12. TWELVE
TWELVE
Bastien
The worst of Vera’s heat passes during the night. I can scent the change, and it guts me. The spring floral note drops from the perfect orange-and-lemon scent of her.
I should be pleased. No more need to rut her—to hold her in my arms and dream of finally having a mate who could take everything I have to give and ask for more, who would challenge me, make me laugh, make me want to tell her my deepest, darkest secrets.
I never even thought of Vera that way until circumstances forced me to see it. What I’ve longed for all along was right under my nose.
But she doesn’t want me. Despite my mark on her neck and the way she took my cock so perfectly—took my knot! My beast!
I need to do some reading on that. Up until tonight I’ve always thought it was impossible for a beta to knot an omega. Clearly it’s not.
A little niggling awareness at the base of my brain whispers that there might be one reason why my beta biology could change like that, but I’m not ready to admit it yet, even to myself.
I pace outside her nest, listening to her soft breathing, praying she’ll wake and need me, but knowing she won’t. Outside the wind settles, and I hang my head. It was never going to last.
The stupid thing is, before all this—before her heat—I was the one telling her we could never be together.
Amazing how my teeth marks on her neck and my cum leaking from her pussy gives me a new perspective. I’m such an idiot for not seeing it sooner. Not seeing her.
I let Vera sleep for as long as I can. When it becomes too quiet outside for me to keep denying that the storm has passed, I slip out and make radio contact with the emergency services center in town.
The tourists made it out of the park and took shelter by the center in their camper.
I can’t muster up the resentment to feel bitter about the fact their brazen attitude regarding their own safety kept me and Vera snowed in here overnight. I can’t feel anything but grateful.
It’s going to take a few hours before anyone can get up here to clear the road, so I sneak back into the cave, intending to let Vera keep sleeping. Instead I find her sitting with her knees tucked up to her chest, arms wound tight around them.
She’s dressed. I should be happy about that. I don’t want her catching cold after all, and peace of mind will be a lot easier if I’m not constantly tempted by the perfect blushing pink of her nipples or the taut slope of her waist or the silky smooth skin of her shoulders.
I force out a huff of breath, shaking my head to expel the last of her citrus-and-sugar scent from my nostrils.
“Hey,” she gives me a weak smile.
My heart squeezes in my chest. “Hey. I just got in touch with the emergency services. They’re sending a team up to get us out as soon as they can, but it could be a while. Are you hungry?”
She shakes her head, but I can clearly make out the soft grumble from her stomach. “Bas, things aren’t going to be weird between us now, are they?”
“What? No! Why would they be weird?” I ask a little too quickly.
Then I sigh and scrub a hand over my face, retrieving the rucksack and rummaging for supplies to give my hands something to do.
“Look, heat is a biological part of being a shifter. Perfectly natural. I was happy to do my part to help you through it.” Happy doesn’t even skim the surface of what it felt like to bury myself deep in her—
“But?”
Vera has always been way too perceptive when it comes to my feelings.
It’s like she has a special knack for it.
“But nothing. I wish you’d reconsider, but you’ve decided, and I won’t push you.
I’ll only say there’s no time limit on my offer, OK?
It stands. And if you ever change your mind…
” I trail off. I said I wouldn’t push. So instead of repeating myself, I find a trail bar and lean across to hand it to her, finding a second one for my breakfast.
Silence falls between us, and I try and fail to find something to say to break the tension.
Vera gets there first. “Do you think we have time to visit the hot springs before they get the road clear? It would be nice to wash up a bit.”
She wants to wash my scent off? Of course she does. That’s perfectly natural. She’s probably sticky and uncomfortable, and the scent is so powerful I can smell it from the other side of the cave. I just hate the thought. It makes me want to start getting it on her all over again.
The hot springs are a bad idea. I know it’s a bad idea. Of course, neither of us have bathing suits. But the fact that she’s smiling at me again is doing warm twisty things to my insides, so I just force a grin through gritted teeth. “I won’t tell the superintendent if you don’t.”
