She opened the door and stepped back into the house, waving Asher in after her. “Come in, the boys would love to see you for a minute while I get some clothes.”
Asher found both of the kids in the play-room, working on a castle made of blocks each the size of his forearm. Matthew and Joseph were only eleven months apart, more like twins than not, but Matthew was older and just a little louder. Asher sat with them for a while, until a knock on the doorframe drew his attention.
Paige stood there with a cloth bag in her hands, but another shifter also stood with her. Asher knew her. He knew everyone in the pack, and he wasn’t surprised to see Melissa here. She and Paige were good friends, but right now she looked oddly solemn. Asher stood up, leaving the boys to play, and he came out into the hall, closing the door.
Paige handed him the bag of clothes. “Thanks,” he said. “What’s wrong?”
Paige shook her head. “Mel just came over to pass along some news.”
Honestly, trust Mel and Paige to be the most up to date on any relevant news. Asher should have come here first.
Mel said, “I just heard from Dan, you know how he’s friendly with that Sanders kid from Blackwater.”
“Sure,” Asher said. He vaguely knew that, but it didn’t seem very relevant.
“Blackwater’s Alpha died,” she said.
“What?” Asher demanded. “Their Alpha? How?”
“I don’t know. They’re trying to keep it pretty quiet, obviously, it’s pretty devastating news. I only found out because of Dan.”
Asher nodded. “How did he die? What happened?” What was that going to mean for their pack relations? They needed to know who was going to step up, and establish a relationship. Anything would probably be better than Rainer, who was standoffish and aggressive at the best of times. There was a constant tension where their borders pressed up against each other. Maybe his mother did need to come home in order to handle this. He’d call her tonight.
Mel shook her head. “There’s talk that his wife snapped and killed him, but I don’t know what’s talk and what’s …”
“Wait, killed him? He was killed?”
“Stabbed,” she said.
Something about that sort of bothered Asher, tickled the back of his mind. Something about his wife and stabbed lined up just a little too uncomfortably close with Eira and made his chest feel cold. “You’re sure he was stabbed?” he asked.
“That’s what I heard at least.”
“They think the wife did it?”
“Some sort of domestic dispute,” Paige answered. “And they don’t know she did it. Not sure I would blame her, honestly.”
“Well, she disappeared,” Mel said. “Nothing says guilty like evasion.”
Asher nodded. “Thanks, Mel. Let Dan know that I appreciate the info.”
“Who’s supposed to step up next?” Paige asked.
“He’s got a brother,” Mel said. “I think he’s standing in.”
“Not going to be much better,” she muttered.
“Better than them falling apart without an Alpha.”
Paige’s face twisted. “I hate them both.”
Asher reached out and squeezed Paige’s shoulder. “I’m going to go get these clothes home and give my mom a call.”
“Of course, sweetheart.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek, pushing him out the door.
CHAPTER THREE
WHEN HE ARRIVED back home, Eira was awake. The slight creak of the kitchen door made her look up from where she’d been studying the fire. He couldn’t help but press his fingers to his palm, reading her. She seemed calm and pensive. Nothing too urgent about her emotions. Maybe distant sadness, but definitely not the aggressive mess of confrontational emotions that had greeted him the day before.
“Hi,” he said quietly.
“Hey. I noticed you’d left.”
He held up the bag of clothes as evidence. “I went to borrow you some clothes. I thought you might like something that fit, and something that was made for ladies. Not my old t-shirt.”
Her lip curved in a small smile. “Thanks. I appreciate that, actually.”
He set the bag on the sofa next to her. “We should get you set up in a bedroom,” he said. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to live on the sofa. It was just … easiest to get to, when you were hurt.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I get it. Sure. Just. Show me where to go. I guess I have a bag of clothes now, but other than that, I packed pretty light.”
He offered her a smile. “Yeah. Maybe you can shower? I tried to clean you up as best I could, but there’s only so much you can do with warm water and a cloth.” He paused for a few seconds. “In the least creepy way possible.”
“I’m not sure it’s possible,” she said, shaking her head.
This was easy and cautious and warm and he hated that he had to bring a stop to it. But he did, because what Mel had said was weighing heavily on his mind, and it wasn’t going to go away. “I heard some things from Blackwater today,” he said.
Her eyes sharpened and focused in. “You did?”
“Yeah.” He pressed his fingers to his palm, and noticed her eyes flick down to his hand. Narrow. “Sorry,” he said, flexing his fingers. “It became a habit fast. I want to feel you.”
She relented a little. “I understand. Mine’s just a little more conspicuous than yours.”
“Do you mind me reading you?” he asked.
She looked at his hands. “Yes,” she said. “Or, I feel like I should. I do. But at the same time, I want to do it to you? And I have done it to you. So being upset about it would be hypocritical of me, wouldn’t it?”
He shrugged. “But if it’s how you feel, that’s how it is.”
“No,” she said. She shook her head, like she was cementing in her answer. “Go ahead. I don’t mind. It makes it easier, in a way.” She took a deep breath. “What were you so scared about, a little while ago?”
He smiled a little. “Reading me, too, huh?”
