“We’re really doing this,” Stella muttered.
Russel was all smiles as he happily did as Cedric said.
When they were all bundled up sufficiently enough for the warm-blooded shifters they were, they left the cabin and took the short walk through new snow to the pond. Russel followed Cedric’s footprints in the snow, doing his best not to leave tracks of his own. It was amusing, and it was good. Really good. The kid was acting like a real kid now instead of a scared little boy. He decided Cedric was okay. Now if only Cedric could say the same for Stella. She seemed intent on keeping that frown. It didn’t suit her at all, but she only softened for Russel. Man, but Cedric saw her face when she did. The way she looked at her son with such pride and love was something Cedric never understood before. He never looked at Opal that way. He never felt that way about her. He wondered if he would now.
The amount of remorse he felt was as wide as the ocean. It was a good thing his daughter had a doting mother because if she had been left to him for her five years of life, he didn’t even want to think about the kind of permanent damage he would have done to her by being a good for nothing drunk. It was surreal. The time before he was captured and enslaved seemed like another life, and it was one he wanted to leave behind. He had things he wanted now, things he would fight for. He wasn’t the same Cedric he used to be. He knew that much was true.
“This is a pond?” Russel asked when they reached the edge. “It’s big.”
“Not as big as a lake,” Cedric commented. “But yeah. It’s a good size.”
Russel extended a boot-clad foot and tested his weight on the edge of the ice. He pressed down as if to see if it would crack. The pond had a beautiful glossy sheen since the ice was undisturbed. There wasn’t a single crack of white on its surface. It was all clear, a subtle blue reflecting the cloudless sky above like a mirror.
Cedric said, “I promise it’s fine. It’s frozen over solid.”
Stella made another huffing noise and a little cloud of hot breath formed outside of her mouth, dispersing in the air around her. “Are you sure you want to do this, Russel? You don’t have to. You can say no.”
“I can say no,” Russel repeated. He looked up at Cedric thoughtfully. “But I can also say yes. Yes, I want to.”
So, this kid never had a lot of yes or no options in his life. And he decided to say yes. He was warming up to Cedric very quickly, so Cedric was doing something right. Beautiful Stella on the other hand…
“Put your ice skates on, and I’ll help you lace them up,” Cedric said.
Russel was practically beaming. Cedric helped him balance in the snow so he wouldn’t get his socks wet as he replaced his boots with ice skates. Then Cedric proceeded to lace them up tight. Stella’s eyes were on him the whole time, boring holes into his skin. It was like she had physical lasers coming out of her eyes, burning his flesh. Why was she so upset? He didn’t think he was giving her any reason to act this way. He wasn’t doing anything wrong, was he?
Ignore it. Patience is key. He had to remind himself that Stella would not be won over easily. If that were possible, it would have happened when the Moon marked them all.
“You going to join us?” Cedric asked the mother wolf.
“No,” she stated.
She was sexy and stubborn all the way. It didn’t matter that she was too skinny and that she was dirty. She was hot as hell. He really needed to stop thinking that.
Cedric put on and laced up his ice skates too. Then he stepped out onto the smooth as glass ice and slid for a moment before he twisted his feet and body to stop the forward momentum with the flat side of his blades. He held out his hands to Russel who had yet to step out of the grounding snow.
“Ready?” he asked.
Russel bit his bottom lip, but he took Cedric’s hands. Cedric pulled him out onto the new ice, and Russel locked his legs like a newborn fawn. His knees bobbed inward and he would have fallen if Cedric hadn’t been there to hold him up.
“Whoa!” Russel exclaimed. He moved his hands to Cedric’s forearms, searching for a better grip and more stability. He shifted Cedric’s sleeves with the move, and his skin connected with the Lunas Sigil on the inside of Cedric’s right forearm. A buzz of energy surged through Cedric’s body, a feeling of connection. He barely knew this kid, but he felt… more. Russel looked up at him with wide golden-brown eyes, and Cedric could only assume he felt that same energy, a surge of Lunas.
“What is that?” Russel asked.
“Lunas, the Moon’s power,” Cedric replied confidently. “We’re connected now. You’re mine to protect.”
