Chapter Sixteen
Luca
By May, spring was making everything so much better.
I didn’t necessarily hate the snow, I just disliked the times when everything was slushy and wet and icky. I’d loved the real snow, but I was also pretty much done with it by the time it was gone.
“How are there flowers over there?” Kye asked one day as we were about to go walk to the river and back just to move a little.
I looked over to where he was pointing. “Wait. There’s flowers everywhere around the edge of the backyard?”
We got derailed and went to look.
“They weren’t here last summer,” Kye murmured.
There were a lot of buzzing insects and even a few butterflies in the colorful plants.
We heard a delighted giggle and turned to look at Carys who was bouncing to us.
“You found them!” She grinned. “I might’ve bulk ordered seeds in the winter and then as soon as the ground was bare, I just threw them everywhere. I wasn’t expecting this many to grow.” She gestured at her surprise.
Kye grabbed her in a hug and kissed the top of her head. “This is amazing, Carys. Truly. I’m glad you came up with it.”
“They’re really pretty and will do wonders to insect life,” I agreed.
She looked pleased, and it was a testament to how far she’d come that she didn’t blush or feel awkward. “There should be more. I picked ones that bloom at different times. So….” She looked at her creation and beamed.
Brodie, who had been building the framework for the patio extension, walked over to us.
“Well done, kiddo.” He pulled Carys into a side hug.
“I thought I saw some flowers the other day, but I didn’t really pay attention.
This is incredible, though. If you want to do more, just let us know, okay?
Maybe you and Lina could make some bird houses and buy a bird bath? That sort of stuff.”
Her eyes began to shine with excitement. “I didn’t even think about that!”
“Oh, thank you for fixing the hose,” Kye told Brodie. “Now I can water the roses much easier.”
There was a small rose garden that had been planted by Brodie’s grandma once upon a time. It looked nice now, apparently it had been an overgrown mess last summer.
Kye gave Brodie a kiss since he was right there, then gestured with his head toward the path.
I grinned at the back corner of the yard where Brodie had all his tools and other necessary items. He’d put up a temporary toolshed, but there were piles of different kinds of things like gravel and mulch there, too, for when he needed it.
“Your man is nothing if not thorough,” I said as we bypassed a pile of sand.
Kye chuckled. “He really is. You can tell he loves building.”
We walked in a companionable silence, just listening to the sounds of the woods around us.
My eye caught on movement in the trees, so I halted Kye and pointed. A family of squirrels was racing across branches, leaping from tree to tree. Some of them were small enough to be this spring’s babies, but they too made incredible jumps as we watched.
Kye sighed happily. “Living in cities was okay, but man does this feed my soul something fierce.”
“I never knew I was missing this, you know? We did go camping sometimes when I was little, but then music happened and most of my time was spent in the city. I tried to go out into nature whenever I could while on tour, but it wasn’t always possible.”
We continued the stroll.
His phone beeped in his pocket and he pulled it out, smiling. I could tell it was from his friend Henry. They’d reconnected a few weeks ago and were texting regularly.
Kye still had mixed feelings about the guy, because of how he’d reacted to Kye’s unending need to find Carys, but he’d also helped Kye so…
it wasn’t an easy thing to process. When Henry had reached out and asked how Kye was doing, he’d decided to try again.
Especially with the pack settled, he felt like he had the mental capacity to try to rebuild the friendship.
“So I was thinking,” he said after putting the phone away. “Would you agree that we don’t want anything here to be destroyed by machinery?” He gestured around the lush forest around us.
I nodded slowly. “Yeah, definitely.”
“Would you also agree that we have many strong, hot werewolves who we wouldn’t mind seeing shirtless, doing manual labor?”
Laughing, I nodded. “Yes, I can agree to that as well.”
He chuckled. “Good to know. Because I have an idea.”
The wider part of the river Brodie, his sister, and cousins had used as a swimming spot in their childhood wasn’t much to talk about.
Not until we put our strong wolves to work with shovels and other tools to widen and deepen it into a proper swimming hole. It became a family project for a couple of weeks, because we wanted to get it done before it got hot.
Rian and I took on some of the digging, because we, too, had the supernatural strength to work with.
