River.
She knew now, without a shadow of a doubt, it had been him.
He had been keeping her safe.
She smiled and closed her eyes. She was more than indebted to him, and she wanted him to know how grateful she was.
She pulled the blankets up around her and felt her whole body begin to sink down into the soft comfort of the mattress. She was worn out and completely exhausted, but she felt safe knowing that her secret protector was just on the other side of the door.
Outside in the night and up on the mountain, she could still hear the howling of wolves, and she knew now why she had never been afraid of them before.
It was because she was one of them.
She did have a family. She had a pack. And now that she knew she was amongst them, she was going to rise to the challenge and do them proud.
The witches may have wanted her, but she didn’t want them.
She was a Lost Alpha, and she had been drawn to them and worked alongside them for years and now she knew why.
She had to help them defeat whatever it was they were fighting.
10.
As the morning came, she awoke with the knowledge that all night she had been dreaming of running with the wolves. It was as if her mind had been enlightened and opened with the knowledge of her history and her family past.
Stacey was finally able to embrace who she truly was.
She rose to her feet and yawned before she stretched her arms high to the sky.
From down the hallway, she could hear the sounds of River singing and smell the scent of fresh coffee.
She went into the little bathroom and washed her face again, she winced when she saw her reflection. Even though she had had a good few hours of sleep, she still looked as if she needed to hibernate for a serious amount of time. She needed to bury her head in some soft, fluffy pillows and sleep for a week.
She twisted her hair up into a messy pony tail, and she pulled on her clothes and opened the door to the hallway. As she wandered down it, she could hear the sounds of the radio blasting through the kitchen and living area, and she could tell from the bright and inviting light that River had opened the blinds.
She turned the corner and walked in and saw him singing and flicking through a newspaper as he smoked a cigarette and sipped coffee.
The doors were open all along the back of the house, letting in the fresh mountain air and sending in a rush of chill with it.
“Morning,” she smiled.
He looked up at her and the intense blue grabbed her yet again.
Those goddam eyes.
“Good morning,” River said with a cheeky grin.
He motioned to the pot of coffee on the island in front of him and she walked through to join him.
She pulled herself up onto a stool on the opposite side of the island and he began to pour her a cup as his cigarette dangled down from between his lips. She had never smoked before in her life, but she thought that if she was ever going to, this would be the perfect time to start.
“What are you thinking?” he asked her with a wry smile.
“Oh, nothing much,” she laughed. “Just that if I was ever going to take up smoking this would be the best time to start.”
“Filthy habit,” he said with a stern look on his face. “I forbid it.”
She laughed.
“I wouldn’t anyway, don’t you worry.”
He pulled it free from his mouth and looked at it smoking away in between his fingers before he wandered out onto the veranda, threw it down and ground it out into the snow.
“Well, there we go, I’ll quit so you’re not tempted.”
“Just like that?” she asked him dubiously.
“Just like that,” he grinned.
“You can’t have been addicted then?”
“What even is addiction?” he shrugged. “I smoked because I liked it. But I don’t want you getting any crazy ideas, so I’ll knock it on the head.”
“Impressive,” she said.
He passed her the mug of coffee and smiled at her. Their fingertips grazed against each other’s as she reached out to take it and her heart thumped hard in her chest.
Each time she caught him like that and she felt the heat beneath his skin, it drove her wild.
She wanted to know what else he was capable of. Of what other power he was hiding deep inside of him.
She swallowed.
“Did you sleep?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Yeah,” she replied. “But not enough.”
“Well, we don’t need to leave here today,” he said. “Just rest up.”
“Okay,” she said.
She thought back to her house and whether she should be going back over there, although she had to admit, it was the last thing she fancied doing. After what River had told her, she wanted to stay as far away from there as she could. But the cops had asked her to contact them. Her head was mixed up and she was confused.
She was going to need a lot of coffee to pull herself around.
She took a long, drawn out sip and moaned.
“That’s good coffee,” she said.
River nodded his head and sipped his own.
“Sure is,” he agreed.
“I was just thinking about what the cops said,” she admitted. “They asked me to contact them and to see about going back over to the house.”
“We shouldn’t,” he told her. “But I understand why you want to.”
“I don’t have any of my things,” she said. “Can we go and collect some clothes and toiletries?”
“Of course, we can,” he half smiled. “I’m forgetting what you women are like. You can’t be as rough and ready as us.”
“We sure as hell can’t,” she mused.
“Well, let’s have something to eat and get over there then, the earlier we go the better, and we can stop by the bar and see Blu if you like? Fill him in on what is going to be happening?”
“Fantastic,” she smiled.
