Chapter 12 #2
I cried out while Salem desperately chased his own release.
When I locked my ankles behind his back, Salem unleashed a feral growl I felt in my bones. He raised his head toward the sky. After one final thrust, I felt his orgasm just as surely as he did. It almost catapulted me into another dimension.
After a few breathless seconds, he pulled out and collapsed over me. We lay there, panting and spent.
The horse whinnied loudly.
“Damn that horse.” He glared at the mare, who pawed the ground to get his attention.
I laughed softly. “I’ve heard you swear more in the past thirty minutes than I have in all the time I’ve known you. Maybe we should have sex more often.”
Salem eased up, but instead of pulling away, he kissed me tenderly on the mouth. “It’s best if we make this a onetime affair, don’t you think?”
“I agree.”
What am I saying? I agree? Actually, I do agree about not forming a relationship—neither of us wants that. But the sex is so good! He was in the moment, and not once did I feel any negative emotions. He’s right though. Sex complicates things. If he did this to me again, I just might marry him.
“Salem?”
“Yes?”
“Something’s poking my butt.”
He chuckled and rolled me on top of him. “Is that better?”
I stroked his beard and kissed his chin. “You’re a hard nut to crack. I’m always sure about people’s feelings, but I had trouble figuring out if you were attracted to me. Who knew you were this good in bed?”
He looked around. “I don’t see a bed.”
“Can I ask you something personal?”
“Perhaps.”
“You pretended to be Joy’s mate. Why?”
He cleared his throat, his voice now more solemn. “I was part of a group holding her against her will. When I found out and freed her, it didn’t feel ethical to abandon a pregnant woman. She needed a pack, so pretending to be her mate was the best chance she had, especially since I’m a healer.”
I considered what he said and realized there was more to the story—more than what he was willing to divulge—but his emotions were that of a penitent man. “That was kind of you.”
He scoffed. “Kind isn’t a word I’d use. Deplorable. I wanted to right the wrong, but there’s no sense in trying.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because no matter what I do, I’ll never make up for it.”
“Don’t say that. It sounds like you did pretty great things.”
He wiped his forehead. “You don’t know the whole story.”
“Joy’s here, safe with her baby, in a pack that loves her unconditionally. She found her life mate. She found a home. You did that. Now, unless you were the one who kidnapped her…”
“No, I wasn’t the one, but I can’t escape the role I played. I was so eager to discover a new scientific breakthrough…” he said, his voice trailing off.
I climbed off him and wiped the grass and pebbles off my behind and back. “You heal people every day like it’s no big deal. That’s pretty great if you ask me.”
Salem retrieved his pants, and we began the process of getting dressed so we didn’t freeze to death.
“I feel terrible,” I admitted.
“Why?”
“Because you faked a relationship with Joy to help her out, and now you’re doing the same for me. I should’ve never dragged you into this. We can stop pretending if you want.”
Salem touched my hand. “I gave you my word. This doesn’t make up for the suffering I put you through with that medical emergency.”
“You didn’t know.”
“Still, I should’ve asked. I’ll do this for you.” He stood and offered me his hand. “Where did you learn to be an artist?”
I took his hand and bounced to my feet. “When I was seventeen, I got a job as an apprentice for a glazier who’d been in the business for three hundred years.
He taught me the trade, but it was a lot of work.
I studied drawing and practiced lines over and over.
Once I improved, it was up to my imagination to come up with the art.
” After I put on my pajama bottoms, we strolled back.
“Every so often, I research new techniques or styles, but I’ve been doing this for almost twenty years now.
If you’re not good at something after two decades, it’s time to find a new career. ”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
“What about you?” I clutched his arm. “Were you the little kid who put bandages on your pet frog and rescued all the kids who fell out of trees?”
“I didn’t grow up in a pack. Scrapes and bumps were ignored, but there were a few times I received injuries serious enough for the Relic.
His tools fascinated me. When I told him I wanted to grow up to be a healer, he said that was a Relic’s job and I should pursue something else.
He said no one would hire a Shifter since Relics inherit their knowledge and would always be more capable.
I suppose I always wanted to prove him wrong. ”
When I combed my fingers through my hair, it shook loose a few leaves. “Did you go to school for it?”
“I mostly learned from Breed libraries, Relics, and experience. But in the beginning, I attended a human medical school.”
“A human school? Wow, you’re brave. Weren’t you afraid of shifting in class? That would’ve been a scandal.”
“It almost happened a few times. That was long ago.”
“How long?”
“Some ninety years.”
I grabbed his arm when I stumbled on a tree root. “That’s a long time.”
Catcher flew past us, his paws tearing up the earth. I stopped to wipe my eyes.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
“No, I just got dirt in my eyes. So how old are you?”
“A hundred and… seventeen, I think. No, sixteen.”
“I’m thirty-seven.”
“I know.”
“How?”
He put his arm around me as we continued walking. “I did the math when you said you started your work at seventeen and you’ve been doing it for twenty years.”
