Chapter 30 Mariella
I pull my fur coat across my chest and dawdle home beside the river.
Snowflakes drift around me, the towering elms dusted in white.
I cross the road, and a shadow stirs in the corner of my vision.
Whipping around, I track the movement with a racing heart.
Seconds ago, I could’ve sworn the street was empty.
Twenty meters away, a silhouette steps toward me and I freeze.
I’m going to be murdered just as I’ve started to live my life.
The figure moves closer and, as I prepare to kick off my heels and make a run for it, a man steps under the glow of the nearest streetlight.
“Parker,” I whisper.
He crosses the street and strolls toward me, hands tucked into the pockets of a tuxedo.
He’s always been gorgeous, but with the triangle of bronzed skin at his open collar, the sliver of white cuff at his wrists, and the bulge of his muscles beneath the fitted fabric, my breath catches in my throat.
My fingers tingle with a burning need to touch him, and my chest aches with the reminder that I cannot.
A slow smile builds as he closes the distance between us, a dimple creasing each cheek. He tips his head.
“I can’t believe you’re here. How did you—” My words dissipate as he reaches out and tucks my hair behind my ear, his hand lingering over my temple. I gasp, butterflies swarming my stomach. “Wait, you can touch me? Does that mean…” I bring my hand to his, and our fingers entwine.
“I would’ve been your date and danced with you all night if circumstances were different.” He lifts my hand to his lips and presses a kiss to the back of my knuckles, his honey-hued eyes fixed on mine.
I laugh. “You mean if you weren’t from the future and on the run?”
He shrugs, the corner of his mouth tugging up into a cheeky grin. “Something like that.” His eyes stray to my ball gown, down the deep neckline visible beneath my open coat. “Besides, I wouldn’t have been able to hold a conversation with anyone when you look like this. Dance with me?”
I nod, and his hand slips beneath my coat to my waist, pulling me toward him.
I breath him in: warm cedar, cut grass, and something distinctly Parker that heats my body from the inside out.
My head rests in the space between his neck and shoulder, and with his other hand laced with mine, he leads me in a slow dance, snowflakes catching in our hair.
“Rose said I wouldn’t see you again,” I whisper.
“Did she?” he teases.
I peer up at him. “Are you okay? Where have you been?”
“Rose took me on a little field trip.” His amber eyes burn with intensity. “I came to see you as soon as I got my powers back so I could do this.”
He lowers his head, and I glimpse his mouth curving into a smile before he brushes his lips against mine.
I’ve spent months daydreaming about our last kiss—the softness of his lips and the sweep of his tongue, my body’s reaction to his closeness. The mere thought of his mouth on mine was enough to reignite the throbbing heat that had coursed through my veins.
I was convinced it wouldn’t be the same the second time around.
That the fire behind his kiss would wane, or the tingling shudder that raced through my chest to settle between my thighs wouldn’t stir.
Yet, when his lips meet mine, his kiss is as intense and staggering as I remembered, and for a moment I forget myself.
The chilling night air turns stifling, and every thought in my nervous brain evaporates. Everything I am, smell and feel is this intoxicating man holding my body to his, lips pressed against mine.
He wraps his arms around my thighs and hitches me up until our chests are pressed together. I bring my hands to his face, cradling his smooth jaw as I open my mouth and slide my tongue against his. His grip on my legs tightens, but he pulls back, leaving me hollow when our lips part.
My brain is dizzy and my body burns with want as Parker lowers my feet to the ground, every nerve ending aching where every inch of him touches every inch of me.
My mind catches up and nervous energy flashes through me.
Parker has his powers back. He can touch me.
And for the first time, we’re alone together.
Truly alone. No Rose to watch our every move or burst in at any moment.
There’s nothing holding us back from being together. So why aren’t his lips still on mine?
“You’re freezing,” Parker says, his voice gravelly.
I can’t be freezing, because he’s replaced the blood flowing in my veins with something searing and volatile. I bring my icy fingertips to my flushed cheeks and flinch.
“Feel my hands,” I say, pressing the backs of my fingers against his cheeks. He groans and grabs my hands, tucking them into his pockets. My thumb brushes a familiar metal. I pull the chain from his pocket, and my necklace dangles from my fingertips. “My necklace?”