She sipped her coffee and looked up at him. Now that she was there with him, she didn’t know how she had been without him for so long, but at the same time, had she ever really been?
He had been watching her and been by her side the entire time, she just hadn’t yet known it.
They pushed open the door to the bar and slipped inside. It was quiet in there, eerily quiet, and Stacey didn’t know if she had ever seen it this way. Normally, when she came in for her shift, it was later in the day, and there were always a few people dotted around here and there, but this time, something was different.
The whole place felt deserted.
“It feels creepy in here,” she whispered to River.
He didn’t seem phased by it, but he continued on into the building and approached the huge wooden bar that ran along the middle of the room. Stacey followed him and looked up toward the ceiling and at all the balconies and floors above.
“Blu?” River called as he cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted up toward the top floor.
Stacey heard a snarl and River’s eyes flashed ice blue. He sniffed the air and she saw something animalistic flash over him. It made her heart flutter and her pussy pulse. He was dangerous. She knew it. But she loved it all the same.
From above, the sounds of scratching came down the stairs, the sounds of claws tapping against the wood as a big, impressive wolf came down to the bottom floor.
Stacey reached out and took hold of River’s arm, but he smiled at her and pulled her in close.
“Don’t worry,” he told her. “You have nothing to fear here.”
The wolf stopped and cocked its head to the side. He was beautiful to look at and absolutely enormous. She had never seen an animal like it, and to know that River could turn into something similar was both terrifying and a turn on.
“I told her everything,” River said to the wolf.
He pawed the ground and bared his teeth, and River started to laugh.
“Wh
at does that mean?” Stacey asked him.
“He’s pleased you finally know the truth,” he smiled as he squeezed her shoulder.
“We went back to the house this morning and got some of Stacey’s things,” River continued. “She’s going to be staying with me. We should be safe there.”
The wolf raised its paw and rubbed its ear.
Stacey had never seen anything like it before, but it all felt so completely natural.
“Does it make you want to change?” she asked River as she looked up at him.
“One step at a time,” he smiled. “I don’t want to overwhelm you too much.”
“Jeez, I think we’re way past that,” she laughed.
The wolf turned and began to slink back off up the wooden staircase and into the shadows above.
“He didn’t want to talk to us?” she asked River.
“Oh, he did,” River smiled. “But not in any way you know yet. Him and I just spoke, don’t worry.”
She furrowed her brow and shrugged. She had no need to question anything else at this point, she was completely perplexed as it was, and she didn’t want to overload her brain anymore. River was right.
“Do you need anything?” she asked as she looked around the room. Everything seemed so different in there during the day. It was like another world compared to what it was like on a night when the lights were low, the booze was flowing, and the music was blaring.
“I just want to get out of here,” he said. “I don’t want to get stuck talking to the cops if they show up.”
When they had gone back to the house, they hadn’t told the cops they were going. River and Stacey had moved quickly around the rooms, gathering up some of her clothes and belongings, and trying not to look at the big grooved claw marks etched into the driveway and the lawn. Even now that she knew it was River who had done them, it still didn’t make it any less terrifying. He had done it because she had been in danger. He had chased something away.
Something dark and dangerous.
They turned and left the bar, and as they were heading out, Stacey turned and looked up to the top floor. On the balcony, looking over into the center of the room, was the wolf. It was raised on its hind legs and it looked so big, even from a distance, and she truly found it hard to comprehend how these men had managed to live in secret for so long.
She had heard the stories around town, but she had never actually seen one of the wolves in person. Now that she had, she was fascinated with them, and what she longed for more than anything was for River to let his guard down and shift in front of her so she could see his other form.
She wanted to know him inside out.
They stepped out onto Main Street and into the winter sun. The town was busy as ever, but there was a strange air about it too, as if they could both sense that trouble was coming.
The sun was shining, but the sky above the mountains was dark and grey.
“It feels wrong here today,” Stacey whispered as River reached down and took hold of her hand. “It feels as if something bad is going to happen.”
He nodded his head slowly and pulled her toward his truck.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said quietly. “We need to be back at the cabin where we’ll be safe.”
He opened the passenger door for her and when she jumped inside, he slammed it behind her before he threw her bags into the back seat and climbed in beside her.
The engine roared to life and River floored it, speeding out of there and toward the forest before Stacey even had a chance to realize what was happening.
“You’re shaken up?” she asked him.
River gripped the wheel and kept on driving. He didn’t reply to her, and his eyes darted from one side of the road to the other.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” he said finally. “Look at the sky.”
Stacey’s eyes traveled back to the dark grey above the mountain and she felt a chill roll over her. It did look unnatural next to the sun, and it was beginning to get colder by the second.