Eira shrugged, a small motion. “Just when I noticed you’d gone.”
“That’s fair. I don’t mind,” he said. “For the record. Whenever you want.”
“Thanks,” she said quietly. “It’s different, but it’s sort of … comforting.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I get it.” He shifted on his feet and looked down at her. Maybe he should sit, so he wasn’t towering over her like this? But not on the same sofa as her, because that would be too close, too. He sighed and decided to just ask. “There are rumors that the Blackwater’s Alpha is dead.”
Her eyes didn’t widen, her lips didn’t part. She just held very carefully still, trying very hard to control her reaction. “Oh,” she said.
It didn’t matter how hard she tried to control her reaction, though. Asher still felt the way fear stabbed through her, made her heart race and her throat tighten up. If the coincidence of it hadn’t been enough, her reaction when confronted would have sealed it for him. “Do you know anything about that?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“Eira.”
“Don’t,” she said quietly.
“Whose blood were you covered in?” he asked.
She gave a thin laugh. “That’s your concern?”
“No,” he said. “I have a lot of concerns.” She wouldn’t look him in the eye. “Is it something we need to contact the authorities over?”
He didn’t mean it as a threat, and he hadn’t really considered how it was going to come across, but Eira took it as a threat. Her eyes cut to him. “You would bring humans in on our business?”
“It’s their business,” he said. “If someone’s been hurt, it’s police business. How did you end up in the woods?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t remember, Asher.”
The use of his name slowed him down. He wasn’t sure he’d ever heard her say it, and it caught his attention fully. It seemed like an inappropriate reaction, but he felt warmth bloom in his c
hest, hearing his name on her lips. He took a deep breath, and then another. “Was it you?” he asked quietly. “Did you kill Blackwater’s Alpha?”
“I don’t know,” she said again, quiet. Intense. “I don’t know who killed him, or if I did it, okay?”
And he tuned back into her emotions, buzzing in the back of his mind. It was a jumbled mess of anxiety and desperation to remember something that wasn’t there, and fear. Not the acrid remembered fear that he’d felt from her before, but renewed fear. “Okay,” he said quietly. He held his hands up in front of him and eased closer to her. “Hey. It’s all right.”
“Oh, is it?” she snapped. “You sure seem pretty confrontational for someone trying to talk me down like a spooked animal now.” She nodded at his raised hands and he suddenly felt stupid.
They stood there like that for a few long moments, letting the conversation settle around them. Finally, Eira said, “Please don’t call the police.”
She was scared. He could feel that bleeding through even without the soul-mark. “I’m not going to,” Asher assured her immediately. He dropped his hands, flexed his fingers, but didn’t press his soul-mark to his palm. “I won’t. It doesn’t matter, and Blackwater isn’t going to call the police over this, are they?”
She shook her head. “No,” she said quietly.
“Okay.” Asher rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Why don’t you go shower? I’ll show you where you can sleep.”
He walked her upstairs and showed her to her room. It was a pretty decent sized room with a queen bed and a dresser. The sheets were all kept clean and fresh, and they had enough friends and family in and out of the house that it was always ready for a guest. “The bathroom is the next door down,” he said. “My bedroom is at the end of the hall, if you need anything, okay?”
“Thanks,” she said. She put the bag of borrowed clothes down on the dresser.
“There are towels in the bathroom. Like I said. Let me know. I’m a light sleeper.”
She nodded at him and he left.
He had expected that he wouldn’t see her again until morning. It felt weird, leaving her to her own devices, and not being able to see her, to talk to her, or help her if she needed it. At the same time, she was never too far away, considering the fact that he could just check up on her. It was nice.
There was a soft knock on his doorway. He sat up, surprised, because he didn’t think she’d actually need anything. He pressed his fingers to his palm to check on her – she wasn’t disproportionately upset or afraid. Just kind of a distant, settled kind of upset. “Come in,” he called.
Eira opened the door, frowning at him over the threshold. “Hi,” she said.
“Hey.” Asher sat up in the bed, crossing his legs. “I didn’t think I’d see you again until morning?”
“Yeah.” She stood just inside the doorway, hovering anxiously. Her pale blonde hair was a little darker when it was weighed down with water, but it was still a pale white gold. Her eyes stood out vividly on her face, especially because she was still a bit pale. Her injuries were fading, faster than the average human would have healed them, but the dark impressions of bruises still lingered.
“Come here,” Asher said. “Sit down. It’s fine. What’s up?”
She crossed the bedroom and sat down at the edge of Asher’s bed. She wore a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, both fitted to her frame appropriately. The shorts rode up as she sat, displaying the length of her creamy thighs. Her legs were dotted with light freckles, and Asher found it intensely adorable. “I can’t stop thinking,” she said.
“About what?” Asher asked. “If this is about anything I said earlier, don’t listen to me.”
She shook her head. “No, you’re not wrong. I can’t stop thinking about what I don’t remember.”
“No, look, with the kind of injuries you had when I found you, it’s not surprising that you don’t remember the incident—”
“Asher,” she cut him off. “What if I did it?”
It hung between them for a little while. Finally, Asher said, “What if you did?” in a way that was supposed to be challenging, but might have just come off as sullen.