“To protect.” The boy cocked his head. Then he smiled, and his grip tightened for a moment as he tried to straighten out his legs. “Show me how to skate.”
“Lesson number one. Never lock your knees.” Cedric demonstrated what he meant by bending his own knees, showing the buoyancy and ease of motion. “Your body is all connected. If one place is locked, your whole stance will be off. Number two. Don’t fight the ice. You have to work with it.”
Cedric made micro movements to slide backward and bring Russel forward so he could get a feel for gliding on the ice. Russel listened to everything he said. He unlocked his knees and stopped fighting the ice. He simply let Cedric guide him. He watched Cedric’s feet and how he moved and started mimicking him and moving in time with him. Other than the bit of support Cedric was offering, Russel had already figured this out.
“You got it, Russel,” Cedric said with a grin. Hell, it was easy to smile around this kid. Cedric broke out one arm from Russel’s grasp but continued holding the other as he spun around and joined Russel at his side.
“You can stop by using the flat part of your blade.” Cedric balanced on one foot and waited to place his other foot back down until Russel saw what he was doing and followed so the stop wouldn’t suddenly jerk the kid backward. Together, they used the flat parts of their blades to stop their forward momentum.
“Those are the basics. You’ve already got it. Ready for me to let you go?”
“R-ready.”
Cedric broke loose from Russel and picked up his speed. He dashed to the other end of the pond and came to a quick ice spraying stop as he turned around to observe Russel’s progress. To his surprise, the timid boy followed suit. He picked up his speed, propelling himself forward with one leg then the other. He was going to fly into the snow if he didn’t make a proper stop, but Cedric decided to let him. He felt like the boy should do this on his own. At the last second, Russel made the same ice shattering stop Cedric had. He was flawless.
Cedric’s mouth dropped open. “Damn, kid. You are a natural. We should have a race.”
“Around the pond and first one back here wins?” Russel asked, not missing a beat.
“You got it.”
“GO!”
Russel got a head start, but that didn’t set Cedric back any. This boy was giving it his all, so it was only fair he did the same. They shot around the pond like two bullets. Russel was already taking sharp turns and maneuvering like he had grown up ice skating. And he wasn’t easy to beat, but Cedric did still come out on top. The two of them finished by spraying shaved ice into the snow. The once spotless pond was branded with their blades, white lines crisscrossing this way and that, proof that they owned this together.
Russel started laughing and Cedric joined in.
“Did you see that?!” Russel asked.
Cedric grinned. “I sure did.”
“Whoa!” Stella exclaimed.
The boys turned around to see Stella wearing ice skates. She was suddenly on the ice too. She was moving forward, wobbling and slipping along the way. If she kept it up, she was going to fall flat on her ass. Both Cedric and Russel skated over to her before she could. Russel took one arm and Cedric took the other.
“Don’t touch me,” she said with a growl as she ripped her arm out of Cedric’s grasp. She was so furious about it, she fell anyway—right onto her son.
�
��Ow!” Russel exclaimed as his ass hit the ice. He tried to support his mother’s weight, pressing against her shoulders with his hands. “Mom, why did you do that?”
Stella had him trapped because she fell forward. She couldn’t figure out how to push off the ice with her arms and get back on her feet. She kept slipping.
He tried not to laugh. Cedric really tried, but he couldn’t keep it in. Stella finally settled for rolling off of her son to at least free him from being trapped underneath her. Cedric took the opportunity to help Russel to his feet first since he wouldn’t fight. Then he held out his hand to Stella.
“Might as well let me help you up—unless you want to keep scrambling around on the ice.”
She hesitated like he knew she would, but he held fast. Then she did something unexpected. She took his hand. He pulled her up instantaneously and she slid into his chest before he could steady her. She grabbed the front of his coat as she carefully began to move back. He got an up close and personal view of her hair since she was directly below him. There were mats she would have a hell of a time brushing out. He hoped he’d be able to help with that. After this, she and Russel needed a bath. No question. And he seriously wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
Despite that, Stella smelled… sweet. Or maybe it was the heat of her body getting to him. It wasn’t like he had a wolf’s sense of smell. His owl gave him much greater vision and hearing than any human, but his sense of smell was probably average. He couldn’t sniff out arousal the way wolves could, but he could sense it. Stella was attracted to him, too. He could hear the quick beating of her heart. He couldn’t explain his overwhelming attraction for this woman, but it ran deep in his veins like it had been planted there at his birth. He wanted her. His dick was getting hard at the thought.
