The Mating (The original Law of the Lycans story)

Chapter 13

Somehow, Marla managed to get herself invited to dinner and ended up sitting on one side of Kane, while Elise was on the other. As he entered the dining room, Kane gave Elise a peck on the cheek and it was only when Marla stood looking at him expectantly, that he absentmindedly helped her into the chair. Rolling her eyes, Elise sat down moving her chair in by herself. She wasn't helpless and could manage her own chair just fine, thank you very much!

For his part, Kane seemed oblivious to any undercurrents between the two women, merely inquiring how their day went. Marla happily reported that she and Julia had shown Elise some of the woods. Elise wanted to point out that Marla had basically tagged along, but Kane seemed so pleased that their day had gone well that she didn't want to burst his bubble. His face seemed exceptionally drawn and he kept rolling his shoulders and turning his neck as if his muscles were too tight. Elise wondered what had happened that day to make him so tense, and made a mental note to offer him a shoulder massage later on.

Despite his obvious stress, Kane thought to apologize to her for not conducting a personal tour of the territory. "I'd really meant to take you out myself, Elise. I'm sorry. My intentions were good, but with one thing and another the time slipped by."

"That's okay. Julia did a fine job of showing me the most popular trails. Maybe one day you can take me to some of the less well known spots." Under the cover of the table, Elise felt Kane give her thigh a squeeze. Her heart did a quick flip flop when he didn't immediately remove his hand, and the look he gave her seemed to hold interesting promises for later in the evening. Who knew where that shoulder massage might lead?

Marla chose that moment to lay her hand on Kane's arm, drawing his attention away from Elise. The blonde opened her mouth to speak, but Carrie suddenly shoved a bowl of mashed potatoes in front of her face. "Here, Marla, you have to have some more of these. They're Helen's special recipe, you know." Forced to take the bowl that was practically touching her nose, Marla removed her hand from Kane. Immediately, John got Kane's attention by asking about a pack meeting that had been called for that evening.

Elise chuckled inwardly at how her friends were putting up road blocks to keep Marla away from Kane. Looking across the table, she met Helen's eye and received a slow wink from her. Smirking, she knew the older woman had clued the other two in on the situation. Elise stared at her plate and ate quietly, concentrating on the men's conversation to keep from laughing out loud at Marla's sour expression.

"I've called everyone about the meeting tonight at seven o'clock. Even our members that live in town are coming here for it. Only Julia and Thomas won't be there." John summarized his afternoon efforts. "I told Thomas you'd probably stop by tomorrow and give them a personal update."

Kane nodded in approval. "That will work out nicely since I didn't get a chance to check on how Thomas was doing today. I have the outline for the meeting run off and the chairs are set up downstairs, so everything is ready."

"Helen and I made some cookies and muffins for refreshments." Carrie added. "And John carried the coffee urn downstairs so it's ready to go."

Elise marvelled at how efficient a team they all seemed to be and wondered when she'd find her own niche in this group. She hadn't even known that there was a meeting tonight! Was it a regularly scheduled event or something special? And why hadn't they told her? Of course, she'd only been here a few days, and she'd been out of the house all afternoon, but surely someone might have mentioned it in passing. Trying to be positive, Elise decided that it had likely slipped their mind that she wouldn't know and at least this gathering might give her some more insight into how this particular pack functioned. She didn't like feeling that she was out of the loop and was coming to realize that Kane's pack wasn't nearly as traditional as her father's.