Page 53 of Shadow Wolf
Vicki sat up and crossed her legs, she was only wearing her sleep shorts and tee and Liam’s gaze went straight to her bare legs.
“You need to get it checked out if it burns. That could be a sexual transmitted infection… or worse… disease.”
Liam just laughed and said “yeah right, shifters don’t get that.” But Vicki cocked her head at him. Liam looked to Frankie. “We don’t, right?” Frankie just laughed as he pushed his cousin out the door. He ran back in to put his shorts and tee on as fast as he could. Kiss my lips before running out and closing the door behind him.
I sighed and melted into the bed. There was food and coffee and I ached in all the right places. The best night ever.
***
It had been weeks, and every day it was perfect. Frankie had been designing my first tattoo. I told him that I'd always wanted to get one, my parents hated tattoos and I always thought it was to rebel against them. But I knew now it wasn't. I wanted some ink that meant something special to me, that I could carry around with me always.
He had been designing in secret and wouldn’t let me see. Said he would show me when the time was right.
I had spent a lot of time with Alex, it was nice. He was a good kid and needed a stable home life. Frankie provided that as best he could, but the more he was with me, the more Alex was left with his mom.
I knew that Frankie hated it. I did too. I had seen her passed out in her own vomit only a week back, when I was with Frankie. He raced back home after a frantic phone call from Alex. I took Alex with me into their shared room, and I sang to him. I wasn’t a good singer, but I wanted to block out most of what he could hear. He could hear a lot being a shifter, but I asked him to focus on my voice and we sang together.
It had happened five more times since then, and every time Frankie gave me that look, like he didn't want me to be there to see this, but that he was grateful that I was. I’ll always stay.
No matter what life can throw at him, he was able to roll with it. He was the strongest person I had ever met. I loved him deeply, I knew he was end game. I wanted him forever. I wanted to get a job so we could move somewhere, just the three of us. But Frankie didn’t want to leave his mom.
I understood. He was all she really had left. The only person to come pick her up off the floor and care for her. It was sad, she was so thin… wasting away, and Alex had to see that. Had been seeing that his whole life.
My parents had called me to tell me they were spending time in Florida, some conference thing. I didn’t care where they were, as long as they weren’t with me.
But then I had an idea. If they weren’t home… Maybe this was a good time to go back. Speak to Jett and Mekhi. I had brought it up with Frankie. I was nervous as hell when I told him what I was planning. Worried he would be upset, as I hadn’t mentioned them in almost a month.
“Go, you need this. It will be good for you.” He kissed me, and we made love for hours.
Vicki found herself hanging out with Seamus a lot more these days, and I thought it was funny, because he was starting to get on her nerves. He still creeped me out.
So that was how I found myself sitting in the rental car Vicki paid for, outside the gates of the Lovell’s house in Kiba, Washington.
The gates opened and ran my hand through my hair. It was out, long and free. Just how Jett and Mekhi always liked it. My other hand gripped the steering wheel, willing myself to go through. I could see it was Elijah Jones at the gate. He waved me in, but my heart raced. What if they didn’t want to see me? Like, this was a huge mistake.
I let out a deep breath when I heard the sirens of a patrol car. I looked in my mirror, Fuck. Kiba police. They were right behind me. They whooped a couple of times and I put the car into drive and moved through the gate. I tried to hide behind my hair as I passed Elijah, I didn’t want him seeing how messed up I was to be here.
I parked and turned the ignition off. My fingers tingled as I messed with my handbag. Pretending I was looking for something just to gain some courage to open the door and do this. Shit, I should have called ahead. What if they weren’t even home?
Maybe Ranger would be, and I could speak to him… tell him how sorry I was that I didn’t know who he was. I bet he was just as confused at the encounter down in Watson that day as I was.
There was a rapping at the car window, and I jumped in my seatbelt, it felt like it was pinning me to the car. I looked out and saw the cop uniform, but that was all I could see. Oh shit. Was I in trouble?
I undid my seatbelt, and the cop opened the door.
“Get out.” The voice was deep and commanding
Holy shit, was I about to get arrested?
Chapter35
Clare
Imoved out of the car and turned around to ask the officer what I had done wrong when huge arms engulfed me, and I was shocked. I stood still for a moment until I realized it was Nash Lovell.
That didn’t make this any better, Nash… we had never hugged.Ever.
“I missed you so much, Clare.” He took a step back and held my arms, steadying me. I looked around and there was no one else around.
