Chapter 4
Fane woke up and without thinking sought out Jacquelyn’s mind; it was second nature for him, even though he had just met her. Well, he hadn’t really met her, more like found her.
He spoke to her mind effortlessly, “Good morning my Luna,” and instantly felt her panic and confusion.
He heard her tell her friends that she had heard his voice, or rather a voice she wasn’t completely convinced was his. And she wanted to know what Luna meant. He also caught a passing thought that they were on their way over here…now.
Fane looked at himself in the mirror and quickly decided a shower was in order and something more presentable than pajama pants with no shirt.
He quickly jumped in the shower, was out in a record five minutes and stood in front of the bathroom mirror brushing his teeth when he noticed something different on his chest and shoulder.
Fane, like every male Canis Lupus, had markings that looked like tattoos which appeared of their own accord once he entered puberty. These markings revealed where in the pack order a wolf belonged, the more elaborate the marking the higher in rank a wolf was. The tattoos varied in size shape and in what side of the body they were on. Fane’s were on his right side, which indicated he was a dominant; it started on his right shoulder blade and came over the top of his shoulder, going down onto his bicep and across the right side of his chest, the fact that it came around to the front of his body and was not just on his back indicated he was an Alpha. Only Alpha’s had markings on the front and back of their bodies so that no matter what direction they were facing all could see his markings. The marks were dark black with curves and points at the ends of the lines.
Only now the markings had climbed up the right side of his neck, they looked like flames only black in color.
Fane honestly didn’t know what it meant, he had never heard of the markings spreading. He decided he would have to call his father later today to find out what it meant. Meanwhile he was hoping the Henry’s didn’t notice that the markings weren’t there last night, which might be a little difficult to explain.
Deciding there was nothing to be done about it at the moment he moved on and quickly ran a razor across his face and threw on some after shave.
Fane walked over to his suit case to pick out some clothes; he hadn’t bothered to unpack anything last night because he had been so tired. There weren’t a whole lot of variations in his wardrobe; black, grey, and dark blue shirts mostly. He had a lot of long sleeved shirts because it was cold in Romania. He had had to buy short sleeved shirts to prepare to come to the U.S.
He decided on a dark grey short sleeve tee-shirt and his Lucky-brand jeans. He wore biker boots and a wallet with a chain attached to it.
Although motorcycles weren’t very popular in Romania because of the temperature, Fane loved them and owned a Honda. He tried to ride as much as he could, and of course was completely covered in leather when he did ride because it helped keep out the cold.
He had wanted to bring his motorcycle with him but his parents had told him that instead they would just buy him a used bike once he got here. He was planning on talking to Mr. Henry about that later today, hoping that he would be willing to take him to a motorcycle dealership to let him pick one out. His parents had given him a credit card that had a decent limit on it that should get him a pretty nice bike.
Just when he was ready to go downstairs his wolf perked up at the sound of foot steps out in the street, he walked over to the window and parted the curtains. What luck he thought to himself, his window was directly in front of Jacquelyn’s house.
He looked down at the street and saw three teenage girls walking with who must have been Jacquelyn’s mother.
His gaze shifted to the only one who mattered and she looked up straight into his face.
She is beautiful, Fane thought. Now that he could get a good look at her he saw that she had wild, unruly, auburn curls, freckles dusted her fair skin, and thin lips. She was on the short side, thin but not skinny. She was wearing faded, holey jeans and a green shirt that said “I’m not stubborn, my way is just better.”
So, his Luna had attitude, well, of course she would, it wasn’t like a meek woman could be Alpha to female Greys, they would tear a timid alpha female apart. She turned to talk to her friends; while she was turned away he stepped away from the window to head downstairs.
Fane had to admit he was a little nervous about meeting her. He had never been nervous with girls, then again he hadn’t really dated much, no one seem to catch his eye so he figured why waste his time. The few girls he had dated had never produced even a quarter of the attraction he felt for Jacquelyn.
He wished now that he had gotten up earlier and called his father to talk to him about this whole mate thing. He had learned a little growing up but he still felt very much unprepared for how to handle it. Especially since she was human and knew nothing of his world.
As Fane came to the bottom of the stairs the door bell rang. He heard Mrs. Henry coming from the right side of the house. As she came around the corner she saw that he was there and smiled at him warmly.
“Good morning Fane. Did you sleep well?” she asked.
"Bună dimineaţa," Fane said gracefully, “I slept very well thank you.”
“I take it that "Bună dimineaţa" means good morning?” Mrs. Henry asked.
“That was a very good pronunciation, and yes it means good morning,” Fane explained.
“Oh, I guess I better get the door.” She said just as the door bell rang again.
As Mrs. Henry opened the door Fane felt his stomach tighten in anticipation. What was he going to say to her, he wondered. Well, naturally he couldn’t very well declare her his mate in front of all these humans; they would think he was mad.
So he settled with a simple “Hello my name is Fane.” Yes he thought that was a very normal thing to say, and normalcy was what he wanted, after all.
The four ladies were standing at the threshold of the door as Mrs. Henry greeted them.
“Lilly, how sweet it is of you to come over to meet our guest!” Mrs. Henry announced sweetly.
“We come bearing a home cooked southern meal for the newcomer,” Lilly responded.
“Come in; let me introduce you to Fane. He is from…well here I’ll let him tell you, he can speak for himself after all,” Mrs. Henry said as they all filed into the entry way.
“Sara why don’t we set this food in the kitchen and then sit in the living room to make our introductions, that suit you okay?” Lilly asked.
