Page 50 of Hunted By Wolves and Shadow
What must that be like? I wasn't sure anyone had ever known me well enough to trust me like they did him.
I wasn't foolish enough to mistake Fawn's kindness for trust. She was open with me because Wolf had vouched for me, and that was enough for her. I'd never been enough for anyone. Not like this.
I excused myself with another thank you to Fawn for her hospitality and went to him.
“Tired?” he asked as I approached.
I only nodded because I didn't trust myself to speak. My mind was too busy, my emotions too raw.
He draped an arm around my shoulder like we'd done this a hundred times before. Like it didn't set me alight everywhere I felt the warmth of his body against mine. “Come on. I'll get some extra bedding, and we can grab some sleep.”
It didn't escape me that everyone slept in the open here, or at most behind small screens. There was no privacy, no doors to lock, so I supposed I should have assumed that I would sleep somewhere close to Wolf. It's just…
“Don't worry. The Mist can't get in here. It's safe, and I'll be right beside you.”
“The Mist? Is that why…at the cottage?”
“Why I took the bedroom and left you on the couch?” He grinned that wolfish grin I loved so much.
No, not loved. Not…whatever this full feeling was in my chest.
He was handsome, that was all. More so now that I could look without the veil of hate.
He laughed. “Yes, witchling, that's why. I needed to lock myself in, just in case the Mist could invade the cottage. I couldn't risk shifting with you so close by while I didn't trust you. My wolf would have seen you as a threat.”
“But you didn’t?”
“Did I say that?” He drew me tight to his side and whispered in my ear. “You were always a threat to me, kitten. You still are.”
Heat bubbled through me. I felt powerful yet unsettled at the same time. It was an odd and confusing mix, so I focused on my steps and followed him to a small fire that had been left to burn alone in a ring of blackened stones. Someone had already banked it for the night and left a stack of blankets to warm in its glow next to the shoulder-height privacy screen. It was surprisingly intimate with just the two of us in the warm firelight of the small space that must be Wolf’s.
“Do you need help out of your corset belt?”
“What? No!” I clutched my waist. How did being alone with Wolf again make me more jumpy than being around all his people who might rightly wish me harm? After all those days at the cottage, just the two of us, I should have been more used to his company. Yet my heart jumped and fluttered in the sleepy hush that had fallen over the enclave.
“Relax, witchling. You’re safe here. I won’t let anything happen to you. I just thought you might sleep more comfortably without it. You probably noticed, we’re rather informal here. Comes with the shifting territory, I’m afraid.”
I had noticed. Specifically, I’d noticed that several of the residents spent time walking around stark naked or wrapped in nothing but a blanket. No one seemed to care. They’d all seen each other’s bodies as they came and went from the Mist. I’d noted the clothes hanging from protruding branches near the entrance and realized that they must all shed and re-don clothing when entering and exiting, so there was aforced comfort with nudity when they had no other choice. Surprisingly, I found the notion didn’t scandalize me. It felt almost freeing. The constant need to be proper and perfect was just…not here.
“I can do it myself,” I told Wolf, and went about the task of unlacing my overgarments. Once I was down to my chemise and slip, I looked up and found him standing arrested with blankets spilling from his arms. He looked like he’d faltered in the middle of arranging them into two beds side-by-side, and a flush darkened the smattered freckles on his neck before he tore his eyes away and rededicated himself to his task. My stomach flip-flopped.
Then he stripped off his tunic leaving him in only loose trousers that hung low on his hips, revealing every defined muscle and biteable curve, and it was my turn to look away with a blush. It wasn’t fair that I could feel him grinning, the arrogant wart-head. There was a disappointing lack of malice behind the name-calling in my head.
It was the strangest thing. Going to bed in an unfamiliar place full of people who’d been complete strangers only that morning, I somehow felt lighter than I could remember feeling in my own home. The people here looked after each other, helped each other, and lifted each other up in a way that was both completely foreign and deeply soothing. That they cared about each other was evident in every interaction I’d witnessed, in every laugh and comforting touch, every shared meal and passed item. They were a community. A family in the purest sense, full of love and belonging.
“Here you go,” Wolf said, gesturing to the set up closest to the fire. “I gave you the feather pillow. Call it my way of apologizing for relegating you to the couch all those nights.”
“It wasn’t so bad,” I offered. “Thank you for protecting me even if I didn’t understand that’s what you were doing.”
“Always will.” His voice was soft, as were his eyes.
As I lay down beside Wolf for the first time ever, it should have been awkward, yet it felt almost familiar. With a blossoming warmth inside me staving off the chill, I settled under the blankets and thought, in my pleasantly drowsy haze, that I could imagine more nights like this. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the feather pillow.
Chapter 23
Wolf
Iwoke early to find Emi curled against my side. At some point she’d found her way across her own bed and now her cheek rested against my chest while one arm was thrown across my waist. There was no denying the effect it had on my body, and I didn’t just mean the way my lungs constricted when she gave a soft snort and shifted closer.
