20. Apollo
Apollo
“I could get used to this…” I drawled, dancing my fingers down Kedi’s spine and watching as goosebumps chased my touch. The sheet was draped over the cusp of his shapely ass, and I was thoroughly enjoying being the one to do the teasing.
We still hadn’t gotten out of bed, and it was after ten. Living in the Order, there was no such thing as lazy days. There was always work to be done, gardening, feeding the chickens, training… and killing. Just lying in bed with my mate was the most welcome change to my routine.
“What’s this one?” I asked.
Kedi craned his neck around as if he could see what I was pointing at from that angle. “Which one?”
“The one that looks like a banana.”
He snorted. “It’s a banana, obviously. Duh.”
I laughed, tickling his armpit and making him roll away with a shriek, curling up in defense. “Why did you get a banana tattooed on your back?”
He flopped over and pulled the sheet up to his chin to protect himself from me. “It’s a long story—or a short one I would rather not admit to—but I will tell you it involved lots of wolfsbane and a dare.”
I shook my head, grinning lasciviously as I yanked the sheet straight back down to his waist and continued my perusal of his ink. “You don’t have to do something just because someone dared you to, you know.”
He glared at me with mock insult. “It was a triple-dog dare. Everyone knows you can’t turn those down.”
“Right…” In fact, I did not know that, but I suspected it had something to do with how I’d been raised. I’d missed out on so many things, but I had Kedi and his pack to help catch me up to speed.
Before he could wonder why I’d gotten quiet, I blurted, “Maybe I should get a tattoo… or another one, I guess.” I sighed, looking down at the Order crest on my chest. While it was meant to be a mark of pride, to me, it was nothing more than a brand to remind me that they saw me as their property.
“What would you get?” Kedi asked lightly, propping his chin up on his clasped hands. His eyes missed nothing, and I knew he saw the darkness of where my mind was headed, and he’d offered me a way out, like a ray of sunshine in the middle of a thunderstorm.
I would always pick his sunshine. I let myself grin at him. “Maybe I should get a banana, like yours.”
“Nah, skip the euphemism and just get a giant dick, how ’bout right here?” He dragged a finger down the center of my throat.
“Hmm, yeah, maybe,” I drawled, before we both burst out laughing.
I moved my attention on to the next tattoo, this one in grayscale of a silvery full moon half disguised by drifting clouds.
It was so realistic, I could almost feel the breeze that was tugging those clouds across the velvety night sky.
I paused before allowing my fingertip to barely skim over his ribs.
There was just something about it… something magical that made my skin tingle. “What about this one?” I asked.
Unlike last time, Kedi didn’t need to look to see which one I was talking about. His smile softened. “Well, that one’s for you.”
He said it so matter-of-factly that it took me a second to register what he’d said. “What… what do you mean?”
For a second I wondered if it had been some childhood memory he’d been hanging on to, but then he said, “That is the exact image of the moon on the night we found each other again.”
I blinked slowly, heart skipping a beat. “But that… that’s impossible.”
“You met North last night.”
“Joel’s mate?”
He nodded. “He’s the tattoo artist who gave me this, and he has…
a gift. A touch of the sight, maybe? Fairy magic?
Exposure to radioactive waste? However it works, when he tattoos someone, he sees a vision of their fated mate, whether that be past, present, or future.
People wait years for a seat in his chair…
” He trailed off, his smile melting away.
“I got that tattoo at a point in my life when I was really struggling. I was lost. I didn’t know who I was, who I was supposed to be.
Sierra’s always done her best to hold us all together, but without a true Alpha, the pack was…
drifting.” He shrugged like his pain was nothing to worry about, and my heart hurt in my chest for him.
Kedi gave a sniffly laugh. “Anyway, when he gave me that tattoo, it felt like an anchor. A place in time, somewhere in the future, where I knew I belonged. It gave me hope on those dark days, knowing you were out there. That I was fated to meet you—whoever you were—and that I wouldn’t be alone forever. ”
My throat felt tight with emotion, and all I wanted was to pull him into my arms and change the past for him. For us both. We deserved better—we deserved each other from the very beginning—and I would spend the rest of our lives making up for lost time.
I wrapped an arm around his waist and dragged him across the mattress, tucking my nose into his pink hair.
“I wish I’d known you were out there too.
” I pulled back enough to pepper kisses across his stubbly jaw, his damp eyes, the tip of his nose, and finally landing on his lips.
“Hmm, I wonder what kind of tattoo North would give me about you.”
“Probably a banana,” he said, smothering a smirk.
“Or a giant dick.”
“As long as it’s my dick.”
We both burst out laughing at the absurd thought, although now that we’d joked about it, the chances of it coming true were higher than zero.
Kedi wiped a finger under his eyes to banish his tears.
Following the urge to press my body to his, I rolled us across the bed until he was under me, then wiggled down until I was eye level with his belly button, noticing the gentle curve to his once-flat abdomen.
“Isn’t your daddy’s laugh the best sound ever?” I stage-whispered to our baby, glancing up at Kedi to catch his tender smile full of love and devotion.
He carded his fingers through my hair, nails dragging over my scalp. “I doubt they can understand what you’re saying. They’re like the size of a pea. They might not even have ears yet.”
“Actually, since we’re both wolves, your pregnancy will likely be much faster than a human’s. They’re probably closer to the size of a lime by now, and they’re busy forming their itty-bitty fingernails.”
He blinked at me a few times. “How do you know that?”
