Page 103 of Scars of the Sun

The buzz of the tattoo gun had me taking a nervous swallow, but I kept my arm outstretched and steady. The lights of the shop were brighter than I thought they’d be.

“Ready, baby?” Río dipped the cordless tattoo gun in a small pot of ink that I knew was enhanced for the non-human customers. His hair was up in a messy bun, and I used his calm smirk to ground me. The idea had been mine, to have him do this now that he worked for Vera. When I’d formally introduced them, letting Río meet the one who’d given my Wolf the external validation she’d never had before, they’d actually hit it off well. And once I not-so-subtly mentioned his previous apprenticeship and evident skill, she agreed to take him on.

Now, my mate scooted a bit closer to me and the arm I had laid out, facing up. Before he descended, Río pecked a quick kiss to my lips and got to the first line on his stencil.

While he’d sketched and workshopped the design with Vera, I’d purposely avoided the details. Wanting to put my faith inhim completely. I entrusted him with my heart and body, so this wasn’t really a hardship.

The first vibrating scrape of the needle had my back releasing a bit of the stiff apprehensive tension. The leather of the reclining seat was comfortable, and I focused on Río’s face as he worked. There was no furrow between his brows, just a smooth and relaxed expression where his black eyes were sharp behind his contact lenses.

“You ready for everything, baby?” His low voice above the buzzing was meditative, and I hummed for a moment as I thought through the question.

It was still hard for Río to not be constantly looking over his shoulder, even though it’d been months now since the pack had driven his sisters and what was left of their employees off of Antler Pointe territory. And true to their agreement, there business ventures had been abandoned, as had their interest in the region.

But, from what Río told me, as expansive as his father’s reach was, it wasn’t unreasonable that he still felt on guard about it. Hopefully, Catalina would keep her word. I could only assume that Xiomara had survived—surely if her wounds had been fatal, we would all be dead by now at the hands of his father’s vengeance.

The nightmares still happened, but they were more intermittent and less violent. The nights I’d wake up with him tossing or mumbling frantically in his sleep, I would just cuddle his head into my chest and hold him through it.

He never remembered them, but it would still take a few hours for him to bounce back to his usual self. Working for Vera, though, along with band practice, seemed to help a lot. So, when he asked me last month how I felt about doing some traveling, to share in his favorite places and explore any that I wanted toexperience, I wasn’t exactlysurprised, but it was still unlocking a new part of us, too.

“Ready like logistically or emotionally?”

He smirked, knowing full well which one was more difficult for me. He lifted the needle, wiped at my skin with a paper towel, then continued drawing over my scar. “Both.”

“Well, we don’t need to bring anything tonight. And pretty much all my shit’s packed and ready for when we leave. But. I’ll miss everyone.” The last part stuck in my throat a little bit, but I focused my mind on the adventures we were about to have.

Río got to a particularly sensitive patch of my skin, and he paused, gaze flicking my way as he sensed my rise in discomfort. I nodded for him to continue. “We can always not go, Princess.”

And chicken out of the opportunity for dedicated time with my mate? Unlikely. Since he’d been working hard at the tattoo shop, I’d taken up managing Sylvie’s socials, website, and basically become her personal assistant for all things related to her books. When her last one moved on to another job, I’d hesitantly thrown my hat in the ring.

We sat on two folding lawn chairs, overlooking the lake and the small ripples on the surface. I was finally putting that new swimsuit to good use, now, and we baked under the warm rays of the sun.“Um. Well, I know I didn’t finish. But I could put my marketing classes to good use. At least, until you find someone new.”

My sister turned, beaming at me excitedly. It was such a luminous expression that I could almost forget how she’d crouched over bodies, pulling out hearts. “Uh, first. You’re a lifesaver. Second, you’re hired! And third, the job is yours for as long as you want it.”

I opened my mouth to fight back on her automatic agreement to the idea, reminding myself what Vera and I had talked about the last time I’d seen her. Among other things,accepting the positive view of others instead of immediately trying to dismiss them was something that was especially hard for me to fully take in. “Sweet,” I forced myself to swallow my protests and concessions. “Thank you.”

She waved away my thanks as the babies’s squeals caught our attention. Behind us, Dahlia and Ollie splashed in the little inflatable pool as my mate and brother engaged in their imaginary play. After that night, when we finally had the space to assess casualties—two pack members and all but a handful of Serafim soldiers—we discovered that Orion’s left leg had been broken in two places, in addition to the scrapes and bite marks that littered his skin. Mom had been miraculously uninjured and uncharacteristically concerned about my brother’s recovery, turning into a damn hovering hen that refused to go home for another week.

But he was long out of the woods, focused on his family, pack, and career shift that was much more calming.

I turned back to Sylvie. “By the way, right before shit got scary there for a second, what kind of spell were you casting?”

She continued to watch our family play, grinning at my brother when he and Río looked over and waved. “Protection. Did you notice all the ones by the porch couldn’t use their guns or shift? My magic was still a bit drained from—when I went off on your mate,” she sent me a guilty look. “But there was enough bloodshed to push the odds in our favor. Once the bodies started to drop, it was easier to draw from the death around us.” She shrugged like that was no big deal.

I was also realizing that she probably hadn’t been joking about the blood sacrifices.“Uh. Cool.”

“No, I’m excited to go. To spend that time with you.”

Río smirked and kept his eyes on my arm. We discussed more of our travel plans and itinerary. At first, we’d planned on traveling via his motorcycle, but we’d ultimately decided againstit. This was the first trip he’d taken that wasn’t a result of running from his family, and we wanted to treat these next two months as a honeymoon of sorts. Hard to pack all we’d need for that long in a few saddlebags.

So, in the truck it was.

Río finished with my left arm before requiring me to take a break for the lunch he’d packed for the longer session. That also hadn’t changed, my mate’s concern for whether I’d been fed or not. After I inhaled the leftover tacos we’d made for double date night at our apartment, we sat again so that he could complete my other arm. Time slipped by with my mate’s careful hands on me, and when Vera walked past, she watched him for a while, smelling of approval as she nodded.

“And that’s it, baby.” Río took a last swipe of the paper towel at my arms and straightened. “You ready to look?” His wide grin gave me the courage to exhale, stretch my neck, and look down.

And, okay, yeah, I started crying. Big, fat tears that I had to blink past to take in the fine linework details of Río’s art that now lived on my skin.

“So,” he pointed, “it’s lavender, sage, and rosemary. For healing, protection, and love.” I nodded and swept my gaze over the tactfully placed sprigs and flowers that incorporated the lines of my scars instead of truly covering. Turning them into something beautiful. The designs were slightly different on each arm, but the pair of them together was a garden I would take with me always. The resting monarch butterfly on my right arm sent me into another round of tears that dripped down my chin.

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