Charming (A Seven World Novel) by Dannika Dark

much for her to handle. I guess I’m used to her being gone since I’d only lived with her a few years of my life. But my papa is my heart, and so is Nadia. Maybe she’s Tweedledee and I’m Tweedledum, but we’re two tweedles, you know?”
    The effects of the drug were beginning to wear off, although not entirely. He much preferred when she was talkative and happy to this altered version of herself that was sullen and introspective.
    “My pack is my family.” Prince wadded up the empty burrito wrapper.
    “Are they? Do you hang out with them and watch TV?”
    “You have a fixation on television.”
    She shrugged and sat back. “Everyone has their thing. Nadia loves nice clothes and those breakable figurines, my papa loves fishing, and I love reruns of Seinfeld .”
    “As I recall, your father was a skilled hunter.”
    She flashed a dazzling smile and looked up at the sky. “He is. More with a crossbow than a gun, but he really loves fishing. Sometimes we’d take a camping trip and spend all day on the lake in a small boat. He’s like a fish whisperer or something—you should have seen the ones he caught. Afterward, we’d cook them up and then he’d tell stories over a campfire. He tells great stories.”
    Prince couldn’t help but notice how she spoke of her father in the present tense. Kat truly believed with her whole heart that Alex was still alive. “Yes, he did. Your father weaved some tall tales.”
    She laughed and wadded up her wrapper, setting it next to the other five. “That’s the truth. Half the time I wasn’t sure if he was making it up.”
    Prince drew a deep breath, taking in the smells and sounds of the street corner around them. Taco meat, hot concrete, summer wind, honeysuckle growing over the concrete wall behind them. “Every story your father told had some truth to it; he just happened to be a master at embellishing the boring parts.”
    Kat leaned back in her chair. “How did you meet?”
    “I’d wandered into his territory and fell on a steel trap. My injuries were severe, and I could have lost my leg. When he discovered me, I thought he was going to take my head for trespassing. I was an alpha, and we both knew I had intentionally ignored the territorial markings. In those days, that blatant disregard was an act of war. A Packmaster had the right to slay any alpha who crossed into his domain.”
    “Why didn’t he?”
    “Because Alex liked to see the good in men. He had foresight most men didn’t and chose to release me from the trap and take me in. I was looking for a fresh start, and he gave me men from his own pack. He wanted us to be allies, but we became brothers by circumstance.”
    Prince could see a glimmer of Alex in Kat’s eyes, and he felt a pang of remorse for the absence of his friend.
    Kat tipped her head to the side, averting her gaze. “What were the women like in those times?”
    Prince thought back, uncertain of how to answer since he had lived in many different centuries. A woman’s role varied by country, time period, and Breed. Shifter women had always had some level of power. “In Russia, women were warriors. I met two who were second-in-commands. Italian women preferred to have the men go to battle, so there’s never been one rule.”
    “What were you fighting over?”
    He rubbed his jaw, deep in thought. “Land. Councils enforce rules and distribute land, but before they came into existence, packs were vulnerable to greedy alphas. Land meant power, and Packmasters weren’t just assembling a family; we were building an army to protect what was ours.”
    She sighed wistfully and rested her chin in the palm of her hand. “I could listen to you talk for hours.”
    He dwelled on her comment for a moment. “Tell me, why do you prefer television over real people?”
    Kat studied one of her short fingernails. “Because I can turn it off when I’m sick of it. Most of the people I meet are on the job. I haven’t really met anyone I connect