by Eva Harper
I licked the remaining butter from my thumb and looked up, finally aware that Rush had stopped eating and had been staring at me. I pulled my thumb from my mouth and wiped it on my pants. My eyes were wide, embarrassed that he had seen me eat so animalistically.
His eyes softened, and he pushed his plate of half-eaten food over to me. I chuckled and pushed it back towards him. His face fell from a soft smile to a determined look, almost annoyed.
“You’re hungry. Eat,” he demanded.
“I’m fine,” I insisted, wiping my mouth with a napkin.
“Sloane,” he warned. “Eat.”
“Rush,” I mocked, smiling pettily. “Shut up.”
He growled, and I didn’t know if it was angry or playful. He shoved my empty plate off the bed and onto the floor where the porcelain split into three mismatched pieces. I watched it fall, shocked, but was quickly pulled up so I was lying next to Rush.
He hovered on his side with his arm tucked under my neck.
“Open,” he said, holding a piece of potato on his fork. I tucked my lips inside my mouth and stared defiantly at him. He moved his hand from my neck to my waist, where he nudged his finger into my stomach. I laughed on instinct, and he shoved the bite of food into my mouth. I didn’t chew it, just held it in my mouth, and pouted.
“Chew,” he said, this time more playfully.
I chewed the food and sat up, resting back on my palms. “You’re a brute,” I declared with childish indignation.
“For trying to make sure my mate is full?” he said incredulously, voice rising.
“I am a grown woman. I know when I am full.” I shoved his shoulder. He smirked and pushed my shoulder back. Of course, when he touched my shoulder, I was pushed farther than he was. “Don’t start this.”
“What?” he wondered boyishly. I crossed my arms and scooted across the bed, away from him. “Come back, mate. Start what?”
“Do you ever stop joking around?”
He didn’t take my anger seriously and proceeded to roll himself off the bed, land on his two feet, and pick up the plate from the ground. “Go to bed, Sloane.” He grinned annoyingly.
“It’s only nine,” I responded.
“Go to bed anyway, it’s been a long day.”
I rolled my eyes and stood up, stretching my limbs before reaching for my bags. I had a few things that still needed to be sorted: my ink pens, my favorite journal, and a bottle of perfume my mother gave me. I shuffled through my bag and set the items on the floor.
“Sloane,” Rush’s condescending voice interrupted me.
I picked up my head and paused. “What?”
“Please, go to bed,” he said exasperatedly.
“What is your problem?”
“Will you just listen to me for five minutes?”
I shook my head and picked up my things. “You’re going to be very surprised if you think this is how our relationship is going to go,” I warned, giving him a nasty look.
“I’m not trying to control you.” He smiled, amused. Rush’s casual nature only confused and irritated me more. A massive pit of discomfort sunk into my stomach.
“Then, what are you doing?” I threw my bag on the ground, and it landed in a big clunk. He sighed, and his shoulders sank down.
“I’m trying to surprise you, damn-it, and you aren’t making it very easy!”
I froze. “Surprise?”
“Yes,” he breathed out, laughed, and rubbed his face with his hands.
“What kind of a surprise?” I wondered, looking through my eyelashes innocently.
His shoulders shook as he laughed. “I was going to wake you up before dawn, we were going to take our breakfast in a picnic, and I was going to show you this cliff near Lake Washika where the sun rises.”
I was instantly filled with guilt, and my heart sank into my stomach.
He saw my face turn into a frown and came to me, holding my arms in his large hands. “You couldn’t have known,” he said softly. “I was just trying to do something nice. I’m not so good at these things.”
I reached up and stroked his cheek. “That was so sweet. I’m sorry that I’m difficult sometimes; I’m just not used to this.”
“Used to what?”
“To someone doing something nice,” I said softly. “The only person who ever planned things for me was my sister, and you can see how that turned out. I just like to be in control of things.”
“You don’t have to do that.” He leaned back and sat on the edge of the bed, pulling me, so I stood in between his legs. “I’m never going to do something that would put you in danger. I’m looking out for you.”
