So she’d lost a part. “I liked it, too. Let’s go.”
“Let me sum it up,” she said as we resumed our stroll. “In order to merge my roaming wolf with my human part, I need to have, ahem, intercourse with a fellow werewolf—”
“Not a fellow werewolf,” I interrupted her. “I mean, technically, yes. In practice, I am going to be that fellow. Clear?”
“Clear. But we cannot do that before my uncle gives us the green light. Because you can’t take me to Red Cliffs as your mate.” She rolled her eyes. “How long do I need to suffer?”
“Don’t be angry with James, Astrid. I’d do the same if I were him. That’s the best way. About how long? We should wait until your next change anyway. I must see it. Maybe one more transition after that. That should be enough to satisfy Red Cliffs’ curiosity and get them used to your presence. And then I don’t care about anything else. We’ll live together as a couple, married, unmarried, however you like. If you decide that is what you want.”
We continued walking in silence until we reached the bridge. Astrid stood on the middle of it, forearms braced on the wooden rail, looking into the river below. I came closer and wrapped my arms around her shoulders.
“Tell me something,” she said quietly. “If I’d had a werewolf lover before my first change, would my two parts have been connected?”
“I don’t know. As I said, so little is known about your kind. You apparently weren’t in a relationship with a werewolf before.”
“How do you know?”
“You would have known.”
She smirked and threw me a look under her lashes. “Oh, is it really so good?”
I laughed. In spite of her encyclopedic knowledge about various subjects and her medical background, Astrid was evidently ignorant of werewolves’ minor yet particular physiological differences compared to other humanoids. She was a human doctor, though, and as she had mentioned once, had never had an opportunity to treat werewolves, not even children, let alone adults, who rarely need any medical attention. She wasn’t, therefore, aware of our little peculiarity: an extra gland that ran along the penis, from the base to the tip, unnoticeable to the inexperienced eye unless the penis in question was fully erect. I was surprised, though, that her logical grandparents hadn’t mentioned it to her. Or, maybe, regardless of their cool, rational mindset, they still found sexuality an awkward topic to be discussed with their young granddaughter.
But at that moment, I didn’t want to further test her ability to accept new concepts. “Trust me, it’s going to be good. I’ve heard it always is when a wizard and werewolf fall in love. And personally, you look sizzling hot to me.”
“I DON’T want you to be alarmed, but your wolf is making serious attempts to come out,” I said as we sat on an old tree trunk covered with damp moss. I took off my jacket, folded it and gave it to Astrid to sit on.
“I know. Even though I don’t remember, I can still feel her. She’s responding to your presence. To another wolf.”
“To her mate, Astrid. Your human part can control it, but your wolf is much more primal in her needs.”
“I’ve figured that much out. I’ve pushed up my last two surgeries for next Monday and Tuesday, and then I’m taking a vacation. Tristan agrees. I don’t want to have a memory lapse with the scalpel in my hand. Though I somehow know she wouldn’t put anyone in that kind of danger.”
“She wouldn’t, Astrid. She’s you.”
“But she wants to come out, and that makes me more tired than I should be a week before the change. She usually waits until the last moment to take over.”
She turned her blue gaze on me and my heart gave a loud thump.
“She knows about me, doesn’t she?” she said.
“I believe so. I’ll talk to her when you change, and then we’ll know more.”
“How are you going to talk to her? Are you going to change, too? How do we communicate?”
“Come closer, I want to hold your hand... If I am in human form, you can hear me, of course, and you can talk to me in my mind. I mean, you can send your thoughts to me, like a text message from one phone to another, sort of.”
“Sort of? That means you can read my thoughts. You said you couldn’t.”
“Only what you want me to hear.” I searched for a comparison. “Imagine working on your computer. You can choose to have a single window open, close it down, open another one, use it, close it down again and so on. Or you can have multiple windows open and toggle between them. In our case, we choose—and it’s an instant and automatic process—when we think and when we talk. I can receive only what you want to say.”