“Don’t worry,” River said, as if he realized he had maybe startled her. “We’ll be back at the cabin soon.”
She rubbed her forehead and tried not to think too much about what was happening, but her mind was scrambled. If the witches were descending on their town, then she was in the firing line. They wanted her, and they were going to try and come for her.
She looked across at River and reached out and took hold of one of his hands.
“I’m glad you’re here with me,” she said sincerely. “I don’t know what I would do otherwise.”
He squeezed her hand back and looked down at her and smiled. He was so handsome, she didn’t understand how she had never really taken him seriously before. She had always just assumed that he would never be interested in her, that he had his own things going on and his own life, but now it was clear he had always thought a lot of her. And now, she wanted him to know how much she thought of him too.
As they pulled off the road and into the forest, they approached the cabin and River brought the truck to a screeching halt.
“Okay,” he sighed as he wrapped his fingers on top of the wheel. “Let’s get inside and have some lunch, I’m starving.”
Stacey had to laugh.
River may have been half wolf, but he was still a typical man. Always thinking about his stomach. She found it endearing.
They stepped through the doorway and River shook her back down from his shoulder and onto the floor. He stretched his big arms high above his head and she had the overwhelming feeling that she wanted to go up behind him and wrap her arms around him. She wanted to press her face between his shoulder blades and breathe him in. She wanted to run her hands up his chiseled torso and let her fingernails nip his skin.
River looked at her over his shoulder and smiled at her cheekily, as if he had read her mind.
“What can I get you?” he asked as he wandered over to the refrigerator and opened the door.
“I don’t think I could eat a thing,” she admitted as she sat down on one of the bar stools at the island and yawned. “My brain still feels on overload and I have this sense of dread.”
River closed the door and looked back at her.
“You don’t need to be afraid,” he told her. “I’m here and I’m not going to let anything bad happen.”
She smiled, and they looked deeply into each other’s eyes.
Even with the island between them, she could feel the intense tension and she didn’t know how much longer she could stand it. She didn’t want to have any regrets in her life and being there with River was only making her more and more aware of what she actually wanted.
She reached up and twisted a strand of hair around her finger and smiled at him coyly.
“I could think of something I want, though,” she whispered.
River’s eyes glinted, and he took a step toward her. Her heart was racing so loudly that she couldn’t hear anything else. As he took another step, she was sure she heard him growl and it sent her into overdrive.
He was so hot.
So sexy.
And now that she knew he had an added danger to him, he was literally driving her wild.
“I could think of something I want too,” he said as he came right up in front of her and reached up to touch her cheek.
She couldn’t breathe, her whole body was frozen, and she wanted to tell him just how much she wanted him, but she knew she didn’t need to.
He smiled as he gripped her throat gently, before he pushed himself against her and kissed her hard on the mouth. As their lips connected, Stacey felt fireworks. Her whole body came to life and she felt as if she were riding along on a wave of exhilaration and excitement.
She had never had a kiss like it before.
She was turned on, red hot, and completely consumed by him.
And with each time their lips momentarily broke apart so that they could bump back together, she felt the twist of fate binding them to each o
ther.
Now that she was kissing him, she didn’t know how she had ever been in the same room with him without wanting to be in his arms.
She gasped as their lips broke apart and he looked deeply into her eyes.
“Wow,” she whispered as she bit her bottom lip.
River smirked and pushed his forehead against hers. He tasted incredible, and his hands were hot and heavy. She wrapped her arms around his neck and they stared into each other’s eyes.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for so long,” he whispered. “But I knew the timing had to be right.”
“This all feels so very right to me,” she smiled.
“Me too,” he said.
They leaned into each other and wrapped themselves up in one another, and Stacey knew she had found something special and important.
She had never felt like this before about anyone. And now that she had River there and, in her life, she knew she was never going to have to be without him again.
He had committed to her and he was always going to be by her side.
Their love was growing, and they were only going to get stronger.
11.
They cuddled up together on the couch and River ran his hands through her hair. After everything that had transpired over the past few days, it felt good to just be held. To be loved and cared for.
Her whole body was aching, and so was her mind. But being there in River’s arms, as he stroked her head, made everything feel better.
He was healing her.
The darkness had descended on the forest and it was colder than it had been in months. When they spoke, their breath was visible in front of them, and even with the fire lit, the temperature seemed to be dropping lower and lower.
“What are we going to do?” she asked him.
She was new to all of this, sure it had always been inside of her, but she could feel the change in the atmosphere around them, and she could sense that trouble was coming.
“We don’t do anything” he told her. “They can’t reach us here.”
RIVER Page 8
