Maybe Selene’s particular brand of kink was grumpy wolves who saved her life.
“Okay. This silence is going to drive me crazy,” Jett said as he took her empty cup of coffee. “Come on.” He held out his hand for Selene to grab.
She furrowed her brow questioningly. “I thought you said we have to stay put? Where are we going?”
Jett rolled his eyes. “Stop being difficult for a second. You’re on pack lands and you’re being protected by the pack’s main enforcer. You’re safe here. But I would like to show you around the place. I would also like to introduce you to the pack. I think it would be good for you to know who has your back, but I think it would also be good for the pack to see you. That way they can feel more connected to you if something were to happen here on pack lands.”
Selene blanched. “What do you mean, if something were to happen on pack lands? Do you really think the Order of Salem are going to attack us here?”
“Maybe, it’s definitely a possibility. Not a likely one, because what kind of humans would like to go up against an entire pack of wolf shifters? But if it were to happen, I’d like for them to know who you are.”
“Okay, I guess that makes sense.”
“They’re all right people. But they can also be judgmental.”
Selene didn’t miss the way his eyes darkened as he spoke. There was something there. Selene knew that even if Jett was the pack’s main enforcer, there was also a bit of tension between him and his people.
“Right, and because I’m a witch, they might not be so welcoming.” She was guessing, but it was a decent guess.
“Something like that,” he said with a shrug.
“Then I guess I’ll just have to win them over.” She gave him a big wide smile, and she hoped he would see it for what it was. She was going to make the people of the wolf pack love her, because that’s exactly what she did.
Selene had never been hated by anyone. Not really. Actually, it was quite the opposite. Most people tended to like her; their ire usually was reserved for her twin sister who was slightly more aggressive and confrontational that Selene was.
“If you say so,” Jett said.
He locked up the house behind them, earning him a look from Selene. “You’d think the pack enforcer’s home would be safe on pack lands.” She was teasing him, but he shook his head.
“I wouldn’t bother locking it if you weren’t staying with me. As it is, you are staying with me, and I kind of don’t want anyone to sneak into the house and ambush us later.”
Again, Selene felt the color drain from her face. “Is that really something we should be concerned about?”
Jett smiled. “No, not really. But if I let anything happen to you, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
His words felt heavy, almost like he was saying so much more. Selene searched his handsome face to see if she could understand his deeper meaning, but she couldn’t.
Jett led her down a small sidewalk and he pointed to a few rows of houses. “That’s where a few of the elders live with their families. They earned the ocean-front property after years of service to the pack.”
They walked by a nice varnished-wood structure. The wood sparkled under the sun. The small sign in the front lawn read this was the Marblehead pack community center.
“What do you use this for?” Selene asked.
“We use it for pack meetings and for all kinds of different pack functions. There’s a daycare center in there, too. A lot of the pack members prefer to have their little ones cared for by other wolves. Just in case a kid decides to go off and shift.”
“You wouldn’t want that at a normal, human daycare,” Selene said with a smile.
“No, you wouldn’t,” he echoed.
“That makes me think of a time where my twin and I decided to do a bit of magic while we were in a daycare. I think we might have been six years old or so. Astra dared me to make the water in all of the juice boxes create a waterfall. She thought a red waterfall would be cool to see.
"I happened to think it was a very bad idea. I told her no, and I repeated it until she crossed her arms and tapped her foot at me. She basically told me there was no way I could do it. The little six-year-old doubted my magical ability, and so I wanted to prove to her I could actually do it. So what did I do? I did it.
"I made about twenty juice boxes explode and it created pure havoc. There was sticky fruit punch everywhere. The daycare worker couldn’t understand how so many cardboard boxes had all exploded at once. But let me tell you, when Edith Bishop heard about the incident at pick-up that night, she knew exactly what had happened.
"My mother was furious with us. Of course, she knew Astra had something to do with it. I had never been one to break rules, so Astra got more of my punishment than I did. She was grounded for a week longer than me. There was no way that I was going to argue with my mother. I was six, but I chose to ground myself just as long as her. I felt guilty.”
“It sounds like your mother was pitting you against each other,” Jett commented.
“What?” Selene was genuinely surprised by his comment. “No. Not at all. She just knew if my sister hadn’t egged me on, there would be no way I would have caused trouble.”
“Is that true?”
“Oh, absolutely. I mean, I’m not saying she was fully responsible, but even as kids, Astra knew her powers were more destructive than mine. So whenever she wanted to do a prank, she had me do something with my powers over water. It’s easier to clean up a juice spill than a fire.”
Jett blinked at her a few times as if trying to make sense of what she was saying. “I’m sorry, are you telling me that as a six-year-old, your sister could start fires?”
Selene laughed. “Yup, she sure could.”
“Well, that is absolutely horrifying. I’m glad all that little shifters can do is shift into wolves. We can track them easily enough with our own senses. But magic in a kid? Yeah, no thanks.”
“That’s because you don’t have magic. It’s not so bad. It just so happens that Bishop witches are fairly mischievous.”
Jett opened his mouth to respond, but whatever he said was lost to Selene. Instead, she kept on walking.
Before her, the expansive oceanic coast spread out as far as the eye could see. It wasn’t like she had never seen this sight or ones similar to it. But even so, every single time she saw it, it left her breathless. Selene had dreams of one day being able to afford a piece of land this close to the water. The fact that the Marblehead pack owned all of this was amazing to her.
This was a place she could really fall in love with. She would be able to run by the water in the morning. She would be able to take her morning coffee and cheese Danish as she watched over the ocean.
“Oh, wow, this is actually really beautiful. I hadn’t realized the pack lands backed up to the ocean. It’s so…” Selene wanted to repeat that the scenery itself was stunning, but it seemed that even that word wasn’t descriptive enough to quantify the beauty in front of her. The ocean was out there, right in front of her, small and large waves coming to press against the beach. The small pebbles in all different shades of gray.
Selene bent down to pick up a few of them in her hands. The small rocks had been polished by the coming and going of the water over the course of time. She rubbed her fingers along the edge of a rock, over and over. Even as she rubbed the stone, she could feel it drying against her hand. The salt of the water made her skin feel sticky, but she thoroughly enjoyed being this close to the water.