Run With Me

Chapter Fourteen

Kirk's wolf was in a perpetual state of agitation. After the firm embrace where he had held his tiny mate in his arms, the next few weeks had been nothing short of torture. Every day, after their run, he had asked for another hug and she had declined. He knew that this was a test, but his wolf didn't know that, he saw it as a rejection. Finally, on the day before her finals, she had broken down and reached for him before Kirk had even had the opportunity to ask. Both man and wolf had been in absolute bliss for that hug, but other than the one intense, heated kiss they had shared, it was obvious Terri was keeping him at a distance.

He was still basking in the memory of the kiss Terri had asked for after they had arranged their truce. She had looked up at him with a blend of desire and fear as she had uttered two beautiful words. Kirk had taken his time, slowly opening her lips with his, his arms moving from their embrace to hold her face between his hands. As his fingers had started to thread through her hair, Terri let out a gasp, opening her lips enough for Kirk to explore her mouth at leisure. Terri had fisted the front of his jacket with a violent grip, not letting go as she leaned up to seek greater contact. And Kirk was more than happy to oblige. Cradling one hand at the back of her head, Kirk released his wolf. With a growl, he pinned Terri to the wall and plundered her mouth. Her whimpers and moans just excited Kirk's wolf even further and he broke the kiss to trail kisses down her neck. He felt the urge to bite and gave in, holding Terri in place as he listened to her pant in his ear. After a moment, Kirk released his hold and licked the mark he had left behind. As he looked into Terri's eyes, the vivid green he was so used to had been replaced with an ice blue that would haunt his wolf's dreams for the weeks to come.

It was three weeks later and Terri was in her final exam of the semester, Kirk was leaning against his truck in the student lot, waiting for her arrival. They were heading right out to the solcitce festival as soon as she finished writing it. Kirk watched as students milled about, the sense of completion heavy in the air. Several women approached him asking who he was waiting for, causing Kirk to grit his teeth and say that he was waiting for "a friend". His wolf would follow up with a sharp "for now" each time.

"Kirk!" He looked over the heads of the current gaggle to see Terri jogging towards him. The woman standing between him and his mate ceased to be in even his periphery as he stood up from his spot against the truck. Terri launched herself at him for a hug, tucking her head in the crease of his neck. His wolf rolled in her scent, surprised and thrilled she trusted him to catch her. He could feel Terri inhale his own scent as she held him.

"How did you do?" Kirk asked, maintaining the hug until she pushed back from him, breaking it. His wolf whimpered in protest, yet quieted when Terri looked up and graced him with a rare smile.

"Fine," Terri said the same thing after every exam, she rarely sang her own praises. But this exam was the last. And she didn't have school as an excuse to avoid him.

"Ready to hit the road?" As the words left his lips, Kirk instantly regretted it. The change in her demeanor was evident on a macro level. Terri's shoulders slumped, she looked away from him, and began to fidget with the frayed hem of her hoodie sleeve. It had taken Kirk all of one dinner with her to see that it was her tell when she was trying to avoid uncomfortable subjects.

"Yeah," she spoke on a sigh and moved towards the truck, "let's get this over with." Other than getting the promise to attend for one hour, Kirk hadn't pressed any further about the festival. Rushing forward, he opened the door for Terri and helped her in. He had refused to install running boards on his truck, sometimes it was the only chance for him to do something, anything, for his mate. It had been an argument that resulted in the compromise of cuddles or running boards. Sometimes Kirk felt like he was begging for scraps, but he also knew that this was all trauma responses from what she had gone through in her life.

"Since we have a couple hours in the truck, what do you want to talk about?" Terri usually wanted to talk about science or school, which was fine because Kirk loved how her mind worked. As he pulled out of the parking lot, he hit the brakes a little too hard on her reply.

"Tell me about your pack." Kirk looked over at the smaller woman, seeing that she avoided eye contact as she barely whispered the question. Terri had never asked about his pack, lots of questions about his business activities, but never about the pack itself. Drawing a calming breath, he started with what he thought was a safe topic.

"The previous alpha was actually my uncle, not my father. He started the company and decided that when it was time for him to step down and focus on his projects, he wanted a strong leader with not only the business but the pack as well," Kirk remembered the time with little emotion, "It was a business decision, not a familial one. While there are strong emotions and familial connections, my uncle worked hard to treat the pack operations like a business. It made the transition as alpha easier for me, especially because I appointed John as my beta." He caught Terri looking at him now.

"John's mate died, right?" Her question was only slightly more audible than the last one.

"Yes, unfortunately, there was a mass shooting at the mall where they met. They barely had a chance to know each other," Kirk remembered John being devastated as his mate's human family had laid her into the ground, not realizing that he was just as heart broken as the rest of them, "She was human. I didn't get to meet her. Or know her name, as John refuses to talk about her." Terri didn't respond as he let the conversation lapse into silent. John had come to visit him during American thanksgiving, making it a party of four with Terri and Michael. Michael had let it drop that Kayla hadn't cooked for anyone other than Colin and her since Terri had left. The pack was in complete disarray as Darren was now unbearable to live with, Michael and John had talked about what would happen if the pack didn't survive the rift. Terri had walked away from the conversation at that point, silently indicating she was done with it.

"I'm still not going to mate with you," Terri's soft words echoed as if she had screamed them. Not having a place to pull over, Kirk gripped the steering wheel tighter.

"And I told you I won't accept anyone else," he tried to keep his tone calm, but the words still came out on a growl, "my pack isn't the idiotic perfectionist lie that your brother lives. Hell," he stole a glace back at Terri's bowed head, "I'll even ask Michael to join our pack to get away from that shit." And Kirk meant it. Michael was smart, savvy, and brought out parts of Terri's personality that Kirk didn't know were in there. Like the fact that she was a sucker for dust catching mini figurines. When she had been in the shower once Michael had shown Kirk the wall of shelves that Terri must have dusted meticulously on a weekly basis filled to overflowing with tiny figurines ranging from plastic, to glass, to bone. Michael had explained that these tiny little figurines reminded Terri that everything in life was breakable. She felt like everyone around her treated her the same way she treated the figures she tended to: like it could break at any minute.

"And I won't have your pack treat you any less than the successful alpha we both know you are," Terri maintained her gaze out the window. It was that belief right there that had Kirk believing that there would be no other Luna for his pack. She put his value as leader of the pack above everything else, it just frustrated him to no end that she couldn't see the other side of that. That if she put the same value in herself, saw herself the way he did, she wouldn't have to worry about being judged for being less. She would be right there with him.

"You still don't believe me when I say you're not latent?" It was another argument they had repeatedly had over the last few weeks. Kirk had watched her eyes shift and at times he felt and often smelled the scent of her wolf close to her skin. But Terri would resolutely maintain that she had now wolf and was born a latent shifter.

"I never shifted as a child before my accident, if I was a shifter, I would have healed rather than needed to have my leg amputated," It was the same line she fed him every time they discussed it. Kirk just gritted his teeth and changed the subject, not liking the ice cold tone her voice took on.