Chapter 50 #2
I reach the Jeep first and open the back door, setting the urn onto the back seat. Now that it’s empty, its purpose finally fulfilled, I don’t see a reason to buckle it in. Shutting the door, I lean back against it, folding my arms across my chest as I wait.
It’s only a few seconds for the large, dark shape to crest the hill. The wolf lopes steadily through the snow that blankets everything.
He doesn’t break stride as he moves toward me, shifting slowing, seemingly without thought, his fur receding into skin like it was never there at all.
I watch it with a mix of awe and determination—and just a hint of jealously.
Control over my shift is something I’m still learning to master.
Rennick has been guiding me through it with a patient hand.
I know it’s possible for me—I felt it when my first shifts poured over me like water—but they were shaped by fear and urgency.
I stubbornly refuse it to just be some kind of survival response that’s born out of necessity.
He tells me I’m a natural and to give myself some grace, that I only need time and practice.
Rennick approaches with an easy smile, completely unbothered by walking through the snow barefoot or being completely naked in the elements.
He doesn’t slow until he’s right in front of me, his hand already lifting as he closes the distance, knuckles brushing beneath my chin to tilt my face up until there’s nowhere to look but at him.
Then he’s kissing me in greeting, taking his time, his mouth coaxing mine open as he licks gently at the seam of my lips until I give in.
I eagerly meet him with the same hunger as his tongue slides against mine and the world narrows to the space between us.
A warm pulse blossoms low in my belly as my mind drifts to all the other ways he’s proven to me just how talented his tongue is.
He pulls back before it goes too far, sneaking a softer kiss to my forehead as he does, and his lips brush against my skin there as he murmurs, “Hi, little mate.” Straightening to his full, towering height, he looks down at me.
He’s not even pretending to disguise the concern already sitting at the forefront of his expression. “How’d it go?”
I don’t need him to clarify what he means.
I clear my throat, gathering the pieces of my focus he loosened so masterfully.
“I know this all started as a way for her to get us here,” I tell him, voice even despite everything else still stirring beneath it, “but it’s comforting knowing she’s back with him.
That she’s part of this place again and here with me. Even if it’s different now.”
There’s something about knowing she’s close again—even in a way that’s more symbolic than tangible—that makes me breathe a little easier. It makes the future feel less like something I have to brace for and more like something that has been patiently waiting for me to claim.
In the last dream Mom guided me through, she showed me moments from the past—the big, defining ones that led me to where I am now—but she also showed me the small, ordinary moments I barely noticed the first time around.
The ones that felt insignificant while they were happening but now glow with meaning in hindsight.
It’s creating more of those everyday, seemingly unremarkable moments with Rennick I’m most excited about. The quiet in-between spaces that breathe alongside loss and change—they’re the threads that complete the tapestry of a life fully lived.
“I’m just glad you were both finally able to find your way back home,” he tells me, reaching up to catch a wayward strand of hair that’s been whipping around my face in the wind. He twists it absently around his fingers.
I smile at that, letting the weight of his words sit between us while his gaze stays soft on mine.
But then I turn on him, glaring up at his too handsome features, deliberately dramatic.
“I told you I’d be fine doing this alone,” I remind him.
“You were supposed to stay down on the main trail, not run all the way up here.”
“I know what you said,” he answers, unapologetic and unperturbed by my fake scolding.
He gives the strand of hair a small tug.
“But I felt you hurting through the bond, and I wanted to be here. Just in case you needed me.” He pauses.
“And there’s something I wanted to show you. Thought we could head there from here.”
My brows draw and curiosity flares. “What is it?”
“I’ll explain once we get there.”
“Okay,” I say, stretching the word out as I step away from the door and move toward the back.
Opening the trunk, I grab the clothes I’ve started to keep stashed there for both of us, because having spare outfits quickly accessible is just a requirement now for my life.
I toss him a pair of jeans and long-sleeved thermal, leaving the boots for him to hunt down himself once he’s dressed.
Already moving toward the passenger seat, I add over my shoulder, “You can drive.”