“About the hunters?”
“No, about this. Being in the woods with me. Being wolf together.”
He rubbed her back, his hand warm against the cool morning air. “No. I want to see your wolf, run with her.”
She smiled, stepped back, and let the wolf be fully present. He watched her, waited until she was furry to run his hands over her again. Not cold anymore, she luxuriated in the feel of his hands rubbing through her fur, scratching behind her ears. Not something she would let most get away with. She yipped at him, and he changed. His larger body bumped against hers, encouraging her down the steps. She nipped his neck, then took off, the exhilaration of running through the forest never old, but the joy of doing it with him by her side a new level of perfect.
They explored the area, laughing in the way of wolves when they flushed out some wild turkeys, chasing a rabbit with no intentions of catching it, eventually circling back to the cabin, where they took a nap on the edge of the woods, in a large sunny patch, curled together in their fur.
She woke to the sound of his stomach growling and was laughing as she turned back to human, watching as he did the same. He shoved his face in her belly, growling and nipping. “No laughing at me, I’m a badass alpha, haven’t you heard?”
“A badass alpha who needs to eat. Grate the cheese for me, and you can do that sooner, rather than later.”
“Deal.”
She chopped the onion first, got that cooking and added the meat while he grated cheese. There wasn’t a huge spice collection in the cabinet, but she made due, leaving behind the cumin she’d bought at the store for the next visitors. While the meat was cooking, she chopped up some cilantro and gave Adam the lettuce to deal with.
“Just so you know, if I was doing this at home, there wouldn’t be these jars of salsa and guacamole, I would have made those from scratch.”
“Good to know. Just soyouknow, I do cook. Not so much in that cabin, I admit, but my previous place was on the grid, and had a real kitchen.”
“What’s your specialty?”
He pondered that for a minute. “Fried chicken. It’s the only thing my mother taught me that I embraced. It was her mother’s recipe.”
“We’ll have to try that sometime.” She stirred the meat then handed him the salsa and guacamole to open and put on the table, tossing the package of tortillas over. “At home I also would have gotten corn tortillas and fried them, but we’re going for soft flour this time.”
“I can work with that.”
She smiled at him as she drained the meat and put it in a bowl and motioned him to the table. He’d already set out sodas for them, so they were good to go.
You could learn something about a man from how a man put his taco together, she mused, watching him overfill the tortilla so that he really had a burrito that barely closed. She spread the guacamole on her tortilla, then the meat, lettuce, cilantro and salsa. Damn, she’d forgotten sour cream. Ah well.
They ate in silence for a few minutes, then built their second round. She glanced over at him while he worked, debated if now was the time and place, but couldn’t get it out of her mind. Sheknewshe couldn’t be the only one feeling this way, but… “So. I don’t want to push or anything, but I would like an idea of how you see this going forward.”
He frowned. “You shouldn’t feel as if you can’t push me. It makes it sound like it’s on me what we do next.”
“Fair enough. I think I’m falling in love with you.”
His hands stilled in the act of rolling his tortilla closed and he looked at her. It was hard to read his expression, but she didn’t sense panic or anger or anything negative, so she waited.
“Think?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Well, it’s not the norm for werewolves. Once you mate, you sort of leap into love, so it’s not like it was for me before. But I can’t imagine going through my days without knowing you’re going to be some part of them, so I’m wondering how you think that might go.”
He abandoned his plate and reached for her hand, twining his fingers with hers. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he started, making her stomach clench. “I don’t know that I’m ready to abandon my home and move to St. Louis with you. And I’m really not sure how I feel about returning to Arizona. But I do know that I want to keep seeing you. I can’t imagine going back to a life that you’re not a significant part of.”
Relief moved through her almost like an orgasm. She smiled and squeezed his hand. “That’s good enough for me.”
“But it’s not what you want.”
“Hey, if you suddenly declared that you were giving up everything and moving in with me, I’d wonder if you were sick again,” she teased. “I don’t have expectations on how we move forward, I’m just really glad to know you’re with me on wanting to move forward at all.”
“I’d be pretty happy just staying here for a while, but I know that you have responsibilities. Being alpha isn’t just a title for you.”
“No, it’s not. It comes with responsibilities. And joys.”
He grunted his understanding from around a big bite of his burrito. “It looks good on you,” he said when he’d swallowed. “I can’t think of anyone I trust more to see to building a new pack out there.” He cocked his head. “I suppose that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement when I only know a few alphas. But still.”
