Boundary

by Ebony Olson

  "I… I don't like… I mean, I don't feel safe." It was a struggle to express my emotions on this. Could Howard access that key? What about the others? Dale having it actually didn't bother me. Was that right? Shouldn't it bother me?

  Dale frowned as if watching every one of my thoughts cross my face. "Come stay with me in the city."

  "I'm not good with crowds."

  "You would be safe, Vera. My apartment is more secure than this place ever could be."

  "Dale, I need to learn to do this. I need to take care of myself."

  Taking my hand, Dale pleaded with his eyes. "For this week, Vera. Come stay with me for two days. Jeremy will bring you back Tuesday night. Then you can choose to stay with me or not for the rest of the week. Please?"

  My gut twisted at the idea of saying no to him. "Can I have the day to think about it?"

  Stepping in, Dale captured my lips in a gentle one-pinch kiss. "Of course. That you will consider it is enough."

  Swooning, a little, I shook my head and took a step back. "You're turning me into one of those girls, aren't you?"

  "No, Vera. You already were one of those girls, you've just hidden it under your defenses all these years."

  "I disagree. Only you have ever made me feel light-headed with one kiss."

  Dale's eyes glinted with mischief. "Imagine how you could feel with my lips all over you?"

  Meeting his mischievous look with one of my own, I grinned. "I don't have to. I still have Friday night clear in my head. A kitchen has never turned me on so much, but every time I walk into mine now, I can only think of you."

  Dale's eyes drifted to my kitchen bench. Groaning, he closed his eyes before looking back at me. "I believe it has the same effect on me. Let's go, before I convince you of a rematch."

  Smirking, I grabbed my handbag. Dale took us out the back door, locking it as we left. We walked to his place via the forest path, collected his car, and headed out.

  An hour later, a waiter led us to a table in a garden restaurant. As we approached a table with four men and one woman, Dale put his mouth to my ear. "We are having lunch with some friends I need you to meet."

  "Dale," one of the men stood to greet us.

  "Ralph, this is Vera."

  Observing me over, Ralph had a broad smile on his face. His eyes touched my neck where Dale marked me, and his smile grew as he offered me his hand. "It's lovely to finally meet you, Vera."

  "Finally?"

  "Yes, Dale told us about you when Cameron met you. We planned to introduce ourselves and then our packs. But when Dale claimed you as his, we still asked to meet you."

  My mouth went dry. "You're...?"

  "Lycan's? Yes. We are the Liderii or the leaders of our people." Ralph turned sweeping his hand across the table waiting behind him. "If your pack followed tradition, we should have met when you were a child." He indicated the only woman at the table. "Cerese should have been your tutor in all things Lycan. Please join us." Stepping back to stand by his seat, Ralph introduced me to the others.

  Standing by me, Dale placed his hand in the middle of my back. Then, when we sat, he set my hand on his thigh under the table and covered it with his hand.

  It turned out, Dale was one of the Liderii. When Cameron told him I was an unmated female Lycan, Dale contacted the Liderii to report finding me. They decided Dale should let me move in, befriend me, and find out why the how and why of me.

  Of course, when Dale met me himself, Alpha had been in control, so that hadn't been the best start. Everything Dale learned about my abuse and issues he'd passed on too. When Dale realized I was his mate, he'd notified the Liderii immediately.

  "You couldn't have found a better alpha as your mate, Vera," Cerese assured me. All the other alphas at the table bristled, especially Ralph, who was Cerese's mate. "Oh, shush. We all know Dale is the sweetheart of the Liderii." Squeezing Ralph's hand, Cerese winked at Dale.

  "You're full-blood, like me?"

  "Yes. The only other. Though, now that we know what happened to you, we are wondering if there are any others?"

  "Considering we make our packs implode, it shouldn't be hard to find any others."

  Everyone sort of went into slow motion, as if any sudden movements might set me off. It was Cerese who cleared her throat. "A good starting point indeed, Vera, but one that is already years beyond when a girl should meet her mate. Your mother wasn't human, yet we have no record of who she was, so like with you, we weren't notified of her existence."

