The kettle blew, letting him know the water was hot. He turned back to the kitchen and began the process of preparing a tray for tea. He didn’t know why. Just that his hands needed something to do, and this was the only task at hand.
“I’m sorry.”
Wolfe flinched again. “Don’t apologize for what you think, Ruby. Don’t insult me like that.”
“I don’t even know why I said that. There was this pounding in my head like all the Hamm brothers were pounding nails into my skull. My ears. My eyes. I couldn’t think anymore.”
Wolfe nodded. “It was a spell.”
“That’s what you said. But I can’t remember being bewitched. Could Nora have done this last year? Why would it be so long?”
“I don’t know.” It didn’t seem like the kind of spell a witch would throw in the middle of a battle, but what did he know? Being a Fable didn’t make him an expert on Witches, after all.
Tears slipped down her cheeks, and Wolfe felt like the monster she accused him of being. He placed the tray on the table in front of her. “Be careful. It’s hot.”
His words only made her cry harder, and he sat there, feeling as useless as a wool blanket in summer. “You knew I was a shifter. Over there, before the war, I was a wolf. Just a regular old wolf.”
Ruby smiled, the corners of her mouth trembling so much Wolfe wasn’t sure if the smile would turn into more tears with her next breath. “I have a hard time believing you were ever a regular old anything.”
“When we were expelled from the Woodlands, those of us who were animals before, well, Paulina gave us enough magic, enough glamour or something, to pass as human. We became shifters. Even those Hamm brothers are nothing but pig shifters.”
“Boar,” she corrected. “And I know.”
“And Tarron is a bear shifter.”
“I know. Remember? I was there to help rescue the Baron and his brother. I know they’re bear shifters as well.”
“You had no problems with what I was when we went in rescue of Tristan. Why now?” Wolfe hated the way his voice cracked with emotion.
“You’re right. I know, I know it all. I knew it then. I can’t explain it exactly. But my grandmother. She has warned me against you time and time again. I didn’t know that word was so dark. So, insulting. I just knew she called you that over and over again.”
She reached for him, her fingers gently caressing the backs of his hands. Heat rose between them as naturally as breathing.
Temptation teased Wolfe’s sense. Oh, it would be so easy to turn to her. To let her feel the rise of their shared passion. To allow one emotion to burn away the residuals of the other. And yet, it would be wrong. It would be admitting he was what Mathilda accused him of being. Depraved. A bzou.
“Please. Avery,” she whispered and reached for his hand. “Look at me.”
Wolfe stilled and had to will himself not to look at her. “You’ve never called me by my first name.”
“It felt like the right thing. To remind you that I see you as a man. Just as you are. And you’re right, we proved we could trust each other. To find and defend our friends against an enemy bigger than ourselves. We handled everything Nora threw at us, remember?”
He swallowed and nodded.
Ruby pulled back the blanket and went to sit up. “Don’t,” he admonished. “You need to rest.”
“Then you need to come sit beside me.”
“Don’t be cruel, Ruby. Once you’re feeling better, I will take you home. I won’t bother you again.” He kept his voice deliberately low and even. He would not manipulate her with his feelings.
“Is your affection for me so shallow, then?”
This time, he couldn’t help it. His starving gaze reached for hers. “So shallow?” he challenged, feeling anger pull in his gut. He was willing to walk away from his friend, his love, his mate, and she thought him shallow?
“It is if you can’t forgive me for a simple misunderstanding.”
“Are you sure?” he said, dropping to his knees in front of her. His fingers ached to drive into her glorious red hair, but instead, he settled for pushing away a few strands that were caught in her eyelashes.
Around them, the late spring storm was intensifying, but inside the warm depths of the cabin, Ruby and Wolfe were just beginning to learn to forgive. To grow. To love.
Chapter 4 – Snow Changes Everything
Ruby
The late spring snow fell in heavy, wet snowflakes around the cabin. The cherry blossom, with its tender red shoots, was soon covered by the thick blanket of white. Small, burgundy buds poked out at intervals, giving the entire scene a colorful effect.
