“What? What's wrong?” Matteo searches my face, and I see it the moment he realizes I recognize him.
“Bunny?!” I whisper, stepping closer, so I can get a better look at his eyes. His winter breeze scent hits me, and I just know it’s him.
His features soften, and he gives me a gentle, and somewhat sheepish, smile. “Hey, Delilah.” His voice is quiet, and the look in his eyes is kind and filled with affection. So different from the look on his face yesterday.
When I was still a child, I met ‘Bunny’ in the woods. Ispent a lot of time hiding, after what happened with Coal and Quil.
When I wasn’t with Annie, I’d run off into the woods, far away from everyone who hated me. I wasn’t supposed to run off, but no one really noticed.
So I would run in the woods. Collecting leaves and rocks. Playing in the hollowed-out trees and trying to catch bunnies. It was an escape I still missed. I stopped going out there when I was sixteen. The last time I saw Bunny. The same day I’d been attacked by that jack off who tried to drag me off before Coal stepped in. I’d had a busted lip, and a broken, angry heart.
I knew he was a shifter the second I laid eyes on him at ten years old. I wanted so badly to meet him. But he refused. He was so important to me for six years, and then he was gone. Or maybe he was still there, but I never went back to our spot to find out.
“I hate that name,” Matteo grumbles, but doesn’t drop his smile.
“White, like a bunny…” I say, absentmindedly. I hear Dean chuckle behind Matteo, but we both ignore him. I reach up, caressing his cheek as I admire his handsome face. A sob threatens to break free. I had loved Matteo, even though I had only known his Wolf form.
“You never told me she called you Bunny,” Dean laughs, teasing Matteo. “Fifteen years of friendship. I kept your secret about the girl in the woods, but you couldn’t even tell me her nickname for you?” Dean shakes his head, and my heart clenches. Conflicting emotions cause a storm to rage in me. Sadness, regret, the ache of a broken heart.
“I couldn’t exactly tell her my name…” Matteo grumbles, as I see similar emotions in his amber eyes. “And you already teased me over Delilah enough as it was. I wasn’t going to give you more ammunition,” Matteo answers Dean, but never looks away from me.
“How long, I mean…what are you doing here, why are you here?” I ask, still reeling.
I named him Bunny because his fur was pure white. I wasn’t allowed around the other Wolves when they shifted, so playing with Bunny was my only interaction with them. I had seen them shift from a distance, but Bunny let me pet him, and lay my head on him. I spent almost as much time searching the woods for Matteo as I did at Annie’s.
“Going to school?” Matteo says it like it’s a question, finally stepping away from me, and my hand falls to my side. Dean already moved into the kitchen to resume making breakfast.
“No, no, I mean… Fuck, I don’t know what I mean. Why are you here, in Dean’s room… checking on me?” I give him a look that I hope says, ‘What the fuck?’ They’re friends, I get that, but what does Dean have to do with me? Why wouldn’t Matteo have claimed me, and not Dean?
“It’s a long story, but basically…” Matteo sighs loudly. “We want to make things easier on you. There are also some things we can’t tell you right now, but please be patient with us.”
I look between Matteo and Dean. “Why?” I ask again.
I don’t get the answers I want, though. Matteo just shrugs, stepping up beside Dean to help him finish cooking.
“Seriously? You’re just going to ignore my question? The only two Wolves in all the packs who are kind to Humans want to help me? No, no way. I don’t believe that,” I say, stepping up to the kitchen counter.
“We didn’t think Coal would claim you. At least not at the same exact moment as Dean,” Matteo grumbles, putting bacon into a pan.
“Why did you claim me, Dean? You don’t know me. Why didn’t you just claim me, Matteo?” I ask, trying to put all the pieces together.
“Because he needs to keep his friendship with Coal. If he had claimed you as his Avowed, Coal would have turned on him. He and I have no such friendship,” Dean answers for his friend.
“Right. And the only reason you claimed me is that you want to help me?” I ask, feeling no less confused.
“Basically, yeah. I hate seeing that asshole hurting you. Unfortunately, there is only so much we can do now,” Matteo says, cursing under his breath. There were many times that I’d been in tears, seeking the comfort of Bunny.
I've fought hard to push his memory out of my mind, over the last four years. Now here he is, standing before me. I want to throw myself into his arms, and wrap my body around him. I want to touch him and kiss him. I want to do all the things I never could when I was just a stupid teen.
“Matteo,” I whisper, hating the distance he put between us. I feel like that naive kid all over again. I’d had these insane ideas, fantasies really, where I imagined Bunny shifting into a man and saving my mother and me. Whisking us away to his pack.
Several things hit me at once. Matteo, my Bunny, is the son of Black Moon’s Alpha. He was off limits before, but now… Stupidly, I had never truly given up hope that I’d one day get Bunny back. Now here he is, so close, but still so far out of reach.
I spin away, not wanting him to see my tears. I shouldn’t have said his name.
A warm body presses against my back and strong arms wrap around me. Matteo’s winter scent surrounds me, and when he drops his head, nuzzling my neck, I don’t pullaway. I let my fool heart have what she’s always wanted, for just a moment.
Safety in his arms, friendship, love. Freedom. I close my eyes, imagining it. A world where Matteo could have been mine. Where shifters and Humans are equal. And then, I take the fantasy, shove it in a box, and lock it away forever.