  "Unless, of course, my mother had never known she was anything but human?"

  Everyone at the table frowned. "Was that the case?" Ralph enquired.

  "I have no idea. I don't remember anything about her. She wasn't in my life for as long as I can remember." You can't miss what you never had if you never knew you should have it.

  Again, the table fell quiet. This time, the arrival of our food broke the awkwardness. We started eating, and Dale made the subject light, discussing their packs. I learned a lot during that meal.

  Ralph was already fifty when he mated with Cerese on her sixteenth birthday. They'd met and recognized each other as mates the year prior. Cerese was sixty, but she didn't look a day over twenty-five. Cerese couldn't shift, nor had she fallen pregnant. Even with the human methods of ovulation kits, she couldn't conceive.

  "When you mated, did you have a vision of your life ahead with Ralph?"

  Cerese tilted her head appraising Dale and his question. "It was so long ago."

  "Have you ever dreamed real?" I butted in.

  Blinking, Cerese glanced at all the others. "Ah, no. Do you?"

  "Since I was a child."

  "Vera only found out she was one of us after one of her dreams left her injured. She needed me to seek medical attention for her." Dale then continued to describe the nature of my dream, Malcolm, and what he did to me. While the rest of the table sat looking pale and appalled. "When I sank fang to mark her, Vera whispered a preview of our future together. I wasn't sure if that was the norm or a part of her gift."

  The entire table fell quiet when Quinton, the oldest and most silent spoke. "We had a female, long ago, to whom the goddess spoke in her dreams. She was quite different from the females we get now. Her mate and she were very happy together. When her mate died, she started dreaming of the deaths of her pack. She would wake injured." Quinton fell quiet.

  "It killed her, didn't it?" Already knowing the answer, my eyes filled with tears.

  "No one heeded her. Only one listened to her. The dreams claimed the woman before the hunters came and annihilated their pack. But the one who listened survived."

  "There are hunters?"

  Quinton lifted his grey bushy brows over his aged, grey, eyes. "They were witch hunters. In that age, everything different was a witch, and killed as such." He stroked his grey beard. "Perhaps, you are a descendant of her child who escaped. Perhaps, you are she again?"

  Chapter 17

  The ride home was quiet. The myth sparked a debate at our lunch table over the belief of reincarnation. Saying no more, Quinton let the others argue all the reasons I couldn't be a reincarnation. Instead, he studied me. I was glad to fade into the background with Quinton and Dale, who also stayed out of the argument. In fact, other than farewells, Dale hadn't said another word.

  When we pulled up out the front of my place, I chose to share my thoughts. "I don't believe in past lives."

  Killing the engine, Dale sat back, his eyes focused out of the windscreen. "The woman Quinton spoke of; she's known to all Lycan's. Luna is what they call her, but no one remembers her true name. She wasn't born human, but a wolf. She was beautiful but endured a horrible life."

  Licking his lips, Dale gripped the steering wheel. "Abandoned by her mother, her sire unknown, humans raised her. She struggled to fit in with humans, her temper, not what a woman's should be in those days. The restriction of clothes, of being in bed at night instead of roaming the woods, was all very abrasive. As a young woman, her b
eauty attracted a wealthy man's interest, and he married her. After that, she suffered repeated beatings and rapes by her husband."

  Dale didn't look at me while he related this story, and I felt like he was telling my life. Tears streamed down my face like a waterfall of pain.

  "One day, when the violence led to the loss of her unborn child, Luna shifted into her wolf. It was a form she'd forgotten after her abandonment. She ripped her husband's throat out and left the human world behind. It was years later, she met her mate in wolf form, and in wolf form, they mated. She bore him five cubs, three boys, and two girls, all in the same litter. Remaining wolf until her young shifted the first time, Luna also changed and joined her mate and his pack. While she was with him, until the day he died, Luna lived a good and happy life." Dale shifted, taking my hand in his. "It was like the fates hated her, and the love of her mate protected her."

