Page 59 of Reclaiming Home

Holden huffed as if amused, and Carys laughed.

“We’ll go inside while you do your thing. We’ll lock the door just in case. It’s going to be fine. Go and run. Howl or something when you get back.”

He got to his feet, then stuck his cold nose against my neck, making me squeak.

“I guess I deserved that. Now go.”

They waited to walk us to the front of the house, and I could tell they wouldn’t go before we were inside and Brodie heard the big key in the lock.

Carys peered out of the window by the door, then snorted when I turned the key. “Aaand there they go!”

We went to the kitchen and camped out there with our entertainment and, later, snacks. Carys got tired at one point, so I told her to go to bed. Begrudgingly, she admitted that was a great idea, which told me how much all the cooking and general fussing about today had taken out of her.

I nursed my nighttime coffee and read more about wolves while I waited for mine to come back home. Eventually, sometime around two-thirty, I heard a quiet howl and grinned. I closed the laptop and went to open the door.

Because I knew Brodie would be mad if I didn’t, I glanced out of the window to see if I recognized the wolves. Which, I did,because it was Brodie and Holden coming back, but it felt good to prove to him that I’d listened to him when he talked about how to stay safe.

I unlocked the door and opened it to two happy wolves. They were panting, tongues hanging from their mouths, and I picked off some twigs from Brodie’s fur when he went past me. I tossed the twigs on the porch and closed the door behind them.

Brodie went to change first, and it took only a minute for him to both shift and put on his sweats and tank.

Holden went into the utility room, and Brodie closed the door behind him for privacy.

He walked to me and gathered me into his arms.

“Hi,” he said hoarsely, as if being a wolf for the evening had made his vocal chords forget how to human.

“Hi,” I whispered, then pressed against him and hugged him back.

His scent was intoxicating. Everything about his woodsy, musky scent was heightened by the shifting. He smelled clean, even though there was probably a mess of whatever had fallen off of his fur when he shifted back in the utility room. I was sure I’d missed detritus while I was picking parts of the woods off him, after all.

As if reading my thoughts, he murmured, “I’ll clean the utility room tomorrow. I need a shower before bed. My feet are dirty.”

I glanced down to his smudged toes and smiled, then grabbed his hand to check them, too. “Can you wash your hands?”

He smiled a bit tiredly, but went to the kitchen sink to get the worst of the dirt off.

We were standing by the counters, cuddling, when Holden finally re-emerged. It had taken him nearly ten minutes to shift back, but Brodie had told me that could happen to bitten wolves after a full moon run. Normally it wouldn’t take that long, but sometimes it did.

“This was great,” Holden said, his tone hoarse and tired like Brodie’s. “I’m going to head out, but I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”

Brodie let go of me to give Holden that same not-quite bro hug he’d given him when Holden arrived.

“Good night!” I told Holden when he passed me on his way out.

“Night!”

As soon as the door closed behind Holden, Brodie went to lock it. Then he came back into the kitchen and something flipped in his demeanor.

His wolf was still close, but this time the animalistic, almost predatory expression was aimed at me in a way that made me feel… coveted.

I felt like running so that he could chase me down, but I couldn’t with Carys asleep upstairs.

Instead, I backed away until I was in the utility room doorway, then ducked inside with a wolf at my heels.

He grabbed me and lifted me on top of the ancient washer in a move fast enough to make me yelp and laugh.

Then he was kissing me and tugging at my clothes.

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