“I’ve been doing some research.” I shrugged, blushing with pride. “See, there’s this thing called the library…”
He laughed, his belly vibrating under my hands. “Ah, yes. I believe I’ve heard of them before. Please, tell me more.”
Back when Kedi had first brought up the possibility of having kids, I’d made a trip to the library one day when I was waiting for him to finish work and spent some time looking up wolf biology.
I was determined to be the best father to my child.
Even if I couldn’t remember my own father, I knew he’d been a good one.
Whenever I thought of him, I could still feel the outpouring of love he’d shown me.
Before I could tell Kedi the detailed information of what I’d learned about our baby’s growth, we were interrupted by a phone ringing. I didn’t recognize the sound at first. “It’s not mine,” Kedi said.
Which meant it was mine. Fuck.
I rolled off the bed, heart lodged in my throat as I fished through my pants for the burner phone. No point in looking at the caller ID. There were only two people who had the number, and one of them was right here. “Seth?” I answered, out of breath.
He cut straight to the chase. “You need to get home. They’re on their way back.”
My racing heart suddenly stopped. “How do you know?” I gritted out, trying not to let the panic win.
“I stuck a GPS tracker on Pater’s truck.” There wasn’t an ounce of guilt in that statement, only fact. I wasn’t the only one who didn’t trust our so-called leaders.
With the phone tucked against my shoulder, I shoved my legs into my pants. “How long do I have?”
“Maybe an hour?”
Shit. “On my way.”
I hung up and threw my phone on the bed, racing to get dressed. “I’m sorry to cut this visit short,” I began, but Kedi understood the urgency.
He threw me my shirt. “Don’t apologize. Just go!”
Before I was fully dressed, I was already running for the door, shoving my feet into my boots.
No matter the rush, though, I took the moment to embrace my mate.
I could never guarantee this wasn’t the last time I’d see him, so I tried to imprint every inch of his beautiful face to memory, kissing him like it was the end of the world.
“I love you,” I told him fiercely, making sure he felt exactly how much.
“I love you too. Please be safe.” He was trying to put on a brave face, but he couldn’t hide the sheen to his eyes and the way his lower lip quivered.
“Always,” I said, giving him one last kiss. I focused on looking calm and unconcerned for Kedi’s sake, even as a dangerous anger began to simmer inside me. It was time to put my plan into action, because we both knew my luck was running out.
As soon as I saw a chance, I needed to find a way to swap out the wolfsbane for something else, giving the other shifters a fighting chance.
I drove well over the speed limit the whole way back, hoping there were no cops parked along the highway. I tried not to watch the time, counting down the minutes, because it wouldn’t make a difference. Either I made it back in time… or I didn’t.
My truck bounced hard off the ruts on the final stretch of dirt track, but I gritted my teeth and kept my foot on the gas, praying the ancient suspension held.
As I erupted through the trees, I let out a groan of relief at the empty field where the elders usually parked their vehicles.
I slammed on the brakes, threw it in park, and ripped the key out of the ignition, the cloud of dust drifting over me as I hauled ass out of the truck and into the house.
Sweat made my clothes cling to me, and I ran through the house to where Seth was shoving the last of their party detritus into a black trash bag.
“Three minutes!” he shouted, and I heard a frantic scuffle as the others dragged their own garbage bags after them, no doubt searching for somewhere to hide them until they could be disposed of discreetly.
Seth eyed me warily. “Cutting it a bit close, don’t you think?”
“I’m here, aren’t I,” I snapped defensively, though I realized the adrenaline high I’d been running on was making me lash out at the wrong person.
“Looking like a trainwreck, after that train went on a week-long bender. Go clean yourself up. I’ll stall them for a few minutes.” He shoved his garbage bag at me, and as I ran down the hall toward my room, I heard the first telltale rumble of approaching vehicles.
When I caught sight of myself in the small mirror over my dresser, I realized that Seth’s description of me had been too generous.
My face was flushed, hair damp with sweat, and my eyes were not a hundred percent human.
“Shit,” I muttered, leaning closer to see a flash of something a little too wild to my irises.
“Dude, you’ve gotta back off,” I hissed at my wolf. “You’re gonna get us killed.”
He grumbled in the background, but it felt like he pulled back—though not by much.
Then I scrambled to change my sweaty clothes and tidy up my hair a little. I decided it was safest to lean into my rough appearance and put on training gear, pretending that I’d been working out, because there was no way I could play it cool looking like this.
Taking one last look in the mirror to confirm my eyes were back to normal, I tromped back through the house and out the front door. “Need any help unpacking?” I said with forced joviality.
“Ah, Apollo! Hard at work, I see,” Pater said approvingly.
I nodded with a grin that nearly killed me.
“Always, sir.” I rounded to the back of the vehicle and loaded up with some of their gear, noting the flecks of dried blood.
One of the bags wasn’t fully zipped up, and I caught a glimpse of what looked like a gun of some kind.
The Order didn’t use guns… or at least the hunters didn’t.
My blood froze in my veins as I struggled to keep smiling.
“Everything work out on your trip?” I asked.
“Yes, we were able to wrap up the little problem quickly.”
As Pater turned to head into the house, he paused, just a brief falter in his step, and I saw him glance toward my truck. The next moment, though, he went off on a tangent about what he wanted for dinner, and I convinced myself I’d imagined it.
Surely his human ears weren’t sharp enough to hear the ticking of my truck’s engine as it cooled.