“I know.” I lowered my chin.
“So, let’s go to bed, and in the morning, you can act all surprised at how romantic and adventurous I am.”
“Deal.”
The Hunters
In the morning, true to his word, Rush woke me up, and we walked out of the packhouse before the sun came up. It was cold as we walked, no sun to warm us, and the wind was gently blowing.
It was a short walk to the cliff Rush brought us to in the middle of the forest. The lake wasn’t large, and I could see all the borders. The cliff was a sudden drop from the lush forest that surrounded the packhouse.
We sat on the edge of the rocky ground as our feet swung carelessly against the open air. I felt weightless. Rush placed his hand on my leg, somehow worried that my moving feet would propel me over the edge.
“Stop doing that,” Rush growled as I took my hands off the ground and reached over to touch my outstretched toes.
“Why, are you nervous?” I teased, singing my words.
“Yes.” He grabbed my waist and pulled me to his side, flush with his chest.
“Fine, I’ll stop,” I grumbled, biting a piece of fruit from the container.
“Thank you,” he murmured quickly sometime later, shyly.
“I didn’t expect it to feel like this,” I said and tilted my head so that it touched his shoulder lightly.
“Feel like what?” he asked, oblivious.
“Mating.” I sat back up, reaching the fork with a piece of watermelon up to his lips. “I didn’t expect to feel like this so quickly.”
“Feel like what? Do you have a fire that needs to be extinguished?” His eyebrow wiggled as he bent closer to me face. I tried to yank my hand away, but his hand wrapped around mine and bit the piece of fruit off the fork.
“No,” I sneered. He didn’t take my words seriously. “My mom always said it would happen fast, but it’s only been a day, and I feel like I’ve known you for years. I mean, I pretty much got to see every side of you, too-sweet, annoying, brutish, romantic,” I joked.
He grabbed my wrist and secured it to the ground, forcing me to lay back against the rocky terrain as he leaned over me. “Is that all you think there is to me?” he asked, quickly and simply pressing his lips to the curve of mine. “You still haven’t seen grumpy,” he paused and kissed me again. “Or goofy.” He kissed the arch of my cheekbone. “Or horny.” He sifted his nose through my hair, and his lips danced around the area where he would mark me.
“Rush,” I breathed out happily. My hands came out in front of me, grazing his cheek and shoulder as I struggled with my mind, do I push him away or do I pull him closer? Has it been too short of time to give myself to this entirely?
He made that decision for me and sat upright. I closed my eyes and took a steadying breath. The scent of the water, Rush’s warm chestnut aroma, and fresh fruit cleared my senses.
My nose twitched at the smell of something else, something foreign.
“Rush,” I called his name, eyes squinting but still closed.
“Sloane, stay still,” he demanded, voice filled with hostility.
“What-” Rush’s hand flashed over and covered my mouth with his clammy palm. I attempted to speak, but his tight grip only allowed me to breathe out of my nose.
His ears were alert, listening to something in the distance, eyes
unwavering. An unsettling feeling crept into my stomach, and I fought to stay calm. There was a moment of complete silence, mere seconds before the birds sprung from the trees in one loud shutter.
Something flew past my head, inches above Rush’s hand that held my mouth still. Rush threw his body on top of mine, crushing me under the weight. His hand moved from my mouth and cradled my head gently.
“We’re under attack,” he panted angrily. My eyes widened.
“We need to get out of here,” I said frantically, wiggling underneath him. He pressed himself more firmly on top of me, stopping my movements.
“I can’t tell where they are, the direction of the scent keeps changing,” he said, face contorting angrily and then frightened.
“Well, if we stay here, we might die.”
He waited for something, most likely mind-linking someone in his pack. “Sloane, when I tell you to, I want you to shift and run as fast as you can back to the packhouse and find Beckett, he’s my Beta, tell him what happened and that he needs to assemble the Warriors,” he spluttered in one breath.