“You’re a smart guy, Salem Lockwood. How do you keep up with all the advances in medicine?”
“Well, biology doesn’t change as much as our understanding of it.
Most human treatments don’t apply to immortals, but I spend a lot of time in libraries.
I continue my studies and research to stay current with not only human medicine but Breed.
Relics are usually the ones in possession of all the good books, so it’s a challenge to find them. ”
“How did you keep from shifting in class? My animal gets spooked when I’m in a crowd, especially around humans.”
“I took shifting-suppression drugs. My wolf didn’t like it.
Times have changed since then. In those days, if one of us wanted to seek an education in their school, it came with a risk.
There were lots of accidents, and the higher authority had to step in and do memory wipes if someone shifted in public.
It takes a while before kids learn how to control their inner animal.
I only knew of one Chitah who attended college. ”
“Really? With their strange eye color?”
“His were pale brown. A classmate provoked him, and he flipped his switch in the hallway. People thought he was playing a joke or went psychotic… until he ran down the hall as fast as a Chitah can. At least back then, people couldn’t record everything on phones, so it was easier to get away with accidental exposures. ”
I moved out of his grasp to swat something that crawled onto my ankle. “Sounds like a lot of trouble.”
“That’s why we have our own scholars. Their schools were beneficial for learning about human anatomy, but immortals have spent centuries accumulating knowledge specific to our history, medicine, science, and culture.
I spent years working for the higher authority as an insider in clinics and hospitals, but eventually it wasn’t challenging enough. I was too ambitious for my own good.”
The silence gathered like an oncoming storm, and I began sliding the pieces into place about what might’ve happened with Joy being held captive and Salem’s involvement.
I lost my balance and knocked into him. “Sorry. I keep stepping on sharp twigs, and I don’t have shoes on.”
Salem halted in his tracks, turned his back to me, and hunched over. “Hop on.”
“What?”
“I wouldn’t want you twisting an ankle or hurting yourself, especially since you have to work in the morning. Climb on. I’ll carry you.”
“Well, if you insist. I hope you’ve had your protein shake today.” I wrapped my arms around his neck, and Salem tucked his hands beneath my thighs before straightening up. Then we were on the move again, the horse trotting alongside us on the other side of the fence.
“Seriously. Why is she out?”
“His tribe doesn’t always put their horses in stables. She’s used to being out at night as long as it’s not too cold. Tak puts a blanket over her when she refuses to come in.”
My thoughts roamed. “What did your family do for a living if they weren’t in a pack?”
“They were scavengers. They did a lot of hunting and fishing but couldn’t hold down a job.
To put it bluntly, we were poor. Sometimes when they couldn’t find game and the fish weren’t biting, we starved.
If their wolves hunted, it was mainly rats.
There used to be bounties on natural wolves until they went extinct in the state, so we had to be careful about someone spotting us. Mostly they shifted in the shed.”
How sad for him. Suddenly I had a mental picture of a scrawny little boy going to bed without supper, his stomach growling, tears wetting his pillow.
“I’m sorry you went through that. No child should ever know hunger.”
“One year, my mother was pregnant. During the winter, only my father could go out and hunt. I was too young. Whatever food he brought home was for her, but it still wasn’t enough. She lost the baby. I always felt guilty.”
“Why?”
He panted and then slowed his pace. “Because I stole food that should’ve been hers when my father wasn’t paying attention.”
“You were hungry. It wasn’t your fault.”
“I know that now. Years later, I found out she experienced multiple miscarriages in her life that had nothing to do with food, but that shaped how I feel about pregnant women. They should always come first. That’s why I had to help Joy.”
I pressed my cheek against his neck as he continued his walk toward the house.
How many tears had he shed for his mother while blaming himself?
That was probably the catalyst for him becoming a man who devoted his life to helping others.
Salem was an intellectual who prided himself on learning, but beneath it all was a tender heart, one he was trying so hard to protect that he had built a wall of books around it.
When I heard his labored breathing, I decided to give him a break. “You can put me down now.”
He stopped at the corner of the fence line. While I loosened my hold around his neck, his arms remained fastened beneath my legs.
I pulled his hair free from the knot and flicked the elastic band into the dark. “Doesn’t that feel nice?” I tunneled my fingers through his hair, which fell past his shoulders. “Why do you wear it up?”
“It gets in the way of work.”
“Then why not shave it?”
“I’ve always had long hair.” He looked to the side. “We should split up from here. It’ll be less suspicious if someone comes out.” Salem let go, and I slid onto the grass.
I circled around him and clasped his wrists. Yes, touching him to feel his emotions was cheating, but I needed the truth. His touch revealed no deception or shame, and inner peace enveloped me like a warm hug.
I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “You’ll always be my hero.”
As I walked away, I glanced over my shoulder and blew him a kiss. “You’re supposed to catch it!”
He looked around, clearly nervous someone might be within earshot, but nobody was. If only we could’ve spent more time together and shared stories, but this was a one-night stand. That weighed heavy on my heart, because unlike him, I wanted more.