Wolfe had been right. The tea, the warmth from the fire, the settling of emotions between the two of them had settled her in ways she hadn’t anticipated. She felt calm in a way she hadn’t thought possible.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t be out there? Looking.”
Wolfe walked to stand behind her. The heat of his body caressed her in a gentle, reassuring wave. “Getting stranded ourselves isn’t going to help. It’s dark. I know their dad looked for the boys all day. I asked around town. Tomorrow, we’re meeting at the Cake Fairy to grid off Thistle Grove and begin a detailed search. Two bear-shifter cubs should be fine. They’re probably holed up somewhere, a little lost but otherwise fine.”
Ruby frowned. Something didn’t smell right in his tone, but she let it go. She was being silly, is all. She didn’t have the ability to detect people.
Ruby stood by the window over the kitchen and watched the snowfall with increased dread. “I’m worried about Grandmother, too. Do you think she got home okay?”
Wolfe grunted in response.
Ruby still felt loyalty to the woman who had taken her in and raised her after the war, but at the same time, she knew the older woman’s prejudices ran deep.
A loose thought occurred to Ruby, but she didn’t want to explore it too closely. Did Grandmother’s disappearance have anything to do with the missing boys?
“She’s probably at this little cottage or whatever is being built. What did Braden tell you?”
“It sounds quite lovely, really. She has been talking and dreaming about this for years. She wants this Victorian-style she-shed. They painted it bright candy bright colors with windows that gleam like spun sugar.” Ruby turned to look at him, so domestic in his kitchen.
She smiled at the image of the large, muscle-bound man wearing an apron with little tufts of flour caught in his hair and whiskers.
“Dinner should be done.” He pulled out bowls and filled them with ladlesful of a thick, hearty stew. “Can you cut the bread?”
Shaking out of her reverie, Ruby pulled out the baguette she’d picked up from the Cake Fairy. “I love Snow’s baking. The bread is always so amazing.”
He pulled the peach pie out of the oven, and the delightful scents of cooked peaches and brown sugar filled the air. “That will be perfect for after dinner.”
She had never seen this domestic side of Wolfe, and it touched her. Here was a man who cared deeply. About her, their town, and even those two lost boys.
They settled in before the fire and tucked into their meal. Goblets of red wine gleamed in the dim light, and Ruby paused to take a sip. “Everything is delicious, Av-Avery,” she said, stumbling a bit over his first name.
Wolfe smiled at her, and Ruby’s insides did a little somersault. His brown eyes had golden reflect from the fire, and she found herself wanting to lean in and touch her lips to his. “I like the way you call me Wolfe,” he admitted.
Ruby felt her cheeks pinken with the heat and intimacy of his tone. “I like it, too,” she whispered.
Warmth spread across her cheeks as their gazes met. Ruby’s hand lifted unwittingly to gently touch his cheek. Wolfe leaned into her palm, allowing her to take the weight of his head. Delicate tendrils twined around them.
“What’s happening?” Ruby asked, her eyes growing wide. There was a pounding in her heart she ha
d never felt before. Wolfe’s eyes grew heavy, his lids dropping to half-mast, and the air around them became charged with carnal interest.
There was a pull coming from her heart to his. A tight web of charged material seemed to glow, attracting them to each other. Attaching them to each other. Ruby wanted to massage the ache between her breasts but didn’t want to move away from the fever emanating from between them. “Do you feel it, too?”
Wolfe nodded, his lips slightly parted. She caught a glimpse of the white shine of his teeth in the flickering of light from the fire. His canines seemed longer tonight, more pronounced, as the line between man and wolf blurred.
Ruby found herself longing to press herself against him, letting the heatwave crash over them both. Her hand tightened on his cheek, letting the scrape of his whiskers tickle her palm.
Wolfe’s hands reached out to take the goblet of wine out of her weakened hand and placed it on the table in front of them. Ruby blinked down at the shimmering claret, surprised she still held it.
“I don’t understand,” Ruby whispered into the quiet of the room. There were only the two of them, their harsh breathing and the pop and sizzle from the fireplace.
