Page 18 of Sweethearts and Savages
I nodded and watched Hannah race ahead of us, students dodging her like she was a missile. Which she kind of was. Injuring Hannah, even accidentally, would bring the ire of Micah down on your head, and everyone was scared as hell of our Lycanthrope father. Unnecessarily, of course. The man was as soft-hearted as they came. He hadn’t even blinked when Layla had insisted they adopt two science experiments into their family. Instead, Micah, Alistair and Locke had loved us unconditionally.
I didn’t try and analyse why they loved us when we were a visual representation of the worst time in their lives, I just soaked in their love. Especially that of Layla, our mother.
Daniel didn’t say much else and Hannah zoomed around on slightly unsteady legs as we walked along the uneven paths. In order to minimize detection, they kept the area around the Academy as natural as possible. No concrete paths and only one real cleared field. Even the livestock wandered among the treed fields.
We stepped through the gated fence to the medicinal garden, and my eyes went straight to Enit. She was on her hands and knees, muttering under her breath about weeds.
I cleared my throat and her head popped up like she was a meerkat shifter.
“Stace! You’re early!” She climbed to her feet and spotted Daniel. “Daniel!”
She raced over to see my older brother. They’d gotten along well when we were kids, Daniel being one of the few people that Enit’s brother didn’t growl at. Maybe it was because Daniel was human, maybe because Christopher and Daniel could relate on a deeper, more dysfunctional level—I wasn’t sure. Men were a mystery even to me.
Enit threw herself into his arms and he hugged her back. “It’s good to see you, E. We’ve missed you.”
Her eyes darted between me and my brother, not missing thewein his words. He could have meant the family, but we all knew he was referring to me. I chose to ignore the bluntness of his words.
She bit her lip and gave a tight nod. “I missed you guys too.” Hannah peeked out between mine and Daniel’s legs. “Who’s this?” Her smile was bright and warm, and I could spot the exact moment Hannah became enamoured with the Omega wolf. Although technically not the same genus as wolf shifters, there was still that draw. Hannah would be as susceptible to Enit’s Omega traits as the rest of the shifter population, even if it wouldn’t produce the same visceral response as it did in wolf shifters.
“This is Hannah.”
“No way? Baby Hannah? How’d you get so big?” she cooed at my sibling, who was now pushing past our legs and climbing Enit like a tree. She’d been a few months old when Enit and I had drifted apart.
Hannah looked at her very seriously. “Broccoli.”
Enit snorted, but gave her an equally serious nod. “Ah. Makes sense. Want to go pick some flowers for me? See those white ones on that bush there? You can pick them all and put them in this jar. What do you think?” She held out a glass jar and Hannah whooped with joy as she took off running, the jar tucked under her arm. The flowers were chamomile, completely harmless, and this was grown-up approved destruction. Right in Hannah’s wheelhouse.
Daniel’s phone chimed and he grinned. “Can you guys watch Hannah for a little bit? I’ll be back in like, an hour, I promise.”
I frowned but nodded. Enit raised an eyebrow. “I know that grin. It’s an ‘I got a girl’ grin. Who’s the lucky woman?”
Daniel mock-zipped his lips and then in the next moment, he was gone. Enit sat down on the corner of a raised garden, and patted the spot beside her. I sat down close enough that I could feel the heat of her body against mine.
“How was your date the other day?” I asked softly, keeping my voice completely neutral like I had no vested interest in her answer.
“He bought me ducks.”
I frowned. I’d seen the picnic basket. There were no ducks in it. “Like, on a sandwich?”
Enit threw back her head and laughed, the sound so pure that my heart constricted in my chest and I had to remind my body that it physically needed to breathe.
She nudged me with her shoulder. “No. Not on a sandwich. He’d put them in the pond. There are ducklings too—you should take the kids down to see them sometime.”
I raised my eyebrows, reassessing the Alpha. No, Bohdie. I was to call him Bohdie. That was a smart move. Enit’s Omega nature was naturally drawn to vulnerable things, to nurturing and nature. Not saying she was designed to love baby things, but she’d evolved to temper the harsher nature of an Alpha, and that meant caring for the weak and vulnerable, not just protecting them. To do that, it meant you had tocare.And that was the real danger to Enit. She was incapable of harming another living being. “That sounds… nice.”
“It was.” She looked at me out of the corner of her eye, though her focus was on Hannah to ensure she didn’t hurt herself. “He told me he spoke to you.”
I froze. I didn’t breathe. Didn’t blink. I couldn’t even make my mouth form an O.
She turned, her eyes traveling over every inch of my face. Then she leaned forward and kissed me.
I sat like a statue, my body completely locked up as her lips brushed mine, sipping at them with the barest of touches. Then her tongue flicked out, running over my bottom lip, and a small, shuddering sound escaped my throat. I closed my eyes and deepened the kiss slightly, tasting her on my tongue.
Oh no.
I broke the kiss, stood so fast my head spun, scooped up Hannah and the jar of chamomile flowers, and ran out of there as fast as I could go.
I didn’t look back at Enit’s stunned face.
