by Jenny Tia
We were talking about going to a local museum together when Stefan’s beeper went off, shocking us and the whole café with its volume.
“Shit—sorry! Work!” Stef jumped up and grabbed his bag. “Great to meet you properly.”
I nodded with respect. “And you.”
He kissed Julian’s cheeks. “Gotta go, call me. Love you, bye.”
We chuckled as Stefan hurried down the street and out of view, then we slowly turned back to each other. Alone again, we chatted into the late afternoon until the sun started to set and it was time to go. Unfortunately, that was when I felt my wolf telling me I needed to get back home and find out what was happening with Alpha Hughes.
I walked Julian back to his apartment and hoped he wouldn’t ask me to come inside because I knew it would break my heart to say no.
“Would you—”
I shook my head before he could finish his sentence. “I have to get back to Everglow.”
Julian dropped his gaze, and I tilted his chin so I could look into his beautiful face. I noticed one of his curls was astray, and I tucked it gently behind his ear then ran my finger down his jawline. I kissed his lips slowly before drawing back just a little. “I don’t want to say goodbye, I’m not ready to, but I have a duty to my city. However, I want to come back next weekend to see you again.”
“I’d like that.”
“You would?” I was inordinately pleased with his readiness to agree with my plan.
“Yeah,” he said softly, and then he placed his hand on my chest. I felt my heart melt behind my shirt. I placed my hand over his.
“Okay. Good. I’ll see you next weekend then,” I said with a touch of sadness I couldn’t hide.
Julian nodded, looking at my lips, and then he stood up on the tips of his toes to reach my mouth. I leaned down to meet him, and completely got lost in his kiss. His lips were so soft, and they parted just enough for me to feel the tip of his tongue as he slid it against mine. I groaned, and gently increased the pressure, allowing him to pull back if he wanted, but he moaned and wrapped his arms around my neck, pressing his whole body against mine.
Blood quickly raced to my cock, filling it to the point where I was not only hard but aching. My wolf whined, wanting its mate, and if I thought it had been difficult before, it was nigh on unbearable now. When Julian pulled back, his eyes were still half-closed and his lips were red and swollen. I wanted to devour him. I wanted to claim him. But I had to go.
“I’ll call you,” I said, then took his lips with mine one last time.
“Drive safe.” Julian smiled. I lifted one of his hands to my mouth and kissed it.
“Goodnight, Julian.”
“Goodnight, Casius.” He stepped back slowly, and then closed the door.
I walked down the hallway, feeling the invisible rope between us pulled taut as the distance between us grew. I sighed and put my hand to my heart.
Just one week. I can wait one week. It’ll fly by.
In spite of my attempts at reassurance, my wolf growled in anguish, and I had to ignore it as I headed down the stone steps, one at a time. Just one step at a time.
I drove over to the hotel where Nic was still staying, trying to call him on the way. No answer, so I left a message.
“Hey, I’m coming to get you, we have to leave right now—meet me out front.”
I drove a little faster through the light traffic of Goldleaf, watching out for pedestrians that seemed to be everywhere. It was a beautiful town at night. The stone buildings seemed to hold onto the day’s light and shone with a soft glow after dusk.
I pulled up outside the hotel and waited to see if Nic got my message. No sign of him. I glanced at the clock on the dash of the truck and tapped my thumb against the wheel. Alpha Hughes’s voice echoed in my mind, and my wolf was now eager to get back to Everglow and find out what was going on. I looked up at the hotel. No movement. I tried Nic’s cell again. It rang out.
I growled and headed inside the hotel, and then asked for him at the front desk. The clerk gave me his room number and called up to the room. No answer. I bounded up the stairs to his floor, and then knocked on his door.
“Nic? Open up, man.”
I knocked again, louder this time, in case he was in the shower. Still no sign of him. I growled and bolted back down the stairs.
“Any luck?” the clerk asked, and I shook my head as I hurried outside. I lifted my nose and sniffed at the air, trying to catch Nic’s scent. There was the slightest whiff on the breeze, and I followed it across the parking lot toward the woods.
I glanced around, half looking for Nic, and half looking to check if I was alone. The back of the hotel was completely desolate, and the light from the rooms didn’t stretch out to the edge of the woods. I stripped off in the dark, shifted, and let out an official howl. The harsh sound of it cut through the air so sharply it even sent a chill up my spine. Like the first time we’d run in the woods near Goldleaf, I noticed the sound didn’t carry very far. It fell dead and silent against the heavy leaf litter and mud.
But it was loud enough. Immediately, I heard a return howl, and the crashing of paws trampling through dry twigs and undergrowth. Then Nic burst through the tree line and stood before me, panting with a huge smile on his snout.
I snapped at his scruff and he jumped back playfully, letting out a happy yap. I growled because I didn’t have time to romp around the forests of Goldleaf, and neither did he. I shifted back into my human form, grabbed my clothes, and turned back to the hotel. He stayed in his wolf form, easily keeping up with my fast pace and looking up at me with bright orange eyes and that cheeky grin on his face.
We got to my truck and I pointed at the hotel. “Go get your things.”
He looked at the hotel, then back over his shoulder at the woods.
