by DD Prince
The smell of loam, the cold and crisp air in my nose as I move? It feels incredible. I’ve missed this. I’ve missed it a lot.
And I don’t just feel the wind, the smells, the earth, I hear his paws hit, I hear his breathing, and even hear that his heart beats at the same pace as mine.
It’s strange to feel this level of physical compatibility with another male.
I have a fleeting thought that I hope Ivy’s safe. I hope she won’t run. I hope no one will harm her.
He barks at me and picks up pace, so I pick up mine and then we’re fast coming down an embankment that I know ends with a shallow creek that will eventually wind and deepen, becoming the river that leads to Arcana Falls many miles away. I’ve never swam that far, as it’s always been ‘the forbidden village’, and while Uncle lived, I ignored the draw to go there alone because of his rules. Before long, we’re both galloping through the stream, water splashing high.
The energy I feel invigorates me. This feels incredible. And I feel drawn to go there, to finally see those falls.
Cornelius kept up when I was a kid but once I matured he never could, and I longed to run, really run at full speed with someone. I craved it with a fierceness that invaded my dreams.
Those dreams run through my mind now, for the first time in years. I dreamt of running with others like me. I dreamt of playing as pups, then running as older wolves. I painted based on those dreams, so many of them. Cornelius put the paintings away in the rafters of the garage. Except the one over my mantle in the bedroom. I put that one up when I took over that room. Of pups playing together. He never said a word about it but now that I think on it, he reacted to it and tried to hide how it made him feel.
So much makes sense now.
As a lone wolf I ran alone many times at full speed, but having someone to experience it with like this made it different.
The water deepens and we’re both swimming until he gestures to a set of rocks with his nose and climbs up. I follow.
He shifts first, and then I follow, and he’s got a wide smile on his face.
“Great run. Short one, but great.”
“Yeah,” I say, pushing my hair out of my eyes, then lean over to cup water to drink from the stream. I can’t quench my thirst so after giving it a second of thought, I shift halfway and lower my head.
I know that behind me he’s startled. I feel his stare on my back while I drink, able to get the water into my mouth faster with my larger mouth, my larger tongue.
I go back to man form completely and our gazes meet. He’s shocked.
“I’ve never seen that,” he says. “I’ve heard of it but never seen it.”
“Cornelius told me to never let anyone see it.”
I don’t know why I let Riley see it. Maybe because I feel like I should never have listened to a fucking word out of Uncle’s mouth.
“It’s at will. Just easy like that to stop the shift part way?”
“I guess it is. I push, but slow it down and stop it from finishing. It lasts a little bit of time. Unless I’m overcome with immense anger, which has happened a few times, then I can stay like that longer.”
“Your father could do it, too. My father told me about it. Does it happen when you lose it? It did to Uncle Tiberius.”
Memories try to rush to the surface, of the murders Uncle had me commit. I push them back.
“Yes. Sometimes. What’s going on with you?” I ask.
“Meaning?”
I need to deflect away from that other subject matter.
“Meaning you’re doing your best at a courtship here with me, and I want to know how that works in your head. You want to give up the power you have to me?”
I know what Greyson said, but I wanna hear what Riley thinks.
He shakes his head. “We’ve spent our lives, all of us in the pack, thinking we had a missing piece of us. And your lack of presence is just… felt. Maybe that’s how we should’ve known you weren’t dead. If you were, we would’ve either filled the gap or not missed it, maybe. But we did feel it. We discussed it often. Things weren’t right for us because you weren’t gone. You were out there without us. Needing us, too. And I feel something from you, letting me know you’re right for our team. Like I’ve gotten back a limb that I lost. Or, more like grown another sense that I didn’t have. We don’t expect you to jump in and be the person you would’ve been groomed to be all your life. You could be part of things and take your own pace. We have a collaboration here, not a hierarchy. You’re like a king but you’ve got a government in place, if that makes sense. You don’t have to delegate. It can be reverse of that. You step in when and where you’re comfortable while you learn our ways.”
I nod. It does make sense.
“Strength in numbers, Tyson. And for your mate and when you have children. Do you want your kids to grow up the way you did?”
I lean forward. “My kids will never face abuse like that.”
He rears back.
“I’ve got no idea what you endured.”
“That’s right. You don’t. But I know that even if I choose to live alone it doesn’t mean my children will want for anything.”
“Understood. I meant grow up alone. Did you miss not having a pack? Did your way of life feel natural to you?”
I stare into his eyes. And he has my answer because my eyes go completely unguarded. I bare it all to him without words.
And the returning look he gives me bares it all to me, too.
We understand one another.
He’s honest. He means what he says. He wants me to be part of the pack.
I’m lonely. My whole life has had missing pieces. I’ve never felt whole. The closest has been since Ivy. I’m hesitant to embrace this. I don’t know why. I do know that I don’t want to fail at this role they think I should fit into.
And Riley… the man has been strong for a long time and he’s barely holding it together. I see it. He hides it well but now that I’m looking, I do see it.
“What’s your story?” I ask.
He stares for a minute and then lets out an agitated huff. “Grey? Fuckin’ big mouth.”
