Asher grunted a sound of agreement.
“Hey,” she said, soothing. “It’s good, baby. This is good.”
“Is it?” he asked. “She hasn’t woken up yet. I don’t know if it’s good.”
“It’s going to work out one way or another.” She paused for a moment and he heard her shuffling something on her end of the line. “I’ll try to see if I can get home any sooner—”
“No, mom, you have to take care of the fire, you’ve got a team out there. I can handle things here. Don’t, just don’t worry about it. We’ll be here when you’re back, like you said. One way or another, right? She’s healing, she’s not in danger. I’m not in danger. We’ll lay low and figure it out. It’s just … sudden.”
“I know,” she said softly, and it occurred to Asher that she did know. She’d been bonded with his father. It sobered him a little, remembering her perspective.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to freak out.”
“Did you tell anyone else?”
“Mo, but he was on his way out. He was here when I got in.”
“That boy,” she said with fond exasperation in her voice. She loved Morgan, probably more than she loved Asher, which he thought wasn’t entirely fair.
“I’ll let you know when she wakes up. Keep you updated.”
“We still need to see if Blackwater is looking for anyone,” she said, and her tone was careful. “I’m not saying we do anything, but we need to know.”
“Yeah.” He knew he had to, but he also knew that he wasn’t going to give her back. “I’ll send someone to scout out the situation.”
“Good. I’ll keep my phone on me. I love you.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Asher agreed. “Love you.”
After hanging up, he spent the next few hours alternately staring at the fire, and at his soulmate. She didn’t wake up, and eventually he drifted into sleep.
CHAPTER TWO
EIRA WOKE UP all at once. The first thing that she became aware of was that the room around her was unfamiliar. She couldn’t see much as she struggled upright, but she did take in pale green walls and wide open windows that let in the pale light of the early morning. A blanket she’d never seen before slid off her shoulders and pooled in her lap.
The second thing that she became aware of was that she was naked. That wasn’t the most unusual of occurrences, but it was notable, especially in the unfamiliar environment where she already felt vulnerable.
How had she gotten here?
The last thing she became aware of – which really should have been the first – was that she was not alone. Across from her, a man sat up, apparently startled by her suddenly waking. He didn’t say anything, but he stared at her with wide, almond shaped eyes. He had warm brown sun-kissed skin and a shock of dark hair, curling messily down to his shoulders, which he reached up to smooth down with his hand like it was a habit. With hair like that, it probably was.
He sat in a patch of sunlight, let in by one of the big windows along the wall, and the pool of sunshine made his eyes light up amber. “There’s pills,” he blurted. When she just stared at him, uncomprehending, he fumbled forward and picked up a bottle from the coffee table between them. “Ibuprofen, if you’re hurting. Which, I thought you might be. I don’t know how much it’ll help.” The hand that wasn’t reaching for the pills was curled into a loose fist on his thigh, fingers pressed to his palm.
“Thanks,” she said, accepting the bottle. She felt weird, in the back of her head. Sort of swirling behind her eyes in a way that didn’t affect her vision, a rush and a mix of excitement and fear.
He nodded. “I found you in the woods, uh …” he looked over his shoulder at the clock on the wall. “ … about nine hours ago. You were on my pack’s land, so I brought you here. I’m Asher.”
“Eira,” she answered. She shifted again, like she was going to get up, and then the pain made itself known and she looked down. Bandages on her forearms, a big one on her thigh. “What happened?”
His lips pressed together and a frown twisted Asher’s face. “I was hoping you’d be able to tell me that,” he said.
“I don’t remember,” Eira said, carefully sitting up and shifting so she was more comfortable. “I …” She got a sudden flash of memory – her husband’s face, shocked and wide-eyed, glassy. She shut it down. “I don’t know how I got there.”
“Do you know where you came from?” Asher asked, leaning forward like he wanted to be closer, but he stayed on the opposite sofa. “Do you belong to a pack?”