  Observing my tears, Dale didn't reach out to touch me in any other way. He sat there and watched my tears fall and that I didn't try to hide them from him.

  "I don't believe in past lives. I do believe history repeats itself until we learn from past mistakes."

  Frowning, Dale gripped my chin between his thumb and forefinger. "You are not a mistake, Vera. What happened to you, the men in your pack, allowing that to happen to you, that was the mistake." When I looked away, Dale sighed. "The similarity between you may have nothing to do with the circumstances of your birth. The Goddess may have chosen you for the strength of your soul. The Goddess watches her children. Those that survive so much horror with their souls still intact, she might give the blessing of sight too?"

  "Dale, you missed the point of Quinton's comparison. Those dreams that the Goddess' blessed' Luna with, caused her untold agony, and killed her. Just like my dream could have killed me the other night."

  "No, Vera, you missed the point. The hunters who killed Luna's pack and all but one of her children were witch hunters. They didn't sweep through the packhouse with a machine gun and kill everyone where they stood. They captured them, tortured them for days on end, brutalized them, then killed them to save their soul. It was a well-documented event, the torturing of the body to save the soul. Luna escaped the horror inflicted on her pack. The Goddess allowed her to warn her pack, then took her to save her the worst of it."

  Panic rose in my breast bone, my heart thudding against my chest. "He's going to find me, isn't he? That's what she's trying to tell me?"

  Giving me the saddest eyes, I'd ever seen on him, Dale looked defeated already. Throwing open the car door, I ran for the house. Struggling to unlock the door, I sobbed as I nearly broke the key in the lock.

  Soothing and calm, Dale reached around me, pulling my body back against his. One of his hands pressed on my abdomen, which somehow pushed my panic out of me like an exhalation. His other hand took my trembling fingers with the key and guided it into the lock, helping to open the door.

  "You are my mate now, Vera. Those people you met today, if Malcolm dares try to take you from me, they will bring every pack in our country down on him. You belong to me now, there is nothing he can do about that."

  Kissing over my shoulder, Dale stepped us inside as he moved my cardigan aside.

  "You don't own me; not completely."

  "Not yet."

  Tilting my face so I could see him in my peripheral vision, Dale touched my cheek. Turning my head a little bit more to capture my lips. One kiss, a second longer one, the third his tongue flitted against my lips. Shifting his stance, Dale swiveled my body to face him and moved us against the wall, pressing his body into mine.

  Already tingling from his touch, my nerves burst to life. Nothing had ever felt this good, and I didn't want it to stop. Every sensory perception was firing, absorbing sights, sounds, smells, and touch. Dale's caress was sunlight after months of snow. It melted my body to his, warmed me to my core, made me want to stretch out, so he had more of me to feel. When Dale found the parts he wanted to inspect covered, he removed the barrier.

  The first rip of material startled me. Blinking down as Dale dropped his mouth to my exposed breast, I gulped. An inferno roared through the center of my body, melted my womb, and my knickers grew damp.

  Freeing my skin from the confines of my clothing, Dale explored each exposed surface. Pressing my shoulders into the wall, I rocked my hips forward. His tongue sought my slit, licking and sucking at my bud to encourage me to open for him.

  When my hand grasped a fistful of his hair and tugged hard, Dale released his grip on my hips and stood. Kicking off his shoes the same moment he pulled his shirt over his head. My hands reached out to touch his chest, trace the muscles of his torso. Freezing lowering his fly, Dale closed his eyes and exhaled roughly at my touch. His eyes opened lazily, lust-filled indigo met mine and frowned. Shaking his head, Dale stepped out of my reach.

  "When we mate the first time, I want your green eyes looking back at me, not the mask you hide behind. The eyes are the window to the soul, Vera. They tell you everything you need to know about a person. When I'm with you, I want to see the real you."

  Blinking, still stunned by the sudden end of his attention, it took me a moment to understand.

  Grabbing his shirt from the ground, Dale secured his pants and started for the door. "Pack a bag for a few nights. I'll be back in an hour to pick you up."

