Chapter Sixteen
The door to my room wasn’t even all the way closed when Wyn’s body crashed against mine.
His strong, hard chest pressed against my back, lips on my neck and hands on my hips, while his soft moans sent me flying out of my body.
There was something different about his kisses, more confidence, more certainty, but it was still blissful just to be in his arms. All the hours I’d spent dreaming about this didn’t compare in the slightest.
‘I missed you,’ he said, his teeth nipping at my ear in between the words. ‘I missed you so much.’
‘I missed you too,’ I replied, twisting in his arms until our mouths found each other.
Just for a second, I pulled back, taking a beat to return to myself.
We’d both been through a lot in the last forty-eight hours, I wanted to savour every moment with him.
Who knew how long we had together this time.
‘Are you OK?’ I said, lips already chafed and sore. ‘Do you need to rest? Is this OK?’
‘You’re asking me?’ He held my face in his hands, light dancing in his eyes. ‘Yes, I’m OK, I’m more than OK, and if it’s fine by you, I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing right now.’
‘I don’t know, Leopold’s has a couple of new flavours you haven’t tried yet,’ I told him, curling my fingers through his thick, wavy hair. ‘There’s a chocolate raspberry swirl that’s to die for.’
‘Only one thing I’d die for,’ he replied. ‘She’s standing right in front of me.’
He held me in his gaze and I let him guide me backwards across the room, only stopping when the backs of my legs met my bed.
I stumbled onto the mattress, safe in his arms, a rush of desire shooting through me as my shoulders met my pillows.
When I pulled him to me, green vines rose up from the floorboards to entwine themselves around the posts of my bed, deep red roses coming into full bloom as my hands travelled down his body, tracing out the new pronounced muscles in his shoulders, his back.
He met my touch in kind, exploring me tenderly and everywhere he touched sang, as though I too was discovering that part of my body for the very first time.
One hand on my waist, one in my hair, his lips on my collarbone, the flutter of his eyelashes against my jaw.
It felt like he was colouring me in, bringing a black-and-white outline to life.
Every part of me craved more. My breath became ragged and my lips bruised, however close he was, it just wasn’t close enough.
I hooked a leg around the back of his, holding him in place and as his hand just barely grazed the side of my breast on its way back down to my hip, I melted into the mattress.
It was maddening and terrifying, too close and not close enough, too much and not enough.
But Wyn didn’t force me to make the impossible decision of when to say when.
He broke away before I knew I needed to, holding his head above mine, our lips so close I could still feel them, his face a blur of golden skin and green-grey eyes.
‘You missed me, huh?’ He placed one last careful and considered kiss on my swollen lips before rolling over to the other side of the bed. I straightened my shirt, pretending not to notice as he adjusted his jeans and rolled carefully onto his front.
‘Almost as much as you missed me.’
My voice was light and teasing but when I reached for the glass of water on my bedside table, my hands were shaking. He stretched out an arm to trace the petals of a rose, then plucked the flower and handed it to me.
‘Look at you,’ he said with wonder. ‘You are incredible.’
We’d spoken every day until he left for the phase, but I still wanted to hear about every detail of every second of every day we’d been apart, no matter how mundane.
What he ate, what he wore, how he’d slept, the silliest, most random thoughts that had crossed his mind.
And then there were the things we hadn’t discussed, darker, deeper matters that weren’t meant for phone calls. I wanted it all.
‘Tell me everything I missed,’ he said, reading my mind and mirroring it back. ‘Any new magic stuff? You read anything good? Lydia still in love with that girl who works at Blicks?’
The way he threw my magic in with Lydia’s ever-changing crushes and my insatiable reading habits made me smile. He accepted me in a way no one else could. Wyn understood.
‘Yes, yes and no, she’s moved on to the new ticket-taker at the Lucas theatre but they’re already spoken for so she’s sworn off love forever. Or at least this week.’
‘And still no sign of Catherine?’