“Oh, it sounds complicated... So I receive only what you want to tell me?”
“Yes. Our thoughts always stay private.”
She sighed. “I think I’ve learned enough for today. Let’s talk about something else.”
“Okay,” I said and pulled her closer. She ran the back of her fingers along my face. I closed my eyes and let the warm tide sweep over me.
“You know, with all that sexual attraction between us and my little beast trying to take over, it’s not going to be easy to stay away from each other. I know we can’t sleep together, but I don’t think I can make it easier for you, either. It’s up to you, Jack Canagan, to keep me at bay.”
“You might be asking the impossible.” My own voice was so raspy that it crossed my mind that my wolf was about to emerge any moment. “We’ll manage,” I said, taking a deep breath. “You are worth waiting for. As long as it takes.”
“HOW DID the Falls get its name? Do you know?” Astrid said later, looking up at the thick water curtain.
“It’s from local folklore, I think. I heard it long ago, and forgot the details… A girl and a boy were in love, but her parents wanted to marry her to another man. She and her lover decided to run away. They were almost caught, but a cricket, whom the girl had saved from a fire long before, turned first into a bridge so that the lovers could cross the river, and then the bridge collapsed to stop the pursuers, and the cricket became a waterfall... something like that, unless I mixed up two different legends. It could also be because of the sound. Close your eyes and listen.”
She did, sweet thing, and I couldn’t resist kissing her. A tender, brief brush of lips. I ended it before we both got carried away.
“Lovely,” she said.
I presumed she meant the kiss.
We walked back to the truck. I asked Astrid if she wanted to drive, but she shook her head.
“Are you hungry?” I said. “We could stop somewhere for lunch or we can make something at home.”
“Let’s go home. By the way, I’ll need to do something with my house.”
“Drew and Alec are coming with a truck to take your belongings to Red Cliffs. We’ll buy the house back,” I said, and anticipating her next question, offered the explanation. “You bought it through Millennium Property, remember? Well, real estate and land development is our family business. We sell and buy all around the world.”
Her laugh filled up the truck cabin. “So we’re not going to live on your Government pension once you retire?” She tilted her head and, narrowing her eyes into two blue slits, made her own deduction. “You are rich, Jack Canagan, aren’t you? A government salary wouldn’t allow you to drive an insanely expensive Bentley.”
I laughed. “Well, I could’ve rented it to impress you, couldn’t I?”
“But you didn’t.”
“No. I am rich.
“Awfully or reasonably?”
“Reasonably. Does it change anything?”
“Of course not. It’d be just fine even if you weren’t, because I’m rich as a troll.”
I knew she was. Most Langaer were rich. Our long lives provided us with plenty of time to accumulate wealth. But wizards, the richest among us, were above the vanity of the material world. And Astrid was no exception.
“You probably think now that I could’ve afforded a bigger house,” she said.
<
br /> “And you’d say that it was big enough for you.”
“How many bedrooms can you sleep in at the same time? Besides, this house wasn’t cheap at all, you know.”
“You could’ve bought a better car, though. Rosenthal is a rich town. Your Honda stands out here more than my Bentley, which is, by the way, my first expensive car in a long time. My previous car was no fancier than your dented Honda.”
“It’s barely a scratch. You know, I thought about it. It’s okay for Tristan to drive his fancy Mercedes, he’s the CEO, but a young, unknown surgeon wouldn’t live in a mansion and drive a luxury car. Wouldn’t be logical.”
I smiled and turned to her. “You’re going to have a little bit bigger house soon, you know. And your Honda isn’t coming with us.”
“We’ll see about that. I’m emotionally attached to my car… So you have a big house?”
“Bigger than your present dwelling for sure.”
“May I have my own bathroom?”
“Sure, we’ll have one made just for you. Let me guess, in pink?”
“No, in aquamarine and beige. May I have a cat? Is it possible? Can cats live side by side with latent wolves?”