“Blackwater,” she said, and watched his face fall. He tried to control his expression, but he didn’t do a very good job of it. “Is that a problem? Where am I know?”
“You made it across into Woodhaven land before you passed out,” he said. Eira didn’t remember doing that, but it sounded plausible. His voice was flat. “We can send someone to contact your pack, if you want.”
Her stomach tightened. “I don’t …” She didn’t know how to articulate it, the fear that twisted in her gut, that made her lungs tense up. “I think I can’t go back?”
He looked at her intently. “Why not?”
Vacant, glassy eyes. Blood smeared on her hands, so much blood, she couldn’t hold the knife right, it kept slipping, and fear visceral and real and oh fuck what was she going to do now?
She didn’t have time to gather herself and say anything in response before he flexed his fingers and said, “Doesn’t matter. You don’t have to go back. You can stay here.”
She let out a short, disbelieving breath. “Why would you do that?” she asked. “Let me stay? You don’t know what I’m bringing to your door.”
“Eira …” He paused, mouth slightly open like he was searching for words. Instead of speaking, he brought his hand to his throat, pressing his two fingers to the pulse in his neck.
“What?” she said, unconsciously copying him and bringing her hand up, her fingers brushing against – her soul-mark. “What?” she said, quieter but more intense.
As soon as her fingers brushed the mark, it was like a door opened in the back of her mind, allowing in a flood of different emotions that distinctly did not belong to her. There was a mix of feelings so strong it was almost overwhelming for the first few moments and she had an urge to slam the door on it. Trepidation and anxiety, the fear of losing something before you had it. The fear of wanting when you didn’t know you could want. Of having a space filled where you didn’t know there was a hole. A sense of rightness and peace, contrasting the sense of fear, deep and piercing.
She gasped and pulled her hand away, the emotions immediately muting to a faint murmur in the back of her mind. “It’s you?” Her lips moved without her consent. “How?” she demanded.
“I reached out to find your pulse,” Asher answered. She reached up and gently touched one finger to the mark on her neck, carefully engaging. Beneath all of the swirling fear and worry was a very small, very well-guarded kernel of hope.
“I didn’t literally mean how,” she said. His emotions swirled, and she could almost watch it on his face. Surprise, confusion, hurt, wonder and, when she smiled, a cautious happiness. “Fuck,” she said.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Listen, we don’t have to let this make any decisions for us.”
“Oh,” she said. “Yeah. I guess not.”
“I think you should stay.”
“Here?” she asked. She lowered her hand. The input was a lot all at once. With her hand down, the inside of her head went quiet.
“The house is here for the pack to use. Anyone who needs it. You look like you need a place to stay.”
“I’m not pack,” she said.
“You’re my soulmate. What does that make you?”
She looked down. Felt the chill on her shoulders, her bare chest. “Can I have some clothes?”
“Yeah.” He stood up and produced a t-shirt from the coffee table between them. “There are some sweats, too, but I thought they might be
big. I’ll find something that will fit you, but that’s what I had on hand.”
She pulled the shirt over her head. It was a soft cotton-blend, a faded navy blue with a logo on it – Eira didn’t look too hard. When she inhaled, she was surrounded by Asher’s scent, mixed with the scent of laundry detergent. It was surprisingly pleasant, and it went a long way toward soothing her.
“Thanks,” she said quietly. She left the sweats on the table until she got up.
“Of course,” he said, matching her tone. “You don’t remember anything about how you got hurt?”
Her fingers fiddled with the neck of the shirt. “No.”
“Okay. I just thought maybe …?”
“What?” she asked, defensive.
“I don’t know. You seemed scared of something.”
She narrowed her eyes and she wanted to say something about him watching her with the mark, how it made her feel deeply uncomfortable, but before she could say it, he held his hands up. “Never mind,” he said. “I’m prying. I guess it doesn’t matter. You’re here.”
