Chapter 14
A few hours into their hike, Zane spread out a blanket on some flat ground next to two large boulders and, beckoning to his mate, said, “After you, babe. Welcome to your first picnic.”
Sitting down with his legs crossed, David exclaimed, “This has been the best day of my life! Did you see the deer look at us when we came up over that last hill? I thought maybe I could pet one, but they ran away. At least I think they were deer because I’ve only read about them and never saw a real one. ”
Sitting next to his mate, Zane said, “Where I live in California, there are deer roaming on our pack lands but they’re a different species from those we saw today.” Passing the canteen to his mate, Zane dug out the food and spread it out, before saying, “Help yourself, babe.”
Picking up some beef jerky, David bit off a piece and began to chew it, still preoccupied with the scenery. “I never knew Scotland was this amazing. Do you know who Brian is?”
“I know he’s a shifter but couldn’t figure out what kind. Shit, that didn’t bother me…I was more worried about pissing him off because we landed on his boat in the middle of the night.”
Giggling, David said, “Sorry about that. It was the only place I could think of. After I arrived in Scotland, I met Brian at the Wolf Pack Pub. I had just started and was deathly afraid of screwing up, so I was very nervous waiting on him. But he was so sweet to me, helping by telling me what I should do next…basically he taught me how to be a waiter that night.”
“You hadn’t ever done that before?”
“No. By the end of the night, I was so grateful for his help, I paid for his dessert. I would have paid for his whole dinner but didn’t have a lot of money saved…so all I could afford was his dish of ice cream.”
“That’s how you became friends?”
“Uh-huh. He gave me his card and told me to call him for a free boat ride. I wasn’t sure if I should, but later Morgan praised me for doing a good job that night and I told him how Brian helped me.
He said that Brian was a good person. I finally worked up my nerve to call him about four months later, just before my day off, hoping he’d remember he made the offer and didn’t think I was trying to trick him to get something for nothing. ”
“And did he?”
David nodded, grinning. “He did…came and picked me up. We spent the day out on Loch Ness and it was so much fun…swimming and fishing…stuff I never did before. I caught a big fish but threw it back because it was panicking when it couldn’t breathe.”
“How big?”
“Like this,” David said, spreading his hands about two feet apart.
“Wow! That was the first fish you ever caught?”
“It was.”
“Wait till Theo and Norman hear about this. They’re going to want to go fishing with you.”
“I’m not going fishing anymore.”
“Why not?”
“I didn’t like seeing the fear in the fish’s eyes when I was holding it.”
Zane searched David’s face and saw sadness had crept back into his eyes. Mentally thumping himself for causing it, he seized upon the other thing his mate had done that day. “Did you enjoy your first time swimming?”
“Oh yes. Brian taught me how. I loved it! At first, I was sure I would sink to the bottom but he showed me how to float on my back, then on my stomach with my face in the water…he called it the dead man’s float, funny name…then he had me kicking my legs and soon I was swimming.”
“Maybe we can do that sometime.”
“Fantastic! Maybe we can go with Brian again.”
“Sounds good to me. Do you want anything more to eat?”
“No, I’m stuffed.”
“Okay,” Zane said, putting leftovers back in the pack. “We should head back, babe.”
“Oh, okay,” David said, disconsolately.
“Babe, not that I want to, believe me. But see those clouds over there?” Zane said, pointing over David’s shoulder.
Twisting around to see what his mate was pointing at, he said, “Yes, what about them?”
“If I’m not mistaken, there’s a storm heading our way and I want to make sure we’re back in our cottage before it hits,” Zane said, rising and pulling David up with him.
“Got it. Let’s go,” David said, trying to keep his growing fear at bay.
Zane heard the worry in his mate’s voice but it wasn’t the time to ask about it.
The clouds were building by the minute. Taking David’s hand, Zane started back the way they’d come, only now, he set a faster pace.
Keeping one eye on the fast approaching storm, he calculated they weren’t going to make it back in time.
Stopping, he dug out the blanket and wrapped it around David. “Keep it tight around you, babe.”
“We aren’t going to make it, are we?” David said, his voice trembling.
“We’ll be fine. C’mon.” After hearing the unease in his mate’s voice, Zane walked faster, checking to make sure David was able to keep up.
He was sure this was another first for his mate but he was intent on making it a good memory.
After twenty minutes had passed, Zane admitted defeat.
There wasn’t any rain yet, but a thick fog had enveloped them; he could barely see his feet much less the path.
If he strayed from it, they’d be lost, with a very cold night approaching. He came to a halt.
“Why did you stop?”
“Babe, I’m going to shift and I want you to climb onto me and hang on. It’s the only way I can find our way back to Brian’s cabin.”
“I’m too big for you to carry me. Why don’t I pop us back to the cabin?”
“Can you do that?”
David looked around nervously, “I think so. I never did it in the fog before.”
“Why does it matter?”
“Uhm, it shouldn’t but I usually see where I’m landing. And I haven’t ever used it very much…until I met you.”
“Gotcha, so now’s not the time to experiment.
From what I read, storms can come fast in the Highlands so let’s do it the tried and true way.
And in answer to your other question, believe me, you’re not too big,” Zane said.
“Babe, it’s the only way. I can’t see the path anymore but my wolf will be able to follow our scent and get us back to the cabin,” Zane said, pulling David close and hugging him. “Trust me?”
Shivering, David nodded, then watched as Zane stripped naked.
The emotions stirring inside of him were unfamiliar but he knew he wanted to touch those muscles and feel the hardness under his fingers.
Swallowing hard, he shifted his gaze away, unsure what it all meant.