I sniffed the rose, its sweet sparkling fragrance filling the room.
‘No sign,’ I replied, impatient to get to my turn. ‘What about you? How was your phase? And the gathering, what was it you called it? The crynhoad? Were there other new wolves? Did they ask about your brother?’
Mentioning Cole was a mistake and I knew it at once.
‘All you need to know is, I’m back in one piece.’
‘That’s it?’ I said as Wyn’s blissful expression clouded over. ‘Your first pack phase and that’s all I’m going to get?’
He moved away, the delicious weight of his body gone, leaving me unanchored. While I watched, he shuffled backwards until his head hit my pillows, then he lay gazing upwards at the canopy over our heads. It was filled with roses, occasional petals fluttering down to frame his exquisite face.
‘You know I trust you completely,’ he began, legs crossed at the ankle, one foot tapping insistently against the other. ‘If I could, I would answer every question you have, tell you every last little thing, but with the wolves … Em, they’re not my secrets to share.’
‘I understand,’ I said right away. Too quickly. I did understand but I wasn’t satisfied. We’d said no secrets. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Please don’t apologize, I’m glad you asked, I want to tell you,’ he insisted.
‘There’s still so much about it I don’t completely understand myself, and I know talking to you would help, but truthfully, I already shared more than I should.
Just telling you the name of the crynhoad could be enough to get me in trouble.
Our words, our rituals, they’re sacred to the Weres and definitely—’
He stopped himself just in time but I knew what he was going to say.
‘Definitely not meant to be shared with witches,’ I said.
Wyn ducked his head, looking ashamed of the accuracy of my assessment as I sat in my own discomfort.
There was so much we didn’t know about each other, not only me and Wyn, but the wolves and the witches, and because of those mysteries, there would probably always be secrets between us. I didn’t like it.
‘It wasn’t anything like I imagined,’ he said after a long moment, deciding what he could and couldn’t share in real time.
I could feel the conflict in him as he worked it through in his mind.
‘I didn’t realize how big the pack would be.
There were people from all over the south, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, some folks over from Florida.
I wasn’t expecting for there to be so many families.
So many Weres. And yes,’ he added, some of the anguish draining away and replaced by something closer to joy. ‘There were other new wolves.’
‘Sounds like you made some new friends,’ I replied lightly. ‘Probably not that keen on witches.’
It was petty but I couldn’t stop myself.
So many Weres, he said. And here I was, a lone witch.
‘It doesn’t matter what they think, not to me,’ Wyn announced with defiance, and I hoped that would be enough.
He sat up to move closer to me again, as though the slightest distance between us was still too much.
‘Were you there?’ he asked. ‘When I phased, I thought I felt you.’
‘Just wanted to make sure you were safe.’ I peered at him from behind my hair and covered his hands with mine. They were so warm. ‘Is that OK?’
‘More than. It’s not like you could shoot me a text, I’m glad you were with me.’
‘I always will be.’
As I rubbed my thumb in circles on the back of his hand, more and more flowers blossomed around us.
‘Right after the phase, I lost you,’ I told him. ‘Like you’d fallen off the face of the earth completely.’
‘That makes sense,’ he reasoned. ‘Some kind of natural defence against witches, probably.’
The casual way he dropped his theory made me freeze up, the flowers wound around my bedposts trembling. Our perfect reunion was not going exactly as I’d hoped.
‘Not against you,’ he added hastily. ‘I mean witches in general and wolves in general. Because, you know, witches and wolves, they’re not exactly …’
‘It’s all right,’ I said, cutting him off before he could dig the hole any deeper. ‘I know.’
‘It was totally different this time.’ He spoke in hushed tones even though we couldn’t possibly be more safe than we were in my room.
‘No pain, no fear. I felt so alive, completely connected to myself. They told me I wouldn’t remember much of anything afterwards but I do recollect most of it.
The running, the hunt.’ He paused, biting his bottom lip as that one specific word settled.
