"Oh, you'll look so cute in this!"

I held back a chuckle at the apprehension that passed across Kristin's face when she thought no one was looking. Each time Gabi held up another clothing item that was clearly outside of Kristin's comfort zone, Kristin would simply nod, offering the smallest of smiles before whispering out.

"Maybe."

At some point Gabi had finally caught onand when she pulled out the most hideous item of clothing I had ever seen, Kristin's face finally went pale before she looked at me in complete terror. Only then did Gabi break, her face creeping into a shit eating grin followed by loud laughter.

Kristin's eyes met mine again, looking completely lost and I sighed, giving her a gentle smile. Reaching up, I gave the fluffy ball attached to a knitted hat of Gabi's on her head a careful tug. She looked so fucking adorable bundled in the hoodie I had given her with her long dark hair tucked under the collar.

"Gabi, cut it out," I ordered, "you're terrifying her."

Gabi's laughter continued as she reached forward and placed a hand on Kristin's arm. "I'm sorry," she wheezed, "but you should've seen your face." Then she managed to compose herself before straightening. "Okay, okay. All jokes aside. What items of clothing do you like?"

"Uhh." Kristin looked down at herself and held out her hands. "Hoodies. Jeans. Sweaters," she listed hesitantly before her face brightened. "Yoga pants."

Gabi sighed before nodding. "Okay, I suppose I can work with that. For now," Gabi warned, but before I could say anything, she was frolicking in the opposite direction, dodging tables full of clothes.

We had been in town for a little over an hour, and the only thing we had successfully checked off our list was a few pairs of shoes for Kristin, and some other women's essentials that Gabi insisted I couldn't be in the store for. I had obeyed, providing my sister with payment which she took with a wicked smile. Kristin, on the other hand, hadn't been ecstatic to be bought for, but neither of us hadn't really given her a choice either.

"How does she have so much energy," Kristin whispered and I looked down at her, chuckling.

"She came out of the womb like that. My mom swears her organs still haven't returned to normal due to all of Gabi's kicking, and my dad says when she was born, she didn't sleep for an entire two days."

Kristin grinned a little, and nothing could have pulled me from that spot as I stared at her, taking in every inch and storing it away. Before meeting her, I never knew making someone smile could be so rewarding. I also never knew that seeing someone cry could feel like a sucker punch. Sure, seeing my mother or sister cry made my skin crawl, but to see her cry, to hear her cry and not be able to do a fucking thing about it made me nearly lose my damn mind.

It had only been a few hours since she had come to my office. Where she had shared an inkling of the past two years of her life, the death of her family, the attack on her pack, and since then, a pit of sorrow had formed in my chest that I couldn't shake. I knew that wasn't even the beginning of her story, that there was so much more to it that I didn't know if I could handle hearing.

Everything that I was ached to know her, to form a connection to her. The powerful urge to protect and care for her felt so overwhelming that I couldn't stand it, and I wanted, more than anything in the world, to give her an easy life full of love, safety, and comfort.

For the first time in my life, I had no control over my emotions, and it was pissing me off. My wolf had never been so on edge, and it only worsened the moment that Kristin had given me that tidbit of information about being locked in a cellar for two years and then basically avoiding me since running out of my office. But right now, all of the frustration, anger, and fear had faded as I took her in.

I had never experienced anything like it. I had only just found her days ago. I knew most of it was the bond, but I was finding it was moments like these, her gentle smiles and a snippet of a warm, comforting personality, that I could see she was everything I had ever dreamed of.

She really was the most beautiful thing I had ever laid my eyes on.

"Okay, what about these?" Gabi appeared abruptly. I jumped, unaware that I had been staring at Kristin as she had been lazily picking through the table full of cotton, long sleeved shirts. Kristin eyed Gabi holding a few sweaters in one hand with a couple of pairs of jeans and, what I assumed, were yoga pants. Her eyes lit up just a little as Kristin stepped forward, gasping softly at a sweater, and Gabi beamed.