Listening as the sounds of shifting reached his ears, David swiveled his eyes back and gasped…
in front of him was a huge, beautiful white wolf.
When Zane’s wolf lowered his head, David tentatively reached out to touch the soft fur between the ears, then buried his fingers in it.
Lost in the sensation, it wasn’t until Zane’s wolf bumped him before lowering his front legs that David regained control of himself.
After storing the blanket and Zane’s clothes in the backpack, David looped his arms through the straps and climbed onto his mate’s back.
Once David leaned forward, hugging his neck, Zane rose and, keeping his nose close to the ground, followed their scents until they reached the cabin.
Once inside, Zane realized it was not a moment too soon; the weather had become so foul, he’d be hard pressed to see his hand in front of his face.
Finding dry clothes for both of them, he started a fire to warm the cottage, then made a bed of blankets in front of the fireplace.
After making sure David was comfortable, Zane hung their wet clothes around the room to dry.
“Zane, come sit down with me,” David said, patting the spot next to him.
“In a minute, babe, I’m just making us some hot tea,” Zane replied.
When the teapot whistled, Zane poured the tea into two mugs and, handing his mate one of them, joined him on the blankets.
Listening to the crackling and snapping of the fire, Zane smiled, thinking about the many camping trips he and his brothers had gone on. “Babe, did you ever go camping?”
“Do you mean in a tent?”
“Yeah.”
“No, never. Have you?”
“Lots of times with my brothers when I was younger. Maybe when we get back to California, we can go on a camping trip. It’ll be another first for you.”
David’s body stiffened at the mention of leaving Scotland. It wasn’t possible, not now, but how was he going to explain that to Zane.
Noticing his mate’s reaction, Zane figured it had to do with his secrets but the only way he could put his mate at ease was to get everything out in the open.
Ignoring that for now, Zane began, “Babe, I have so much to tell you I just hope you’ll still want to claim me when I’m finished.
No, don’t promise anything until you hear everything.
Let’s see. I was the middle child in a big family…
six siblings older and six younger…so it was always a struggle to get noticed.
That sounds bad. What I meant was my father was always focused on Jackson because he was the oldest, so he spent a lot of time teaching him how to lead a pack.
My mother spent a lot of time with my younger siblings, so I was free to do what I wanted…
and that was computers. I spent hours in my room learning to code, and how to build my own computers so I could explore the web.
I had web friends all over the world which struck me as so cool.
Here I was, a skinny, gangly kid sitting in a house in California and I could talk to anyone I wanted to, any place in the world.
It was mind boggling for a nine-year old kid.
Every so often, my mother would kick me out of my room and make me go camping with my older brothers. ”
“So that’s why you asked me about camping.”
“Yup. We had so much fun and I really got to know my other siblings in a way I couldn’t at home, except for Kota. I was always close to him.”
“Why?”
“Well, Jackson and Logan always hung out together. Cody, Colton and Carson were thick as thieves. Dakota…Kota for short…was closest in age to me so we always paired off.”
“What about your other six siblings?”
“They were much younger. My mother had a number of miscarriages after me, so I was six by the time the next pup was born.”
“When did you get interested in computers?”
“Six. The new pup cried so much, I ended up hiding out in my room to escape it. That’s when Jackson gave me his old computer because our grandparents had bought him a new one.
One day, I was so fuckin’ bored…because Kota was busy helping mom in the kitchen…
I finally turned on that computer and found my whole world just got a lot bigger.
From that point on, I was hooked. By the time I was nine, I had written several programs and had a network of worldwide friends who were into computers, just like me. ”
“What did your family think about it?”
“Jackson always encouraged me. Whatever I needed…well, wanted really…he would sweet talk our grandparents into buying for me so by the time I was twelve, my entire bedroom was swimming with computers.”
“How about your parents?”
“My mom, she was great, always supported me. One time, I wrote this program to measure the efficiency of a person’s movement and I showed her what it could do so she told my grandfather about it.
He came to see it, said it was nice, then left.
What I didn’t know is that he contacted several big companies and sold my program to them.
I was over the moon when I found out about it. ”
“How old were you, then?”
“Let’s see… fifteen. It was then I knew what I wanted to do the rest of my life.”
“Was your father okay with that?”
“I guess he thought it was okay…I don’t really know because we never talked about what I was doing with computers. He was more interested in how well I could fight, since I was an Alpha.”
“I thought only Jackson was an Alpha.”
“Jackson’s the Alpha of the Blackwood Pack because you can have only one, but me and my brothers are all Alpha wolves…meaning anyone of us could lead a pack.”
David thought for a moment. “Is it usual to have so many Alphas in a family?”
Shrugging his shoulders, Zane replied, “I don’t really know. It was just how it was in my family. We always got along and after my parents were killed, we were closer than ever. We had to be because our lives depended on it.”
“I never had anyone I could count on like that except my mother,” said David, wistfully.
Zane felt his mate’s pain in his heart and saw the sadness reflected in David’s eyes, but without knowing the cause of it, he was at a loss to fix it, so he said the first thing that popped into his head, “You do now, babe. You have me and my brothers and everyone else in the Blackwood Pack.”
A small smile graced David’s face when he heard Zane’s words.
It would be so nice if that were true as he was exhausted dealing with all the uncertainties in his life.
How it had become so complicated was something he was still trying to figure out.
When he came up with his escape plan, it all seemed so simple, yet it hadn’t turned out that way.
He knew he’d had some good luck along the way, but it never was enough to offset the torment that ruled his life.
Even though he was far from home, it followed him like the storm they’d run into today.
Unwilling to dwell further on what was wrong with his life, David asked, “Is there any more tea?”