The Lesser of 2 Evils

XAVIER, MEET AND GREET

I call an emergency meeting for the next day and ask that everyone who can attend, do. Scott gives Kristina the heads up and clean clothes to wear, then tells me she is settled into her new cell fine, already bathed and set for what’s next. I decide to pay a return visit, returning to her after dinner that evening.

“Mind if I sit?” I ask her as I sit on the floor in front of her cell. She matches me and does the same, sitting cross-legged opposite me, the bars obscuring our vision. Ignoring her scent, I choose instead to focus on everything else about her. She’s beautiful, that much is certain and easy to see. Her hair is long, the brown far lighter than my near-black. For a brief second, I wonder what colour eyes our pups would have – my blue or her green before refocusing back on the present.

“I figured we could use this time to talk?” I suggest and Kristina nods eagerly, smiling widely.

“I would love that,” she says, leaning forward. For a human she is of average height but for a she-wolf she’s small – I’d guess a foot shorter than me. Gunner floods my mind with images of Kristina’s legs wrapped around my waist as I lift her easily given her size, pounding into her repeatedly as I pin her to the wall.

He isn’t playing fair.

He is also making it difficult to concentrate on our conversation as she tells me more about her home pack and why she left, what her childhood was like and her family. I do the same as we get to know one another, exploring our potential relationship. I tell her about my pack and she’s astounded by how differently things are done here.

She’s also greatly relieved.

“I owe you an apology… for the pain – I didn’t know…” I state in an effort to apologize for having sex while we were mated. I did it repeatedly and know the discomfort I felt, so can only imagine what she experienced without her she-wolf to help her. Kristina smiles gently.

“Thank you for saying that, but you really don’t need to – I believe you when you say you didn’t know,” she reassures me. In the space of a heartbeat we go from me apologizing to her, to her comforting me. Kristina has a way of putting a person at ease, of making you feel relaxed in her presence – I find it… almost unsettling. I’m not used to being so relaxed with someone, especially someone I just met and yet with her I am – I feel no need to ‘put on a front’ or pretend to be someone I’m not. With Kristina, I instinctively know that she has no interest in false facades and broken promises, only genuine emotions and truthful realities.

I plan to respect that.

We speak some more until the hour grows late and I retire to my room in the packhouse. For the first time it truly bothers me to leave her alone in the cell but until she is accepted by the pack, that is where she must remain as she is still a prisoner and a rogue. It sucks ass but it is the unfortunate reality of the situation – even though I’m confident she poses no threat to anyone.

Thankfully, after tomorrow it won’t be an issue anymore because she’ll meet the pack and this will be decided, one way or another – I can’t wait. I look forward to getting to know her better outside of the damn cell in a more traditional way – maybe even on a date if we get to that point and I’m truly hoping that we do. I like Kristina, she seems kind, smart and a good person in general – I don’t know her well yet but I look forward to having the opportunity to change that.

I just pray my pack gives us that chance.

If they vote against her, she’ll have to leave and either become a rogue again or return to her old pack – whichever option she chooses. Knowing what I know, she’ll likely stay rogue and take her chances with that life and I’m confident she won’t last long out there on her own. It isn’t meant as a slight against her as a woman but a simple statement of fact that she will be alone against roaming gangs of male rogues who will do horrible things to her before they kill her.

“We can’t allow that to happen,” Gunner says cringing, thinking the same horrific thoughts I am. We definitely don’t want her to return home either – the thought of her becoming a breeder repulses me. The fact that there is still a pack out there operating like that astounds me and is something I’m going to have to look into – it shouldn’t be allowed to continue.

Those women deserve better.