Chapter 11 - Rhys
Cassie’s laughter cascades around me, truly one of the sweetest sounds I’ve ever heard. The sun is warm on my back as I chase her through the thick forest surrounding the park, deliberately holding back to let her get ahead of me.
When we’ve gone some distance from the main park, I speed up a bit to catch her, wrestling her to the ground and tickling her. She shrieks with glee, wriggling as she reaches out to pat my cheeks with her tiny hands.
I love you more than I thought it was possible to love anything! God, I wish I could tell her…
A sharp pang of regret runs through me when I think of all the years I lost, never knowing her, and the uncertainty of the future that looms ahead of us.
If we find the cure, the elders want us to just “get rid” of Sadie, and no one is giving me any specifics. It can’t be as simple as dissolving the marriage and letting her leave, because they’d never let Cassie go, and neither would I.
Cassie giggles again, reaching for me, and I sit up with her in my lap, stroking her pale blond hair.
“Mom should be finished with work soon,” I say. “We should get back.”
“Not yet,” she replies, looking up into the canopy of trees. The sunlight flickers down, dappling her in a golden glow. A gentle breeze whispers in the leaves, and Cassie closes her eyes, as if she’s listening to a song I can’t hear.
“What do you feel, kiddo?” I ask.
“Something,” she mutters. “I don’t know. It feels strange.”
“Can you tell me more?”
Cassie shakes her head, her eyes still closed. “It’s like... my ears can hear things too far away, but when I try to listen, it goes away.”
“What about your eyes? What can you see?”
Cassie opens her eyes again and looks up into the rustling leaves.
“It’s the same,” she says. “I can see details, then suddenly, I can’t.”
“Have you ever felt strange or sick for no reason?” I ask. “Kind of hot and itchy, like you had a fever, but you weren’t actually sick?”
“Sometimes,” she says, cocking her head to the side. “I have really big dreams.”
“How big?” I ask, holding my hands a few inches apart. “This big?” I ask, widening my hands again. “Or this big?”
“This big!” she says, giggling as she flings her hands apart. “It’s exciting… I’m running and running. It’s night, but it looks bright, like daytime.”
She’s dreaming of her first shift!
While she talks and listens to the forest around her, I can sense a great power within her, something turning over in its slumber, huge and powerful but not quite ready to wake.
What are we going to do? We have to tell her sometime.
“Rhys?” she asks suddenly. “Are you, like, my dad?”
My heart freezes in my chest as icy panic washes through my veins.
Yes! I’m your dad!
“I mean, we live with you… And you take care of me. Like a dad?”
“Yes, sweetie,” I answer. “Like a dad.”
She nods, a little frown crossing her angelic features.
“The other kids… they’re fun to play with,” she says, and I can see her struggling to find the words to express herself.
For a three-year-old, she communicates so well. She’s smart as well as strong.
“Go on, honey,” I say.
“It’s more fun than kids back in the city,” she says. “Everyone is so fast and strong. They keep up with me.”
“That’s because you’re special,” I reply, not knowing how much to tell her. “And all these other kids are special, too.”
“You mean, not normal?” she asks with a grin.
“Definitely not,” I laugh, tickling her.
After some tickles, Cassie runs away towards the park, inviting me to chase her again. I go after her slowly enough to let her get ahead, but not so far that I’d be out of range if she needed me.
There’s no way Sadie told her about shifters, but what can I really say to a three-year-old? Would she understand? She didn’t have a lot of time to really understand normal people, anyway.
I chuckle to myself again as I think about normal and how ambiguous the word really is.
I can sense power inside her. It’s not usual for kids to shift before five years old, but we need to talk to her about this—soon. I don’t want it to happen when she isn’t ready, and she’ll need to get used to it before she sees anyone else shift, too.
I slowly chase Cassie back to the main area of the park, where we’ll be meeting Sadie after she finishes work. I get Cassie and myself cold drinks from a nearby stall, and she collapses against me, catching her breath as we both cool down.
All I want to do is tell her everything, but if that’s not what Sadie wants, I can’t do it. This situation sucks, and that’s all there is to it, but I know one thing for sure—I can’t let Cassie walk out of my life.
Before my thoughts can get too tangled again, I catch Sadie’s scent and look towards the front gates so I can watch her approach. As she comes around the corner onto the path, a breeze teases around her, lifting her brown hair and tossing the long, pale-pink skirt around her legs.
Fuck… she’s beautiful.
“Mommy!” Cassie yells, getting up to run to her. Sadie bends down and sweeps Cassie into her arms, twirling her a bit and kissing the tip of her nose.
I’m mesmerized by the sight of them, the unbelievable beauty of my wife, and the ethereal quality of our child. It’s like a magic spell has been cast, and I’m caught in it, my will to resist robbed from me as I beg to be bound.
Sadie looks up at me, and her dark brown eyes look almost black. She smiles, and there’s so much warmth in it; tenderness kindles in my chest.
And something far hotter deep down...
I look away, swallowing hard as I try not to think about that night and fail miserably. The sounds Sadie made as I pleasured her, the way her body responded to me—I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since it happened.
Only three days ago, but it feels like an eternity—and a millisecond.
Sadie approaches with Cassie on her hip, and I get up slowly, praying my body won’t give me away. I want to put my arms around both of them, to hug them tightly and never let them go.
And I want to kiss Sadie. Right here, right now… passionate, deep, long… tease her and make her think about what else my tongue could do for her…
As they get closer, Sadie’s sweet vanilla scent floods my nose, and I inhale slowly, holding my breath and closing my eyes to savor it.
I could eat her out forever and still feel like I was starving, begging for one more bite…
“Are you ready?” she asks.
I nod, opening my eyes quickly. “Yeah, sorry. I was just lost in thought.”