‘Mom was kind of shocked but Gramps said it means I’m going to be a strong wolf. Maybe a pack leader someday.’
There was pride in his voice and his posture but I only felt trepidation.
A witch and a wolf was unlikely enough. A pack leader and a witch destined to revive her sisters, to save or end the world?
These weren’t the regular problems couples our age had to overcome.
But when I looked away, Wyn crooked his finger and lifted my chin so that my eyes met his.
‘This might not be easy,’ he said, his words echoing my thoughts. ‘But that doesn’t make it wrong. Remember, we only belong to us, no one else.’
When I closed my eyes, I could hear his heartbeat. It was stronger than I remembered, his pulse a little slower than mine, a gently thudding reminder that yes, he was different now. But so was I. Craving his closeness, I rested my head on his chest and sighed as his arms folded me into him.
‘Your turn,’ he said in a soft and husky voice, more suited to the middle of the night than the middle of the day. ‘I want to know everything. Where’ve you been? Who’d you see? What in the heck happened to your phone?’
‘That one is a long story,’ I replied, not a lie at all.
‘My favourite kind.’
As he spoke, he fought back a yawn, burying his face in his shoulder rather than releasing me from his embrace.
‘You must be exhausted,’ I said, swooning at the sight of his sleepy-eyed smile. ‘Why don’t you take a nap?’
‘Because I don’t want to take a nap,’ he replied but the way his eyelids flickered as though his lashes weighed more than they could bear said differently.
‘I want to hear the sound of your voice. Tell me anything, I don’t care what: the weather report, the latest with Lydia, what you had for breakfast.’
It was only when my stomach rumbled to answer the question for me I realized I hadn’t eaten at all. Where to begin? The situation with Jackson, the wolf at the party, Lydia’s grandmother? My conversation with Emma Catherine? None of those seemed like good conversation starters.
‘It’s been a crazy couple of days,’ I said. ‘But it can wait until you’re rested, there’s no rush. Is there?’
‘No,’ he replied, a dreamy murmur. ‘We have forever.’
Forever. It wasn’t nearly long enough.
‘But you’re OK?’ Wyn asked. ‘I hated being so far away. I never stopped worrying about you, Emily.’
Slowly, I drew myself up to rest on one elbow and lightly stroke his hair. Wyn’s breathing slowed, his chest rising and falling as he fought his own exhaustion.
‘You don’t have to worry about me now,’ I promised. ‘You’re here, we’re both safe. You can rest.’
And it felt true, at least for as long as we remained here, in my bedroom, inside Bell House.
Wyn surrendered to sleep, his eyes closed and his lips slightly parted.
I stayed by his side, watching him sleep, listening to the gentle catches of his breath, the inaudible murmurs that escaped his dreams, and luxuriating in the peace of the moment.
No fears, no threats, just me and him, alone together.
When he woke, I would have to tell him about the wolf at the DeSoto, my latest visions.
Eventually he would have to tell me what the pack knew about Cole’s death and my part in the act. But for now, we could simply be.
Only when I was sure he was fully lost in his dreams did I slip out of his embrace, sliding off the bed on unreliable legs and reaching for one of the rose-wrapped wooden posts to secure my balance.
With a sharp intake of breath, I pulled my hand away, a lightning flash of pain disturbing the tranquil moment.
I’d forgotten roses had thorns. When I turned my hand over, a single pinprick of ruby red blood bloomed above my heart line.
It quivered, fighting gravity in order to decide its own path and trickling down to where my life line met the fate line.
Slowly, the droplet split in two, bleeding into both lines.
I stared at my hand until the blood ran all the way down my wrist and along my forearm, when I snapped to my senses and wiped it off with the back of my sleeve.
It didn’t mean anything.
While Wyn slept, I blew on the climbing roses, casting the petals all around the room and watching sadly as they disappeared back beneath the floorboards.
‘You’re here, you’re safe,’ I swore to him as his eyelids flickered, dreaming of something I could not see. ‘And we have forever.’