Wild Hunger (The Phoenix Pack, #7)(14)

“Doesn’t matter. It’s not like you supported Trey’s banishment—you weren’t even there. I get that you love your maternal family and you don’t want to hurt them by getting to know us. But they’ve had you to themselves for the last twenty-four years. Can’t we at least have a day of your life? Would that be so bad? None of us want you to turn your back on the Newmans. This is about you, not them.”

Trick grabbed the napkin on which Lydia had written her number and pushed it into Frankie’s hand. “Call her when you’re ready.”

The very last thing Trick wanted to do was leave Frankie. No, he wanted to do exactly as he’d always envisioned he’d do on finding his true mate—declare she was his, take her home, and claim her as his own. But with Frankie he needed to tread carefully.

Right then she was far from open to him. Announcing that she was his true mate would overwhelm and scare her off. In fact, it was unlikely that she’d believe him anyway; she’d probably think that he was simply playing her in the hope that it would lure her to the pack.

This situation was going to require patience, understanding, and finesse. While it would agonize him to walk away, her needs came first. So he forced himself to rise and said, “It was good to see you, Frankie. I’ll talk to you again soon.”

One brow rose at the sheer confidence in that statement. “Will you?”

“Yeah, I will.” Allowing himself the small luxury of skimming his fingers over her hair, Trick headed for the door. His wolf snapped his teeth in anger, lunging for her hard. Trick fought his desperate attempts to surface, half-surprised he didn’t sprout fur.

Soon, he promised his wolf. Soon she’d belong irrevocably to them. But his wolf wasn’t placated. The animal didn’t just covet and crave Frankie; he wanted to keep her close, where he could be sure she was safe.

His pack mates were already in the SUV when he hopped into the passenger seat. Ryan looked at him, face twisted into the scowl that seemed to be his default expression, and asked, “What was that about?”

“What?”

“The delay. What were you talking about?”

“I was just trying to convince her to take a chance on the pack.” Trick glanced at Lydia in the rearview mirror. “You okay?”

Lydia inhaled deeply. “The meeting went better than I thought it would. There was no yelling or condemning.”

Trick nodded. “She impressed me.”

“Why?” asked Ryan, reversing out of the parking space.

“I’d already figured that her grandparents fed her some lies,” Trick replied. “She didn’t do the textbook ‘I don’t know who I am now that I know my past is a lie.’ Apart from the odd snippy comment, she didn’t throw accusations around or take out her anger at Christopher or the situation on Lydia.” He met her gaze in the rearview mirror again. “I mean, you’re the closest thing to him right now, Lydia, but she didn’t lash out. She’s a cool one.”

“It would be a shock to find out that your parent killed someone,” said Ryan. “Especially if that someone was your other parent. As Frankie said, she hasn’t properly processed it all yet. Once she does, she might act differently.”

Cam linked his fingers with Lydia’s as he asked, “Do you think she’ll call?”

Trick twisted his mouth. “Yeah, I do.” Hell, she’d do more than call and visit their territory. Sooner or later she’d be living there. He didn’t say that, though, because he already knew what would happen—Lydia would panic, thinking he might scare Frankie away, and ask him to keep his distance from her. He wouldn’t even be able to blame Lydia for that, considering the situation was already complicated enough. But staying away from Frankie wasn’t something he could do, so he’d keep quiet about his discovery for now.

Cam lifted a brow. “Even though it will upset the people who’ve raised her?”

“Even though,” said Trick. “Her wolf is very dominant. I’ll bet her grandparents have had a damn hard time trying to get any compliance out of her.” His mate was no pushover, he thought proudly.

She was not at all what he’d expected his mate would be like, which just seemed typical of fate, really. It wasn’t only that she was very different from his usual type, it was also that she was human in many ways. She might have spent the first few years of her life in a pack, but she had no memories of that time. She’d lived as a human. Probably didn’t know much about the ways of shifters. In fact, it was unlikely that she knew much about true mates either. He hadn’t been prepared for a mate who knew so little about their kind.

Even more shockingly, he knew her. He’d once had her so close to him, yet he hadn’t known she belonged to him—or at least he hadn’t consciously known it. Now he wondered if he had in fact sensed she was his on some level and if that was why he’d lived with a drive to find his mate all these years—it had been more of a need to recover what he’d lost. And he hated that he couldn’t do exactly that. Hated that she wouldn’t be receptive to him yet. Hated that his long-standing plan to quickly claim his mate as his own wouldn’t work.

That didn’t mean he’d back off. It just meant he’d have to revise his plan. He would slowly but surely insert himself into Frankie’s life until she couldn’t imagine not having him in it.