Maybe I could convince Callum and Aster to build a new room on their cabin. Soundproofed, of course. There were some things I was destined to hear about but which I didn’t need to actually eavesdrop on.
I gasped as I stepped out from the shelter of two hulking mountains and the wind ripped past. It had either picked up while I’d wound my way to the top of the island or the weather was wilder up here. The sky wasn’t perfectly blue anymore, grey clouds crowding in, but Oscar’s promised storm still looked a while off.
Careful not to be blown over the cliff by an errant gust of wind, I walked as close to the edge as felt safe, then crawled the final distance on my hands and knees. No goats joined me this time as I lowered onto my belly. I shivered as my front pressed flush with the cool ground.
I pulled my binoculars from my backpack and leant forward to peer down at the eagles’ nest. Both adults were tucked into the tight structure made of driftwood and seaweed. I couldn’t see it right now, but brief glimpses had confirmed that the inside was padded with goat’s fur. Feathers across the eagles’ backs rose in the wind, revealing the soft down underneath.
I scanned across the crashing sea and jagged cliffs. Nothing amiss. I didn’t know what the ramblers thought they’d seen, but I doubted it was another eagle causing issues for this little family.
A splodge of something cool and wet splatted onto the back of my neck. Before I could curse the bird who’d spotted an unmoving target and decided to bless me with what felt like a good dollop of shit, another blob exploded on top of my head. Pattering picked up as more droplets fell on and around me.
I lowered the binoculars. My mouth slackened at the sheets of rain pounding across the sea.
It wasn’t a storm yet, but the swirling grey clouds overhead were not messing around.
By the time I’d crawled back from the edge of the cliff and stood, I was soaked despite the waterproof coat I donned every morning. Rain lashed down, turned almost horizontal in random gusts by the blasting wind. I blinked wetness from my eyes and tucked my hood over my head despite the water already dripping down my shoulders. I slotted my hands into my pockets and rushed over to the path.
Bright lightning spiked across a sky that shouldn’t have been so dark for hours yet. Three seconds later, a crack of thunder almost sent me sprawling into a patch of ferns.
‘Oh, shit.’
CHAPTER TWENTY
KIT
Iwas torturing myself by watching Instagram videos of the other bookshops longlisted for the indie award and trying not to wonder when Lucas would arrive when there was an almighty crack and the lamps dotted around the bookshop died. I blinked in the continued light from my laptop screen, then quickly shut it. If this was a power cut brought on by a storm, it could last for days. Anything with a battery needed its remaining life to be eked out carefully.
I concentrated on the sounds inside of the shop, rather than the waves lashing on the seawall across the road or the wind wailing past the windows. No other heartbeats but mine. The shop had cleared out as the weather turned foul over the afternoon, but it was wise to check before I closed up. I’d once blithely locked the door, only to come face-to-face with the island’s grumpy farmer who’d been searching the historical section for the perfect weekend read.
I paused at the door after I clicked the bolt into place and swung the sign to closed. The sea was a frothing mess, water hurling itself at the concrete defences. Every few seconds, waves sprayed up and slapped onto the drenched road. The sky was awrithing mass of dark greys, the clouds clashing with shocking spikes of lightning.
Kat was already snuggled on the sofa when I climbed upstairs. I grabbed a handful of candles from the cupboard under the stairs to the top floor. My eyesight was so good I didn’t need them, but it would look strange when Lucas returned if I was casually sitting in the dark. Their warm glow flickered off the shadowed walls as I placed them around the kitchen and living room.
I resisted the urge to open the fridge. There was no faint buzzing, so it was as bereft as every other electrical appliance in the cottage. If the power wasn’t back on after a day, I’d have to cook everything in there on the gas hob and create a feast for me and Lucas.
I grabbed an apple and curled into the space beside Kat on the sofa. Normally, when there was a storm, I’d close up the shop and rush over to Bonnie and Joshua’s. She struggled during extreme weather and needed the pack around her, using our warmth to keep away memories of her family’s death years ago when a psycho killer ruined their boat in a storm.
But I couldn’t leave the cottage. Even though I could leave a note to tell Lucas where I’d gone, I didn’t want him to come home to find it dark and empty.
I focused on my inner wolf, which Callum told me wasn’t really a thing since the wolf and the man I’d been before were fully fused, but the visualisation helped. My eyes closed, I could feel the thrumming lines of energy connecting me to the other members of my pack. One stretched far up into the mountains, but the others congregated in the furthest lime green cottage.
‘I’m fine.’ I projected my voice into the quiet room and down the lines between us. Callum wouldn’t be able to hear me from such a distance, but the others would. ‘But I’m going to stay home and wait for Lucas.’
Stay safe.I wouldn’t say I heard Joshua’s voice, but his words were loud and clear in my mind.
We love you.Louisa’s message came through a second later.
Even though I wasn’t snuggled up with the other members of my pack, warmth coursed through me. Louisa couldn’t know how much I needed that reminder today.
This morning had been awful. Not only did Lucas not want to kiss me, but he’d almost done it because of his inability to say no. And then there was all the weirdness when he’d said he wished he wanted to kiss me. It had left me spacey as I’d trailed downstairs and opened the shop, like a boat cut free from its mooring.
I needed the reminder that Lucas wasn’t the only person who cared about me. Because I didn’t doubt he cared very much. Just not enough. Not in the way I so desperately wished he did. That maybe he wished he did too.
I sighed and pulled a blanket over my legs. It was sad that Lucas didn’t want more, but it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. I’d get over it, and we would be friends. When he found a woman he could actually fall for, I’d still have a pack who loved me.
Despite wishing for more with Lucas, he’d already given me something wonderful. Through him, I’d come to have much deeper closeness with my fellow wolves. When Lucas moved out to be with some woman who gave him what I couldn’t, they would gather around me and not let go until I felt whole again.
I bit into my apple and grabbed my current book from the coffee table. This storm had come on the perfect day. Trying to be nice to customers had been draining and I’d been making myself even more miserable with the videos from the other bookshops. The storm forced me to lose myself in a fictional world, which was the best thing to do when life was rubbish.
