down the stairs before this meeting was done. His wolf was howling at the sight they had just witnessed and there was nothing they could do to comfort their mate. She didn't even know she was theirs. Darren sat down heavy in his chair and sighed.

"As you all know, my parents died when Terri was six. They had been driving back from taking Terri to some science exhibit when they were hit by a drunk driver," all the packs knew the story, Darren had become alpha at the age of sixteen and had taken night classes to get his law degree. It was something he had been praised for, "Unfortunately, Terri had been taken to a human hospital and they had been forced to amputate her leg due to the extensive injuries to the bone and nerve endings. I suspect even her healing abilities as a shifter would have been hard pressed to heal that. As it was, she didn't wake up from the coma for three weeks." Kirk used the motion of uncrossing his arms to hide his surprise. John just leaned forward in his chair. Everyone knew about the accident, but nothing had really been mentioned about Terri's childhood injuries."Since she was so young, prosthetics were cumbersome during growth spurts, so she only started using them when she hit puberty. She was pretty spot on about the wheel chair details, we were the only house to renovate to allow her space to grow," he sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling, "within weeks of coming home, she stopped getting invites to her friends, their houses not being very accessible for her while she was still healing, she struggled to go outside and play, and the schools here are not wheelchair friendly in the slightest. She relied on us and other adults just to see to her basic every day needs. For her, it was humiliating." The pain was evident in his voice and he stopped speaking. Michael took up where he left off.