Rivals (Shifter Island #2) (10 page)

Making a promise to each other was one thing. Facing the elders and winning their support was another, particularly after what had happened with Micah. The old men were always firm in their convictions, even when it was clear to everyone else that they were wrong, or that considering some new possibility was the best choice for the pack. Getting them to change their minds would be like changing the direction of a mighty river.

Which wasn’t to say that it couldn’t be done. The elders had all been young once, Aaron told himself. They’d all had dreams, hopes, expectations. And all of them had known the pull of the bond.

He held Abby’s hand as they stood in front of the three elders—Caleb, Mason, and Jameson, all of whom were seated at Caleb’s big, battered table. He could feel a slight tremble that told him she was nervous, though it didn’t show outwardly. On the outside, she looked calm, at peace, in control of her thoughts and feelings.

His Abby, in control? The thought made him smile.

She’d bring new life to the pack. New ideas. Enthusiasm. She’d already made friends with Katrin, and now they could count on the support of Luca. His mother and father seemed to be warming to her, bit by bit, because she’d helped bring Luca back to consciousness—and because Aaron had chosen her. The rest of the pack would eventually follow suit, with few exceptions. They’d help her become used to living without the conveniences she’d known back on the mainland.

“This woman was drawn here,” he told the elders, keeping his voice level and calm. “She didn’t come here by accident. She was drawn here because we were meant to be together. The gods who created us, who gave us the gift of the wolf, sent her to me because of all the females in the world, she was the best choice for me. Can you argue that?”

“Where do her loyalties truly lie?” asked Mason.

“Here. With me.”

The old man snorted softly. Of course he’d have the most strenuous objections of the three of them; he’d spent almost no time with humans. It was common knowledge that he’d gone to the mainland a couple of times under great duress and had come back each time feeling more and more disgusted with humans and their “foul habits.” He was one end of the spectrum, Jameson—the youngest of the three elders—the other.

“Maybe you think I have ties back there,” Abby said. “That I’ll start feeling homesick, or that I’m some kind of social media junkie who can’t live without my computer and my smartphone. But that’s never been me. I use those things, sure, but I’d rather not. I’d rather…” She paused, gripping Aaron’s hand more tightly. “I’d rather sit in the sunlight and watch someone I love clean fish for dinner. I’d rather lie on a blanket and look up at the stars.”

“You tried to run,” Caleb pointed out.

“Because I was scared. I’d never seen a fight like that before. I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

“Your place was at his side.”

“His side was
bleeding
.”

“Which made it all the more important that you stay. The bond might have been the only thing that could pull him back from the spirit path. From death.”

“And that’s exactly what she did for Luca,” Aaron put in. “None of us—not my parents, and not me—none of us could pull Luca back, no matter how hard we tried. He was lingering in the in-between. It was Abby’s strength that brought him back, and now he’s healing. He’s getting well. She saved his life, and she saved mine, because if you had sent me away, I would have died as surely as if Micah had ripped out my throat.”

The three old men looked at each other. Mason was sour and unconvinced. Jameson, who had always been intrigued by gadgets, was fiddling with the phone Abby had agreed to let him tinker with.

Only Caleb seemed to be willing to listen.

“We would make arrangements,” the alpha said to Abby. “Our representatives on the mainland would dispose of your goods. Give your employers a resignation letter. Send communications to your friends and kin.”

He was telling Abby that she wouldn’t be allowed to return to the mainland, or to contact any of her friends there. She would have to sever all ties cleanly, and allow others to say her goodbyes.

As Aaron had expected, she flinched at that. Really, that was the best thing she could have done; if she had said it was fine, no one would have believed her. Instead, she thought for a while, rubbing Aaron’s palm with the pad of her thumb as she did so.

“It’ll be hard,” she said finally. “I’ll wonder what my friends are doing. What’s happening on
The Bachelor
. If my neighbor across the street had her baby. It’s hard to just… shut the door on your whole life.”

She turned to Aaron and smiled. “But I love this man. I do. Maybe it’s partly some mystical, supernatural, freaky-deaky thing that nobody can explain and nobody knows where it came from, but this is the man I’m supposed to be with. I feel that right down to my toes.”

Slowly, Caleb nodded. “Go. Leave us now.”

He wouldn’t say anything more, and Aaron and Abby were forced to do as he said.

Aaron could only hope that the elders’ decision would be in their favor.

“This really is a beautiful place,” Abby said, leaning back so that the afternoon sunlight spilled down the length of her body.

It was starting to feel more and more natural to her to be naked, to feel the breeze brushing against her skin, the tickle of water, the warmth of the sun. And of course Aaron didn’t mind her walking around without clothes.

And Aaron himself…

She looked over to where he was lounging on a long, flat rock, eyes closed, his shoulders and abs and those long, strong legs all on display for her enjoyment.

At her request, they’d come over to the stream for a picnic on a day that couldn’t possibly get any nicer, and had just spent some time splashing in the deep pool, teasing and playing with each other, chasing a school of tiny fish, finding spots where the water was cool and where it was luxuriously warm.

This was their second day at the cabin where they’d first met, and while they weren’t entirely alone—various members of the pack had wandered by, claiming to be hunting or looking for mushrooms—there was enough peace and quiet for Abby to believe she’d truly found paradise.

True, she was giving up a lot of things she’d grown very accustomed to during her life back on the mainland, but she was finding very quickly that she didn’t need them. Computers, phones, packaged food, indoor plumbing…

She certainly didn’t miss her father, or her noisy neighbors.

Aaron shifted up to a cross-legged sit, his still-wet dark hair glistening in the light, and Abby hoped he didn’t want her to join him there on the rock. It felt too good to sit in the water with the current flowing gently along her legs. And the view couldn’t be beat: Aaron’s gorgeous body framed by the trees and the sky.