He faced her, burrowing his powerful hands into her hair and massaging her scalp. Ruby couldn’t help the small whimper as pleasure coursed through her body. “I got you,” Wolfe said against her lips as he tasted her.
It was the briefest of kisses. His lips were soft but firm, their plushness at apparent odds with his roughneck appearance. They barely brushed against hers, and yet the power of it was undeniable. Like the sweetest ambrosia from heaven, the flavor was instantly addicting. Ruby’s lips opened, needing more of his essence.
Wolfe pulled back but only a fraction of an inch. Gazes met, his brown depths boring into hers with wild-animal intensity. Whatever was passing between them was more significant than the two of them together. No longer would there be a Ruby and a Wolfe. Once joined, they would be superior and more potent than their separate components.
“I need to kiss you again,” Wolfe murmured.
Ruby nodded. Anything, now, please, more, she thought the words an unending refrain in her mind. Wolfe grinned as though he could hear her, which didn’t seem possible, but as desire threatened to pull her under, Ruby fancied that maybe anything at all could be possible.
Including love.
Wolfe
Her hair was like silk, he thought, unable to stop touching the auburn tresses. He nuzzled the sweet spot behind her ear, almost tasting the sweetness of her essence.
He suspected what was happening was a mating call on a quiet, visceral level. The tie between them grew stronger with every breath. It humbled Wolfe to think about how strong their bond would be a dozen years from now.
“I don’t understand,” Ruby whispered, tracing the delicate whorls of his ear, causing him to shiver in sheer delight. Wolfe closed his eyes, feeling the sensation going straight to his core.
“We’re meant to be together,” Wolfe said, offering up his neck to her further ministrations. She stilled, watching him. In the quietness of the evening, he felt the power of her gaze. His heart thumped, and his pulse beat with steady regularity in his arteries.
Wolfe wondered if Ruby knew the precious gift he was offering up. To another wolf, it was akin to bending the knee. A firm declaration that the exposed was no longer a threat. Even, in its most subtle intonations, a request for an alliance.
He waited, and the moment stretched out. Tradition stated he had to wait for her response, but he wasn’t sure if Ruby knew what that response was.
He was going slowly because he was petrified of making the wrong move. Because, beneath his fundamental attraction to the woman, he found he really enjoyed Ruby and her company.
She was feisty and headstrong. Despite his deep suspicion of Mathilda, he could appreciate Ruby’s fierce loyalty to the older woman. Delicate but powerful in the way only a woman could embody.
Ruby traced the line of his pulse, the gentle scrape of her nail tracing the blue line beneath his skin. The heat of her breath steamed against him, and his heart pounded in response. Tenderly, she placed a kiss along his jaw, accepting his troth.
Wolfe turned to her, brushing his lips against hers. He longed to claim her as his woman, lover, mate. It clawed at him, but now wasn’t the time. This was just the beginning of their story, and he wanted to revel in every second of every minute of every day with her.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered against her jaw, grinning when he felt her shiver in response. Ruby’s smile blossomed. Wolfe felt god-like as he discovered that the real power of a man was in the joy in the smile of the woman beside him.
“You’re not so hard on the eyes yourself,” Ruby teased lightly. She brushed her nose against his cheeks, nuzzling into him and inhaling gently.
Wolfe’s hands shook, and his breathing grew labored as he strove for control. He swallowed, his mind scrambling for some way to segue from this moment to the next without ruining both.
“We should stop,” he whispered, not wanting to cease at all. He was exactly where he wanted to be, and movement was entirely optional.
Ruby’s nod was deliciously reluctant. With one last, poignant kiss, she settled back and picked up her now-cooled soup. She took a spoonful. “Well, that was certainly anti-climactic.”
Wolfe threw his head back and chuckled appreciatively. “I’ll try and do better next time.”
They sat in silence, eating quietly and allowing their churned-up hormones to relax and dissipate. Finally, Ruby sighed. “What about the time before?”
Wolfe shrugged. “I was just a cub when the war happened. My father fought alongside the other Fables, though.”
“So, was he the original big, bad wolf?”
