Quest (Shifter Island Book 4)
Page 15
Here, there seemed to be all the time in the world.
After they had both found their pleasure, they lay back on the bed and listened to the sounds of the mountains. The windows in the bedroom had been open all day, and as they lay there, a cool breeze swept in and brushed against their skin. In its own way, it was like a lover’s touch.
“I know you’ve given up a lot,” Allison said after a while.
“Hmm.”
He didn’t want to agree or disagree. Yes, he’d given up his old life… but he’d found a new one.
A fine new one.
“I’ll help you,” she whispered. “With whatever you need. I know it’ll be hard to adjust.”
Would it? he wondered.
“Maybe not,” he told her, twining his fingers into her hair. “Maybe it won’t be hard at all.”
Twenty-Four
“Aaron?”
Aaron turned to find his mate standing a few steps away, hesitating a little, as if she didn’t want to disturb his privacy. He smiled at her and held out his hand, beckoning with his fingers. When Abby got close enough, he wrapped her in his arms, pressing her against his body, using her as a barrier between himself and the sea.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“Well enough.”
“That’s not really ‘all right’.”
He tipped her head up with a finger placed under her chin and smiled at her again, hoping to distract her to the point that they could talk about something else. Their new home, maybe. The cabin was in good shape now, fit for a bride—for his precious mate. He’d taken great care to provide everything he thought she might want, and he was anxious to give her a tour.
If only he could convince himself to walk away from the cliffside and its view of the ocean.
“You can’t be sure,” she told him quietly. “You have absolutely no way of being sure that he’ll never come back. People don’t know that themselves. ‘Never say never,’ you know?”
“I feel it.”
“Well. You still can’t be sure.”
No, he couldn’t. But he knew in his heart that his brother had chosen mate over family—and that was as it should be. He would have followed Abby to the ends of the earth rather than break their bond, and he couldn’t help but think that the gods had planned it exactly that way.
“I… would like to know that he’s safe,” he said after a minute. “And that he’s happy.”
“You think he might not be?”
He held her head between his hands and kissed her gently. There was such concern in her eyes, a regret as deep as his own. She and Luca had come to like each other; he was sure of that. They’d spent a fair amount of time talking together, helping each other with small chores and errands. He even suspected that Luca had confided in Abby about his feelings for Allison, and about Katrin, and had asked for her advice.
He didn’t go as far as asking Abby if that was true. If Abby had encouraged Luca to leave…
“He may come back one day,” Abby said.
“He may.”
“Or you could go to him.”
“I have no idea where he is.”
“I found you,” Abby reminded him. “And you believe he’s found Allison. You said you were sure of that. Even without a bond, there are a lot of ways to track people down. It happens all the time. People find somebody they haven’t seen for, like, thirty years.”
Aaron winced and closed his eyes for a moment.
“You’d know, wouldn’t you?” Abby asked. “If he was hurt? If anything was wrong? You said you’d sense that.”
“I think I would.”
“Then trust that he’s okay.”
She nestled against him, arms wrapped around his waist, and rested her head on his chest. Having her that close made the wolf begin to stir, to walk in circles inside the walls that held it at bay. For all that it was connected to Luca’s wolf—to all the wolves in the pack—it was far more interested in the wellbeing of its mate.
Which meant that Aaron really ought to walk her back to the cabin and show her what he had done to create the perfect home for the two of them.
A big, warm bed. An ample fireplace. A kitchen well-stocked with everything they would need.
Even a toilet room. Abby had wanted one of those.
“Come,” he told her, reaching down to grasp her hand again. “I have something to show you. Many things.”
They began to walk away from the cliffside, hand in hand.
Aaron looked back only once, a brief glance over his shoulder at that vast expanse of water, thinking of how enormous the world was beyond this island and hoping his brother had found the right part of it—that his brother had found what he was searching for and would be as happy there as Aaron was here.
* * * *
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Shifter Island
Coming in August 2016…
Book Five: Healer
Being the healer of the pack is a very fulfilling life, one that keeps Deborah busy from sunup until late at night. Even though she lost her mate during a terrible winter almost ten years ago, she feels content and loved. Then the gruff and troublesome Jed begins to take special notice of her, and she begins to ask herself if there truly is something missing from her life—if it’s possible to find another mate she loves as deeply as the one she lost.
Coming in September 2016…
Book Six: Dolphin Cove
Choose your mate from among the pack, Ethan has been told all his life. But he can’t help thinking that he’s missing something—that there might be someone like the beautiful Abby in the place she came from, the island called Dolphin Cove. So, against the wishes of his family, he slips away one night and makes his way to that other island. It’s a dangerous place to be for a young wolf who’s not familiar with the ways of human—and it’s also the home of a girl named Tricia, who lures him into a situation he may not be able to escape from.
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