At first, he seemed too relaxed and at peace to say or do anything. Then his expression began to change.

“Yes,” he said, just loudly enough for her to hear him. “It’s the most beautiful place in the world.”

He was back in the water in a flash, then came closer and closer, as if he was stalking prey, one calculated move at a time. What he had in mind was obvious: his cock had stirred to life and was pointing at her so directly she had to stifle a giggle.

When he finally reached her, he sat down and maneuvered her onto his lap, that easily-roused pointer pressed between them, hot against her belly.

“You’re relentless,” she said, leaning in for a kiss.

“Am I?”

She turned the giggle loose as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Yes. And I love it.”

She was ready for the kiss to go on and on, but he tilted back a little and studied her face, brushing her cheek with the back of one hand. “I have much to be thankful for,” he said quietly. “The gods who made us have been kind to me.”

“Me too.”

Then he did go on kissing her, sweetly and deeply, his tongue exploring her as if he wanted to memorize every bit of the experience. She could feel his chest rising and falling with each breath, something she found very soothing and reassuring.

She’d spent much of last night curled against him with a hand pressed to his chest, the regular rhythm of his breathing like a clock ticking in the darkness. It told her he was there, strong and alive, that she had nothing to worry about, nothing to fear.

After a little while he lifted her up, hips cradled in his strong hands, and eased her down onto his cock. The cool water slipped between them as they matched the rhythm of his breathing: slow and steady at first, then faster and more urgent, Abby gripping him inside her as he gripped her shoulders and hips and butt in his hands.

When they finally slipped apart, sated and happy, she sat beside him and rested her head on his shoulder, and he curled his arm around her.

“You think we could stay here all day?” she asked.

“As long as we like.”

“I suppose we’ll get a little wrinkly after a while.”

He turned her head toward him so she could see him smile. “Not the worst thing in the world.”

“We’ll have to eat, eventually.”

“I suppose so.”

Off in the distance, Abby could see two figures walking through the woods. As they got closer, she could see it was Luca and Katrin. They weren’t touching; they seemed to be talking quietly.

“Will they–” she said to Aaron.

He was watching them too. He seemed pensive at first, then satisfied. “I hope so. Even when we were children, there was something between them. They’d be a very good match for each other. She calms him. Makes him content. What do you call it?” He stopped to think, his forehead creasing into a frown that didn’t last long. “She smoothes off the rough edges. He needs that.”

She thought about Micah, who was being confined in the building where Aaron had been locked up. He was still being cared for by his grandmother, and by the healer and two young wolves who had chosen healing as their path in life, but all of them were under the watchful eye of Daniel and his deputies.

She didn’t think Micah would ever be comfortable seeing Katrin and Luca together, that it might very well push him toward violence again, but maybe the extra attention he was getting from the others would help him.

According to Aaron’s father, the elders had agreed to explore options other than death and banishment, and the healer had suggested that they ease Micah bit by bit back into the society of the pack as time went on, encouraging him not to be alone, to enjoy the company of others with something in mind other than mating.

Maybe that would help.

“You look so serious,” Aaron said.

“Life really isn’t simple, is it? Even when you take away all the things that people think are complications. There’s still conflict. People get scared. Lonely.”

“Are you scared?”

“Me?” Abby brushed her cheek against his. “No. Not as long as I can be with you. I feel safe. Happy.”

“As do I.”

Aaron stood up then, water streaming off the lines and planes of his perfect body. He reached down to take her hand and pulled her up with him, then nodded toward the bank of the stream. “I’m hungry now,” he confessed. “And, yes, I’m feeling a little wrinkled. I need to stretch. Move around.”

She did too, Abby realized. Sitting there in the water had made her a little lightheaded, and it had been several hours since they’d had anything to eat. This time there were plenty of provisions at the cabin, courtesy of Aaron’s mother: fresh bread, lots of fruit and vegetables, some dried meat.

She took a minute to wring the water out of her hair and slick it off her skin, then followed Aaron to the shore and dried herself off the rest of the way with the towel he’d brought along. She would have been tempted to walk with him back to the cabin without getting dressed, but she’d discovered that the path was too lined with scratchy twigs and brambles to allow for that.

The dress she put on was his favorite: bright yellow with tiny white flowers, something she’d chosen back home because it coordinated with her travel bag. He was smiling at her again as she wiggled into it, which made her think that maybe it wasn’t the color that appealed to him, but the way the fabric hugged her curves.

“Men,” she teased him. “It’s always about the boobies, isn’t it?”

Aaron blinked at her. “The… what?”

She demonstrated.

“Oh,” he said. “Yes, I suppose it is. I do like those very much.” He was still smiling as he took her hand. “Although there isn’t anything about you that I don’t like. You’re truly beautiful, Abby Sullivan. I love every part of you.”

They didn’t rush getting back to the cabin; they stopped several times to kiss and caress each other, which prompted a loud, chattering protest from a startled squirrel they passed along the way. By the time she could see the cabin in the distance, Abby was truly famished, and thought she might make a quick meal of some bread and fruit rather than waiting for Aaron to cook something.

“Can we–” she began.

Then the breath left her lungs.

There were people at the cabin, one of them circling the small building, the other standing in the doorway. They were talking to each other, the one who was circling clearly angry; his voice was piercing and relentless, and he was waving a fist in the air.

Aaron stopped walking at the same moment Abby did, and extended an arm to block her path, but he didn’t need to have done that. She was perfectly happy to stop, to go nowhere near the man who was storming around the cabin.

It was Lane, the man she’d left behind at Dolphin Cove.

With him was the elderly man from whom she’d “borrowed” the boat.

“Oh, God,” she whispered. “Oh, no.”

* * * *