Page 19 of What's Rogue Got To Do With It

It was nice here. I’d never deny that, but even with all the improvements we made, it didn’t quite feel like home. Larkin felt like home, but this place… something about it didn’t fit. Maybe it was being surrounded by packs and dens full of shifters whowanted no part of us. Maybe it was that the people in town were put off by us. But whatever it was, I didn’t think this was our forever home, and I hated that.

My mate had been working so hard at helping this be the place that we needed it to be. Between the internet and the garden and all the projects we’d done to fix the cabin, this place had been transformed. Maybe I was overthinking things. The run-in we’d had with those rogues a while back was still fresh in my memory.

They were supposed to ignore us. They did not. That wasn’t good, and the more I replayed the day, the more I increasingly felt unsafe.

It was illegal to try to extort money from a rogue, but what council member was gonna listen to a rogue about that? Those laws were put on the books not so much to protect the rogues, but to give a sense of order and control. That’s what the council had been about from the very beginning: control. Although I suppose that’s true with any power structure.

My dad was all about controlling our den, and look where that got him… usurped by someone who wanted the same thing. There were still days I wondered how I managed to get out of there alive, why Rayne decided to let me go. In challenges like that, the alpha’s family were often the first casualty. But even in his cruelty, I sensed that he didn’t want to do that, to slaughter me. He wanted power, absolutely, all of it, but he was fine with me leaving. And maybe that’s because he knew I would.

I had no intention of going back there until I, too, had power… enough power to take over. But that desire had waned. Things were different now that I had a mate. Priorities had shifted. My goals now always revolved around him.

“That was a delicious lunch for me.”

He took my plate for me, stood up. “When I come back here, I want you completely naked.”

And into the cabin he went.

He didn’t have to ask me twice. I was stripped down to nothing before he walked back through the door. I waited for him to step closer, thinking he was wanting to have a little after-lunch dessert, but instead, he stood in front of the door and pulled his shirt off while he kicked his shoes off, and then, far too quickly for me to enjoy the show, he too was naked.

“Ready?”

I looked him up and down. I was ready for anything, but I wasn’t really sure what he thought he was communicating.

“For?”

“Running with my wolf.” He tapped the tip of my nose.

I’d been hoping for something sexier, but at the mention of running my fox perked up. He was all about getting on all fours and romping through the woods with our mate.

“Just to be clear, we are naked to run, not to get knotty?”

He gripped the nape of my neck, pulled me close, and kissed me breathless. “I’m always down for getting a little knotty, but after we shift.”

Another hard kiss later, he jumped off the porch, shifting mid-air. You’d never be able to tell how weak and close to death he’d been when I found him. He was so vibrant, so strong, sopowerful. In a lot of ways, he was more like an alpha than an omega. It was so fucking hot.

“Fine, we can shift first.” I stuck out my tongue at his beast. I doubted he cared at all, if he noticed at all. He was ready to run.

I took my fur and waited for him to take off, thinking we were in for a game of chase. It was one of our favorites. Sometimes he would run after me, and sometimes I’d run after him, and always, in the end, we both won because we were together. But today his wolf wanted to run side by side with my fox.

We weren’t playfully gallivanting. We were doing a perimeter run, which, as someone who’d lived in a den, was pretty common for me, but he hadn’t had that growing up. This was all instinct to him.

Then, for a split second, I worried there was a reason for this action, that something was wrong. He licked my head and booped me with his nose, and all was forgotten except the two of us running around in this land that we currently called home.

11

LARKIN

The forest was our beasts’ home and they responded to us tearing between the trees as if this was their first time venturing into the woods. They leaped over rocks and tumbled over the damp forest floor while the wind ruffled their fur.

After weeks of domestic routine with me creating and tending the new garden, and Creven working long hours at the computer thanks to the recently installed wifi, my beast needed to be free. And for me, taking a back seat and leaving any problems in my human form was as good as a holiday.

This was what we'd both been missing. Not just the freedom to be in our fur but the joy of being wild together. My wolf had never experienced a partnership because we had been alone for years, always fearful whether in our fur or skin that someone would tell us to move along.

Our beasts rested on a pile of rocks and my wolf waited for Creven’s fox to decide if we played more or hunted but the fox took off, leading my wolf on a winding path through the trees until we reached a stream. We paused to drink before racingup to a steep ridge. At the summit, we could see for miles with forests stretching to the horizon.

I let myself imagine a life where we didn't have to hide and where no one would question our existence. That was a dream but it would never be our reality because we were on the outside looking in and no packs or dens wanted members who scented of desperation.

Creven’s fox lifted his head, scenting the afternoon air. He’d picked up the smell of something yummy and was already tearing down the slope and through the underbrush, his fur a flash of red against the green of the woods.

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