I shift and carry her on my back to the hot springs, rather than let her walk. Right now my bear is growling that she never needs to walk anywhere again, which is ridiculous, but luckily it’s so snowy still this feels justified, and I indulge myself.
I turn my back so Vera can hastily undress and slip into the water with a sigh before I shed my four-legged form and slip in beside her. The water is murky and light bubbles rise to the surface, but with the crisp, cold air the smell of sulphur is not overpowering like it can get in summer.
I look around to see Vera giving me an assessing stare. “What?”
“Was this a bad idea? It is weird now that we’ve boned?”
I choke on my laugh at her crude language, and she laughs, splashing warm water at me.
“Don’t make it weird, OK?”
“Yeah. No. I’m not.” Trouble is, now that I’ve been inside her, I don’t know how to go back to looking at her like she’s my little sister.
It’s like a switch clicked on in my brain, and now all I see is the way the tops of her small breasts rise above the level of the water and the way the corner of her mouth curves like an invitation to kiss her.
She folds her arms across her chest, blocking my view.
“So here’s what I’m thinking when we get out of here.
We tell no one what happened. It’s too complicated to explain anyway.
I’ll be going back to college on the weekend so that’s that.
And I’ll be sure and get some heat suppressants for next month.
” She nods like that sorts it, but the inside of my chest still feels all twisty, and the thought of her so far away only makes it worse.
“Won’t they want you to make up for the missed days of internship?” I’m grasping at straws, but can you blame me? I need more time with her to figure out what’s going on here. Because this is more than a couple of friends who helped each other through a tough situation.
“You mean you’re not going to sign off on them?”
“No, that’s not—I meant…” I’m making this worse.
She waves off my discomfort with a wet swish of her hand. “It’s fine. I’ll be back at the end of term anyway, so I can do some extra days then, but I’m sure you want me out of your hair, and a little space might be good for us right now.”
Here I was eyeing the space that separates us in the pool, wondering if there’s any excuse that would let me pull her into my lap. The edge of the hot pool was bricked years ago to make it more stable, but maybe there could be spiders hiding in gaps between the bricks, or snakes…
Yeah she’ll see right through that.
Mites? She’d just climb right out of the water, though.
With a sigh I focus my attention on what she said. “You don’t have to do extra days. I know you want to graduate as soon as possible. To be honest, I’ve seen enough to sign off on the whole internship now if you want me to.”
“Thanks.”
There’s a pause where neither of us speaks.
I clear my throat. “Have you thought much about what you’ll do after college?”
She screws up her nose. “No. I should be job searching, but every time I see an entry-level position come up it’s on the other side of the country. I don’t want to be on the other side of the country.”
That, at least, is something we can agree on.
Vera shifts closer, sliding toward me on the ledge until she can reach up to my face. I bend my head to make it easier, hoping maybe she’s softened to my idea.
“You’ve got…” She brushes a lock of my hair at my forehead, twisting it with dampened fingers to lay straight. “There.”
She doesn’t take her fingers out of my hair immediately, though. They linger, tracing the curve of my ear and sending a shudder of need through me.
Her pupils flare wide and she sucks in a breath, snatching back her hand and turning away quickly. “Sorry. Not making things weird.”
My voice sounds more like a croak at first. “Vera if the heat isn’t over—”
She shakes her head. “I’m alright. We’d better get back. I guess we can’t spend all day soaking in the hot springs which are supposed to be closed.”
“It probably gives the wrong impression, but I’m not sure there’s much else to do until they get up here with the snowplow.”
“I guess not.” She meets my eye again, and there’s a flash of something bright and hopeful in her expression for a moment.
“I mean…” I trail off, aware that she has already turned me down several times today. I need to stop dreaming.
Then her gaze falls away, and she climbs out of the hot spring. I turn away while she dries and dresses hastily in the cold air. Her cheeks are pink from the heat of the water, though, and she’s warm when she climbs onto my back again.
I dry off before shifting so she doesn’t have to sit on wet fur. I have to admit the snow on my feet and legs is a cool relief against the heat from the pool.
I’m disappointed to find the road out is clear by the time we make it back to the cave. The air between me and Vera on the drive back to town feels anything but.