Page 46 of Wild Wolf

“A few hours,” she said, stepping closer to me and pressing a kiss to my lips. “You should rest too.”

“I’m not weak,” I growled.

“I know,” she said firmly. “That’s not what I meant.”

I nodded stiffly, looking to the horizon but she caught my cheek and turned me to look at her. “Se io sono la luna, allora tu sei la forza che mi sostiene,” she purred.

“What does that mean?” Sin blurted, stepping close and smiling between us.

“It means ‘if I am the moon then you are the force that holds me up’,” Rosalie translated then flicked Sin on the chin.

“Oo,” he shivered. “Give me some pretty words, honey pie. I want you to call me something hot and filthy in your fancy language.”

“Sei un dolce piccolo idiota,” she purred and he shivered again as she petted his head then walked away with Cain toward the cabin and I smirked at her words.

“What did she say?” Sin demanded of me, moving to pick up his newfound bird friend where it was perched on the rail at the edge of the boat.

I shrugged, pretending I hadn’t understood Rosalie’s words.

“She called me a big-cocked bandit, didn’t she?” he called, stroking the bird’s head as I walked away to join my girl in the cabin. “Didn’t she?”

I said nothing, disappearing down the steps, knowing I would soon be back on the shores of Solaria, heading for the main Oscura residence. I was nervous to say the least, my return sure to bring a thousand questions and judgements on my head for what I’d become. But for now, the path was set. And all I could do was keep journeying towards the horizon and praying to the stars that the Fae I was dying to see would still love me when they saw the new and ugly truth of me.

I let the others go ahead up the driveway to where the Oscura manor perched on the hill while Rosalie stayed with me. Its white walls and swing-around porch were so familiar to me that it hurt. The vineyards swept away from it, the evening sunlight colouring the grass gold, but I stood in shadow, none of that glow finding its way to me. The gates rose up at my back and I was still lingering in the fact that they had let me through, the touch of my magical signature enough to open them like they had been waiting for me to return all this time.

“It’s okay,” Rosalie said, stepping closer, her fingers curling around mine. “You’re home now.”

Home. That word had always meant this place, but it had belonged to my family residence too. What were my father and three mothers thinking about the reported news that I had escaped Darkmore? Were they proud of such an impossible achievement? Would my father find admiration for me again, or was I too far past the point of his affections? And even if he offered them, could I really forgive him for turning his back on me?

Too many questions hung in the air with far too few answers accompanying them.

As Sin, Ethan and Cain made it to the door, a chorus of howls sounded keenly in response to their arrival, the noise making my mind pool with memories. I’d spent so many days and nights here, endless parties, feasts, games and festivities all blurring into one feeling inside me that felt a lot like love.

When you were in with the Oscuras, you were family. And to them, family was the most important thing in the world. These Wolves would run into battle at my side, they would celebrate the smallest of my achievements and none of them had ever cast a dot of judgement my way. But now I was returning to their door as a wholly new creature. I wasn’t the Lion Shifter so many of them shared those fond memories with. I didn’t even look like him without my mane, and I had a sense that the torment in my eyes would be easily noticed by the Wolves.

They would know I went to Darkmore whole and came out broken. And it felt like a failure to the people I loved best. My brother…how was he going to react to this? How was he going to accept it?

My throat thickened and the urge to turn back made me retreat a step, but Rosalie was there, fingers squeezing mine, her eyes so big and wide, drawing me in and promising me she was here no matter what.

“Non scappare mai da cuori e braccia aperte,” she whispered, moving closer and reaching up to cup my cheek. “Never run from open hearts and wide arms.”

“I’m afraid,” I admitted gruffly. “I’m not who I was.”

“You are more than you were,” she said fiercely. “They tried to destroy you but here you stand, Roary Night. A free man who survived the impossible. That’s all I see when I look at you. Well, that and the Fae who owns my heart. Who was worth every struggle it took to return him to my side.”

“You confound me,” I said in a low voice, though there was no denying the burning love in her eyes. I cherished that love more than anything I had claimed in my life.

She smiled like a cat. “Come on, Roar. Let’s go home.” She tugged on my hand, leading me up the driveway and I found it easier to move now that I was walking in her footsteps.

Sin, Ethan and Cain had been drawn inside, the door wide open and a frantic crush of bodies surrounding them. Some of the pups were in their Wolf forms, yapping and howling excitedly while racing between everyone’s legs. Amongst them all, I picked out a flash of blonde and my throat tightened.

Leon appeared, muscling through the throng of bodies and made it onto the porch, his gold eyes seeking and his usually carefree expression twisted into a frantic desperation.

Rosalie released my hand just as Leon’s gaze fell on me, his recognition followed by confusion and concern as he took in the loss of my mane, the changed man I’d returned home as.

“Leon,” I rasped, my feet falling still though the need to run to him crashed through me. But it was his choice. He might reject me over this alone, but he didn’t know the half of it yet.

“Roar!” Leon bellowed, leaping off the porch and sprinting for me, his eyes bright with emotion.

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