by Amira Rain
Once I’d spent about a minute straining my ears to hear the ocean, which was far away now, I reoriented myself, heading for the village. This time, I stayed the course. After maybe an hour or two of hiking as quietly as I could, not encountering Hannah or any of her three friends along the way, I finally exited the jungle, and right behind Holden’s cabin, no less.
Knowing it was nearing midnight at this point and time was very quickly running out, I didn’t even knock. I just threw open his front door and barged right in, startling Holden, who was sitting in his living room with what appeared to be a glass of whiskey. Not wasting a second, I spilled the whole story of what I’d overheard in the jungle, from the moment I’d first come upon Hannah’s group to the moment she’d sent Ashley away.
Once I’d finished, I paused for breath, expecting Holden to react in alarm, or maybe even express gratitude that I’d prevented Hannah from carrying out her plan.
But Holden didn’t react in either of these ways.
With his expression unreadable, he set his glass of whiskey on an end table, stood, and looked me right in the eyes. “Get out. Now.”
*
I stared at Holden, incredulous. “But—”
“You have got to be kidding me. You don’t trust me to simply be very platonic, very casual friends with Hannah, so now you’re making up wild accusations to try to separate us. I swear... This is Black Lake and the Forms all over again. I ask you to trust me, and you won’t or can’t, so you take matters into your own hands, and you blow up a lake, or in this case, concoct some crazy scheme to try to make Hannah look bad.”
“But that’s not at all what I’m—”
“I think this is the nail in the coffin for us, Haley. See, I’m not hung up on trust just to give you a hard time. On this island, and in this village, trust in each other isn’t just a luxury. With danger everywhere a good majority of the time, we need to be able to trust each other in order to stay alive, and thrive as a group. When I choose a mate, I need to be able to trust that person completely, and I need them to trust me just the same. It’s become more than clear to me that that person isn’t you.
You couldn’t even trust me to have a female friend. A female friend who, I might add, I’ve assured you I want nothing to do with on a romantic level. Who, I might also add, I’ve only spent time with in public. Not that it would have been wrong of me to spend time in private with her, as you and I have no longer been a couple these past several weeks, but like I told you, I want nothing to do with Hannah on that level.
I’ve only wanted to spend time with her as a casual friend. As abrasive as she can be at times, she also can have a very unique, witty sense of humor, and forgive me for wanting a few laughs while I nursed my heartache about how you went behind my back with the lake and the Forms.”
Suddenly more angry than hurt, I took a step closer to him, hands on hips. “I am not lying to you. Everything I’ve told you is the truth. Despite what you think, I do trust you now. I made a decision to trust you, and I’ve already put that trust into action. When I saw you on your porch talking to Hannah tonight, I—”
“Let me guess. You pulled out some sort of mobile sonar device so you could try to hear us better?”
“Hilarious, Holden, but actually, no. I walked away. That’s all I did, and I did it immediately, too. I did that because I trust you now. And yes, it’s still a pretty new trust, because I just decided to give you my full trust yesterday, but I’m committed to it. But now it’s clear that you’re the one who can’t trust me, even though every single thing I’ve told you is the truth.”
He scoffed, folding his arms across his chiseled chest. “And can you blame me? Can you blame me for not trusting you? You completely went behind my back and blew up a lake, Haley. You went after the Forms yourself with a laser gun, putting yourself and everyone else in this village in very serious danger. Despite the fact that I’d told you repeatedly that I’d handle things myself, and in a way where everyone could stay safe. So, can you blame me for not trusting you right now, tonight?”
I sighed, struggling to maintain eye contact with him. “No, I can’t blame you. I realize what a colossal breach of trust I committed that night. But....” I paused to take a deep breath, thinking. “If you ever want to get back together with me, like I want to get back together with you, you’re going to have to get past that breach of trust, and you’re going to have to give me a second chance.
You’re going to somehow have to make a decision to trust me again, or you’re going to have to make a decision to let me go once and for all. Maybe this is part of what you’ve been struggling with... Why you’ve wanted so much space. Maybe it hasn’t just been that I haven’t trusted you, maybe part of it has been that you just can’t figure out how you can ever trust me again.
Which I more than understand, but if you do want get to that place where you can trust me again, believe me on this, it’s going to have to be a conscious decision that you make. Because if you don’t make that decision—if you just wait and wait for a feeling of trust in me to suddenly magically wash over you or something—well, it probably never will, and we’ll just grow farther and farther apart in the meantime, while I give you more space.
So....” I paused for another deep breath. “Can you make that decision right now, Holden, considering many lives are at stake, especially Ashley’s? Can you decide to trust me, and believe me about everything I told you?”
He turned his gaze away from me, to the side and to the floor, and after a few long moments, it didn’t seem like he was going to answer me.
With my anger flaring once again, I balled my fists, determined not to say something I might regret. “Fine. I can see you’ve made your decision, and it’s not one to trust me. But someone’s still gotta save Ashley from drowning out in the ocean, so I hope you’ll excuse me while I try to do just that, alone, right this second.”