"I love these," Kristin whispered, eyeing an emerald green sweater that I could see would bring out her eyes.

"Perfect," Gabi said proudly after Kristin had approved everything. "I'll go check out. Whatever doesn't work for you, we can bring back." And with that, Gabi was gone again.

I sighed when I noticed that Kristin looked a little overwhelmed. "I'm sorry about her," I apologized. "She's a little shopaholic." While Gabi seemed a little strung out, nothing had been bought without Kristin's approval yet. Still, I could see how draining this all was for her.

It hadn't been long since she had been out of the hospital, and it had been years since she had seen the outside world, had any of this provided to her. Nausea crept up my throat at the possibilities of what she had endured, at what she had been very good at shielding so far.

Besides me, Kristin didn't seem wary of anyone else. She didn't seem to be afraid of others, nor did she seem like she was desperate to escape. Other than her cries this morning and her tentative actions, nothing had given away her distress so far, but I hadn't spent much time with her to determine anything else.

"No, it's okay," she replied instantly, giving me another timid smile. "She's actually really refreshing to be around."

A laugh shot out of me that neither of us had been expecting. "I don't know if I've ever heard refreshing as a word to describe my sister." Kristin bit her lip, seeming to fight back her own laughter as she looked towards the way Gabi went.

"There's a first for everything," she said sweetly, then her face dropped just a little, so quickly I never would've noticed had I not been staring at her. "She reminds me a lot of my older brother."

My breath hitched as I watched her carefully, gauging to see how much I could pull from her with the inch she had just given me. I wanted to know more, I wanted whatever parts of her she was willing to give me, and after the mention of her family in my office, I was surprised she had created the opening so soon.

But then I remembered her tears, how her sorrow and grief had wrapped itself around me so tight it was suffocating, along with those heart wrenching apologies that had fallen from her lips that broke my fucking heart, and knew I had to trail lightly.

"What's his name," I asked softly, effectively catching her attention, and for a second when those eyes met mine, I was scared she was going to shut me out. Her lips tilted up, a look of love and admiration and I knew instantly how important he had been to her.

"Kayden."

When I noticed Gabi heading towards us, I discreetly held up a finger as I quickly opened our mindlink.

Give me a minute with her.

Gabi nodded, instantly turning on her heel and making her way towards the back of the store. I caught Kristin's gaze again, and tilted my head towards the exit. And if Kristin thought it strange to leave Gabi as I led us towards the door, she didn't say anything as I opened it for her, another question falling from my lips.

"How much older was he than you?"

"Nearly two years."

We stepped out on the sidewalk of the busy street that made up not even a quarter of the small town at the bottom of the mountains. It was an hour from the pack house, located just outside my territory. While it wasn't much, it had the necessities that kept us from having to travel hours into the city.

I spotted my favorite coffee shop only two doors down and shoved my hands in my pockets, leisurely guiding Kristin in that direction as I kept her chatting beside me. I would later think it was a perfect mixture of exhaustion and being in awe of her surroundings that gave me this moment with her.

"Were you two close," I asked, and she nodded, looking at me quickly before letting it fall back in front of her.

"He was my best friend," she chuckled lightly. "I thought he was the coolest person in the world, though I would never tell him that." She shoved her hands into the pockets of my hoodie. "I wanted to be just like him growing up. I owe everything I know to him. It's only because I followed him around like an actual puppy that I was trained as well as I am."

I lifted a brow right as she looked at me and she chuckled without restraint.

"I know it doesn't look like it, but when I'm at one hundred percent, I can really kick some ass."

I laughed loudly, only partially in surprise. If I were being honest with myself and her, Kristin looked like the last person on earth that could kick someone's ass. She seemed fragile, not just mentally but physically, with a tiny, slender frame, but a part of me knew that I had probably found her at her worst.

"Well, maybe not as well anymore, but eighteen year old me was a force to be reckoned with."

I smiled, loving how comfortable she felt, how easy it felt to talk to her.