Without thinking it through, he rubbed his cheek against the top of her head, an instinctual show of affection from his owl. She abruptly pushed away from him. He let her go, suddenly riddled with guilt. He was already more open with these wolves he barely knew than, well, anyone. He had been cold to his own flesh and blood. He wouldn’t do that again. He wouldn’t touch Stella like that. That was taking things too far, and he had his own family he needed to patch things up with. He didn’t need to invite more problems, and Stella wasn’t welcoming any sort of advance anyway.
Get a grip, Cedric.
Stella’s legs were splayed wide. She was just asking for another fall. Russel was laughing and doubled over, so Cedric held out his hands again. Stella glared at him and then at her son.
“Russel,” she said.
Russel poked at her legs. “Your stance is too wide.”
“Yep,” Cedric agreed.
“And your knees are locked.”
“Yep.”
“Help me,” Stella said, exasperated. She held out her hands to her son.
“You’ll make me fall again,” he accused. He took his mother’s hands and then placed them in Cedric’s. “I’ll tell you what to do, but Cedric will hold you up, okay?”
Stella gritted her teeth as she squeezed Cedric’s hands. “Okay. Tell me what to do.”
Cedric felt a ridiculous sense of pride as he listened to Russel repeat the lesson he was just given. He was getting more and more comfortable each passing moment. He was bold. He was hardly recognizable as the quiet and cowering boy Cedric had first met. This was the real him.
Stella’s eyes were glued to her son, so Cedric had the opportunity to look her over without making her mad. He tried to see past her brown skin, past the body with definite curves that made him hard. He tried to see into the inner-workings of her soul. Who was she and what made her the person she was today? One who didn’t know how to trust and cared only for her son. That was the impression he got of her, but he didn’t pretend to know the whole story, and the Moon didn’t grant him the ability to see into her soul. But his Lunas Sigil grew warm, reassuring once again. What was it reassuring him about though? That he did the right thing to promise to protect them? He already knew that. A pack of wolves taught him that. They didn’t have any obligation to help anyone outside of their pack, but they did. They saved him. And now he was giving back.
Stella shifted her gaze to Cedric. “Let me go. I’ve got this now.” Her words may have seemed coarse, but Cedric could hear a difference in her voice. Was her Lunas Sigil reacting too?
“You got it,” he replied and let go.
Russel extended his hand and Stella took it just for an easy start. Then she was on her own. She fixed her stance and posture within seconds, and she was gliding on the ice just like her son. Not quite. She was an elegant, beautiful creature to be sure. Feminine and curvy despite malnutrition. Each time she sent one leg in front of the other, she showcased her full hips and ass. It made Cedric weak in the knees.
Russel sped up and showed her how to stop fast, much like how Cedric had shown him. Stella nailed it on the first try. She and her son laughed as they showered the snow with ice shards. Stella looked back, locked eyes with Cedric, and she smiled. The way that smile lit up her starlight eyes nearly made his heart stop. And then he felt guilty. So guilty.
Opal… Terry…
“Be careful where you keep chipping away at the ice,” Cedric called. “You’ll make the surface too bumpy to skate on.”
Russel demanded he and his mother race. She joined right in, still smiling. Radiant and free.
Cedric had never done this with his family. Not with Terry and Opal. Here he was bonding with two complete strangers who were already burrowed deeper into his heart in a day than his wife and kid were in years.
So much wasted time.
He had held a grudge against Terry and Opal because he gave in to what his parents wanted. He was so immature. A spoiled baby. He couldn’t stop reminding himself of that fact. Because it hurt. Max was right about him when he accused him of being exactly that just over a month ago. That was why it made him so angry when Max said it, because at the time he still wasn’t ready to accept it. He looked down on Max because he was borderline Berserker. But Max was better than him. He gave Ava, a former Black Witch, a chance to prove she was more and saved everyone. Including Cedric.