I nod. “He told me I’m needed. That you haven’t taken the time to do what you need to do.”
He shakes his head. “I’m fine. It’s… fine.”
“Greyson says you haven’t allowed yourself to heal from a great loss.”
“The greatest loss. And yeah, well …” His eyes take on a faraway look. “It doesn’t do much good to wallow, does it?” He lifts a rock from beside his knee and tosses it into the water.
“No, it doesn’t,” I agree.
“If I stop and let myself think about it, I don’t know what it’ll do to me. I just keep truckin’, Ty. That’s the only thing I know I can do. If I stop movin’ forward, I don’t know what’ll happen to my mind.”
I reach for his shoulder and squeeze briefly before I let go. I see the look in his eyes; he suddenly looks grief-stricken. The pain in his form hits me with a sensation in my chest like I’ve never felt. A strange sort of grief and loss. I wonder if Grey feels this from him and that’s how he knows to worry about Riley.
I’ve never shown affection to a man. This feels natural, rather than strange.
“I can’t even think about how she died, or I won’t swim back.” He wipes the expression away and rises. “I won’t touch water again.”
Obviously, he lost her in water.
He stares out at the creek for a minute and then his body shudders just briefly before he turns to me.
“Come to the party. Meet everyone. Let them all set eyes on you. Even if you two stay for an hour. It’ll be good for you both and it’ll be good for us. Really good for us.”
“Fine,” I say. “By the way, thank you. You and Lincoln for helping with Ivy the other day. I didn’t know if I should trust you, but I did know. It was… confusing.”
“You’re welcome. She’s yours and you’re ours, which means she is, too. We would, any of
us, go to great lengths to keep your mate safe. Come Friday. See your house. Meet your pack.”
“Fine. And no promises from me but I’m keeping an open mind. And if you need---”
“All I need is your open mind. No rush. Don’t listen to Grey being a worrying old woman. I’m fine as long as you leave the door open for us to see if you feel like you belong.”
“I can do that.”
“Good. That’s more than we could’ve hoped for,” he says and slaps my back. “Now, that said? I got one thing left to say to you right now.”
“What?”
The expression on his face has me bracing. And then he smiles wide. “Eat my dust.”
He shifts while diving into the water and swims back the way we came.
***
I win the race and get home first, but win only by the skin of my nose.
We’re in the door and Ivy is averting her gaze with a hand over her eye.
Ah. She sees Riley naked.
I laugh. Bailey tosses a bundle of clothing in his direction.
“Tyson, you need pants,” Ivy says, still looking away.
Everyone looks at me with surprise. At my laughter maybe? I don’t know.
I erase the space between me and my woman, hauling her from the couch up into my arms. I kiss her and then speak against her lips.
“Not right now I don’t. It’s been a good visit Catrina, Bailey, and Riley. Thank you for the food, and for visiting with Ivy while I got a much-needed run. Thank you, my mother, for taking care of Ivy’s ankle.” I glance up and my eyes meet Catrina’s. Hers are filled with shock. “Truly, thank you for saving my Ivy.” My voice goes gruff and I look back to Ivy’s face as the emotion on my mother’s face physically hurts. I can’t let that penetrate any further or I’ll go into an angry haze and spin out of control. I don’t want that. It’s felt like a good day. “That said,” I continue, “Everyone, it’s time to go. Unless you want to watch me mount my mate.”
Nobody moves.
“You have to the count of five,” I add.
“Tyson!” Ivy gasps.
They laugh and gather things up. “Give us to ten, please. We brought a lot of gear,” Cat asks, her voice wobbly.
“Bye,” I say and take my woman toward the bedroom in my arms.
“Tyson Savage put me down!” she orders.
I laugh and kick the door shut behind me.
“Not a chance, Ivy Savage. Your ankle is good, we’re all fed, and plans have been made, I’m assuming, for that strawberry party?”
“Um, yeah…”
“Good,” I say. I hear the front door open. “Will there be strawberries? I like that fruit.”
“Probably,” Ivy says with a smile on her mouth and in her eyes.
I set her down on the bed and put my knee to the mattress as I hear the door shut and then the receding footsteps of all three of them.
33
Ivy
I’m on the couch, staring at my phone, and biting my lip.
My screen is lit up with notifications. My voicemail box is full. My mother is flipping out. Amelia is flipping out. Dad even texted me and called me and my father hates “those fuckin’ things” (aka, smartphones).
My parents are recently separated so for him to message me – he has a clue as to what’s going on and that means they’ve all got to be afraid. This makes me feel awful.
I’ve even heard from Bucket-List Megan. I scroll by that one with an eye roll, the preview screen showing she knows I got bit by a snake because she starts off with OMG and o-faces as well as snake emojis. Screw her. Who does that?
I scan through the rest of the notification previews and open the latest one from Becks, my boss, and it has a link to our local newspaper with information about the fire. The electrical fire set the whole block up in flames. It started in our store and the damage was extensive. We’re talking months, at least. I’m getting paid for the next month and from there, we’ll be updated on the status. I could be laid off or transferred to another store.
Well.
Okay then.
No rush to get back to civilization.
Hm.
Except for my freaking out family.
