Chapter 6
Declan
The family cabin grew out of the thick stand of stately trees.
The Old Magic had supplied my parents with a sturdy, living pine for each of the four corners of the house.
Fallen tree logs wove through the anchor trees to reuse what the Old Magic provided to us.
The small porch was Cosomo’s addition, and I had added the swing dangling from an ancient pine that made up the left corner of the shelter.
We all pushed into the large, two-room cabin in our human skin.
I threw clothes at my siblings with emphasis and lit the lamps, and a fire in the stone fireplace.
“Thank Godds it’s warmer.” I noted the longing in my mate’s voice.
Winter travel wasn’t easy and I was glad she could rest. My Momma’s cheery checkered curtains still hung in the window over the trough sink.
In fact, nothing had changed about the cabin at all.
Nostalgia warred with the recognition that I was a completely different wolf than when I last walked in here.
Fallon poked around the cabin as we tallied supplies.
At least mice hadn’t eaten all the stores and the wood remained dry. I went to open the bedroom.
“Declan, what’s this?” Fallon’s voice filled with laughter as she held up a phallic-looking object attached to a bunch of leather straps.
Oh. No.
Cosomo burst out laughing, pointing at my childhood obsession. My cheeks burned. Fallon didn’t need to know everything about me. I strode over to take it out of her hands and ended up wrestling her for it when she stubbornly refused to let go.
“It’s not what you’re thinking.” I tried to be gentle but that meant her fingers kept a firm grip, tangled in the leather.
“What am I thinking, Declan!?” Her eyes grew sly.
“It’s not a strap-on!” I blurted out.
The whole cabin burst out laughing as I finally pried it out of her hands. I eyed the fireplace that Briggs blocked with her body.
Bring it, my sister said in my mind.
“To be fair, Declan was five when he made that and he was still obsessed with unicorns well into his teens,” Briggs said to Fallon.
Glee lit Fallon’s eyes. “A unicorn obsession you never told me about?”
“Into my teens, she said!” I huffed, more color flooding my cheeks. Why did family have to be such a blessing and a curse?
“He thought if he wore it enough, the Old Magic would turn him into a unicorn,” Eilie said, the traitor.
My sigh of defeat filled the room. Were all of them going to kill me with embarrassment? “I’ll just…” Eilie blocked the door.
“Put it on!” Fallon said as she clapped her hands.
“Not you too,” I growled at her.
“For your mate?” She said it so sweetly, looking deep into my eyes with a spark I had always wanted to see there. My resolve crumbled faster than overbaked cookies.
Fuck.
“For my mate,” I grumbled and brought it to my head.
My siblings cackled into the room like a bunch of lunatics but as I buckled the first strap around my neck, something happened to Fallon.
She looked at Briggs, then back to me quickly.
Her lips parted, her stare too intense for the joke.
Growing still, her inhale lifted her entire chest. Fallon’s eyes tracked every touch of my fingers against the leather.
Her pupils dilated as I rattled the second buckle to thread the band through.
I watched her swallow thickly as I pulled the final strap tight.
Suddenly I wasn’t standing before her with a childish horn sticking up from my forehead.
Our connection crackled. The boom of her heart and the blood rushing to her cheeks beat against my senses. Honey was full of surprises.
Then, of course, Briggs tackled me, grabbing the horn and waggling it around as if it were the dick it kinda looked like.
“Get off. I’ll make you wear it.” I removed it from my head with less grace than I had put it on.
“All yours, big bro, but we all missed hearing about the latest findings in the Equis Journal.”
I shoved her off of me, the other two wiping away tears as Fallon, of course, found the tiny kitchen while she surreptitiously fanned her face. The old potbellied stove and a few basic pots and pans were the best the cabin could do.
“I’ll make dinner,” Fallon said as she grabbed a pot from the hook on the wall. We were all tired, but the circles blooming beneath her eyes, the tremors in her hands, her scent degrading into fermented apples made Fallon haggard.
“You don’t have to,” I called to her. “You've been traveling hard for days.”
Wolves were ever sensitive and they heard the underlying lash of command in my voice. I had forgotten what it felt like for the Old Magic to amplify the tone of my words.
