Ryan
“What was that for?” Aviva asks breathlessly as I pull away.
“I’m not sure. Sorry.” I clear my throat–clear my head, more like it. I’ve been out in the sun all day helping stack stone for a new house being built in the village, and apparently, that hadn’t been enough to wash Aviva’s taste from my mouth, and my body decided it needed more.
We stare at each other for a moment. Her eyes shine like fine whiskey in the sunlight cutting through the shadow all around us. The clouds move swiftly to the south, which is why I had to talk to her.
“Jacob and I are leaving in an hour with Shoshannah. I sent scouts in every direction to monitor the weather, and it looks like there’ll be a break from the rain tonight.”
“You said a week–”
“I don’t really have a week to spare,” I admit, when in reality I need to get away from her before I do anything else I’ll regret. “I also need you and Freya fully available to help out. Making sure Shoshannah stays out of trouble isn’t in the best interest of my pack at the moment.”
She runs her tongue along her lower lip, right where I’d just kissed her. No wonder Andrew chewed me out this morning. Every time I look at her, I feel like my body is at odds with my mind. I want to catch the tongue between my teeth. I want to press her to the wall of the pack house and run my hand up her inner thigh until I find–I need to fucking chill.
“But I’m going with you back to Endova.”
“No, you’re staying here.”
She shakes her head. “I’m going.
I arch a brow. “You’re staying. That’s final.”
“Why?”
“Because I can be there in less than four hours if Shoshannah rides on Jacob’s back. I don’t want you running off to hunt or chase rogues and slowing us down. You’re also the Luna now. You need to be here–with our pack. I’ve already spoken to some of the women, and they’re eager to learn from you.”
“Learn what?” She sneers, crossing her arms under her breasts. “How to hunt? That's all I know how to do.”
I lean back and run my hand through my hair. “Freya is really good with a loom, I’ve heard.”
“Well, I’m not very good at it. She can teach them.”
“I have something for you,” I cut in, closing my eyes as the words spill out in a tone I hadn’t intended, rushed and edged with frustration, and when I open my eyes, I notice the hurt on Aviva’s face. I take her by the arm, trying to pull her from the wall, but she digs in her heels. “You’re going to want to see this, okay?”
She grunts with annoyance but follows me up to our house. Afternoon sunlight spills over the floorboards as I close the door behind us, closeting us in silence.
Aviva has already seen what I brought her here for, though. Her shoulders go rigid, and she takes an excited breath before snatching the bow off the kitchen table and wrapping her fingers around it. She examines it closely, studying the craftsmanship on the limb and back, running her fingertips over the wood and metal details. The bowstring is reinforced, thanks to Andrew. He also made several arrows, some totally metal, and Seth carved wooden ones with metal tips. The grip was my design. It’s small enough for her hand and made from a piece of leather that came from the mountain goat we brought back from Fell Valley.
I’d been planning this gift since then, designing it in my mind. I’d never seen someone look so hurt like she had when I watched her gathering the pieces of her broken bow.
Silence hangs in the air between us for several minutes as I watch her take it in. I can practically see the gears turning behind her eyes as her fingers dance over the bowstring. Quick as lightning, she reaches for an arrow resting in the quiver on the table and loads it, the tip pointed at my heart.
I don’t even flinch. I’d be a happy man if she was the one who cast my final blow. I’d probably deserve it.
“Do you like it?”
“It’s smaller than my old one.”
“Your old bow was too big for you,” I tell her, walking around to get a better look at the bow now that she has it flexed. Her muscles are tight as she pulls back on the arrow, a metal one, which Andrew told me would be heavier than she’s used to. The arrow sings through the air as she lets it fly. It pierces through a log near the front door, sticking out by a few inches. “Thank you,” I growl. “I needed a new coat hook.”
But Aviva lets out her breath, her shoulders relaxing as she looks up at me and I see…. Thank the Goddess, that’s happiness in her eyes.
“So you like it?”
“I do. Thank you.”
“I figured since I didn’t have a ring for you, I owed you something for our very brief engagement.”
She furrows her brows. “A ring?”
“Back in Crescent Falls, when people get married, they exchange rings.” I reach for her, gently pinching her left ring finger. “They wear them here as a signal that they’re taken.”
She slings the bow over her back with practiced grace. “We get tattoos.”
Now I’m furrowing my brows. “Really? Where?”
“Same place. If you mean to stay married to me, you’ll have a tattoo on your finger, a symbol of our own design to signify our union.” She holds my gaze without blinking, like she’s testing me.
“I mean to stay married until you find your mate.”
“It won't matter if I do.”
“You say that now, but you don’t know–”
“What it feels like? I don’t.” She huffs a breath and turns from me, picking up the new quiver and examining the leather straps that will fit along her back. “Do mates wear rings as well?”
“No.” I feel like I’m suddenly in front of a hot flame. “They don’t.”
“What do they do, then?” She looks over her shoulder at me. She’s still wearing that long, pink dress, but has it bunched up around her waist to show off her calves, the excess fabric tucked into her knife belt. The straps slip off her slim shoulder, showing off her golden skin and the constellations of freckles I’d love to count one day. Her hair, normally wild, is tied back with a ribbon at the base of her neck with little red curls forming a halo around her face, and I’m… drowning.
I lick my lip to stop them from trembling as I say, “They bite each other.”
“How romantic.”
“They bite to leave a mark.” I touch her shoulder, smoothing a finger toward the crook of her neck. “Usually here. Or along the shoulder blade, or the spine.” I feel her pulse quicken as she slowly turns to face me, and my finger dips along her collarbone, lower, lower…. “Sometimes in places far more intimate. Wherever it feels right.”
