by Kat Keppeler
She stood there with her hands planted on her hips, frowning at the lot of mixed supernaturals before Dave spoke up, rising from his chair with a creek.
“Aw, hell, Rory, you know I’m with ya,” Dave muttered, looking uncomfortable in the public eye. Rory offered the boar a genuine smile. It was a slow process but their friendship was mending day by day. This helped. It helped a lot.
Once the Westmores threw in their support, with the patriarch frowning once at Chance and then standing as well to give his vocal support. That pivoted anyone left on the fence towards following Rory’s leadership.
Ruby turned a satisfied gaze over the crowd before looking up at Rory expectantly. “Well, Sheriff, what do you need us to do?”
The roar of approval from even Ray, the local conspiracy theory, had Rory frozen on the spot. He opened his mouth like he didn’t know what to say for a moment.
“Well… Shit…” Rory finally managed which drew a peal of laughter from the crowd.
“I.. Honestly didn’t expect any of this.” Rory admitted which drew a gasp from everyone. “Calm down, I had faith in you.. It’s just a lot right?”
He sighed and then looked at his pack. “From this moment forward I consider all of you pack, I don’t care if you’re a goddamned pig Dave.” He smiled at his friend who flipped him off. “No, really. We’re family. We’re all in this together and I know it’s going to be a rough start. Let’s start with you, Bill Westmore.” He pointed at the witch Patriarch. “I’m going to need you to stop being such a recluse and head on over to the house. We could use a little bit of your experience for sure. And you, Lina Hall…” The one and only shifter in town who was a lion looked around as if aggravated for being put on the spot. “We could use you to help get the department back in order. There’s a lot that needs to be done and I’ll personally reach out to all of you so we can get started. Our first step is to start a perimeter of defense, Aiden won’t keep his nose to himself for much longer and he’s going to start sending out scouts. Can we do that?”
There was another roar of approval before Rory finally sighed. “Alright.”
The chatter was animated. Westmore was terribly pleased to be called on and Skye pinched Chance for the sigh he heaved.
“Be nice,” she whispered to her mate, too soft for it to carry down the row to the warlocks and witches as their leader preened a little under the attention.
“He’s such a little snot,” Chance rumbled only to grunt when Skye elbowed him again. It was an odd mix to watch, from Skye’s vantage point as the meeting might have been about preparing for potential supernatural conflicts but really felt a lot more like a small town putting together a public service committee. It stretched on for a good bit more than a half hour with Lina agreeing to come down by the station to talk about joining the small police force for the town and plans for a weekly meeting.
Even Chance dutifully stood up when prompted by Rory and in his clipped tones, explained the new businesses that would be expanding their downtown. Rory was likely in for an ‘I told you so’ later in the evening with the number of times he’d tried to shut down Chance’s efforts to buy up the majority of Belcrest but getting a cafe and a bakery as well as a bookstore and a larger medical clinic was something that certainly buoyed up the mood. Chance also made sure to plug Finn’s services as local doctor because that was the largest money making business the pack had in town currently.
By the time it was winding down, Skye’s butt was going numb and she let her mates haul her up out of the chair with a groan. People were patting Rory’s back and they were universally calling him Sheriff at this point and Skye’s smile was full of pride and satisfaction. “I knew he could do it.”
There was a line in getting to Rory, hands being shaken and hugs being given. Words of praise or worry, but it took almost another hour for everyone to pile out. Rory tossed Chance the keys to the SUV the town mechanic pressed into his hand after fixing the windshield.
“Okay, now at least half of you don’t have to pile into the back of the truck this time, Dave I hope you don’t mind giving some of us a ride again?” He worked out, stopping to kiss Skye a bit before he was being drug to Ruby’s for the night. All of the sudden Rory had become one of the busiest guys in town with Chance at a close behind him.
It was Finn who waited for Skye, twirling the keys to the little car in hand. “Need a ride?” He asked, looking at Chance as if to communicate without words that he had this. “Come on, it’ll be fun… Well, it will be cramped. But still fun.”
Skye pressed a quick kiss to Chance’s cheek, “Have fun with Rory and Lee,” she told him since Rory had already been drug off. She slipped her hand into Finn’s with a sigh as they left the crowd behind.
“Thanks,” she told Finn with a sweet smile as she tipped her head back to look up at him the rest of the way. The way she slipped her hand in his and tucked into his side was a little shy; not entirely certain. There’d been so much fighting, so many secrets. Things were better, now, and Skye had certainly forgiven him but it all left her a little off balance. Thinking of Dru as the sweet human that he’d loved and lost too soon was one thing but she’d been a powerful witch in her own right, it turned out. She’d born him a son and Skye still couldn’t forget how he’d told her in the fits of his inebriation how he didn’t need a baby because he’d already ‘had one’.
Finn drove, though it was a bit awkward since he seemed to keep expecting her automatic to have a clutch. Eventually Skye got out and moved him to the passenger seat, with him quietly instructing her where to go. They ended up ten miles outside the trailer-park at an overlook. He got out of the car, and held his hand out to hers. When she took it Finn led her past the walking path and into the trees where he could smell and hear the rushing of water.
