~ Chapter Forty-One ~

"Parent*s*? *They*?" I hissed. "You... *they*?!"

Dimitri gripped me harder. "Yes, they. I was hoping to get rid of them before you came back but you're early and-"

He was cut off by footsteps coming down from the house's front doors, and then the hammering of my heart against my chest.

"Who's here?" I demanded quickly.

"My mom and dads."

"Which mom?"

"Kia."

I quickly looked around my mate expecting to see someone who looked similar to Dimitri, only to find a woman who could have been his twin with boobs. She was tall and strangely muscular, with deep brown eyes you could drown in and the same light brown shade of hair. The way she walked, the way she looked at me, the way she held herself once she stood still, it was all Dimitri. I could have guessed who she was in an instant even if he weren't here to help.

"Oh," Dimitri whispered quickly, "my brother's here, too."

I decided I needed to face one thing at a time, so I tried my best smile for Kia Stone. "Um, hello, I'm Erika Keller."

She gave me a swift once-over. "Well, I should say so! Wouldn't want my boy making out with anyone in full view of his entire pack if she isn't his mate!"

There was something teasing about her voice, but I couldn't seem to find what she said funny.

"I can't say I approve of what just happened, either, though," she added, giving her son a look.

"She's been gone all morning," Dimitri murmured as his hand rubbed at the base of my shirt.

He reminded me of what I wanted from him, what I had intended to do the second we got into our room away from everyone else, and I realised that we couldn't do that anymore with his family here to take away all his attention. I'd lost my chance for now.

Kia, to my surprise, smiled, and it was the same smile I'd seen multiple times on my mate's face. "You're such a sweet kid, Dima, I'm so happy you have found someone."

"But we're kinda pissed you haven't introduced her to the rest of us yet," another voice pointed out. This one sounded a lot younger, though the man who spoke was clearly barely younger than Dimitri himself. "The name's Alek Stone," he greeted me. "You may have heard of Rock and Stone."

I tried to keep the smile from creeping onto my face.

"Dimitri may have mentioned you... a few times." Once, because he knew we were trying to fix a broken relationship at the time. But he'd still mentioned them, and I remembered him saying he wanted to rebuild the relationship they once had before things got crazy with Leslie.

"You don't have to lie to me, you know, Miss Keller," Alek mused. "I know my big bro is embarrassed about our band. That reminds me" - he pointed to the two men who barely looked old enough to have a son in his twenties, let alone one nearing his thirties - "these are our fathers."

"Liam Brock," said the man who bore a similarly eerie resemblance to his younger son.

"Jackson," the other added.

"Nice to meet you both." I looked up at Dimitri, hoping the urgent expression on my face was enough to tell him that I wanted to get away, but he wasn't versed yet in meaningful looks.

*Dima, we need to talk about what happened today.*

He barely frowned at me.

*Why I'm back early?* I reminded him. *Let's go upstairs for a minute.*

His eyes flickered desperately toward his family for a moment, then he barely sighed and nodded. We quickly excused ourselves, leaving the Stones and Brocks in the hands of a Zarnowski who could talk his head off.

I pulled Dimitri upstairs to our room, shut the door, and tried not to look at the tempting bed behind him.

"The weirdest thing happened to Alpha Clayton's pack," I started to explain. "They got attacked in the night and most of the wolves who didn't die went missing - also, Gina is Clayton's mate and she was there. But this can't be good, can it? A whole pack practically disappearing overnight?"

Dimitri's face twisted in concern. "His entire pack? Clayton never had the most warriors but still far too many to just disappear overnight."

I nodded. "Do you think we should worry about this? I mean, they're not *that* far away from us."

"This is a discussion for the council now," he reminded me, "but I'm worried."

I looked toward the window in distress, hoping that somehow the answers would be written there. But there was nothing except a brightly-shining sun staring back at me. When I glanced back at Dimitri, I found him watching my face - or rather, my lips as I pressed them together in thought. He noticed them part slightly and found my eyes.

"I felt your emotions downstairs," he murmured.

My heart began to race in my chest.

"I think I know what you wanted when you kissed me like that."

He took my face in his hands, running a thumb across my bottom lip. Then he trailed down to my neck and caressed the perfect place for his mark, and I trembled suddenly at the thought. I tried to kiss him, but he held me just far enough away that he could tease me, as he spoke in a low tone. "My family is here. We can't do this while my family is here."

"You can't say you haven't wanted this, Dima. You can't say you're going to let your family get in the way of it." I leaned closer and flattened a hand on his abdomen. His body reacted with a wave of want, which quickly washed over me just the same.

All it would take was one little push in the right direction and I could get just what I wanted from Dimitri. Just one push.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realised, no, we couldn't do this while his family were here. It felt too weird and there was no way they wouldn't notice a mark appearing on my neck. I didn't want to have led Dimitri on to this point, though, so I didn't know what to do. Someone needed to come and interrupt us.

"You're playing a dangerous game," he whispered to me, reaching into my hair, pulling me to him. He crushed my lips against his but I only kissed him back gently, running my hand up his chest and around his neck, tugging on strands of hair. My body inched closer to his as I tried not to get too into the kiss - but failed miserably.

Dimitri and I had had a bad start; we'd clashed, two strong personalities unable to give in to the other, but since we'd made up and worked out how this could work, our attraction had become so much clearer. Jessica had said once that I was exactly his type, and when I looked at him, I appreciated him more than I could ever appreciate Clayton, because he was beautiful in the right way. I just took too long to see it.

We started to move toward the bed uncontrollably, my feet tripping repeatedly over the other, but it was okay because he held me perfectly stable. I naturally began to sit down as he leaned forwards over me. His hands came down either side of my body to support himself, and he placed a knee down next to my legs. I shuffled back to give him some space.

I couldn't go as far with him as I wanted to, not today with his family around to notice that something was different about me, but I realised there was something Dimitri had done for me that I never returned, and came up with the perfect plan.

When he had climbed over the top of me, I quickly switched places with him, so that I was straddling his hips as I kissed down to his neck. His hands ran up my sides tightly, pulling my shirt with them. Our bare skin connecting was almost too much.

But I kept on track and pulled his shirt off of him before trailing kisses toward the waistband of his sweatpants, which hung as low as ever. I glanced up at his eyes as I tugged them slightly down, revealing a faint tan line that excited me more.

This was territory no one had tread before, territory that I could claim as mine if I played my cards right.

Dimitri certainly wasn't going to stop it from happening any time soon.

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