“So, what are you thinking?” Rainier asked bluntly. “What’s the plan?”
“If I can’t be sure Levi hasfullyput Naphele behind, then I think I’ll go back home,” I said. “Beg the alpha to take me back. I can shift now, which means that part shouldn’t be an issue anymore.”
I’d told Linnea about that revelation not long before we’d headed to breakfast.
“That guy was an asshole to you,” Linnea argued.
That much was true, but she hadn’t seen the way he was the other day. He’d apologized, and I couldsensehow sincere hewas. It was as though Anders had become a whole new person. He’d offered me what I’d wanted from the beginning: a chance to go home, to live my life with the people I loved. Though, I’d begun to love the people in Hidden Grove too.
“Most of that was based on me not being able to shift,” I said, feeling a little dirty trying to justify Anders’s behavior.
“Sweetie,” Linnea said, putting her hand on mine. “I can’t see you settling for someone who treated you like that.”
“So I should settle for a guy who keeps wishing I’m someone else?” I snapped.
“Levi is a different kind of dude,” Rainier said, heaving a sigh. “He can be difficult, but there’s one thing I’ve noticed since you’ve been here. He’s not the same man he was.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, glancing at him.
“Before, he was always very cut and dry, black and white,” Rainier explained. “He carried himself with a… I don’t know…confidence.Since you arrived, that’s started to slip. I think you’ve chipped away at that wholealphafaçade he’s built over the years.”
“Are you saying I’veruinedhim?” My anger surged at the thought. I’d donenothingwrong.
“Hang on,” Rainier said, holding a hand up. “Just hang on. I’m not saying you did anything wrong. What I’m telling you is that you managed to pull back that armor he’s worn for a century. You did that without him really knowing whether you were Naphele’s reincarnation. For a century, Levi hoped to find her again. I even explained to him that should she return, she probably wouldn’t be anything like he remembers. Still, he kept living as a wolf, extending his life to find her. Nothing could divert him from that mission. Until you. He’s spent more time in his human form the last month than he has in the decade I’ve known him.
“That’s not a bad thing, June. I think if you stuck around, you could show him how good life could be, that it would be okay to settle down and live a simple life with the woman he loves.”
Rainier’s words soothed my anger a bit. Levi was a little different from that perfectly stoic man I’d met in the cave by the fire. Had I really caused him to question so much that it made it hard for him to continue living the life he had before?
Part of me was flattered by that, but another part was horrified.
“Stay,” Linnea said, and I could hear the pleading tone in her voice.
“You’re part of this pack now,” Rainier said. “Levi needs you. I can see it in the way he looks at you every day. Please?”
I would have been lying if I said they weren’t making it even more difficult to choose. Did I agree to go home and be with the man who’d never respected me, but was suddenly open to me being his mate? A man who might grow to want me, especially now that I could shift? Or did I stay with Levi? A man who might always be glancing at every woman who passed by, wondering if perhaps she was his long-lost love?
“I need to think,” I said, rising from the table so fast both Rainier and Linnea flinched.
Before either of them could call me back, I rushed out the door, and I kept running. At the edge of the forest, I tapped into that deep part of my mind where my inner wolf now hid and gave control away. The sensation was like a pleasant warm shimmer, going from my toes to my scalp, and in an instant, I was running on four paws. But what was I running toward?
46
LEVIATHAN
Ispotted June running into the forest, grinning when I saw her shift. Her wolf was beautiful. Graceful and lean. I’d been sitting there thinking of how I could prove to her that I reallydidwant her and not Naphele.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I leapt off my porch, shifting mid-jump, and raced after her. The trees and shrubs like crooked naked fingers in the winter season, clawing at my fur as I went. The cold air was nothing compared to the heat burning within me, a hot desire to make June see, to help her understand that I really did want her.
June’s scent wafted through the air, easy to identify and follow. It didn’t take long to find her. She’d only gone as far as the creek where we fished. She was in her human form, throwing rocks into the water.
“I smelled you coming,” she said, calling to me without looking my way. She tossed another rock. “My senses are a lot better now that I can shift.”
After shifting to my human form, I walked toward her. For the first time in a hundred years, Naphele wasfarfrom my mind, almost totally pushed away into the deepest recesses of my mind. All I could think about was June.
“June, I’m sorry for everything. All of it,” I said.
Thankfully, she didn’t continue to ignore me. She tossed her last stone, then turned around, her face a mask of anxiety and worry. I didn’t like that look, but it still gave me hope. It meant her mind wasn’t totally made up yet.