“If it’s trouble, I can go somewhere else.” Something tightened in her stomach. She didn’t want to leave, and she didn’t know if that was just the bond talking, demanding proximity, or if she just hadn’t actually felt safe anywhere for such a long time that she was loathe to give it up.
“I’d prefer it if you stayed,” Asher said.
A sound from the entryway made both of them turn their heads. Eira gave half a thought to reaching for the pants before someone was already walking into the family room. He had sandy hair cut close to his head, and he was thin. Eira didn’t really have a point of reference for height, but she thought that he was shorter than Asher, but a bit taller than her, and he looked younger.
“Mo,” Asher said. “This is Eira. Eira, Morgan. Mo’s one of the newer members of our pack, but he stays here most of the time. We haven’t been able to get rid of him.”
“I keep your lonely ass company,” Mo said. He held up his hands, which held two bags weighed down with white containers. “I brought food. I thought it might be nice.” He set them down on the coffee table in the middle of the room, and then sat down on Eira’s sofa, close enough that the weight of him tipped the cushions in his direction, shifting Eira’s weight, and she could feel his warmth through the blanket that she still had over her lap. He smiled at her, and it was all teeth and charm. “Every time I wake up injured in a strange man’s house, I always think man, you know what I want? Soup.”
“You brought soup?” Asher asked, and his amusement bled through. Eira could feel it in the back of her mind, on the corners of her lips.
“I brought baked potato soup,” Mo said, leaning forward to unpack the bags. He opened one container of soup and the smell wafted up. Eira had to admit that it did smell really good, and she suddenly realized how hungry she was. “It’s comforting. You’ve never woken up in a strange man’s house and wanted soup?”
“I can’t say that I have,” Asher said.
“Weird.” Mo handed Eira the whole container, and a spoon. Eira took it in her hands, wrapping her fingers around the warmth, her mouth watering.
“Thanks,” she said quietly. Morgan was … a lot of energy, bright and pushy, but he was sitting practically on top of her, and feeding her, and unafraid to touch her. It reminded her so strongly of pack, of being young and unafraid and secure. She closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of the soup and wanted to hold onto that feeling, however brief. Across from her, Asher smiled, just a little.
Mo tore off a piece of bread that Eira hadn’t noticed him bring in, and handed it to her on a napkin. Now sure that Eira was fed, he began distributing the rest of it between himself and Asher. Eira ate and watched. Mo and Asher bantered, comfortable and easy. Topics ranged around, Mo asked about Asher’s mother, who was … a firefighter? Eira shook her head slightly, trying to track the conversation, but she still felt a little slow on the uptake, disoriented.
She’d eaten most of the soup and all of the bread when there was a lull in the conversation. She worked up the nerve to say, “We need … I need to talk to the Alpha of the pack. About me staying.”
Asher said, “You can stay,” so sure and full of conviction that Eira compulsively believed him.
She took a deep breath. “Okay. Just because we’re bonded doesn’t mean I get automatic membership in this pack.” She didn’t know where else she could go if the Alpha denied her. She thought about her husband, how he’d run Blackwater, and she could feel her hope dwindling. He would have never entertained this situation, especially taking in someone from a rival pack.
But he was dead now.
“I already told my mother. You can stay, if you want to.” Here, his gaze turned a little bit anxious. It stabbed through the bond, little pinpricks of unease. “You do want to stay?”
“I do want to stay,” she said. “And I can’t go back. I don’t know what else I’d do.”
“Why can’t you go back?” Mo asked. She glanced over at him, startled. She’d been so absorbed with Asher, with his reactions, that she had momentarily forgotten about Mo.
She took a breath, feeling her lungs go shaky. “Aside from being run off their lands?” At least that was what she assumed had happened, she still didn’t remember the actual event beyond a blind haze. “I think … I think my husband is dead? And he was the only reason I … could stay. With Blackwater. They wouldn’t have kept me otherwise.”