“Oh, thinking about what?”
Your hot pussy on my face.
“Nothing in particular,” I say, smiling. As we turn towards the gates, I put my hand on the small of her back and fight to keep it there, not reach down to squeeze her butt.
I want more… much, much more… but I know she isn’t ready to forgive me. And this isn’t the plan. I’m not supposed to want her like this, but how can I stop?
Thankfully, we reach the car, and I can think about driving us home instead of obsessing about being between Sadie’s thighs. When we get back, the two of us cook dinner together, and I set Cassie up in her high chair with a small plate of sausages and mashed potatoes.
“Ick!” she declares, poking at a piece of broccoli.
“I tell you what,” I say. “You eat one piece of broccoli, and I’ll let you have ice cream after dinner.”
Cassie folds her arms. “You’d let me have ice cream, anyway,” she declares.
I can’t help but laugh.
“And the ice cream totally negates the broccoli in that instance,” Sadie says, sitting down at the table behind me. “You can’t use that as a bargaining chip—something unhealthy that obliterates the healthy thing.”
“I’m trying, okay?” I laugh. “I’m not good at this.”
“You’re not,” Cassie teases, sticking her tongue out at me.
“Stop torturing him,” Sadie says, laughing as she takes a bite of food.
To my surprise, Cassie picks up the broccoli and takes a bite. She makes a little face, but finishes it.
“You have to eat greens,” Cassie says to me very seriously. “Or you can be very sick. It’s important to do stuff you don’t like when it’s good for you—and it makes you like the good stuff more.”
“Wow,” I reply, nodding. “Did your mom teach you that?”
Cassie nods, poking at her potatoes with a spoon.
“Okay, now I’ll teach you something,” I say. “Get a little bit of that mashed potato and put it on the broccoli.”
Frowning, Cassie does.
“Now try it.”
Her frown deepens as she picks up the broccoli and puts it in her mouth, but then her eyes clear and she chews enthusiastically.
“It tastes better!” she exclaims. “It doesn’t even taste like broccoli now!”
“Aha!” I say, giving her a little high-five. “This is just the beginning. Mixing food with other food is great.”
Cassie nods, focusing on her food and using the spoon to mix things together.
“You’ve done it now,” Sadie laughs. “You’ll find your shampoo mixed with your toothpaste next.”
“Well, as long as she doesn’t try to eat it.”
Sadie raises her eyebrows. “You really don’t know much about kids, do you?”
I chuckle. “Apparently not.”
We finish up the meal, and even though the conversation between us is sparse, it’s friendly and a vast improvement over silence or fake niceness.
After we eat, Sadie takes Cassie for a bath, and I clean up the kitchen.
By the time I’m done, it’s time to tuck Cassie in, so I go and say goodnight to her before I go out to meet up with the other alphas.
As I stand in the doorway watching Sadie read Cassie a story, I feel a deep, nagging frustration inside me.
I want this to last forever… but so far, this has not even had an effect on the disease. If nothing happens—or worse, people begin to die—the council will want Sadie’s head!
***
I drive out to our usual bar, a quiet little dive on the outskirts where we like to meet simply for its location, which is more easily accessible to all three of us than a nicer place further in town. Owen and Shane are already there at a back table, and they wave me over.
“We need to talk,” Owen says before I’ve even sat down. “Whatever it is, it’s getting worse.”
“Has anyone died?” I ask.
Owen shakes his head, but his expression is grave. “I had two young kids lose the ability to shift today, and they came down with symptoms of a head injury,” he says. “They started throwing up, got dizzy, couldn’t stay on their feet. It was bad.”
“How are they now?” I ask.
“Stable. Normal. But they have no shifter abilities.”
“Shit.”
“Right?”
I turn to Shane. “How about you, any good news?”
Shane shakes his head. “I haven’t had any new cases, but no one is getting better, either. Please tell me you’ve got some progress in your pack—we need to know that something’s working.”
“I thought it was,” I reply. “My own powers seemed to return, but it isn’t stable. They come and go. What about you?”
“I’m as weak as a day-old kitten,” Shane says.
“I haven’t been able to shift for over a week, and I’ve got no powers,” Owen adds.
I sigh, looking down at my hands. The weight on my chest feels like a ton of rocks, and I can barely get the words out. My fear and frustration break through it all, and I react without thinking.
“There’s nothing else to say, okay?” I snap. “Just back the fuck off.”
I keep my eyes down, waiting for my two best friends to react.
“That bad, huh?” Owen mutters.
“Worse,” Shane says.
I sigh again, trying to shift the weight on my chest. My earlier thought about the council wanting Sadie’s head suddenly dominates my mind, and adrenaline floods through every cell, filling me with fear.
“Hey,” Owen says, clapping his hand down on my shoulder. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not,” I retort, shaking my head as I look up at him. “Things are happening between Sadie and me. It’s wrong, I know it is, but—”
“Something’s there,” Shane finishes for me. “And it might be something real.”
“It can’t be,” I say, shaking my head. “It can’t be real. If it were, my pack would be getting better. I’m just confused, maybe even a bit selfish—”
“Or trying to protect the mother of your child,” Owen says. “None of us would blame you for that.”
“The council would,” I mutter.
“That’s true,” Shane says. “But we’ve got your back, okay?”
“No matter how this goes, we’re with you,” Owen says. “We just have to do something, and soon. Or none of us will even have a pack.”
I nod, taking another big gulp of beer. I have no answers for my friends, and as much as I appreciate their support, it can’t possibly solve the conflict between the two sides of my heart.
That I want Sadie—desperately, completely, with every fiber of my being—but that I can’t ever have her. That a human being is beneath me and forbidden to wolves, and as alpha, I have to abide by and enforce this rule.