Mom is losing her ever-loving mind on my voicemail and all-capsing me in texts. Amelia, too, with four texts that all say
IVY! CALL ME
I knew this was how I’d feel when I turned on my phone – overwhelmed – which is why I’ve avoided it.
Ty is sleeping, catching an afternoon nap after a lot of eating, his run, and a whole lot of sexing. I figure now is probably the best time for this, so I’ve crept out of the bedroom in one of his shirts. All my panties are dirty. I officially need to do laundry.
I call Mom first.
Amelia answers.
“OhmygodwhathefuckIvywhatthefuck!”
“Oh. Ames?”
“Thank fuck!”
“Uh, hi.”
Shit. I did not want to talk to Amelia. I wanted to talk to Mom and then let her talk to Amelia for me. Fuzz.
“Are you okay? Are you okay? What the fuck?”
“I’m okay.”
“Shit. Shit. Okay, breathe, Amelia. Breathe.”
My sister often talks to herself. She’s hyperventilating.
“Breathe, Amelia,” I tell her even though that’s what she just told herself.
“Thank God. Thank God! Tell me what happened.”
“Ugh. Okay, so I went away for a weekend with a girl from work, Megan, and the wicked wench screwed me over, so I decided to head home.”
“You left her there, she said. How could you do that?”
“Believe me, it was warranted. When did you talk to her?”
“Mom and me have been losing our minds trying to track you down since your voicemail on Sunday about the snake bite. Mom’s even been talking to him on the phone.”
She means Dad. She always calls him ‘Him’. Well, she has since he broke Mom’s heart a few months ago.
“How could you not call us back, Ivy? None of the hospitals had a record of you, so I called your work and tracked down your manager who got me Megan’s number, saying that she talked to you and knew you’d gone away for the weekend with Megan but that you’d gotten separated somehow and you were bit by a snake during that time and she didn’t have any more info so I wanted to ask Megan questions and give her info to the cops in case it’d help with the search and where have you been since you called Mom?”
Ugh. So much for her stopping to breathe. My sister was nothing if not resourceful.
“It’s a long story, Amelia, and frankly, I’m exhausted, so can we talk about it later? I just wanted to tell you guys I’m good, and –”
“Uh, no. We can’t talk about it later. She said you left and that she hadn’t heard anything. I told her you said something went wrong with your car on Mom’s voicemail and that you got bit by a snake and were in a hospital but that we hadn’t heard from you. She felt so bad about it but said it was you that left. Why on earth did you leave?”
“She was bangin’ two guys and left me alone with three others. It was sketch-ville there, Ames. I told her I didn’t wanna stay and she pretty much told me to take a flying leap. So I did.”
Into the clutches of a werewolf.
A sexy, dominating, fuckable werewolf. I feel flutters in between my legs, in my nipples, and a sensation trills up my spine as the mark he made on my neck gets all tingly, too.
Just like Amelia, though, to assume that I made the mistake, not Megan who she never met. Grr.
“That was Sunday. This is Tuesday here, Ivy. We put in a missing persons’ report last night. Where are you? Shit: we better call the cops and cancel it.”
“Well…” I swallow, “I um… hit something with my car and wound up in a ditch and met this guy who brought me back to his place. Then, fast forward, I tried to leg it back to my car and tripped over snakes mating.”
“Are you serious? You’re joking!”
“No. N
ope. Nuh uh.” I’m biting my thumbnail now.
“You met a guy Friday night. In the woods…”
Shit. Here we go. Amelia has a really good bullshit detector and she’s gonna try to add things together.
She continues, “And then you didn’t leave his place until Sunday? You just yada yada’d me through all of Saturday. Hey Mom. Yeah, it’s Ivy; she’s in one piece.”
Shit. Mom’s there. Of course she is. I called Mom’s phone, not Amelia’s. Why didn’t I think this through better? I’m pacing now. I look out the front drapes and see my car outside. Oh. What?
I unlock and open the door, then step outside and head toward it while Amelia is talking to Mom in my ear. Everything has been fixed. It’s like it didn’t even happen. This feels bizarre.
I hear Mom in the background, Amelia mumbling to my mother about me being fine and my mom is asking about a bazillion questions.
“Don’t rat me out to Mom, Ames. Tell her I’m safe and sound. There’s way more to the story but I can’t get into it right now,” I tell her, urgently.
“Hang on, Mom. So you’re good, Ivy? Recovered from the bite?”
I hear my mom sounding like she’s having a fit in the background.
“Much better.”
“Where’s your car? Do you need me to pick you up? Mom, wait…”
“It’s fine. I’m good. I’m gonna stay here for a bit and…”
“Where’s here?” That’s Mom.
“Put her on speaker,” Amelia says.
“One sec, Ivy. Don’t you hang up, young lady.”
Fuzz.
“Ivy Adeline Brennan!” Mom exclaims.
And in my head I think Savage. Ivy Adeline Savage. Whoa. Why was that the first thought that popped into my head?
And I’m on speaker phone now.
“Amelia!” I whine.
“She wrestled the phone off me,” she defends herself.
“Ivy? What’s going on? We’ve been worried sick!” Mom sounds frantic.