With that, I turned and stalked out of his cabin, wondering if I had time to run and wake Cora and Amy at their own cabins, maybe even convincing their husbands to help me save Ashley, too. Like Ashley, I wasn’t that strong of a swimmer, and at night, in the pitch-black waves, I knew I might not be that useful as a rescue swimmer. Still, if nobody else would, I was going to try. I could hardly stand to think about Ashley far out in the dark waves, choking and gasping for air while waiting for help that never arrived.
Once I’d cleared Holden’s porch steps, I broke into a sprint, heading toward the ocean. I figured I’d scope things out and try to see if Hannah and Ashley were on the beach, or if Ashley was in the ocean already. If she wasn’t, I’d punch Hannah’s lights out if I had to in order to stop her from sending Ashley into the water.
If Ashley was already in, but not too far out yet, I’d swim out to rescue her myself. But if she was far out, I’d run screaming for Amy, Cora, their husbands, or anyone else who was a strong swimmer. At the same time, I’d be shouting about the imminent wolf attack as well, trying to give everyone at least some advance warning. I wasn’t sure at all that I’d be able to pull off everything I intended to, but I was sure going to try. I figured a girl who’d blown up a lake and had killed several Forms at least had a good shot.
Before I’d sprinted even twenty feet or so away from Holden’s cabin, I heard his voice behind me.
“Wait for me, you little freak.”
I whipped around, gasping. “Holden!”
“I’ve made a decision to trust you again, and we’ll talk more about things later. But right now, I think we probably don’t have a lot of time.”
Just then, we heard a loud cry coming from the direction of the ocean. The cry had sounded like someone trying to yell the word help. Ashley was already in. Not a moment after her cry, Holden and I heard a different voice, shouting.
“No, you damned dummy! Farther out! I haven’t even told you to start pretending yet; the wolves won’t be here for another three minutes! Just wait!”
Hannah was somewhere along the darkened
shore, though we couldn’t see her, and whether she realized it or not, it seemed that Ashley, wherever she was, was already drowning for real.
Holden pulled his phone from his pocket and handed it to me. “Call Conner. Tell him wolves are coming and that I want all my men down on the beach within a minute. Tell him to send a text to everyone and to not sound the siren, as the wolves will hear it. Now, go, Haley, and call him. I’ll get Ashley.”
Within a split-second, he was gone, streaking down the beach in bear form. His massive body, covered in thick, dark fur, looked like a black hole against the pale, moonlit sand. Though I didn’t waste more than a fraction of a second surveying the scene. Immediately, I called Conner and told him exactly what Holden had said. After that, things happened fast, to say the least.
Within maybe thirty seconds of me ending the call with Conner, black bears of all sizes began appearing on the beach, stalking along the sand without making any noise, save for a few barely-audible low growls. As Holden emerged from the ocean carrying a coughing, sputtering Ashley in his arms, all the bears took places hidden behind clusters of palms along the beach. They faced the jungle, waiting.
I dashed out to meet Holden and Ashley, who was on her feet, still coughing, but managing to say she was okay, by the time I reached them. I put an arm around her shoulders and began guiding her up toward the cabins, telling her that she was okay now, and to just take deep breaths. Alongside us, Holden told me to get her up to the cabins as fast as I could, and he then shifted back into bear form and joined his men.
I pulled Ashley into Holden’s cabin just as the first sounds of the fight could be heard. Even after I’d shut the heavy wooden door, sounds of snarling and roaring still assaulted my ears, and after sitting Ashley down on the couch, I raced around shutting all the windows in the cabin. My nerves just couldn’t handle the noise, and I was sure it would just rattle Ashley even more, too.
By the time I rejoined her out in the living room and sat down next to her, she was crying with her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands.
She glanced over at me before returning her face to her hands. “So stupid. I’m always so stupid. Hannah tricked me, didn’t she? She really didn’t want me to be a co-ruler with her; she didn’t even care that I was really drowning.”
I hadn’t even thought about Hannah over the previous several minutes, nor had I seen her. I figured she’d probably seen Holden’s men calmly taking position and had realized that somehow her plan had been found out, and then maybe escaped into the jungle, fearing Holden’s wrath. At any rate, no matter why she’d left or where she’d gone, that wasn’t my concern at the moment. Clearly, poor Ashley needed some comforting from a friend, which I soon hoped to become to her.
A short while later, after I’d managed to convince her that she wasn’t stupid but just had a very sweet, trusting heart, which I believed was true, all sounds of the fight outside suddenly stopped.
Just a few seconds later, Cora flung open the cabin door, breathless. “It’s done. The three wolves weren’t any kind of a match for our men. Holden took two of them out by himself, and Conner made the kill on the third.”
After I’d explained to her what had happened to Ashley, she soon ushered Ashley away to see the doctor, and I was left alone in Holden’s cabin. Though not for long.
