29. TWENTY NINE
TWENTY NINE
Vera
I watch Bas shift and lope off and resist the urge to run after him. He needs some space. I’ve never seen him like that. It makes sense that he needs some time to cool off.
I kind of do too. I don’t like the way he pushed at the mate bond and didn’t listen to me. But it’s like I said to him, all couples fight.
I’m not really worried, but as the dusk fades into night and he still hasn’t returned, I start.
The last bus back to the city left half an hour ago, he still hasn’t returned, and I sit with my knees tucked up against my chest, staring at my phone, watching the minutes tick by.
A voice from the door makes me jump. “Hey, you just lurking in here in the dark for a reason?”
Riley strides across the room and flicks the light switch, wincing when he sees the state of the kitchen. “Geez, Ver, what happened? Did you and Bas have a fight or something?”
The tears I’ve managed to hold back since Bas left well up again, and I sniff and Riley hurries over.
“Aw, hey, I was just joking. Sorry. Unless you really did and he reacted like this.” He gestures to the destroyed woodwork and the mess on the floor.
I sniff. “No, it wasn’t like that.”
“Where’s Bas?”
“I don’t know. He left hours ago, and he hasn’t come back.”
Riley frowns. “What happened?”
He listens without interrupting or cracking any stupid jokes while I recount the story of the note and Linda leaving and the argument between Bas and Hunter. “I think I made the wrong call. I should have gone after him right away.”
My brother gets to his feet. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s go.”
“I don’t know where he went, and obviously he hasn’t got his phone. I can’t even call.”
Riley scoffs. “Since when do we let that stop us? We’ll sniff him out.” He starts stripping off his shirt, ready to shift.
“Since I can’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t shift. I only did it that once.”
Riley pauses, looking at me. “Yeah you can. You just convinced yourself you can’t. Come on. What did it last time?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes you do.”
Irritation wells up to replace my tears, and I glare at him. “No I don’t! If I did, I would have done it again, wouldn’t I?”
“Yeah you do. I pissed you off. Didn’t I?”
He shoves me, and I lose my temper, jumping to my feet to shove him back. “Well if that’s all it took, I would have shifted years ago.”
He just laughs. “Come on. I pissed you off and threatened your mate and you shifted. Now I want you to picture Bas out there alone and thinking we don’t care because we just let him leave, and then you focus. Really focus on that inner animal that wants to sink her teeth into me.”
For a moment the air around me shimmers, and I have a fleeting sense of naked paw pads on leafy ground and a long nose sniffing the air. Then it’s gone again.
“So close, Ver. Keep trying.”
I shut my eyes and focus, calling the vision back, inhabiting it the way I felt Bas do when he shifted. A yip of glee breaks the silence, and I blink open my eyes to a completely new room.
I’m still standing in the kitchen, but everything looks different.
It’s black and white for one thing, and I’m much lower down.
I’m looking up at Riley from the height of his knees, and woven between the beech bar stools and Riley’s legs there are scent trails that spiral out in all directions like vapor trails, the only pop of color in my otherwise gray world.
I gasp and it comes out like another yip.
Riley grins. “There you go. Now, do you want me to come too?”
I shake my head. I’d like to explain but can’t talk. My throat won’t cooperate.
He reaches down and ruffles the fur on my head. “That’s OK. I get it. I’ll be here if you need me, OK? I’ll wait right here. If you’re not back by midnight, I’ll come looking.”
I nuzzle against his leg in thanks and then turn in wonder toward the door. A wispy trail of purply red heads straight out the door, and I follow it onto the drive. It smells like honey and bourbon, and I know exactly where it leads.
I twist, letting out a sharp yip to thank Riley, and then I take off at a run, relishing the way my paws scurry over the pavement so quickly.
Hundreds of different scents cross the trail as I follow it down the street, but I ignore them, focusing on what’s important.
The scent of my mate is tinged with sadness and something sickly I can’t name.
I hurry up the hill and toward the outskirts of town, following the path he took, wondering what he was looking for.
Or I start out wondering and then the flitter of a bird in a nearby bush catches my attention, as does the brush of a cool breeze through my fur.
Soon I’m trotting on light feet, thinking only about the moment, following the scent because I need to but not worried about what I’ll find when I get there.
I trot into a clearing where the ground is leveled out and covered in gravel, and it takes me a moment to recognize where I am. I’ve been here before, but it looks so different than approaching by car.
The eco-cabins.
I think that’s good. He didn’t run too far.
Nose to the ground, I follow the thickening scent right to the open door of one of the cabins. Bastien’s scent is mixed with the faint feminine scent of the woman we met and the harsher, masculine musk of the werewolf owner. I pause, but it’s Bas’s scent which is strongest.
