Page 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ZURI

“Please, Stone,” I pleaded, dragging my feet like an immature brat.

It had been twenty-four hours since he had taken me, and I was still attempting to familiarize myself with his crazy ass. I didn’t need an entire pack of people just like him right now. Honestly, I didn’t know if I could handle that, especially after those ashes.

“You’re meeting the pack,” Stone said without argument.

“But—”

I snapped my mouth closed when he swung the front door open and tried not to sound like a bitch because I at least wanted the pack to like me. Stone marched us all the way down to a small river, where James stood with his mate, washing blood off her shoulder in the water.

“What happened?” Stone asked, canines lengthening. “Did Dirt attack?”

“Dirt?” I asked.

Damn, they really went all natural for the names around here, huh? Next, Stone would try to convince me to name our future pup Cloud or Sun. Nothing wrong with those names, but I didn’t want my child to get bullied.

My cheeks flushed. Why the hell was I thinking about a pup right now?!

James glanced over his shoulder at us. “We call Stone’s brother Dirt because he’s …”

“A piece of shit,” Stone finished, clenching his jaw. “Now, what happened?”

“Just some roughhousing,” James said, earning him a slap from his mate.

“James,” she scolded, glaring at him for a moment. “Not in front of our new luna.”

“What?” James argued. “It’s not like?—”

James’s mate nudged him hard in the ribs, then smiled at me. “Sorry about him. You must be Luna Zuri.” She stepped forward, bowed her head, then extended her arm for me to shake. “I’m Beta James’s mate, Sapphire.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said in a whisper.

Sapphire giggled. “You can call me Saph. Everyone around here does.”

“Speaking of everyone,” Stone interrupted because that man didn’t have self-control and wanted me to meet every single member of his pack right this very instant. “Where’s the pack? Training finished less than an hour ago. Most stay around until noon.”

“I thought that our luna would need some … time to adjust after your gift this morning,” James said.

I placed my hands on my hips, arched a brow, and turned toward Stone. “See.”

“See what?”

“He knew I needed time,” I scolded in the happiest tone so Saph wouldn’t judge me.

“Are you saying that my beta knows my mate better than I do?” he growled, his long canines glistening with saliva in the sunlight. He stepped toward me and grasped my chin, forcing me to crane my head up at him. “Hmm?”

My gaze dropped to his canines yet again, and I pressed my thighs together. Fuck.

Curse the Moon Goddess for these damn feelings. For making me ache for him.

“Answer m?—”

“No,” I said, pushing him off me and turning away.

I felt Stone’s intense gaze on me for another moment, and then he looked toward the couple giggling in front of us.

“Gather everyone for dinner tonight then. Zuri will have had time to adjust. Right, Zuri?”

I crossed my arms, wanting to delay this for as long as possible. “No.”

“Great.” Then, Stone said to James, “We’ll see everyone at six.”

“What? No!” I exclaimed, twirling back around to see Stone inches from me now.

He took another step toward me, pushing me back with his large body, his dark eyes gazing so deep into my fucking soul that I swore he could steal it if he were the Devil.

“You’re lucky today, mate. Earned yourself a couple more hours.”

“B—”

Before I could protest—to beg —for more time, he scooped me up and threw me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing to him and marched toward the edge of his property. “We’re heading to Durnbone for the day to pamper you.”

* * *

After an hour massage that Stone had to sit in on—to make sure the masseur didn’t touch me in any way that he didn’t like—and some time at Durnbone’s most luxurious salon, Stone brought me to shop for clothes.

I ambled around the stores with jealousy running through me. All the women stared at us—or to be more specific, at Stone. Yet he was more interested in the sluttiest clothes that he could find me to wear than some stares.

When we approached the cashier, he had picked out five outfits that were more like bikinis that he must’ve thought I was actually going to wear. Joke was on him because I had never swum in my entire life and there was no way in hell that I’d put those on.

“We’ll take these,” he said to the cashier.

She rang up the clothes and gazed behind us when the bell on the door clattered. I followed her gaze, spotting two women about my age walking into the shop, giggling with each other. Stone curled his arm around my waist.

“Do you know them?” I asked.

“Maxine and Sina,” Stone said. “Maxine is the queen of demons, and Sina is …”

“What?” I asked.

He paused for a moment. “She’s exceptionally strong and a human turned wolf, mated to four warriors east of Durnbone.” He took my hand and squeezed it softly. “You don’t need to worry about her.”

“Did you date her?” I asked, jealousy pooling in my stomach.

“Fuck no,” he growled.

“Then, why’d you say it like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you’re not telling me the whole truth.”

“Because I don’t want you getting messed up with Sina. She has powers that can be uncontrollable, and I can’t let her hurt you. I’d start a world fucking war in Durnbone if anything happened to you.”

My eyes widened slightly. “What kind of power?—”

Before another word could leave my mouth, a blade whizzed through the air in the middle of the shop. Stone reached out his hand and caught the knife mid-throw, his palm wrapping around the metal and splitting open.

A shadowy figure stood behind the girls, leaning against the doorframe with one hand stuffed into his pocket and the other gripping a variety of knives.

Stone curled his lips into a smirk, tossing the knife into the air as blood dripped down his palm. “It’s been a long time, brother .”