18
Once Case really gave his wolf free rein, it had no problem leading him straight to the water.
That wasn’t entirely why he let it take control, though. He felt guilty about it, too. He needed to learn how to work with his wolf and handle its instincts and senses as naturally as he did his own, and that wasn’t exactly what he was doing. He was letting it take the lead so he could lick his wounds. He wouldn’t be much help to Lydia if he didn’t learn what he needed to know.
That was why he was here. She had asked him to marry her because she needed his help, not because she loved him.
Maybe they would wind up having something more. They already had more than they’d started with, and he knew that: Lydia was self-contained, but she was honest, and she wouldn’t hint at feelings she didn’t have.
It was ridiculous to feel hurt because she hadn’t fallen head-over-heels for him the way he had for her. By any ordinary standards, she was right. They had practically been strangers back then. That didn’t mean she thought they still were. In fact, she’d given him a hundred signs that she didn’t.
He stopped at the edge of the riverbank, breathing in the scent and taste of the sweet, crystal-clear water. The river sparkled in the sunlight, with little flecks of white foam shining like snow.
Case raised his head and took in the waterfall. It was even more striking than he’d imagined, and he could see why Lydia used to make trips to Toplin’s Green to see it. It fell down several neat shelves of rock, the water looking white against the dark shale.
It had that silky appearance waterfalls got sometimes, where it was like a rippling piece of fabric, inviting touch. It churned up a fine mist when it hit the riverbed, and Case could see the arcs of a dozen tiny rainbows.
Lydia caught up to him, falling in at this side. He’d spent so many years on his own, but it already felt natural to have her next to him.
He wanted to go back to every beautiful vista he’d ever seen in his travels so he could see them with her. What would she think about Monument Valley, with its soaring, castle-like expanses of red-orange sandstone? Or the redwoods in California, which made everything human feel impossibly tiny and short-lived? He couldn’t believe he’d missed the chance to get her opinions on the places he’d loved. He would have to fix that, if she would let him.
“Case—”
“I’m sorry,” Case said. “I shouldn’t have left you behind like that.”
That didn’t sound like enough of an apology. She deserved some kind of explanation. But it was hard to say why he’d walked off without telling her he was in love with her, and he didn’t want to make things hard for her.
He went with something that was equally true, if not quite the whole story.
“I didn’t like the idea that it would have been that easy for it to have gone wrong,” he said. “If my wolf and I hadn’t wanted the same thing, it would have faded away, right? I wouldn’t have been able to turn and get to the porch in time to ....”
His throat closed up around the words.
As long as he lived, he would never forget the image of Reeve looming over her, shaggy and enormous, long lines of drool falling from his open mouth as he’d literally salivated over the chance to get Lydia out of the way with one snap of his powerful jaws.
Case had already known that Reeve was trouble. Now, though ... now he’d seen firsthand exactly how horrible and unscrupulous he was.
He wasn’t going to let Reeve have Mountainview. And if Reeve made a single move to hurt Lydia ever again, Case was going to tear him apart.
Lydia slipped her hand into his, and she finished his sentence for him:
“In time to save me. But you did, Case.”
He exhaled, and some of the tightness in his chest seemed to loosen. Yeah. He’d gotten there in time.
“And—” Lydia squeezed his hand a little tighter. “I was thinking about what I said. About how we were strangers, and it didn’t make any sense that you could convince your literal animal instincts to save me.”
Case felt his face heat up. “I overreacted—”
“No, you didn’t. I would have reacted the exact same way, if you’d said it first. Because—” There was a little hitch in her breathing. “Because you were never a stranger to me either. I tried to believe you were, because that was what made sense, but you weren’t. My wolf would’ve known that, just like yours did.”
She felt the same way he did? Case turned to look at her. Her eyes seemed especially enormous and dark, far more attention-grabbing than the waterfall.
Lydia’s concentration looked almost fierce, like she was trying to decide exactly how to put this.
“Sometimes our animals can realize things before we do. Like how they can catch the scent of water. And sometimes they’re sure of things humans have a harder time with. Like ....” She took a deep breath. “Like who they’re supposed to be with. Ask your wolf if it knows what I’m talking about.”
Case could feel it turning to him attentively, its lantern-colored eyes eager.
Do you know what she’s talking about?
It actually wagged its tail with excitement.
I do! I didn’t know other wolves felt like that.
He found himself in the weird position of having to be an intermediary between the woman he loved and the wolf in his head. “It says it knows what you mean, it just didn’t know that other wolves felt that way too.”
“Not all of them do. I mean, they all can if they meet the right person, but—not all of us meet the right person. But we did, Case. So if you ask your wolf what it knows about us ... I think that whatever it says is what my wolf is saying too.”
What do you know? Case asked it. I hope it’s the same thing I do.
It’s better than what you know, his wolf said. It was so happy that the smugness didn’t even land: it sounded ecstatic that it got to share this with him. I tried to tell you, a true mate is a true mate. We’re meant to be with her. We’re meant to be together, to share our den and fight side by side for the rest of our lives. She’s perfect, and we will do whatever we can to be perfect for her.
Yeah, that was pretty much what he’d thought too. He couldn’t do anything about the wide, goofy smile that felt like it was going to be permanently stuck on his face.
Lydia’s expression was more open than he’d ever seen it, and the hope in her eyes was obvious.
“Did it say anything in particular?”
“That you’re my true mate,” Case said, hardly able to believe the words coming out of his mouth. They should have been too good to be true, but there was no arguing with his wolf’s certainty. “And that I’m yours. Forever, if you want me.”
Lydia wrapped him in a tight hug, going on tiptoe to lace her fingers behind his neck. It was like she wanted to hold him as securely as possible, now that they both finally knew that was allowed. Now that they knew it was what they both wanted. Case held her back the same way.
“I do. I really do.” For the first time, he let himself say what he’d been thinking almost since he met her: “Forever.”