I laughed. “Of course you can have a cat. Just don’t shape-shift in her presence.”
“You know, I’ve never had a cat,” she said and inched closer to me. She placed her hand over mine. “We’ve talked enough about me. Now tell me about your mother, your father, Eamon and Maggie, about James and your relationship, about your friends, about things you like to do, and places you like to go, and where you learned to cook.”
“Hold on, Astrid! What was your first question?”
Chapter Twenty-One
Astrid
“START FROM the end,” I said. “Where did you learn how to cook?”
We were close to home. We approached the first clusters of houses on the east side.
“Do we need to buy anything?” Jack asked. “Are we going home, or do you need to go to the hospital?”
“I’ll just stop by. Five minutes. You have enough time for my first question. I’m listening.”
“In Paris. A few years ago. I had, well, some personal issues to deal with and an excess of time. I like food, as you can see, so I ended up at Le Cordon Bleu.” He turned to me. “I’ve always thought, what if I find a wife who doesn’t like to cook? I knew it would come in handy, sooner or later.”
His voice was light and he smiled, but now I regretted asking him about cooking. His pseudo-casual tone when he’d mentioned personal issues and a knot in my stomach that followed it told me I shouldn’t have let my curiosity get the better of me.
“Are you coming with me, or do you want to wait in the truck?” I asked as we approached the hospital.
“I’ll be at the reception area. Don’t be long.”
I came back ten minutes later. We returned the truck to the rental lot, picked up Jack’s car, and drove home.
After that clumsy start with Paris, Le Cordon Bleu and related topics that I didn’t want to know about, I was looking for an undisturbed evening with Jack, eager to know more about him, without any more details about the personal issues.
Unfortunately, that kind of bonding wasn’t about to happen tonight.
As we turned the corner to enter my back alley, Jack looked at me with a strange expression on his face: a mixture of annoyance, anger, amusement and surprise. “You told me there was no boyfriend to be worried about.”
I was puzzled. “What are you talking about?”
“There’s a young man in your living room, a wizard. Liv’s with him. Since he’s still alive and quite chatty, I can safely conclude he doesn’t mean you any harm.”
As soon as I stepped out of the car and sniffed the air I was able to identify my visitor. How he’d found me was beyond my comprehension, but he certainly didn’t present any danger.
Ingmar Mortensen wasn’t that kind of ex-boyfriend.
THE DOOR swung open before I touched the doorknob. “Astrid, you have a visitor. Hi, Jack.”
“Hi, Ingmar.” I smiled, still confused, but happy to see him.
A wide grin spread across Ingmar’s face. “Hi, Astrid.”
Four of us stood in my tiny hallway. Only Liv looked composed, save for the arched eyebrows and tiny, crooked smile. Ingmar stood one step behind Liv. It crossed my mind that she was keeping him at a safe distance from Jack.
I found myself slightly behind Jack. In fact, I was sure he’d pushed me behind, placing himself between his mate and a potential threat. Just in case.
In that small space, Jack’s physical presence was overwhelming, even more so because of his flagrant display of possessiveness: as I tried to step forward, Jack blocked me with his left arm, holding me behind him.
If I hadn’t known that he was acting upon his deepest instinct, as well as his attraction to me, I’d have found the whole situation irritating. If anybody else had acted so possessively, I would’ve been mad as hell. But I was neither angry nor annoyed. Instead of being infuriated, I swelled with a deep pleasure.
I was the most precious person in Jack’s life and an unknown individual close to me was a potential threat until proven otherwise.
When she was sure that Jack wouldn’t attack, Liv suggested moving to the living room. I made formal introductions, but neither man made an attempt to shake hands. They just nodded to each other.
We all stood around the coffee table in my living room. It looked as if Jack and Liv flanked Ingmar from each side. Ingmar’s eyes were on me, Jack’s on Ingmar’s, and Liv’s, amused and alert, moved from one man to another.