The moment he came in the front door, I threw myself into his arms, just like I’d used to. Just how I’d been wanting to do for weeks. “I missed you. I missed you so much, Holden.”
He squeezed me tightly, picking my feet up off the floor. “I missed you, too. Probably more than you’ll ever know.”
I reveled in the feel of his strong arms around me, as well as his woodsy, masculine scent, which I inhaled with my face buried between his hard chest and his neck.
Presently, with a renewed surge of emotion making tears well in my eyes, I lifted my face to look at his own. “I just want you to be my son of a freak again. I just want you to be my son of a freak forever. Now, I just need to know... Can you give me another chance? Will you let me show you every day that I trust you now? Do you want me to be your little freak again? Maybe even for forever?”
“No.”
I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. My breath stopped in my throat. Then he quickly continued.
“I mean...yes. Yes, I want you to be my little freak forever, but I also want you to be something else. I want you to be my wife.” With his eyes becoming just slightly shiny, he paused and took a deep breath. “Will you marry me, Haley? Will you agree to become my mate for life, and carry the title of Mrs. Son of a Freak for the rest of your days?”
I nodded, half-sniffling, half-laughing. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you and be your wife. I’ll be Mrs. Son of a Freak. Gladly. I can’t think of anything I’ve ever wanted more.”
***
The following day, Eric called Holden to report that Hannah had turned up in Clearwater, asking if she could stay there again. After Eric and Holden talked it over, it was decided that she would stay in Clearwater, but under house arrest for an indefinite length of time.
Later that afternoon, Holden went through the portal to New York City and returned that evening with an absolutely stunning diamond ring, which he slid on my finger in front of half the village, after getting down on one knee and asking me to marry him for the second time, making me cry yet again.
Over the next several weeks, when I wasn’t busy planning the wedding, Cora, Amy, and I continued to work in our shared studio, and we were now joined by Ashley as well. She’d asked Holden if she could stay in the village, and he had of course, said yes, and not long after, Ashley asked me if she might be able to do some artwork in the studio, too.
I’d gladly invited her to try a few different things, and it turned out that she was very good at making stained glass. Actually, not just very good, but downright gifted. Her works, which were incredibly intricate designs featuring geometric shapes and flowers, were simply breathtaking.
Amy surveyed one of them one day before turning to nod at Ashley. “Very, very smart. You’re so smart to be able to design pieces like this, and I really mean that.”
I got the feeling she really did.
Ashley grinned just about ear-to-ear, and then threw her arms around Amy, Cora, and me in turn, squeezing each of us so tightly we could barely breathe.
A month or so later, Amy, Cora, and Ashley were my attendants at Holden’s and my wedding on the beach. Amy’s little daughter Emily was my flower girl. As everyone in the village watched, she threw pink and white petals down an aisle made of woven tropical grass, which I soon walked down barefoot, while one of the women from the village played the wedding march on an old, yet perfectly in tune, violin.
Holden was barefoot, too, dressed in jeans and a crisp white collared shirt that matched my simple white gown. For an island wedding, we hadn’t been able to imagine the ceremony as anything other than a casual affair.
The reception party was a casual affair, too, with everyone dancing, drinking, and eating barbeque late into the night. While we swayed on a makeshift dance floor made of woven tropical grass, I put my bare feet on Holden’s and playfully told him to “make” me dance.
Moving both our feet in time with the music, he pulled me closer and spoke in a low voice near my ear. “Now, what kind of a little freak steps on her new husband’s feet at their wedding reception?”
Making a sudden decision, I spoke in a low voice back. “You’re asking the wrong question, Holden.”
“Oh, am I? Then, what question should I be asking?”
“The question you should be asking me right now is what kind of a little freak dances on a grown man’s feet like she’s a little child, when she herself is going to be having a child in about eight months.”
Holden immediately froze, then slowly pulled away to look at my face. “You... You’re...?”
I nodded, smiling. “Yup. Me. I’m pregnant. We’re going to have a baby.”
I’d be
en keeping a little secret from him for exactly one week. I’d been planning to tell him our exciting news that night.
He stared at me for a long second before responding. “We’re... we’re really going to have a baby? You’re really...?”
He trailed off, not seeming able to even finish the thought. I’d heard that there had been some problems with women living on the island having difficulty conceiving, for whatever reason, and apparently, I’d underestimated the level of surprise my news was going to cause.
I nodded at Holden again, still smiling. “Yup. I’ve already made a trip to the doctor, and he confirmed it. We’re having a baby.”
After looking at me for one more long moment with his jaw nearly on the floor, he suddenly picked me up off my feet, or, up off his feet rather, and then began slowly spinning me around as the violinists continued to play. I buried my face in his shoulder, holding him just as tightly as he was holding me.
After a couple of slow spins, he spoke in a low voice thick with emotion. “I didn’t think I could possibly get any happier today, but you just did it. You just did it, you crazy, beautiful, amazing little freak.”
Laughing with joy, I threw my head back and saw that the stars above us were so bright they twinkled like diamonds in the velvety night sky.
THE END
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