“He’s fourteen. This pup will be tiny and soft.” Ember gave a little gasp, and her hand jumped to the left side of her belly. “Oh! The heels are at it again.” She winced. “Agh, he’s strong. Want to feel him?”
“If—if you’re okay with it.”
Ember grabbed April’s hand and pressed it against the swell of the baby. Tiny kicks beat a rhythm against April’s palm. “Oh, wow. They feel gentle from the outside.”
“Only from the outside,” Ember said with a breathless laugh. “Ooh… There. That’ll be all for a while. He doesn’t do it for long.”
“So it’s a boy?”
Ember’s mouth curved with mischief. “I say it’s a boy. Aaron says it’s a girl. We’ll find out in October.”
April tried to keep the surprise off her face, and Ember’s smirk grew. “Sorry, I just thought…”
“You thought I must be due this summer. Nope, he just doesn’t have much space with a five-foot-two mama.” She patted the top of her belly. “Here’s hoping I can still breathe by October.”
An hour later, Ember stood to go, and April rose with her and touched her shoulder.
“Ember… I just want to say… The way you talk about your pup, I don’t think you’re missing anything you need to be a good mom. Really. I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”
They didn’t hug; Ember didn’t seem to be a hugger, belly aside. But they promised to do coffee on Malachi’s porch again soon. When Ember’s car had driven down the driveway, down the road to the cabin next door, April clasped her hands together and sighed. She might have just made a friend.
Twelve
Thenightaftercoffeewith Ember was the full moon. April hadn’t wanted to reveal her fear of staying in Malachi’s house alone, but he asked, and of course he wouldn’t fall for a lie even if she were inclined to feed him one. So she spent the night at Robert and Ann Sterling’s, and Kelsey showed up too. Ann and Kelsey’s company kept her calm. She wouldn’t be all alone if she were attacked by rogue wolves; Ann and Kelsey would witness it. Somehow this didn’t bring to mind a scenario in which all three of them were attacked but instead convinced her subconscious that Drew’s pack wouldn’t show up at all. And when wolf howls echoed off the mountain, she didn’t shudder, because Ann’s eyes and Kelsey’s shone with affection for those wolves.
“The yipping is almost always Trevor,” Kelsey said. “He’s easy to tell from the rest of them.”
Ann confessed she couldn’t necessarily pick out Robert’s howl from the others, especially not when they layered together. She said most mates couldn’t, having never seen their wolf’s “moonbound” form. They laughed at Kelsey’s advantage thanks to the uniqueness of Trevor’s voice. But a soft prick of instinct found April’s heart when one wolf’s voice rose in a howl that rolled and rumbled and held a quality of rocks tumbling together.
“That’s Mal,” Kelsey whispered. “He’s got a distinct voice too, but…”
“But he doesn’t usually howl so long,” Ann said.
April ducked her head and clasped her hands and hid her smile.
The rest of the week passed gently, for which she was grateful. She hadn’t used her credit card since she’d filled up her gas tank. Her phone remained off. Drew’s number and social profiles were of course blocked, but this way no other phone could hack or track her either.
April felt…safe.
Safe to laugh at the antics of Flannery O’Connor, who quickly became just Flannery and who continued to follow so close on Malachi’s heels, he often scooped her up in one hand and carried her to his next destination in the house. Safe to read curled up in Malachi’s big leather chair in the library almost every night. (She even revisited a few O’Connor short stories but then returned the book to its alphabetized place on the shelf with a shake of her head.) Safe to sleep behind her locked door through four consecutive nights. Safe to cook the way she liked and eat what she cooked without the dread of displeasing Drew, who would expect to eat first and leave her the leftovers, then shove her into the nearest wall if she added too much or too little seasoning for his palate.
Malachi wasn’t creative with side dishes, but he knew meats—venison, beef, poultry, small game. He could season and cook any protein exactly right. After feeling out one another’s preferences and boundaries in the kitchen, they eased into a routine that served them both. Malachi prepared the meat, and April concocted the sides.
She was used to him now. His golden eyes no longer caught her off guard; his imposing frame no longer seemed so big. And something else was happening too. She began to notice him. Not as a threat to beware of, not as a wolf to compare with those she’d known before, not as a bodyguard to keep Drew from killing her or taking her again. The last few days, April had begun noticing Malachi…as a man.
The rasp of his voice was more appealing than he realized. As was the way he moved through a room, effortless power in every line of his body. As was the gravity with which he held his position as alpha. He was so careful at all times, with everything and everyone. Every day, every night that passed, April inched closer to believing what she longed to be true: Malachi was a good man.
Another Saturday came around, and this week she was able to join the cookout from the start. She mostly listened, but she found herself opening up a little too, sharing details of her friends and family that made her long to call them, especially her mom. Everyone encouraged her to find a way but understood her caution, and no one pried into the reasons her mother hadn’t reported her missing by now.
This week April worked to learn something about everyone. There was Willow’s wolf Ezra, Trevor’s older brother. He didn’t talk much, and April was able to relax in his steady presence that expected nothing from her, not even conversation. There were Trevor’s sister and brother-in-law, Sydney and Cassius. Like Ezra, Cassius was a reserved wolf, but he welcomed April, and the warmth in his dark eyes was sincere. Last week Sydney hadn’t concealed her cautious stance toward April, but this week she seemed more relaxed. Jeremy and Lucy, parents of the young pups including Tori and Gigi, were welcoming too, fun-loving and genuine when April approached them. She sensed the pack was trying to give her space, letting her make the first move toward each of them. Maybe Malachi had asked them to, or maybe they simply understood how fragile her boundaries felt right now.
At some point she split away from the group, beckoned by Kelsey and Willow, and began a long chat with the two of them. They told fascinating stories of meeting their wolves, joining the pack. But that wasn’t all they had to talk about. While Kelsey had grown up in Harmony Ridge and met Malachi and the Sterlings when she was only a kid, she had moved away for several years thanks to her and Trevor’s high-school breakup. She now had a thriving, monetized video channel that chronicled her travels and had found its brand and audience long before she returned to Tennessee and became bonded to Trevor.
At twenty-three, Willow was younger than Kelsey and April, but she had a Bachelor’s degree in library science and intended to get her Master’s. Aha, here were the aspirations Ember had mentioned over coffee. Willow loved preserving and organizing, statistics and stories. She was articulate and smart, and it was clear that her intelligence wasn’t a problem here.
As the mates of wolves, Willow and Kelsey weren’t told to make themselves smaller. April could join this pack…and still teach. The local schools might have openings even now. When her safety was no longer at risk…if she chose to stay… Her thoughts couldn’t stretch any further into the future, not today. But she held onto the discovery to reexamine it later.
When the cookout ended late into the night, April felt settled and pleased with the day, with her ability to approach members of the pack, even wolves. Maybe soon she’d be ready for acclimation. The thought brought on a shudder, but she owed these wolves the ability to interact with her unshielded. No doubt her proximity had worn them out today.