“Don’t even think about it. We have to get back to Everglow now. Go!”
With a tiny huff, he followed my orders, dashing off into the hotel. By the time he joined me in the truck, I was dressed and anxious as hell to get on the road. Nic threw his stuff into the back and hauled himself into the front of the cab, chewing on a piece of manoush flatbread.
“Sorry I missed your call, I was running. Man, the forests here are amazing, I’ve been out there all day, I got caught up in the scents—”
“Obviously.” I turned on the engine and got us out of there as quickly as I could.
“Hey, bad mood much? What’s going on?” He offered me a piece of his manoush, and I declined with a grunt.
“I have to head straight to the Supreme Mansion. I spoke to Alpha Hughes earlier and he sounded off. I’m worried that something’s wrong.”
Nic swallowed his mouthful slowly and nodded. “What about Mikel and Sloan?
“They caught a lift off another alpha yesterday.”
“They did? Wow, I really have immersed myself in this town, I didn’t even notice.”
“You’re supposed to be my second. Much good you are,” I said, grumbling slightly.
Nic bowed his head, and I immediately felt bad. He was my best friend. “Sorry. I didn’t want to leave Julian, but Alpha Hughes’s has me worried.”
“That’s cool. Let’s head right there, don’t worry about dropping me off, I can run home from the Mansion.”
I gave him a grateful grin. Once we were on the Hawksight Highway, I fell into a better mood, and he kept me up with his happy stories about what he’d seen in the woods of Goldleaf. By the time we were back in Everglow, the only thing bothering me was being away from Julian.
When I opened the door of my car in the Mansion parking lot, Alpha Hughes was already standing in the doorway. I gave Nic a nod as he shifted and ran off toward his house.
“Welcome back, Casius,” the Alpha said as I approached the entrance.
“Thanks for waiting for me.”
“Of course. I’m so pleased you got to spend some quality time in Goldleaf, and with somebody special,” he said, closing the door behind me. “C
ome into my office.”
I followed him into his office, and a shiver ran up my spine as I caught a glance of the portrait above his desk.
Alpha Hughes closed the door behind us. “What I’m about to show you can’t leave this room. Only a select few other pack Alphas know right now.”
“I understand, sir. What’s going on?”
Alpha Hughes pulled up an image on his computer then switched on a projector to shine onto a screen at the back of his office. The photograph displayed was an aerial view of a forest, with a small clearing in the middle. It was too small to see if there was anything present in the clearing.
“What am I looking at?” I asked.
“This area of land isn’t claimed by any shifter packs,” Alpha Hughes explained as he zoomed in on the clearing. “It’s been deserted for a long time. But look closely.”
As the clearing got bigger on the screen, I saw a group of blurry figures gathered in a circle.
“Is this a previously unknown shifter pack?” I asked. I wondered what the problem could be. If they hadn’t made contact with any urban shifters, maybe they just preferred life in the forest, living off the land.
Alpha Hughes shook his head in response to my question. “It’s hard to tell who they are from this photo, so I checked with Dominic Huxley, one of the leaders of our hawk shifter allies. He’s been keeping an eye on them for me.”
“What did he see?”
“Casius, what do you know about the history of humans?”
I rattled off the history like I was reading directly from a history book. “They were wiped out by a plague-like pathogen almost a century ago. Humans and shifters alike tried to save as many lives as they could, but there was no cure. Shifters were immune and eventually, all the humans died out.”
Alpha Hughes hummed. “That’s correct. Except Dominic has reason to believe these are humans.”
“Humans?”
Alpha Hughes just looked at me with an unreadable expression.
“Alpha Hughes, is this some kind of initiation test?”
He broke his expression to let out a chuckle. “No, Casius. You’ve well and truly passed all of your tests. I’m serious. These may be humans, who we previously thought were extinct.”
I squinted at the screen skeptically. “What makes Dominic think they’re human?”
“Hawk shifters have heat-sensing vision. These people… Their body temperature seems well below the average range for shifters.”
“But how could they have survived?”
“We don’t know yet. But we hope to.”
There were clearly a lot of unanswered questions around the photos. But the possibility of humans existing in Colorado was enough to throw my whole worldview into question. I finally understood why Alpha Hughes had requested my presence.
“How would you proceed, as Alpha Supreme?” he asked seriously.
I smirked. “So this is a test?”
He laughed again and shook his head. “Sure. If that makes you feel better.”
“I’d move cautiously to determine the nature of their involvement with the land here. Are they passing through? Are they making camp?”
Alpha Hughes nodded approvingly. “Let’s say they’re making camp. What then?”
“We’d need to establish contact… I think. Or wait until they contact us? I’m not sure.” I frowned, frustrated with my own indecision.
Alpha Hughes hummed again, and then nodded. “I’ve been wrestling with that question, myself. We used to live in harmony with humans, so my initial instinct is to reach out and welcome them back with open arms. But these particular humans… I don’t know what they’ve been through.”
“I’m sure they have some amazing stories to tell.” I sighed, feeling more than a little overwhelmed.