I broke the silence. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”
“Well, after you and I...” He glanced at Jack and then back at me. I gave him a tiny nod, and he continued. “After we broke up, you just disappeared. I phoned you, but you didn’t return my calls. I knew you were mad at me, so I decided to give you some time to cool down, but when I came to see you after a few weeks, I couldn’t find you.
“Ella told me you went to New York with Arnaldur, which was strange because Ella was in Seattle, and I know she and Arnaldur are rarely apart. Besides,” he said with a smile, “she is a terrible liar. I was about to leave for East Africa with Doctors without Borders for a six month assignment. You know how long I wanted it. In short, in spite of dropping on my knees in front of your grandmother and begging her to tell me where you were, confessing all my sins along the way, she only told me you were fine and that you’d contact me when you were ready.” He shrugged. “I wasn’t sure you were going to be ready any time soon, so I phoned Ella every week.”
“I knew you did,” I said softly. Ingmar wouldn’t give up easily. Not only because we had been in a relationship for a year or so, but also because we’d been best friends since childhood.
“I screwed up big time, didn’t I?” he said quietly. “I’m so sorry, Astrid.”
I walked around the table and, ignoring Jack’s warning looks, stood closer to Ingmar. “Nah. I should have told you long ago who I am. I’m sorry I didn’t. I’ve missed you, you know.”
“Oh, God, I’ve missed you, Astrid.”
Jack looked ready to attack.
“I’ll make coffee,” I said and strode to the kitchen, confident Liv could handle the surplus of testosterone, if necessary. “You realized I’m in hiding, didn’t you?” I said over my shoulder. “If you were able to track me down so easily, then something is wrong with my cover.”
“Who are you hiding from, Astrid? What are you doing here, in the back of beyond?” Ingmar’s loud voice reached me from the living room.
“I’ll tell you in a bit, but first you tell me how you found me,” I repeated my question, aware of the tension in the living room.
“It was a coincidence,” Ingmar said. “A patient of yours, from here, ended up in my office. The boy with the open fracture, skiing accident, remember? Almost a year ago?”
“I remember. And I also rememb
er I did an excellent job. How did he become your patient? What happened to him?”
“Snowboarding this time. The family moved to Seattle. He went snowboarding, broke his clavicle. The parents told me about a doctor who’d fixed his tibia so well that he’d healed in no time. I checked his leg and recognized your work, Dr. Duplant.”
I returned to the living room with the coffee tray in my hands. When I offered a cup to Jack, he shook his head and, pinching the bridge of his nose, let out a sharp sigh.
“You two probably want some time to talk,” he said. “Liv, let’s go to that café around the corner. I’ll buy you a cappuccino.” Placing his hands on my shoulders and lowering his head, he kissed me gently. “You going to be okay, baby?”
I nodded, stunned. I knew how much it cost Jack to leave me there with an unknown man. It was against the same instincts that had almost made him jump on Ingmar a few minutes ago. With his noble gesture he told me he trusted me completely after such a short time knowing me. He showed that I and my needs were more important to him than anything else.
“Thank you, Jack.” I love you.
“WHOA! THAT was impressive,” Ingmar said as the door closed after Jack and Liv. “Are you living with that guy? He’s a werewolf, isn’t he?”
The natural tone of Ingmar’s question was a clear sign that he’d overcome his discomfort and uneasiness when it came to werewolves.
“Jack’s my Uncle James’ stepson. He came to stay with me during my next change, and then we are going together to Red Cliffs. We’re bond mates. Do you know what that is?”
“I know. When you left, I felt so bad that I really made an effort to educate myself about werewolves... Wow, bond mates! What’s it like?”
“Like you are in a permanent state of euphoria. It’s great. It could be bad, though, if you don’t know what to do with it, I suppose.”
Ingmar smiled. “I envy you.” His expression sobered as his light blue eyes found mine. “I reacted like a first-class jerk when you told me you were a werewolf.”
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