She felt a distant ripple of shock from Asher. She wished her mark was in a more discreet place so she could reach up and actually gauge his reaction. She was jealous that his were on his fingertips, so he only needed to curl his fingers into his palm to check on her. She held his gaze boldly and didn’t back down. She wasn’t going to be ashamed of her past, not even the bad parts.
“Then you stay,” Asher said, finally, maintaining eye contact in turn. “It’s not even an option.”
Like it was that simple. Eira wished it could be that simple. “What do you mean, you already told your mother?” she asked.
“Oh,” he said. “My mother is Alpha.”
Eira raised her eyebrows, sitting up a little straighter. “Women can’t be Alpha,” she said.
“I’ll let you tell her that,” Asher said. Mo chuckled. He ran his hand through his hair, sorting out the tangles with his fingers. “She’s been Alpha since before I was born.”
Eira studied him for a while. She could feel her mind trying to wrap around that, like two pieces that didn’t fit together trying to make a whole. “What about the men in your pack?” she asked.
“What about them?”
“Don’t they challenge for dominance?” Men, especially shifters, they couldn’t control that. Either they were put in their place, or they were on top. And when you were on top, you had to fight for the control of the pack. And when you were Alpha, you protect what you had or it was taken.
“What?” Asher asked. “You mean like—” He put on a deep, gruff voice. “—I’m stronger than you, so I should handle the pack’s finances and inter-county relations.” He dropped the voice, but he was smiling a little. “That seems stupid.”
She stared at him. “They just let her?”
“She’s a good leader,” Asher said. “She takes care of the pack.”
“That’s not how most packs work, Ash, no matter how good of a leader she might be,” Mo said.
Asher sighed. “Yeah. No, I know. I know. I feel like Blackwater is especially bad, though.”
“Don’t shit-talk,” Mo said. “That’s not very diplomatic.”
“Not shit-talk if it’s true,” Asher muttered. “But yeah, sorry.”
“No,” she said. “It’s … pretty true. I’ve just never … I had a different pack when I was little, but I was pretty young when my mom died. I ended up floating around, and I ended up at Blackwater. I didn’t intend to stay there forever, but … stuff happens.”
“Yeah,” Mo said. “I feel it.”
Eventually, Eira got too tired to keep her eyes open, and she kept drifting off on the arm of the sofa. Asher coaxed her into laying down to sleep after a while. He loaded more logs into the fire, and then left her to go find some clothes that would fit her.
Asher took a few minutes for himself, so he could shower and change his clothes. Two houses over, a woman named Paige lived with two pups. She was about the same size as Eira, and she probably wouldn’t mind giving her a couple of things to wear. He sighed. He was going to have to explain the situation, which was going to fuel the gossip mill.
They were going to talk about her anyway.
He let himself out the back door quietly, only peeking in on Eira briefly to make sure that she was still asleep and peaceful. She was, and he felt a little bit stupid for worrying about her, but it made him feel better to see her asleep, curled up under the blankets, so he didn’t berate himself too hard.
Paige answered the door after only a few seconds, a toddler hanging off her hip. “Asher,” she said, sounding surprised. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, of course,” Asher said.
“Asher!” the pup cried.
“Jo-jo!” The toddler grinned a wide, toothy grin. Asher said, “Actually, Paige, I need a favor?”
“About that girl you brought in last night, right?”
Asher sighed. “Yeah. I figured news got around.”
“How’s she doing? I saw Colin over there for a while.”
“Better now, but she was injured when I found her.”
Paige put the toddler down, to his protest, and she pushed him back inside with a firm instruction about going to find his brother. “What do you need?” she asked.
“Just clothes. Something for her to wear.”
“Oh, god, of course. I can pull together a few things. Poor girl.”
“She’s going to be okay. You guys will probably meet her, if you’re still planning on coming to cook for Matthew’s birthday tomorrow.”
She nodded. “That’s still the plan. Is she going to be up for a full house?”
“It’ll be fine.”
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