Wolfe shrugged. “I’m not a big, bad wolf.”
“No?” Ruby eyed him up and down, and Wolfe struggled not to squirm beneath her gaze.
“I’m just a medium-sized grumpy wolf.”
Ruby snorted with laughter before hiding her mouth behind her hand. She looked up at him and giggled again. “Is that why you have such a problem with the Hamm brothers?”
Wolfe looked away and into the nearby fire. The Hamm brothers were up to something. He was sure of it. What he lacked was proof. And a motive. Or even an actual crime. But something about the three of them rankled his sheriff senses.
And then, there was the whole thing with Mathilda and her cottage. Glancing back at Ruby, he decided now was definitely not the time to circle around back to that conversation.
“What can I say? My ancestors were home inspectors. It’s in our blood.”
“Home inspectors?”
“Of course. All that huffing and puffing wasn’t to get into the houses. It was to make sure they were built to code.”
Amidst teasing and laughter, they cleaned up their dinner plates and shared a slice of pie. “Why don’t you get some rest?” Wolfe suggested, nodding towards his bedroom.
“I can’t take your bed. I can sleep on the couch by the fire,” Ruby insisted.
Unbidden came the view of Ruby asleep in his bed, her unbound hair a scarlet curtain across his pillowcase. Wolfe had to make that scene come true.
“I can shift and sleep on the rug,” Wolfe insisted. “The couch is too small, even for you.”
Taking her hand, he led her into his bedroom. “What if I get cold?” she asked.
“There are blankets in the chest at the foot of the bed,” he replied with gentle brushing of a kiss across her forehead.
Wolfe closed the door before stoking the fire down for the night. He slipped out of his clothes and shifted into his wolf form. A light of glamour flashed as his bones twisted, and ligaments reformed. He bit back the cry of pain shifting always produced as he landed on his four paws. The world settled back into focus, and he blinked, stunned by the new scents Ruby brought with her.
He curled around and settled onto the braided rug in front of the fireplace an
d closed his eyes. Wolfe wasn’t sure he would actually get some sleep, but they had a long day planned for tomorrow. He definitely needed his rest.
Chapter 5 – A Cry for Help
Ruby
She snuggled into the sheets that still carried Wolfe’s scent as dawn flooded the room. Ruby longed to stay in the dream-land she still inhabited. The happy place that existed somewhere between full sleep and full awareness. She was comfortable, warm, and content.
The frigid air of the bedroom kept her nose cold, so she tucked it beneath the down comforter. Did shifters get cold?
Her mind wandered off to last year, when she, Snow, Tristan, and Wolfe had gone in search of the Baron. Nora had ensnared them in a wild storm trying to separate them from each other. Ruby shivered with the memory.
She and Wolfe had been caught in the elements as snow and ice pelted their delicate skin. The tent and safety weren’t far away, but with the power of a wicked witch’s storm, it may as well have been miles away.
Ruby knew Wolfe could have shifted to save himself. In wolf form, he could have bounded across the land and found shelter. His fur coat would have protected him from the cold and wet that had threatened Ruby’s life. The sheriff could have abandoned her to the very human death of exposure.
That’s what the bzou Grandmother threatened her with would have done.
Instead, Wolfe had risked his life for her. Acting quickly, they had found a cave to hide in. The snow ruined any chance of a fire. Instead, Wolfe had shifted and used his wolf’s body and warmth to protect them both.
Tears stung Ruby’s eyes at the memory. She’d been a fool to believe Grandmother over her own experiences.
Not everyone could say I love you. Sometimes, it sounded and looked more like Do you have dry mittens? Or Let’s get you to safety.
Ruby shivered at the remembrance of how close she’d come to death and how it had only been through loyalty and friendship, she had survived.
The wind howled through the window panes, and even beneath the covers, Ruby shivered. Steeling herself against the wintry bedroom air, she pulled the covers back and darted for the bathroom. The cold stung her bare feet as she cleaned up for the day.
Ruby: A Retelling of Red-Ridinghood (Thistle Grove Tales Book Book 3) Page 3
