Chapter 12 #2
Ten minutes later, while she ate with Silas, conversations resumed around her, talk of the weather, a new litter of pups, a roof repair someone had finished the day before. She caught more than one curious glance her way. Not hostile, just measuring.
Hawks don’t do this, don’t gather and gossip. Oh, sure, lots of gossip happens over text, but there are no full-moon flights, no reason for them to form a cohesive group. No alpha.
There’s a leadership structure, but it isn’t at all like the wolves. Birds and mammals aren’t even the same kind of shifter. Wolves can bite someone and turn them into a werewolf, or they can be born to it, in which case their first change happens at puberty.
Birds are hatched from eggs, and their parents have to change them back and forth until they’re old enough to do it themselves. The only way to be a bird is to be born to it. There’s no way for her to make someone a hawk.
She ended up sitting in Boone’s lap when she finished eating. Not her choice. He’d lifted her, sat her on his legs, and settled her in, tucking her into his body like he was her own adjustable chair.
An hour later, she went into the house to use the restroom, and Kenny was leaning against the wall facing the door when she came out, his arms crossed.
His face showed irritation heading toward mild anger, and she froze. “What did I do, Sir?”
“James Winslow? You didn’t think that was information we needed?”
She could only stare at him. “You didn’t know?
I figured at least one of the three of you would.
The damned proposal went viral from three different fucking views, and then me running in heels while holding the damned dress up, escaping back to the hotel.
” She sighed. “And then me leaving the Inn wearing jeans with my luggage, and later in the damned airport. Fuck.”
“You missed a Sir, in there, little fucktoy.”
“I’m sorry, Sir. You’re right, and that was wrong of me. Our relationship requires I acknowledge your position, even when I’m emotional.”
He stepped to her and pulled her into a hug. “It does. You’re getting used to the requirement, and you’ve done well, mostly.”
She melted into his embrace. “I’m sorry you didn’t know, Sir. Sorry you had to find out from…” She sighed. “I’m assuming Misty is something of a problem child who should be an adult by now?”
“She was in a bad pack as a teen and young adult, stormed out of it when new leadership took over and wrestled it into a healthy structure. She’s been in several packs in the region, picking up her own little bitchy tribe on the way, and they’re here with strict rules.
” He sighed. “June wasn’t wrong, but saying it aloud like that probably wasn’t helpful. ”
“That’s the kind of thing an Alpha’s mate’s supposed to help with, right? Because her supposed apology was bullshit, and every woman on the porch knew. She designed it so it would sound fine to men — don’t underestimate her. She’s smart.”
“Yes, that’s exactly the reason an Alpha needs a mate, but plenty survive without one.”
“I can’t be your actual mate, right?”
“There are ways for wolves to magically bond to humans and other shifters, but I’ll have to do some research if you decide to stay. If we all want to take that step.”
Would she want to magically bond to wolves? To be an official part of the pack? Good and bad. June and Misty.
She didn’t have those answers yet, but the questions were certainly there.
* * * *
Willow watched Kenny and Boone back dirt bikes out of the truck bed a few hours later. They kicked them into life with a low rumble, and the morning air shook with promise.
But she eyed Boone with trepidation when he came at her with a helmet.
“Yeah, I know you’re hardheaded,” he teased as he settled it on her head and buckled the strap under her chin. “But humans wear helmets on these trails, and we have to pretend.”
Silas handles the lunch crowd on Saturdays, so it was just Willow, Kenny, and Boone on Signal Mountain, and she had no idea where they were taking her. She’d assumed someplace with a view, but this was just woods and four-wheeler trails.
Willow mounted behind Boone first, wrapping her arms around his huge frame, squeezing so tightly she could feel every beat of his heart in her boobs.
And the fact her legs were spread wide around him and her clit against his heat… she tried to ignore that.
She’d expected to be wearing the vibrating plug and egg, but they’d produced protective riding clothes for her, complete with a sexy thong to wear under them. No bra, which might’ve been a problem if her boobs weren’t flattened against Boone’s back, because damn, the trail was rough.
Thirty minutes later, they parked and shut the bikes off, and Willow saw sky through the trees. Not above her — in front of her.
She followed the trail, careful of her footing. She was wearing her sneakers rather than hiking boots, which was fine, but the ground was eaten up from the many off-road tires that’d come through here.
And when she stepped from the forest onto a huge stone slab, her heart soared.
She’d hiked to Edwards Pointe before, along a pain-in-the-ass trail that took fucking forever, winding through gorges, up and down the side of the mountain. She’d known there was another way to get here, seen people show up on four-wheelers, but damn.
Below her was the Tennessee River Gorge, vast and green, the river a silver ribbon far below, Chattanooga off in the distance.
Willow stepped to the edge, and the world dropped away. Or maybe the sky bent down to meet the gorge.
Boone stood behind her, steady and silent. Kenny stepped almost beside her, but his toes a few inches from the edge.
This was her domain, and they’d brought her here to show her they saw all of her. Woman, hawk, fucktoy.
Every tempered whisper of wind through the trees carried the scent of the gorge, cool and green, brushing over her skin like a welcome. The hawk in her wanted to lean forward into it, spread her arms wide and dive until she found the thermals curling up from the valley.
She’d always thought of places like this as hers — remote, unreachable without a long, punishing hike or the effort of flight. A place where human concerns fell away and the sky took over.
But standing here with them, shoes planted solid on the rock, she felt something different. They hadn’t brought her to control her, or to parade her like some new conquest. They’d brought her to see her, to show they understood that she was more than a warm body to fuck.
They understood she’d always need wind and open sky to breathe.
And that understanding slid into her heart, warm and steady. Maybe she could be their fucktoy and something more. Maybe the two weren’t opposites at all.