Holding a grudge was a slow-acting poison.
“I see it now, Max,” Cedric whispered. “I never really apologized for how things went down with Ava. I left just before your month at Trinity Headquarters was up. Someday I’ll say it to your face. I’ll show you I’ve changed. I’ll have proof because I do care. I want to be better. So, count on it.”
Chapter 8
STELLA STARED AT THE steaming water in the fancy ceramic bathtub sitting on polished stones in the middle of the master bathroom like a prized centerpiece. As soon as they got in from ice skating—which was actually a lot of fun—Cedric got baths ready for her and Russel. Forget the ridiculous bathtub. Cedric put herbs in the water. It looked and smelled gorgeous with chamomile, lavender, and peppermint. This man knew luxury. There was no fucking question on that.
A bath like this was something fit for princesses or queens, not for broken women like Stella with skin marked by scar after scar.
She waved the dreary thought away. She was no longer Tyler’s plaything. She and Russel were free. She could take an herbal bath and enjoy it. She deserved to enjoy it. That meant no looking at the mirror to see her sorry body.
She experimentally dipped a toe into the steaming water. It was the perfect temperature. The tension in her body was melting away. Her heightened sense of smell was rewarding her. As soon as she took the plunge and was submerged in the water, any tension remaining that the smell of herbs alone couldn’t cure would fade. She was sure of it.
Maybe Cedric was trying to drug her somehow. She crinkled her nose. She didn’t smell anything but calming herbs. It was because of Tyler, because of the expectation of betrayal, that the thought jumped into her head. She glanced at the Lunas Sigil on the inside of her left forearm. She traced the half-moon shape and felt it burn against her fingertip. Strange mag
ic.
She stepped into the bathtub and slowly sunk into the hot water, causing the herbs to swirl around her. She let out a contented sigh. She closed her eyes for a moment, allowing herself to be in the present. When she opened them again, she spotted a fancy silvery hairbrush sitting outside the bath on a little porcelain stool. After taking her time to let her hair soak in the nutrients from the herbal water, she picked up the brush and began working at the mats in her hair. She had to be patient, but slowly, she worked her hair free. Even in their darkened wetness, she could now see those golden highlights of hers she used to be so fond of. Finally, she had found herself again.
When she was satisfied, she set the brush back down and closed her eyes, simply enjoying the warmth of the water as it held her gently. She was surprised at herself for leaving Russel alone in his own bath. Her anxious mental state almost insisted he take a bath with her, but her boy was getting older. He was excited about having his own bath. He shed his clothes and jumped in before she could protest. And Cedric didn’t seem so bad.
Stella kept her eyes closed, but she probed where she knew her Lunas Sigil was located with her fingers. This was the reason she let Russel be. And because of the ice skating thing. Cedric… seemed stable enough. She hadn’t seen any of the signs of madness with him like she had Tyler. Everyone in Ford Pack saw the signs, but no one did anything about it.
There was also a chance Cedric was lulling Russel and Stella into a false sense of security. Maybe he had something despicable planned for them.
Her mark burned at that thought as if to protest. She sunk deeper into the water until her lips were covered. She blew out her breath into foamy bubbles, and she thought about the look on Russel’s face when Cedric was teaching him how to ice skate. God, it made her so jealous! Her son was totally enthralled by the man. Cedric had won him over so easily.
Then when Stella had gone out on the ice, Cedric held her close. So close. He felt secure, smelled good, and he was fucking hard for her, an emaciated woman, not a beauty by any means. But he didn’t say anything about it. He did this weird thing where he rubbed his cheek on the top of her head, all warmth and affection, but he wasn’t pressing for more. He wanted her, but he wasn’t going to take her? He took her and Russel ice skating, gave them baths, invited them into his home even though she threatened him, called on the fucking Moon’s power. What the actual fuck?
Her Noble Owl (Marked By The Moon Book 4) Page 6