“Oh, of course, of course you all can’t stand here in the front door holding all that food, you would think I’ve never had company before. Come on girls and let’s sit it on the counter in the kitchen,” Mrs. Henry said sounding a little flustered.
Sara, Fane thought, so that was Mrs. Henry’s first name, he hadn’t even thought to ask when he had met them last night. Though it might have been on his paperwork for the exchange program and he just didn’t pay attention.
Once the food was left in the kitchen, they all filed into the living room each taking a seat. Lilly sat on the rocking chair by the fireplace, while the three girls sat on the couch to the left of the rocking chair. Mrs. Henry and Fane both sat on the love seat across from the couch. There was a wooden coffee table in between the couch and love seat that had various magazines and some coasters sitting on it.
Fane realized that while he had been cataloging the room, the five ladies were all looking at him expectantly. He noticed Jacquelyn’s gaze linger on the markings on his neck. His wolf liked that she noticed even though she didn’t know that they might have something to do with her.
He cleared his throat and started speaking, “Good morning doamnelor (lady’s), my name is Fane Lupei. I am from Romania, I am seventeen and I will be a senior this year.” Fane looked at each of the ladies, pausing briefly on Jacquelyn. “Should I say more?” he asked.
Lilly looked at him quizzical
ly and asked, “What does dome-na-ler mean exactly?”
Fane tried not to grin too much at her poor pronunciation, Romanian after all was a very difficult language to learn.
“It means ladies. I was saying good morning ladies. I have a bad habit of mixing my native language with my English. I beg your pardon,” Fane said to Lilly.
“I don’t mind, it’s actually pretty neat to hear you speak Romanian, it’s not a language one hears very often if ever,” Lilly assured him.
There was an awkward pause for a moment and then the blond haired friend of Jacquelyn’s who he had learned through her thoughts was named Jen looked at him poignantly and asked “So, why Coldspring, Texas?”
Fane cocked his head to the side, just like he would do in his wolf form, “Scuzaţi-mă (excuse me)?” he asked. “I do not understand the question.”
“Why did you choose to come to our little blink-of-an-eye town?” Jen asked speaking slowly like you would to child.
Jacquelyn elbowed her, which made Fane smile.
“Oh, I see. Well, honestly I’m not sure. When I applied for the exchange program they sent me several candidates for my host family. I read about them and something about the Henrys felt right. I don’t know if I explained it right, but that is only how I know to say it,” Fane answered.
“Your English is very good,” Jacquelyn’s other friend, the brunette, Sally, stated.
“Da (yes), my parents have always spoken both Romanian and English to me, they thought it foolish to think I would only need to know the Romanian language and culture,” Fane explained to her.
“So you have studied American culture as well?” Mrs. Henry asked.
“Da, American culture is quite different from mine. What I have been taught by teachers has not always stood true in real life.”
“Okay,” Lilly said “enough of the Spanish inquisition. Girls let’s briefly introduce ourselves and then let’s be on our way so Fane can get settled in.”
Making no move to stand up Lilly simply introduced herself from where she sat, “Fane, my name is Lilly Pierce, and I’m Jacque’s mom. I own a bookstore on the square down town to which you are most welcome anytime to study or chat. Please call me Lilly as I am not my mother, she was Ms. Pierce. I am so glad to know you.”
“Meu doamnă , acesta este un onoruri.” Fane said bowing ever so slightly.
“In your language I said, my lady it is an honor,” Fane translated.
Jen stood up and held out her hand, “I’m Jennifer Adams, AKA Jen. I am also seventeen and a senior. Glad to know ya,” she said as he took her hand.
To her surprise he did not shake it; he simply brought it to his lips, just barely laying them on the top of her hand.
Fane looked up at Jen after lightly kissing her hand and said, “Sa o placere sa te cunosc.”
Jen looked slightly dazed and confused.
“It is a pleasure to meet you,” Fane translated.
Sally stood up gently pushing the hazy-looking Jen back down to the couch and also held out her hand.
“I’m Sally Morgan, seventeen, senior and it’s nice to meet you,” she said with natural cheeriness.
Again Fane took her hand lifted it to his lips placing a feather soft kiss on the top of it and repeated what he had said to Jen, “Sa o placere sa te cunosc.”
Sally sat down next to Jen, and when Jacquelyn made no move to stand up Jen reached over and pinched the back of her arm.
“Oww!” Jacque yelped.
She glared at her friend, and finally caught on to what she was trying to silently tell her.
Standing up to introduce herself, she began to speak and for a moment her mouth wouldn’t spit out what her brain was telling her to say. “Oh, um, I, um,” good grief Jacque thought to herself, spit it out already, “I’m Jacque, seventeen and a senior as well. Lilly is my mom.” She made no move to give Fane her hand.
The surprise on her face was obvious when he reached out and took her hand anyway. Fane bowed over her hand as he brought it to his lips, and this time they lingered there.
As he held her hand to his mouth he took in her scent and found to his pleasure she smelled of cotton candy and fresh snow, an odd, but strangely familiar combination. He tried not to growl possessively, but didn’t quite suppress the urge completely and knew Jacquelyn had heard him because she tensed even more.
He lifted his eyes to look at her and just as he had said to Sally and Jen he said “Sa o placere sa te cunosc.
The only difference was as he spoke to her with his mouth he also sent her a message with his thoughts.
“I am so honored to finally meet you my Luna,” he told her. “We have much to learn about each other.”