“Where did you mark your mate?”
Fuck, Aviva knows exactly where and how to hurt me.
“I didn’t mark her.”
“Then was she really your mate?”
“It’s something you feel.”
“You need to be more specific.” She bats my hand away and turns back to the quiver, sifting through the arrows.
Standing behind her, I take a breath and let it out through my nose. Are mates so rare in this part of the world that people have really forgotten what it feels like?
“It’s like… tasting color. Seeing things you could only feel before.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Neither does the bond.” I notice the way her hands tighten on the arrows. “Don’t go too far away from the village tonight, but you have my permission to hunt, not that telling you no would have done anything. Take Freya with you.”
“You think Freya is going to protect me in the event I get into trouble?” She looks at me over her shoulder, the corner of her mouth ticking into a smile.
“No, but you’d be too busy keeping her safe to even think about doing anything stupid.”
Her smile grows into something real, something with feeling, and that’s enough for me.
* * *
We left Silverhide in the late afternoon. Shoshannah rode on Jacob’s back, and I was thankful that there hadn’t been a tearful goodbye between the sisters. If anything, I think Shoshannah decided that it was best she leave instead of allowing the anger Aviva obviously felt toward what she’d done fester any more than it had to.
Shoshannah stayed quiet and serious for the first half of the journey until we had to cross the creek, which had, thankfully, gone down quite a bit, but then demanded to walk for a while, citing numb legs and boredom.
So, now we’re walking, two wolves and a ten-year-old girl who can talk like no one I’ve ever met before.
“Aviva can beat up anybody,” she says as we reach the forest wrapped around her village, which means, in ten miles, she’ll be home and safe as long as she doesn’t run away again. “But I’m going to be stronger than her one day. Father thinks I’ll be tall like Mercy, so that means I’ll be taller than Aviva. Mother wasn’t very tall, I guess, so I’ll get my height from Father. And then I’ll be about to beat up Aviva, and she won’t be able to do anything about it.”
Jacob glances at me with a wolfish grin on his face as we continue to flank either side of the young girl, who is now talking about birds and frogs, and how she once caught a frog and put it under Mercy’s pillow.
But I notice something that makes my fur stand on end. Aviva had mentioned something to me that night when she killed those rogues. The birdsong. How the birdsong quieted to nothing, and that’s how she knew we weren’t alone anymore.
It’s silent in the woods right now other than Shoshannah’s lifted voice. I glance at Jacob. ‘Something’s wrong.’
“Mercy chased me around with a broom, but I’m faster than her, so she couldn’t catch me. She scared the frog so bad it peed in her bed because she screamed at it, but I hid from her so I wouldn’t have to wash her blankets. Now, when she sees a frog, she screams–”
Something whizzes through the air right above my head and lodges itself in a tree nearby. Jacob sees it too, a second too late. More arrows fly toward us, but Shoshannah is still talking, unaware that we’re suddenly under attack.
Then a yell rips through the air, followed by the sound of thundering feet and paws, and I grab Shoshannah by the fabric of her dress and toss her headlong into a thicket of heather before turning toward our attackers with a snarl.
‘These aren’t Endovian warriors!’ Jacob shouts through the mind-link as the first wolf jumps out of the woods with its jaw open wide as it careens through the air and knocks into my side.
‘Get Shoshannah and GO!’ I shout, rolling with the enemy wolf, its teeth ripping into my thick fur. More arrows follow, and we’re trapped, unable to run, and Shoshannah is still in the bushes. Jacob barrels over the wolf currently clamped down on my shoulder, sending it rolling into a tree. A sharp yelp follows as I rush to my feet and face the five warriors, all in their human forms, jumping out of the dense trees.
Arrows are pointed in my face. Blades are drawn. Jacob can’t safely get Shoshannah and run until we deal with these men.
A sick, twisting feeling settles in my gut. Is Endova under attack too? This is their territory, after all. Did we walk right into a conflict with a child in tow?
I bare my teeth, snarling, and Jacob does the same a few feet away from me as the warriors close in, grinning from ear to ear.
‘I’ll take two, you take the rest,’ Jacob says into my mind.
‘Once they’re down, get her out of here.’
We lunge at the same time, crashing into the warriors, ignoring the blades and arrows, and tear them to shreds.
It’s a madhouse. The first man I take down tries to shift, but I close my teeth around his throat before he can do it, his blood filling my mouth. Jacob roars as he barrels through the two warriors he called dibs on, tearing them to pieces in a matter of seconds.
Something sharp grazes my back as I turn to the final enemy in the group. Jacob steps to my side, his mouth dark red with blood as we snarl at the man only a few feet away, holding a spear with my blood staining the tip.
I hear Shoshannah sobbing as I lunge at the man, and he shifts in a burst of light before tearing through the woods and out of sight, the spear left behind.
My heart races as I turn and run back to where we left Shoshannah. I lift her out of the bushes, nudging her with my snout.
‘Your back is flayed open,’ Jacob says into my mind.
‘It’s a flesh wound. It’s nothing.’
Jacob steps beside me anyway, nudging Shoshannah until she grabs his fur and hoists herself onto his back, her cheeks wet with tears and eyes wide with terror, but she’s safe and whole, not a single scratch on her skin.
‘What the fuck was that about?’
‘I don’t know,’ I reply, turning back toward the road. ‘But we need to get to Endova, now.’