The humans kept the wolves fed and hydrated, and we all helped out with clearing the immediate area, whether it was taking the scraps of roots and branches to a spot in the woods for whatever critter might appreciate it, or moving the earth to a place where it wasn’t in anyone’s way.
We also discovered that the chickens—there were six—loved it when someone brought them a bucketful of the sandy mud from the riverbed to dig around in.
Once we had completed the project, we held a full moon party at the river, and everyone was incredibly happy that the wet wolf smell went away as soon as the guys shifted, because holy hot damn.
The next week, Holden and Rian headed to a week-long vacation in Ireland. That led everyone to telling Brodie and Kye that they, too, should get away for a bit.
Of course Brodie objected, because he wanted to stay with the pack on the pack’s property, but once Holden and Rian were back, Kye dragged him to Seattle to meet up with some of Brodie’s old friends before going to do some hiking in the Olympic National Forest—something that was on Kye’s bucket list.
Carys got her break from the pack when she was invited to go with Lina’s family to their annual summer camping trip. It was also a great way for her to feel safe while being away from us for a few days.
Somehow, the last two things coincided, and one day in mid-July, Max, Ben, and I were the only ones home.
Holden was at work, and Rian was in town to meet with his friend slash former blood donor Acacia for a coffee date.
“Luca?” Max called out from inside just as I was finishing throwing the kitchen scraps to the chicken.
“Yeah, babe?”
He jogged down the stairs in his shorts and sneakers and nothing more, looking like a snack.
“You okay if Ben and I go run the property line?” He walked over and kissed me, beaming.
He was so at ease in his skin now that you could see it in everything he did.
“Of course. I’m gonna take this bucket back inside and then go work out for a bit. You’ll be back by the time I need a snack.” I smirked against his lips.
“We smooching?” Ben asked as he rounded the corner.
“Mhmmh,” I mumbled, not lifting my mouth from Max’s.
“I want some of that,” he announced and joined us.
He, too, was different now. They’d changed their last names to align with the pack, and eventually, I’d do the same. If I’d had Nonna’s last name, it would’ve been different, but since mine came from my dad, I wasn’t too keen on keeping it.
“Okay, okay. I can’t get turned on while holding a stinky bucket,” I finally said as I tore myself away from two pairs of lips, scruffy cheeks, and questing hands. “Go do your thing.”
They laughed, but started on a steady jog toward the path. I watched them go, because well, obviously.
Chuckling, I went inside and rinsed the bucket, then put it back where it belonged.
I glanced over at the window seat where Betty was resting next to Max’s still unnamed guitar. We’d been practicing a little this morning.
I hadn’t been able to bring myself to create anything new yet. There were snippets of melodies in my brain, but words eluded me. There was a block that I hoped would vanish eventually. At least I hadn’t lost music completely. One day, I’d be able to make it again, even if it was for myself.
But teaching Max to play had been so much fun that I didn’t miss anything else. Besides, we were getting to the point where we could do tiny, enjoyable jam sessions.
I went back out and into the garage slash home gym.
The third of the building that made up the chicken coop was like a damn bird hotel at this point.
These girls were definitely the most well-kept chickens I’d ever seen.
They got to roam around when it was safe, but their coop had gone from a small one to a mansion in no time when we’d realized that while any building was ongoing on the property, it was safer for them to stay in their enclosed area.
I had a nice gym rotation going on. Brodie took his work out seriously enough that we had good equipment.
They were all supernatural grade, meaning that we could run really fast on the treadmills if we wanted, and we didn’t have to worry about accidentally destroying any of the machines with our strength.
Working out had become a habit that I liked to keep up even while Brodie was on his vacation.
I felt an odd sense of pride at the gradual changes in my body—Rian had told me it wasn’t easy for a vampire to do that.
I was pretty sure the working out combined with the solid overfeeding on wolf blood had something to do with it.
I was almost at the end of my full workout when I heard something I couldn’t place. The door to the garage/gym was open, but I could only see a sliver of the yard from where I sat doing my bicep curls.
Putting the weight down, I got up and strolled into the doorway. That’s when I smelled a person I didn’t know. A human.
But there was no vehicle I could see, and I hadn’t heard one, either.
A metallic click sounded from somewhere toward the house, then a whoosh I immediately recognized.
“Fire!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.