Fallon waved my concern away as she always did. “I think I just live hard. I’m fine. This will only take a minute.”
But if I knew Fallon, a minute would mean she would have to add some greens to dinner, or if she really got out of control, rolls she would rise with her magic. And after what happened at Ward’s Keep, I wasn’t sure she should use her magic until Momma could get a handle on it.
I nudged her out of the way, ready to come to blows. I would have never taken the liberty before, but this wasn’t her kitchen and we had a new start here.
“Then it will only take me a minute. Dinner will have to be just edible rather than rapture-inducing, but we’ll live, right?”
I eyed every one of my siblings, who meekly nodded as if they could feel the tension in the room ramped up to eleven.
Fallon’s fists clenched, but not as hard as I would have supposed. She shifted from foot to foot. “I can’t just sit here. What do I do with myself?” Name something mate-like, I’m going to clobber you with that cast iron pan. The tightness around her mouth and eyes told me she was serious.
If I had my way, she would sit next to the fire and maybe doze to bring some color back into her face, but we were only fake mates.
I knew it was far too soon for that ask.
My hands plucked a cutting board and slapped a knife on top.
Dumping some softening carrots onto the wood, I leaned over her, her heart rate picking up again.
“Get to chopping, Honey.”
It must have been her full-body shiver bending her into compliance, or she was just too tired to fight, but she took up the carrots and started peeling and chopping with only minimal grumbling.
“I’ll try not to burn them.” I hid my smile the best I could. No need to rub it in her face, but this new dynamic was more delicious than any one of Fallon’s creations.
Dinner was a straightforward affair, as the stove and the fireplace heated the cabin to snug.
The plate I set in front of Fallon was as satisfying as making her rest. I dragged her chair closer to mine as my siblings played Rock, Knives, Wolves to see who got to tell me their latest misadventure first.
Fallon stiffened as our legs touched.
“Easy, mate.” I reminded her in a low voice as Eilie screeched in outrage and they tossed hands again. “Think of this as the test run before you meet the rest of the pack. You can do this.”
“Easy for you to say. You believe in this junk. I’m just a human. With magic. With food magic. Whatever. You know what I mean.”
I slipped my hand over her knee and she didn’t knock it away. That would have to do for now.
You’re going to have to pretend to believe in it too. It would be strange if we really were mates and not touching each other. The Old Magic has made our pack a bit more traditional than the rest of the Harrowlands. You wanted a list of rules. Well, this is one of them.
Long separation of mates is unheard of. Interest in other partners is nonexistent, even before you meet your mate. Once together, you crave their physical touch. Mates become possessive of each other.
I had always been protective of Honey. She just didn’t know it.
If you feel the need to knock out another female with a meat cleaver, let me know first. I winked at her. Our ultimate union would be the mark you’ve seen with Maggie and Evie. I added when she said nothing.
You bite me, and I’ll give you the cleaver. The look in her eyes glinted with murder.
I wanted to snark back. I did. I should have, but something deep inside me pulled out the truth. My lips all but brushed her neck to whisper dark words against her wildly beating pulse. Careful about giving up things you might beg for someday, Honey.
She flushed all over and I shook her knee, my point made.
“None of you get to go next,” I reprimanded my siblings. “Tell them about flying with Evie, Fallon.”
While it wasn’t the safest topic, with the whole banishment thing, Fallon’s eyes relaxed as she related her best friend’s comedic attempts to learn how to fly.
My siblings roared with laughter and pride filled me.
Most beings in the Harrowlands would never get near a dragon, let alone ride one, and her courage and fearlessness shone through.
How could I not admire her? My mate was still in shock that she might never weather one of Evie's erratic flight patterns again, but I hoped holding onto the memory made the blow softer.
Her story petered out into a brittle silence, and bless him, Cosomo took up the baton before it became awkward.
As he started his account of the elk hunt he led, I kept tuned to Fallon.
Not that I wasn’t interested in my brother’s story.
It was just that I had heard tales like this throughout my entire childhood.
One elk kill was much like any other elk kill.
I finally had a reason to place Fallon at the center of my world.