“I can’t leave, I don’t even know where I’m going.” My words were frantic and loud.
“You have to, you’ll sense the pack better when you shift. Run back the way we came.”
I didn’t want to fight him, but I didn’t want to leave him behind with whatever was trying to attack us.
“Do it, Sloane,” he barked, shifting off me. I froze at his aggressiveness. “Now!”
I scrambled to get up, and in one smooth motion, I shifted from my human form into my wolf. At no point did I look behind me, but I heard Rush’s loud growl from his wolf as I ran. The trees all looked the same, and I wove through them the way a heat-seeking missile finds its target; fast and frantic.
The packhouse came into view as I broke the tree line. I shifted back as I ran through the front yard, completely ignoring the fact that I was naked.
Someone paused as I ran up the steps of the packhouse. It was a gardener, and she threw a small towel at me. I grabbed it and wrapped it the best I could around myself as I kicked the door open.
Rush’s mother, Cordelia, was resting her arms comfortably on the kitchen counter.
“Who is Beckett?” I screeched, knowing I sounded like a wounded animal. She straightened herself, and her eyes narrowed defensively.
“Why do you need Beckett?” she asked skeptically.
“Rush,” I spat. “We were out in the woods, and someone tried to attack us. He told me to come here and get Beckett and tell him to assemble the Warriors. So, where the hell is Beckett?”
My words were harsh, but I had no time for pleasantries when my mate’s life was hanging in the silence between us.
Her eyes glazed over, and then she snapped her head sharply towards me. “You left my son in the middle of the woods with hunters shooting at him?” she growled.
“I did what I was told,” I said back fiercely.
“Nice to know we’ll have a Luna who runs away from her enemies.” Her voice was sharp like her tongue as she walked away from me.
“I did what my Alpha told me to, I was following orders. I’d follow Rush anywhere,” I fought back, intent on proving that I wasn’t the weak, frail, girl she thought I was.
“You’ll follow him anywhere.” She smiled condescendingly. “That’s a sweet notion, but it’s not realistic, Sloane.” The way she said my name made it sound like a curse.
“My mate is in danger, so if you’ll excuse me,” I snarled, brushing past her. Her hand came and gripped my arm.
My back remained to her, but she pulled me closer.
“If my son is injured, so help me, I will end you.”
“Well, then you better let me go so I can find him, huh?” I rolled my eyes. The door was still open, and I walked quickly outside. I threw the towel on the ground, next to the gardener, and shifted quickly.
Four other wolves were running in front of me, I assumed one was Beckett, and the rest were Warriors.
They ran expertly, dodging the trees at just the right moments, jumping over fallen logs as it didn’t faze them. I trailed behind clumsily. As we approached the cliff where Rush and I had gone, I noticed he was no longer there.
My stomach dropped inside me, terror filling me. I only had one day with him. One day was not enough, one day was nothing, it was torture, it was a tease; and then his wolf slowly emerged from the trees on the south side of the cliff.
I nearly cried with happiness. He strode over, carefully stepping over the rocks and a human body that was covered in blood, I prayed it was not his blood.
He shifted back into his human form, pridefully splayed out in the sunlight. I tried to avert my eyes, but I was fixated on my mate’s naked body, reveling in the lines and contours.
The four wolves shifted back as well, but my eyes never strayed. Rush bent over and picked up the small blanket we had brought for our picnic; he tossed it to me, unhappily. I grabbed the edge in my mouth and dragged it behind a tree where I shifted and wrapped myself in it. As I nervously stepped out from the trees, I was instantly confronted with Rush’s large frame.
He slammed my shoulders aggressively against the rough tree, ignoring my wince in discomfort. “When I tell you to run, you run Sloane. You don’t run and then come back. I am the Alpha, I don’t care if you are my mate or not, you never disobey an order, am I clear?” His husky voice rasped in my ear, out of breath but full of promise.
His lower body fluttered across me, and I blinked to clear my thoughts.