“Well. No need to make a decision on how to proceed right this moment. We don’t know their exact location, they’ve moved on from this clearing without a trace. If we’re to determine the nature of our relationship with them, we’ll have to find them first. I’ve asked Dominic to continue to patrol and report back. We’ll keep it quiet for now. This kind of information could cause a lot of problems if not handled properly.”
I crossed my arms and gazed at the image on the screen. Humans… They were like mythical creatures to me, and yet here they were. Incredible.
8
Julian
“You’re not good enough!” The broom came down again, this time shattering into pieces and piercing my skin. Again, my mother wailed and ignored me as I tried to comfort her.
This time, I bled a river from the shards of broom handle lodged in my neck.
I woke up feeling off again. Like my whole body, mind, spirit, and wolf were all out of alignment. I groaned as the morning sun burned my eyelids, and I buried my face in my pillows. Maybe I was just coming down from the last couple of days, from the thrill of having Casius in my life. I’d been on a high all weekend, and now I was coming down, and everything felt awful.
I needed mushrooms.
I hauled myself out of bed then brewed up a blend of feel-good fungi. When my phone buzzed, I felt a little kick of happy hormones buzz through me. I grabbed for it quickly, certain it would be Casius.
I grinned as I answered. “Hey.”
“Julian.” The voice snapped through me like a rubber band being flicked against my face.
“Hello, Mom.”
“Oh, thank you for finally answering the phone. Are you ignoring me? I thought you were dead.”
“Well, you can dream.” I gazed into my brew as I stirred it. The spoon kept the sediment off the bottom, circulating through the water like stars through a galaxy.
“I need you to stop by the house.” Her voice was taking on the kind of tone that meant everything she said after that was going to be a trap.
“What for?”
“I just need you to. Please?”
Even after all those years of trying to get free from her grasp, a simple pleading politeness from her grabbed my heart and had me doing her bidding.
“I’ll be there after lunch,” I grumbled, dumping the mushroom blend into the sink. Nothing was going to save me from the bad mood now.
The day dragged on with the visit to my parents’ house looming over me like a black cloud, ready to burst open into a downpour of misery. I got some work done for Alpha Truitt and managed to stop looking at my phone every ten minutes, eager for any sign of Casius. I stretched it out to half an hour while I was making a salad for lunch, but spent the whole time eating it reading through all the messages we’d sent each other. It’s not like there was anything saucy in there but seeing our written interactions was second-best to, well, actually interacting with him.
I’d almost got up the nerve to call him myself when I remembered my promise to my mother. The last thing I needed was to get worked up talking to Casius, and then find myself in a room with my parents.
I caught a bus to the small house I grew up in, which was deep in the suburbs. The area was technically near the woods, but you couldn’t see the forest for the big, gaudy mansions that freckled the neighborhood on recently cleared land. There was nothing natural left near the house, and the sun warmed my skin as I got off the bus and walked up the wide streets to my childhood home.
I paused with my hand on the gate and took in the facade. My childhood bedroom had been at the front of the house, just off the living room, behind the scraggly rose bush. Immediately after I’d moved out, it had been returned to its original purpose—a study, which was full of Mom’s trashy magazines and puzzle books instead of any actual literature. I could see through the curtains that she had piles of magazines pressed right up against the window, so hardly any light got into the room. My heart ached as I remembered how much the light that streamed through that window had meant to me as a kid, the way it had bathed my bed. At times, it had been the only ray of warmth I received.
Suddenly, the front door opened and there she was—dressed in a bright
aqua jumpsuit with her bright blonde hair up in a tight bun, and a look of disapproval knotting her lips together.
“Don’t just stand there, get in here.”
She aggressively waved me in until I pushed through the gate and hurried up to the door. As I took my shoes off, she made her way to the living room. “What were you doing out there? You’re so strange, Julian.”
Not as strange as it was to see all my family together in one room. My brothers Ragan and Aiden were there, looking like twins, two peas in a grumpy pod as they sat side by side on the couch, with arms crossed and a look of boredom on their near-identical faces. It was spooky how much they looked alike, with my parents’ fair hair and sharp noses. I got the same blue eyes, but apart from that, you couldn’t tell we were related.
My dad sat in his chair and nodded to me as I came in.
“Ragan, aren’t you supposed to be away with your mate?” I asked quietly as I sat down on the only chair available—a footstool. I was lower than everyone, and absolutely hated the feeling of them towering over me in their seats.
Ragan just shrugged. We were not close.
I turned my attention to Aiden, who I historically got along with a little better. “What’s going on?”
He shrugged too. “No idea.”
Mom cleared her throat as she sat down in her chair beside my father, and they both leaned forward to speak to my brothers.
“We had a really important visitor this weekend,” she said. I felt my stomach drop. I hadn’t realized this talk was going to be about me.
“The Supreme Alpha Select, Casius, came to see us,” Dad added.
“What?” Ragan asked excitedly. “The next Supreme Alpha of Everglow? Why? What’s going on?”
Aiden looked at me, and I looked down at my feet. I wriggled my toes and waited for Mom to explain everything.
“According to Casius, he believes Julian is his fated mate.” She held back a laugh, but the giggle made its way into the end of her sentence.