  "Dale, I didn't agree to go to the city." Collecting my shredded dress, I held it in front of me like a shield.

  "Howard is staying here this week. Do you want to be here alone with him next door?" When I turned my head away ashamed, Dale shoved open the door. "I thought so. Be ready in an hour."

  "I didn't start this. Don't get shitty at me because you stopped."

  Coming back through the door, Dale threw his shirt to the side and kissed me furiously. Swaying into his embrace, I moaned at the depth of emotion in that kiss. When he pulled back, Dale leaned his forehead to mine while I tried to catch my breath.

  "I stopped because you're not ready, Vera. Your body is willing, but your eyes showed your fear. I don't want to make love to you while you tremble like a rabbit who knows its doom. I want you to want me, as much as I want you. Heart and soul." Deflating in his arms, I knew he was right. Kissing my nose, Dale stepped away. "I'll see you in an hour."

  Precisely an hour later, I was sitting with a small bag on my front porch when Dale pulled up. Despite walking to the car by the time he got out, Dale still walked around to open the door for me. Instead of sitting immediately, I stood and waited for Dale to meet my eyes. When he did, his eyes lit up.

  "No more hiding. Malcolm knows I'm alive, Auburn hair and brown eyes aren't going to fool him."

  Gripping the back of my neck in one large hand, Dale pulled me into a deep kiss before lowering me into the car. He didn't say a word. Closing my door, Dale took his seat and put the car in drive.

  Waiting until we were on the freeway, I crossed my fingers and hoped Dale agreed. I'd wanted this since I found out it was a thing. "I have a term before we mate."

  Dale glanced at me, intrigued. "Okay?"

  "I want to get married. I want the pretty dress, the ceremony, the dancing. I want our first night to be our wedding night."

  Grin splitting his face, Dale laughed. "Told you, you were one of those girls."

  Chapter 18

  It was dark when we arrived in the city. Dale touching my shoulder to wake me since I'd fallen asleep halfway there. "We're here."

  Helping me out of the car, Dale walked me to the elevator nearby. We parked in an underground car park, so there was nothing to tell me where we were. Taking the elevator to the second top floor, we stepped out into a grey marble hallway. Placing his hand into the small of my back, Dale led me towards the door on the right, unlocking it and letting me inside. Once we were inside, Dale turned on the lights. I marveled at the sumptuous furnishings of his open-plan apartment. The color scheme was all various shades of grey, black, silver, and white.

  Around the kitchen
and lounge room were a bank of windows providing a view of the city lights outside. Opening the door to the balcony, I stepped out to enjoy the night air. Inside, Dale started talking to someone on the phone in the kitchen. Calming my paranoid mind, I focused my attention back on the view. Dale's warmth pressed against my back, inciting tingles to spark all over my body.

  "Dinner will be here in thirty minutes." His hand sliding down my arm to take my hand and lead me back inside. "Let me show you around." Opening the only other door in the apartment, Dale stepped us into a bedroom. The room had a large bed and open plan bathroom, separated by the deep bathtub. "This is our bedroom."

  "Our?"

  "Yes, I only have one bedroom. We can share a bed without anything happening, Vera." Dale placed a kiss before my ear; I shivered.

  "Are you sure? We can't even share a kitchen without nearly..."

  Dale moved his body closer. "I want you, Vera, but you have to want me too."

  Closing my eyes, I imagined all the ways I could let him have me. His scent intoxicating me, drawing me into a waking version of the dream of intimacy with him. The warmth of Dale's skin disappeared from mine. Opening my eyes, I stood in the room alone. Blinking, I looked around. "Dale?"

  "In the lounge room."

  As I moved back out to the lounge room, Dale looked up from his computer and checked the time. "Twenty minutes. I hope I last longer than that when we actually do mate the first time."

  My cheeks caught fire. "You knew what I was...?"

  "The smile and moaning sort of gave it away. Your desire is growing stronger if you are having waking dreams of us." The satisfaction was smug on his face.

  Covering my face with my hands, I groaned as the embarrassment radiated through me. A door chimed.