“You can’t just act like this doesn’t matter,” she said.
“I’m not. I know it does,” he said. “It’s a big deal.”
“If I did it, I can’t stay here.”
“Whoa, what?” he protested. “Slow down. Why not?”
“You’re not asking your mother to let me stay, after I killed my last pack’s Alpha.”
He glared at her. “Are we not going to talk about the extenuating circumstances there?”
“I don’t know the extenuating circumstances,” Eira said.
“You don’t know that he was a wild jackass, and he was probably the one that hurt you, anyway—”
“You don’t know that,” Eira said. “I don’t know what happened. I don’t remember. All we know is that you found me, covered in his blood. And I can see – I can see his eyes.” The vacant stare of glassy eyes. His skin still warm with blood.
“Hey,” he said quietly. He reached out a hand, but Eira pulled back, wiping a hand over her eyes.
“I’m fine,” she snapped.
He caught her hand when she tried to wave him off. “This thing where you’re my soulmate,” he said, “it means that you don’t get to hide from me comforting you right now.”
“Fuck off,” she protested, but it was halfhearted at best. Asher tightened his hand and tugged. She reluctantly let him pull her closer, and she folded herself against his side, pulling her knees up to her chest. “You shouldn’t comfort me,” she said quietly.
“Fuck off,” he returned. He wound his arm around her waist, fitting her against his side. He let out a deeply satisfied rumble, his wolf flicking its tail in pleasure. It felt good to have her in his arms, pressed close. Safe. His. It was probably the bond encouraging it, but he wanted to hold onto her forever.
She released a deep breath, and it was like he could feel her relaxing against him in increments, finally letting go of the tension in her body. “Whatever you decide,” he said finally, “I’m with you.”
She reached up and wiped her eyes, but she didn’t answer. “No,” she said. “You’re not leaving your pack. You can’t leave your mom. You have a whole life here, and I’m not going to be the one who comes in and fucks it up and makes you give it all up.”
“Do you get that you’re my soulmate—”
“Stop saying that like it’s the magical solution to everything!” Eira said, her voice escalating into a yell. “It just means we’re compatible, or that fate decided we should give it a go, it doesn’t actually guarantee that anything is going to work out any more than anything else in this shitty situation—”
Asher cut her off by pressing his fingers to her soul-mark. She gasped and held his hand as they connected, their emotions flooding between them like an ocean. He was flooded with the fear and anxiety, red and intense. He took a deep breath and rode it out, focused on infusing her with his absolute certainty that he wasn’t going to leave her. Steadfast confidence that as insane as it sounded, he loved her. He didn’t care what she’d done. It wasn’t going to change the way that he felt about her.
Her hands were shaking, but she pulled him closer and pressed her lips to his. He moved his hand from her soul-mark to slip it around her neck and pull her in to deepen the kiss. “You’re insane,” she whispered, wondering.
He shook his head, but she just kissed him again, opening her mouth to him. His wolf surged up, and he wanted to grab, lick, bite, claim. He tamped it down and just slid his hands down to her hips, pulling her close. “Stay,” he murmured.
She nodded. Her fingers danced curiously back into his hair, tangling with the strands. “Just to sleep,” she said.
He nodded, his arms slipping around her waist to keep her close. Secure. His.
CHAPTER FOUR
IN THE MORNING, Eira woke to the scent of frying bacon. The bed
was empty, Asher having already gone downstairs, presumably. She rolled over onto her back and took a deep breath. She felt good. Rested. Her leg was mostly healed, and she’d taken the bandage off yesterday evening.
As she got up, she took a deep breath, scenting the air. There was breakfast being cooked, but there was also a number of different scents mixing with that. There were others in the house. Seemed like at least a few in the kitchen, and maybe some in the family room. She couldn’t tell the exact number; she didn’t know any individual scents well enough to be able to distinguish, except Asher’s.
She sorted through the clothes that she’d been given and changed into a pair of jeans that fit her surprisingly well, and a sweater that was oversized, but still somehow fit her like a hug. It was soft, worn cotton and she instantly felt warmer. She smiled a little and, since she was alone, reached up to touch the soul-mark on her neck, checking on Asher.
The door in the back of her mind opened, and she was flooded with a soft warmth, and a sense of contentment, amusement. Her smile stretched. That was … nice. Good. Whoever was here meant no harm, and Asher wasn’t tense about it at all. It made her chest feel warm, and she felt some kind of happiness settle there, taking root.
She spent another few minutes getting herself ready before emerging down the stairs. She had to pass through the family room to get to the kitchen. There were a few people sprawled on the sofas and sitting in front of the fire. It looked mostly like a few teenagers watching younger children; they all looked up when she walked in. The older ones nodded at her and the little ones regarded her with sunny curiosity.
In the kitchen, she found Asher. She also found presumably the owners of all the children in the next room over. There were five others who she’d never met, and Asher, leaning against the counter, apparently in charge of the waffle iron.
“Hey,” he said. The conversation didn’t really die out around them, there were too many people for that, but it did mute a little. She could feel everyone else giving her curious glances. At least, she hoped they were curious and not hostile.
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