My mark.
My man.
My mate.
I traced the outline of the mark gently, but even so, he flinched when I did it. I was confused. He’d said it didn’t hurt. I searched his face and found the answer in his eyes. They were clear seconds ago but had suddenly grown darker. I touched the mark again, still feather light. He expelled a quivery breath.
“Not pain,” he said, curling his hand around the back of my neck and pulling me closer. I leaned down and ran my tongue over the puckered ridges of the scar. His head dropped back and a dry, choked sound escaped from the back of his throat. I kissed the same spot. I kissed it over and over and at last, I parted my lips and sucked his flesh into my mouth. Jules’s knees buckled. He went limp in my arms.
“Holy fuck,” he gasped.
“What does it feel like?”
“I feel it in my dick and my balls and my lips and my nipples.” He took a breath and steadied himself, smiling deviously. “I feel it deep in my ass. I feel it all the way up my spine. I feel it everywhere all at once.”
“Oh, man.” I chuckled. “You have no idea how much fun I’m going to have with that.”
He was about to start laughing, the sound had already taken hold, when we both cocked our heads and scented the air.
“Oh, shit! The mushrooms!” he cried. He moved the skillet away from the heat and assessed the damage. “They should be okay. Maybe a little crispier then I was planning, but still good enough to eat.”
“Where did you get mushrooms?” I was almost certain there were none in the fridge.
“I foraged for them. I got some blackberries too. Help yourself.” He indicated to a small bowl of berries on one of the seating logs.
A terrible pit formed in my stomach. Jules had left the cabin without me. He’d been in the woods on his own. My hands started to shake from the thought of it. “How far did you go?”
“I found them in that little valley just past the river.”
I gasped and clutched my chest. It was at least a mile away. He’d been over a mile away and I’d been asleep. “Jules! Why did you do that?” My voice went up an octave or two. “Why did you go on your own? Something could have happened to you.”
He looked at me in puzzled amazement. “Like what?”
I looked around. I raw rough bark, tree roots, rocks. I felt a terrible pressure at the base of my skull. “Anything could have happened to you.Anything! You could have tripped over a tree root. You could have hit your head on a rock.”
His eyes and mouth both opened wide as he blinked at me.
I doubled down on my efforts to convince him. “You, you could have…” My eyes fell to the ground. Pine needles were strewn all around. “You could have stood on a pine needle. It could have scratched you or pierced your skin.”
His eyebrows shot up and his mouth pulled up on one side in a look that very clearly said, “Huh?” “But, Sully, I’m light footed. You know I am. You’ve been following in my footsteps since we were kids for that very reason.”
That was true. Whenever we walked in the woods, he led the way. He picked his path so surely I used to walk behind him and make sure I stepped in the same spot he did. He was right. He had me there. His eyes were sparkling in amusement. I was starting to suspect it was at my expense. I understood that Jules was going to need some convincing to understand the dangers that lurked all around him. I glanced up as I thought of a way to make him see it my way.
The sky. Dear God. The sky.
I pulled him close to me and raised my hands above him, forming a protective cage with my fingers above his head. “Something could have fallen on you.”
“Like what?” he demanded. He was looking at me as if I’d taken leave of my senses.
“Like a stick or a branch, or, or, you know . . . piece of a plane.”
“Piece of a plane?” he said incredulously. He pulled my arms down and guided them to his waist. He put his hands on my chest and looked up at me. Amusement faded to empathy. He seemed to know what was happening to me, even though I didn’t have a clue what had possessed me. “Easy, Alpha. Easy now. I’m here and I’m safe ’cause I’m with you.”
I sighed in relief. He understood. Thank God. “You just have to stay with me. You have to stay close.”
“I will.”
“You can’t go off on your own. You can’t do things like . . . cook, or make coffee, or walk, or . . .” Suddenly, everything I thought of Jules doing in his day seemed fraught with potential danger.