He hesitates, scratching the back of his neck. “Yeah. I sometimes have it.” He clears his throat. “That’s a lie. I always have it. I promise I’ll keep it safe.”
“Thank you. It was my mother’s… I’m guessing you already knew that?”
He shakes his head. “I didn’t. I always presumed it was yours because of the inscription.”
I drag my thumb over the metal. Let the current carry you. “She always loved the ocean. Like you.”
I hand him the necklace, and he slips it back into his pocket, the muscles in his forearm shifting.
I recognize the movement, him turning the charm over inside his pocket as he’s done from the moment I first spotted him in my lecture.
The thought flitters across my mind and realization dawns on me—Parker and Rose have achieved what they set out to do.
Parker has his powers back and there’s nothing tying him to this time.
“You’re leaving,” I say.
He nods. “After I take you to see your mom. But first, I want to show you something.” He extends his hand toward me, and I stare into his mischievous, golden eyes. I would let him take me anywhere. Past, present or future. I would give hours of my life to have seconds in his.
So I reach out and take his hand.
The moment we touch, a wave of electricity brushes my fingertips, warmth flooding up my arm to congregate underneath my sternum. Within seconds, my whole body’s buzzing.
I don’t ask where we’re going. I trust him, just as my future self trusted him with my most treasured possession: my mother’s necklace. And if, after this moment, he’s going to leave, I’ll seize every stolen second I have with him now.
My pulse skitters. I’m about to time travel.
I close my eyes and suck in a deep breath as that unstable ball of searing electricity explodes in my chest. The cool night air presses against me, every cell in my body quaking.
I suck in airless breaths, my heart thrashing against my rib cage.
I step into Parker, gripping his shoulder with my free hand.
Just as the bizarre sensations threaten to overcome me, they vanish, and a warm, humid breeze sweeps across my cheek.
Head spinning, I open my eyes to complete darkness. “That felt different to when I sub-t,” I admit, remnant electricity sparking between our fingertips.
He squeezes my hand. “I’m sorry. I should’ve warned you. It’s more intense when your body actually travels. Are you okay?”
I nod and slip off my coat, waiting for my eyes to adjust. I can’t believe it.
I’ve just jumped through space and time.
It’s impossible, and yet the tangy aroma of salt and seaweed hangs in the air.
I crane my neck, and my breath hitches at the sight of the Milky Way stretching across the night sky in clusters of stars so dense they could be mistaken for fluorescent clouds.
“I’ve never seen the stars look like this.”
“The city lights drown them out, but not out here.” He tugs me forward, but my heels catch.
I slip them off, my feet sinking into soft, cool sand.
Parker takes my heels and leads me through dense bushes that tug on the fabric of my dress as I pass.
I rely on him to guide me—even with a sky full of stars, the path before us is unusually dark.
The shrubs give way, and we come to the edge of a dune.
Parker shrugs off his jacket and sits, staring out at the shimmering ocean, gentle waves lapping the coastline.
I could be in one of my dreams, alone with Parker by the beach, underneath a constellation of stars. I sit beside him and his shoulder brushes mine; it’s surreal after months of being unable to touch him. My hand finds his, tingling where our skin touches. “Where are we?”
“Broome, Australia. My family vacationed here when I was a kid. Have you visited before?” he asks, his eyes focused somewhere in the distance.
I shake my head and squint at the ocean. A tiny orange blob spots the horizon, warm tones of light skipping across the water. “What is that? Is it the sun?”
Parker wraps his arm around my shoulder, drawing me toward him. “Wait and see,” he says in a mischievous tone.
The globule is growing, taking on the shape of a semicircle: the moon, rising over the ocean. A beautiful, golden-orange reflection runs vertically along the water’s surface, linking the moon’s rising point all the way to the shore.
“It’s called the Staircase to the Moon,” Parker says. “My uncle lived here. He used to take us to watch it all the time when we visited.”
I smile. “Do you and your family still visit?”
Parker’s silent for a moment. “Everyone in my family is dead,” he says, still staring out at the ocean.
My heart breaks for him, this small admission reminding me how little I know about him.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I know what it’s like to be alone.”
Parker shakes his head. “You’re not alone, Ella. You have me, and the second you become an Alpha, you’ll have a family full of misfits who’ll love and support you. Plus, you’ll be able to drop in and see your mom whenever you want.”
“Do you visit your family?” I ask, searching his face.