I wouldn’t miss even one of her breaths.
She didn’t relax. In fact, the tension around her mouth spread into lines between her brows. Her breathing grew shallower. Fallon flexed her left hand when she thought I wasn’t watching.
What do you need?
She startled under my clutching fingers. Nothing. I’m fine.
You were doing so well acting like a mate. Better work harder if we’re going to fool my Momma.
Was it unfair to push her buttons when I knew just how to smash them? Probably. But all was fair in mates and wooing.
She looked down at her lap as if she were embarrassed to need anything. A hot cup of something, then. Anything warm I can hold. My hands are still cold.
I took in every part of her neutral expression, breathing out with conviction.
She was lying. All those times when I felt something was off, I now realized she was lying to me.
To all of her friends. Sensing my scrutiny, she looked into my eyes and froze.
At this point, Fallon would have been out the door, retreating to her room, so I backed away first and warmed up a kettle as Cosomo got to the bloody heart of his story where he heroically leaped on the elk’s back and went for the kill.
I nudged a smooth stone closer to the open fire as I took down a tin cup that would transfer heat better.
“Who else wants a night tea?”
My siblings stared at me with a puzzled expression. We usually ended the night with wine and song, but Eilie timidly raised her hand. I got myself and Eilie a cup to match Fallon’s so there weren’t questions about why hers was different.
I took the pot, the kettle and cups to the table, letting Fallon steep and pour to her exacting specifications of tea doneness while I wrapped the smooth stone in a flannel and slipped it onto her lap as I sat down.
The relief on her face was obvious and I itched to know what was wrong so I could make it better.
I wouldn’t confront her and embarrass her in front of my family.
At least her body relaxed, and as much of a smile as she ever wore returned.
A tension still hovered around her eyes, but I could drop my shoulders
Yawns started up around the table, and eyes darted to the one bedroom in the cabin. We all used to pile together on the bed as wolves when we stayed here as kids, but there was no way anyone was going to be in that bed but Fallon.
“The floor’s looking real comfortable. Right, gang?”
Eilie tried giving me the sad eyes but I was in motion before anyone else could move. Scooping Fallon up out of her chair, I ran to the bedroom, slamming the door behind me. Wolven whines and scratches at the door eventually subsided and allowed a wet panting to fill the room.
I looked down at Fallon, and she stared back at me, suppressing her laugh between pressed lips.
“It’s not me!” she said.
Ned’s shiny eyes nearly levitated me from the floor. Fallon let out a squeak. The dog was a ghost sometimes, but his random appearances had the added benefit of forcing Fallon to clutch me closer. I guess he could be the exception.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Fallon said as she shifted in my arms to kiss me on the cheek.
I might have accidentally, not really, turned my head.
The movement brought her up short so she hovered just before my lips.
It was hardly a chaste distance between her wind-chapped skin and my pout.
She didn’t close that infinite space. I couldn’t move.
I didn’t want to do the wrong thing. It shouldn’t have been sexy with the way I was suddenly sweating, but an arc of pure fire lit up my body from head to toe.
Fallon swallowed and the moment collapsed in on itself.
We pulled back as if we were both doused with pepper fire.
I was terrible at this. This was the farthest I’d ever gotten with Fallon and I ruined it.
Gently setting her on the bed, she wiggled over to make room for me.
Ned hopped up and nestled into her side.
I stepped back. Never in ten thousand years could I sleep in the one bed we had.
What if I messed it up again? Fallon’s body sagged into the mattress.
She deserved to rest without my clumsiness.
So I took the floor between her and the door, shifting into my wolf.
“Why aren't you huge still?” Honey asked into the dark room.
I will be when I need to be.
“But…”
Stop trying to make it make sense, Honey. The Old Magic will drive you crazy if you try to think of it logically.
I needed to take my own advice and enjoy the fact that my mate was safe, snug in a comfortable bed and well-fed by my hand.
Because our fake mating was just the start of what I hadn't told her.
Even though I would do anything to see Fallon powerful in her magic, being back home meant all of my responsibilities were about to come crashing down on my head.
And the dildo of consequences rarely came lubed.