“Sloane, answer me.”
“Yes, I understand,” I said sullenly, still trying to sound harsh. His head stayed close to me for a breath, and then he pushed himself off me and turned to his Beta.
“They were hunters,” he informed his pack mates loudly. “Equipped with guns, one bow with seven arrows. They were prepared, there was no way they could have known where I would be. They must have been following me.”
“Did anyone else know where you were going?” the tallest man asked Rush.
“Only Sloane and I knew,” he said, running a hand through his hair.
The man’s eyes shifted to me slightly.
I staggered back at the implication. “You think I did this?” I shouted, pulling the blanket tighter around my chest.
“No,” he said, not convincingly at all. My eyes were daggers.
“Don’t accuse my mate of being a traitor,” Rush warned lowly.
The man bowed his head. “I’m sorry, Rush. We just don’t know anything about her,” he offered.
“She’s been here for one day, Beckett, one day, and you’re already accusing her of betraying me?”
Beckett opened his mouth, closed it, blinked, shook his head, trying to come up with something to say. He shook his head, looking down, and stayed quiet. Rush stepped towards him, heads so close together, seething.
“She’ll be introduced to the pack in the next three days, and then she will go through the ceremony to become my Luna, and when she does, you will be kneeling at her feet, or you will be exiled from this pack. Am I clear?”
“Yes.” Beckett’s sharp voice snapped, and he looked at me.
“Good.”
Ceremoniously
Rush went back to his Alpha duties for the next two days, and I was left to wander the packhouse, alone and disliked by two of the three people I had met so far. I didn’t really talk to anyone that I came across, or rather, no one spoke to me.
Rumors had spread through the pack that I was a traitor and that I had left Rush to die. There was no truth to them, no support, but people still look at me with hesitation.
The only person who showed me any kindness was one of the Warrior’s daughters, Kenna. She offered to show me the pack grounds after she saw me wandering aimlessly. She was a small girl, I wondered how she could come from a pack warrior.
“My mom was tinier than me,” she flittered happily, short curls bouncing on the top of her head; the sides were shaved short.
“She died about six years ago now, I think, in September.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said empathetically. She waved her mocha hand and smiled.
“She was a good woman; she was always so happy.”
“Well, she definitely passed that down to you.”
She smiled, blushed at my compliment, and linked her arm around mine. “I like you,” she declared.
“Haven’t you heard?” I asked with fake enthusiasm. “I’m a pack traitor.”
“Well, all the best friends are,” she teased. Kenna didn’t pay attention to pack gossip, she said it was for the weak-minded.
We walked back the packhouse quietly chatting about ourselves and our families. She had an older brother who was training to be a pack warrior like his father. Kenna, on the other hand, wanted to be a dancer.
As we arrived back at the packhouse, a wave of nervousness shivered down my arms.
“Kenna?” She looked towards me, eyebrows raised expectantly. “Do you know anything about the Luna ceremony?”
She sighed and shook her head. “Can’t say that I do,” she said sadly. “The last one was for Luna Cordelia, but I wasn’t born yet.”
“Yeah, my old Alpha never found his mate,” I said anxiously.
“Just ask Alpha Rush, I’m sure he’ll tell you,” she chirped.
I smiled and thanked her.
Kenna left, and once again, I was left alone. Our bedroom was large enough to sustain life completely separate from the pack. I continued to organize my things in the spaces Rush had left for me.
Rush appeared a short while after six, exhausted, but carrying a large box filled with pizza. My nose smelled it before he even entered the room, and I rushed to the door to greet him.
He bent down and kissed me on the lips before shoving the box towards my reaching hands. I opened it as I sat it on the table and grabbed the first slice my hand touched. Rush unbuttoned his shirt and untucked it from his pants.
“Have you never seen food before?” He smirked. I grumbled through the mouthful of food.
“I haven’t eaten all day,” I explained, rolling my eyes at his comment, biting off another piece too large to chew.