"You were trained," I asked, subtly fishing for her position in her pack. Only those with higher positions and warriors had some kind of training. When finding her, she hadn't smelt purely of a wolf that had no pack, meaning the ties were never truly cut, and while she didn't radiate authority upon finding her due to her condition, with each day she got stronger, I could feel the underlying power she held.

She nodded. "I started training the moment I shifted," she explained, and she seemed to hesitate before continuing. "My father, he was the Beta." My eyebrows rose in surprise.

The Beta family was the second highest ranked in the pack, just as respected as the Alpha family with just as many responsibilities. To be the child of the Beta meant training in every sense to run a pack in the event something happened to the Alpha, and from the sounds of it, that had been the case for her.

However, the night of the attack, she should have been more protected, never left unguarded. A Beta's child was just as precious as an Alpha's. They were the pack's next generation, the pack's next leaders, and had she not been taken, she would have been leading alongside the Alpha in the aftermath. But instead, the entire Beta family had been killed, no wonder the pack crumbled.

My pack was powerful because of Seth and Asher. There was no way I could do it alone. And now, as I looked at her, I could only imagine how much stronger the pack would grow with her guidance as their Luna.

I opened the door to the coffee shop for her, anxious to get her out of the cold when I noticed her lips turning blue.

She stepped inside, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply through her nose. "I love the smell of coffee," she whispered, and I grinned, motioning for her to step in front of me in line.

When we reached the cash register, the teen girl looked up, a bright smile on her lips before she faltered slightly when her eyes met me. "Oh," she said, another smile lighting up her face as she looked around quickly before dipping her head just slightly.

I gave the young member of my pack a gentle smile.

"Hi, Gianna. How are you," I asked.

"I'm great," she faltered again, struggling with ways to show me respect while in human company. When I gave her a small shake of my head with a reassuring grin, her shoulders fell in relief. "How are you?"

Kristin looked between the two of us, brows furrowed.

"I'm doing really well." I noticed Gianna's eyes shift towards Kristin, widening a little before she looked back at me. The corner of her lips lifted, a question there that I wouldn't answer, but when Kristin wasn't looking, I held my index finger to my lips and Gianna gave me another little nod.

"What can I get for you two," she asked brightly.

I looked down at Kristin as she eyed the menu before looking up at me then towards Gianna. "What's good that's warm," Kristin asked softly, and Gianna's eyes lit up as she bounced once.

"Do you have any allergies?" Kristin shook her head. "How do you feel about hazelnut," Gianna asked with a little smirk and Kristin shrugged her shoulders.

"Let's find out," Kristin said easily.

Gianna gave an enthusiastic nod, typing something in on the computer before turning towards me. After ordering a sweet black coffee, I paid for our drinks, giving Gianna another smile before placing a hand on the small of Kristin's back. The young wolf caught that, grinned, and then shot me a little wink before bowing her head.

As I walked Kristin and I towards the corner of the shop, pulling her chair out for her, I resumed our conversation as carefully and quietly as I could.

"Were you close with your parents as well," I asked softly, and her green eyes found mine. Each time they did, my breath hitched just a little. Eye contact with her felt almost as intimate as physical touch, and in the few times she had caught my eyes, they had never been as lively as they were right now.

"I was." A soft smile crossed her lips. "It was just the four of us, and I can never remember a time our family didn't feel perfect. Even when Kayden and I got older and became harder to deal with, or their responsibilities became too much, they always seemed to handle everything with grace and love."

My throat ached suddenly as I swallowed against my own grief. As I stared back at her, all I could think was that she had lost everything that mattered to her in one night only to endure hell for the next two years. And fuck me if I was more scared than I had ever been to find out what had truly happened to her in there. That's all my mind seemed to keep going back to.

"Are you alright," she asked, placing her hand over mine. And I think the action shocked her more than me when she went to quickly retreat before I grasped her fingers gently, giving her just enough room to pull away if she really wanted to. She stared at them for a moment before her eyes met mine again, and I trailed my thumb over the top of her index finger.

"Yeah." It was a croaked response that she didn't seem to believe.

