Chapter Thirty-One
Why did he even bother trying to sleep? Col had been tossing and turning, since retiring for the night. Oh yeah, he had thought the responsible thing to do was to get a good night’s rest, what with all the late night escapades his wolf had gotten him into.
And it seemed his wolf had another one in store, as every fiber of his being was scrabbling to get out of the otherwise perfectly comfortable bed, in his otherwise perfectly appointed room. He couldn’t stand being here a minute longer, the call of his wolf was too strong. It gave him just enough mental acuity to pull on the pair of dark jeans he had on earlier, without taking the time to remove the lanyard with staff key cards that he had threaded through his belt loop. Leaving his feet bare, he ran downstairs to where a single yank of the handle released him to the nighttime air of the backyard. He took in a deep breath, and willed the shift. A few seconds later, his wolf bolted into the woods, with no hesitation nor doubt as to its destination.
His wolf was fast, surefooted, and at last it arrived at the door he had scratched at the previous night.
Where it was silent. His sharp hearing could detect no sounds from within, his sense of smell picking up on faint, hours-old traces of her intoxicating scent. He shimmered, and his human form appeared, pressed up against the door that led to her room, easily filling the area between the door jambs. His key card swung from his belt loop and tapped against the lock; the wizardry that powered it created a clicking sound that meant the door was opened.
Good. Saved him from smashing the flimsy piece of construction down.
The human form was just a skin, a wrapping for pure instinct overriding rational thought. He could not resist. Col entered the darkness of the room, where a click of a light switch revealed how even more barren it was, compared with the night before.
There were still some possessions around, although very few. And then he realized what was missing: The strange effigy of a beast that she had in her bed the previous night.
It had obviously occupied some place of import, being one of the few or perhaps only personal item that was on view. He doubted that she had it elsewhere in the room, she must have taken it with her, wherever she was. Along with one of the two bags that had been out where he could see it the previous night. He did not see the car that Simon had lent her outside either.
She was gone, and it seemed for the night.
It occurred to him then that he had not seen Aylwyn in the last few hours. Could she be with him? The jealousy flared through him, as he imagined Aylwyn’s long blond hair covering hers as he pressed his mouth against those lush berry lips….He growled, suppressing the full howl that threatened to erupt.
Or perhaps it was not Aylwyn. He imagined her atYe Olde Taverne, sandwiched betwixt Merek and Barric, with her choice of the two. Or, mayhap as a cosmic jape from She Who Grants Abundance, she was with another male entirely, and she was not a Destine, but a different type of creature — one that wove a seductive spell over any male that she encountered. He had heard tell of females such as that, and held no truth to it until he encountered Katie Cooper.
He was wracked with torment, and fell upon the bed where they had lain together, sifting out her sweet scent from the sheets. And there he lay, enveloped within her scent and tortuous thoughts of her with others, as the hours stretched into the dawn.
Then and only then, did he shift and return to the house, only a shell of what he was earlier, when he had first left in great haste and anticipation.
* * *
Lily couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. It might have been the isolation of the single-wide where Rosa lived with the twins, or the fact that she was unused to the sounds outside and the bright lights of this community. The trailer might have been shabby and dilapidated looking on the outside, but the interior was extremely clean, with only the normal clutter one would expect with two preschoolers living there.
It had to be her imagination.
Rosa was apologetic that she only had a cot sized foam mattress for Lily to sleep on, but the threadbare sheets were freshly laundered, and Lily assured her that it was perfectly fine. She thought to herself that it might be helpful to bring an extra pillow from her room the next day, along with another blanket to line the mattress for cushioning.
Even so, if she tossed and turned through the night, it wasn’t because of the firmness of the mattress laid out on the cheap, low pile carpet on the floor, or the faded and worn bedding, or the fact that she was attuned, as she was sure Rosa was, to the soft sounds made by the two sleeping children only a few feet away on two cot sized mattresses that had been pushed together against a wall. It was due in part to that weird feeling of being watched, and in part to her thoughts turning, as they frequently did, to the memories of laying in Col’s arms, the heat of his body against her own.
With only a few hours of sleep, especially as she had to get up earlier to prepare the kids for the day, she dragged herself out of bed and got the twins ready. She strapped them into the back seat and headed to the childcare center.
“Come on out, Brady and Clover,” Lily had opened the side door and unsnapped the buckles holding them in their car seats. They were near her room, where she meant to pick up a few more items before heading to Staff Childcare with the kids.
The two preschoolers emerged with Lily’s help, a bit dazed as they adjusted to being on solid, unmoving ground.
“I’m hungry,” Clover said.
“Me, too.” Brady was rubbing his eyes.
“I’m just going to pick up a few things from my room, and then we’ll get breakfast, ok?”
“Where are we getting breakfast?” Clover was instantly alert, Brady following suit.
“I’ll show you in a minute,” Lily said. She pulled out her key card and tapped the panel for access, and then opened the door.
The kids followed her in, excited to have a new location to explore. As they ran around excitedly, Lily started to peel off the blanket from her bed. But something was off.
She looked around. The kids were occupying themselves with a new game they invented, leaping backwards onto the other bed and bouncing off it, shrieking with laughter.
Despite their glee, that sense of unease she had the previous night at Rosa’s single-wide returned. It was subtle, but she could tell.