A sad laugh from inside the cabin makes my ears swivel forward. “He told me you’d come, and I didn’t believe it.”
I creep forward, low to the ground, instincts telling me something isn’t quite right.
Bas is lying on the bed, in his human form and wrapped only in a towel.
As I get closer, he sits and his eyes widen.
“Ver? Look at you. You did it.” He slings his legs over the end of the bed, leaning forward to stare at me.
He lowers his hand, and I slink forward to touch my nose to his skin, lapping at the salty flavor before his hand cups my cheek and his thumb brushes over the fur on my jaw.
“You’re beautiful.”
I want so much to talk to him, but I can’t form words as a fox, and for a moment I worry I won’t be able to shift back.
He sighs. “It’s OK, Ver. You don’t need to say it. I understand.”
A profound relief washes over me, and then I tilt my head to study his face more closely. That’s not happiness on his face. It’s resignation.
The shift happens so quickly my bones ache, and I stumble forward on two unsteady legs until he’s forced to catch me.
“Why did you say I can’t leave? Back at the house, you said I can’t leave you, but I’m not going anywhere.
” I hold his face in my hands and stare into his eyes.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?”
His brows draw down over his eyes for a moment, and he searches my face. “Vera, you shut me out. What else could that mean?”
Oh shit. No wonder he thought I was leaving.
“No, it’s not like that.” I reach for the bond and find a wall like a muscle I didn’t know I was clenching.
It takes me a moment to figure out how to release it, and when I do I feel the rush of my thoughts and emotions flows from me like water from a dam.
Bastien’s’ brows shoot up, and he lets out a little huff of breath.
“I’m not leaving,” I whisper as I climb into his lap.
His hands slide up my thighs, but his gaze is locked on mine. His lips part. “Y-you’re not.”
“I just didn’t want to overwhelm you with something else to worry about after all the shit with your parents.”
“Of course you’re not.” His arms wrap around me tightly, and he drops his head to my shoulder, overcome with emotion. “Gods, Ver. I’m sorry I doubted you.”
I hold him, running my hands through his hair, soaking in our combined scents. “I told you, there’s nothing to apologize for. I’m sorry for scaring you.”
He looks up then, expression rueful. “Aren’t you upset about what I did?”
“Bas, it was nothing. You’re not him. You’re nothing like him, OK?” I place one hand on each of his cheeks, cupping his face, fixing him with a firm look. “Trust me.”
He lets out an unsteady breath. “You’d tell me if I was, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course, but I won’t need to. You’ll never be him.”
He holds me close for another long moment, and we breathe together until his steadies to match mine. Then he lifts his head. Our lips are close. Something hot and hard brushes against my inner thigh then rises to press between us.
His hands tighten on my waist. “I’m so proud of you for finding your shift again.”
I grin. “I’m proud of me too.”
We each search the other’s gaze for a moment more.
“Are you going to kiss me, or do I have to beg for it?” I ask him.
With a growl, he pulls me closer still and closes his mouth over mine.
His lips move against mine, stroking and caressing as his tongue slides into my mouth, and I moan into it.
The thick bar of his erection rubs between us, and I roll my hips, chasing the sensation, sliding my slick pussy over the rigid shape.
He breaks away from the kiss to slide his lips down my neck, and I sigh, tilting my head to the side to expose his mark. “There. Yours. Maybe I need to bite you too just to let you know you’re mine.”
His cock throbs from its position trapped between our bodies. “You want to bite me, Vera?”
“Mmm. Maybe.”
“Then bite me, mate. Mark me. I’m yours.”
I’m grinning as I push him back on the bed.
I slide down his body, kissing and nipping him as I go, calling my fox.
She is close to the surface now, ready to jump into control.
I let her loose just enough to shape my face into the elongated snout of a predator, to make my teeth as sharp as they need to be.
His hand flies to the back of my head as I make a little nip at his hip bone.
He groans.
I lap the soft, sensitive skin on his inner thigh. Then the scent of his salty precum leaking from his hard cock overwhelms me. My mouth waters. I open my jaws and clamp down, leaving my mark on his body as the metallic tang fills my mouth.
Bas groans and a drop of liquid spills from his tip to drop onto his belly.
I lift my head to inspect my work. Four deep marks make a sort of square on his fleshy inner thigh. They’re red and angry looking, and I automatically lean in to lick them softly.
Bastien’s cock twitches again. I look up to find him bracing on an elbow, watching me. “Yours.”
I grin as I climb back to my position over him. “Mine.”