"Mr. Black."

I turned to find Gianna holding our coffees, and only then did I feel Kristin slip her hand from mine. Gritting my teeth, I gave her a forced smile before thanking her as she sat them down, scurrying away like a quiet mouse.

"Is she," Kristin began, her voice barely above a whisper. "Is she a part of your pack?"

Our. I wanted to correct. Our pack.

Instead, I just nodded.

Her brows lifted just as she took a sip of her coffee, and I thought it had been from the taste until she asked, not before looking around to check for human ears, "your pack members are allowed to work in human communities?"

I raised a brow before nodding again. "Yes," I replied slowly. Was that not a thing where she came from? Was her pack completely secluded from the outside world? I knew some packs operated like that, especially fifty years ago, but very few did nowadays. We weren't as fearful as we used to be about our race being discovered, and frankly, more destruction came from hiding away than being out in the open. Too many questions arose that way.

"Is that a problem?" I was genuinely curious about her answer. It hadn't crossed my mind that maybe we wouldn't have the same beliefs to lead a pack, and that had my palms sweating.

I would listen to whatever she had in mind when the time came to lead our pack. She was to be my equal, and as long as she didn't lead with malicious and ill intentions, the pack would be just as much hers as it was mine. No part of me believed she would lead with anything but grace and love, just as her parents had.

But what exactly had she grown up in?

"No," she replied quickly, a blush covering her cheeks. "Not at all. I was just," she paused, "surprised. That was highly frowned upon with where I grew up." I waited, taking another sip of my coffee and the redness on her pale cheeks deepened.

"I suppose our Alpha was old fashioned in a sense. Everyone lived in the pack house that wasn't mated or had a family, even though our pack house wasn't half the size of yours. Women stayed home with their pups, homeschooled them while warriors and wolves of higher positions went to train. And even though there was a town a little smaller than this one not far from our territory, only certain wolves were allowed to go into it."

"So you didn't go to highschool?"

Kristin shook her head.

"Never went to the movies?"

Another shake of her head.

I'm sure the look on my face was somewhere near incredulous by then.

"Did you ever leave the pack grounds," I asked, and when she shook her head again, I blinked in shock. Had she ever had any free will to leave and go as she pleased? "Where was your pack located?"

"Vermont."

I nodded. It wasn't too far from here, only about a five hour drive. I wondered where she had been taken to after being captured. If it had been close to her pack grounds or somewhere close to here? Kristin had said she had ran with no destination in sight.

"You said your pack was Silver Crescent," I asked after another sip of coffee, and all I got from her was another nod. My window of conversation with her was closing, and I sighed inwardly. She looked even more exhausted than she had in the clothing store, and I noticed each time she moved, she winced, grabbing her ribs when she thought I wasn't looking.

Can I rejoin you guys now? I'm outside and it's cold as shit.

I hid my chuckle behind my cup as I replied to Gabi.

Yes, we are in the coffee shop.

A moment later, Gabi walked into the coffee shop, her arms loaded with bags. She beamed when she spotted us, coming to take a seat next to Kristin who gave her a warm smile, but it fell the moment Gabi opened her mouth.

"I need you to trust me when I tell you I got the cutest outfit for you."

***

It was a little after dark when I pulled off the road and into the driveway. I had been driving slower than normal, careful to avoid any potholes or rough roads the moment Kristin had laid her head in her arms on the console.

She fell asleep only minutes into the drive home, and her hair tickled my arm with any movement I made of the steering wheel.

I parked the car in the garage, easing the gear shift to park before I looked down at her. She looked so content. Removing my hand from the gear shift, my forearm brushed against the top of her head and she shifted her chin up. Carefully, with my other hand, I reached across myself to tuck a piece of hair behind her ear, letting my finger tips linger at the shell of it.

"Gray," Gabi whispered from the backseat, pulling my attention from Kristin. She looked apologetic and I stilled as she strung together the last words I wanted to hear at the moment.

"Mom and Dad are here."

"Fuck."