They walked in silence for a long time before they reached a snow runoff. It was a beautiful but tiny little falls that cut into the rock of the hill. The water falling into a small creek bed was still freezing cold despite it being spring. He let her go, tucking his hands in his pockets to get closer to the water's edge. Of course, he hadn’t worn the fancy waterproof leg so Finn stopped just short of the mud and sighed. “Do you like the feeling of mud between your toes?”
“Not really,” Skye admitted when she stopped next to him, her hands resting on the swell of her belly. She tipped her head up towards him with a small smile, “I’d rather walk on sand or a stone bottomed pond than a muddy one. I do love it here, with the crisp, clear air and even the bitter winters but some of the city girl still remains.”
Skye tipped her head to watch the water with him, her gaze dropping down to the creek where the water dribbled into it from the run off. Almost as if she couldn’t help it, Skye asked softly, “Did Dru? You probably did lots of outdoor stuff together, I imagine.”
Finn made a face.
“Don’t want to talk about Dru.” Said Finn, dropping to crouch just at the edge of the mud. “You don’t either. She’s nothing but a ghost, you know…”
Finn reached out and used his thick fingers to dig a flat stone out of the mud. “I don’t like the feeling of my toes in the mud either, or never did, until I can only get one set of toes in the mud. Then it’s like, shit… Why didn’t I do that more often?”
Finn sighed, sitting on his rump at the water's edge and motioning for her to sit down too.
“She bothers you, doesn’t she?” Finn asked her point blank, his fingers working the mud off of the rock in his hand. “You feel like she’s always going to be this bar I have set and you’ll always be compared to that, yes?”
Skye sighed and she joined him, sitting carefully and folding her denim clad legs up in front of her.
“It’s not like that,” Skye said softly but she didn’t reach out to touch his leg. Instead, she clasped her hands together in front of her as she tried to find the right words. “I’ve known you were a widower the whole time but… I’m trying to adjust to you having had a child together, to her
being part of our world. It’s a lot, Finn.”
Skye went quiet for a long moment, twisting the engagement ring that Rory had given her on her finger as she tried to find the right words. There was clearly more that she didn’t know how to say. Finn could feel it in the unease that rippled through their bond with discordant tension. Her voice was almost too soft even for his shifter hearing to pick up when she added, “...And you said you didn’t need a baby because you already had one. I just… I don’t know what to do with that, Finn. I try not feel like I’m not measuring up but it’s hard.”
“Skye, Drusilla is always going to be something that haunts me. I took part in the actions that lead us right to her death. Sure, she had her own part in it. It’s something that I’m going to always struggle with. It’s not something that you should ever use as a measure, because I’m don’t.”
He turned his eyes toward her then, a small frown on his face. “I said something when I was drunk that was a reflection of my own self doubts. I was merely mirroring my own self loathing.”
Once the rock was clear of mud, Finn flung it and it skipped across the surface of the creek a few times before it sank with a splash.
“I’m old, Skye. A kid at my age? And, then there’s the fact that my living son is somewhere far away - and it’s my fault. I’m not the best candidate for father material, and that’s why I said I didn’t need a baby. Because I feel like I’ve already failed. I don’t think I’d survive failing a second time.” He sighed and looked at her again. “But that has nothing to do with you.”
Skye stopped twisting her ring and finally reached out to capture his large hand with hers, squeezing it gently, “Technically, even Lee is ‘really old’, you know. Finn, you don’t even look like you’re much past your late thirties. Yes, I know, you’re actually old enough to remember the first Thanksgiving but by shifter standards, you’re not at all old to be having children. You have another five or six hundred years, you know, and shifters don’t take all that much longer than humans to start maturing. We even let Micah drive the car to work by himself now.”
Micah was thirty-four, like Skye, and her blue eyes twinkled with a ghost of her usual good humor as she teased him. “I think it just makes you feel old that Bennett was born before I was.”
Skye leaned in then to kiss his cheek and her lips lingered. Finn caught the sweet scent of oranges and cinnamon that always seemed to cling to her soft skin, “I love you, Finn. I just sometimes feel like I’m a poor substitute for what you lost and that’s not your fault. I don’t blame you. It’s just something I’m trying to work through.”
“Need I remind you that I came into this country in my mother’s belly, and therefore I cannot remember the first Thanksgiving.” He replied with a slight smile, he raised his hand to cup her cheek. “Drusilla was a hard woman, Skye. From a family that spoiled her. She was strong, she was fierce, but she was hard. Powerful, but she could be damned cold.”
His big fingers stroked over her smooth skin. “She couldn’t hold a candle to you, Skye. I love Dru, I’ll always love her. But I love you, and you’re always warm and supportive. It is not what I am used to, okay?”
“I may have also been a bit spoiled as a child,” Skye admitted but she turned her cheek into his palm, her eyes half lidding as the tension started to leave her frame, “I don’t need you to tell me that you love me more - I would never ask that, I just worry that I’m not - I don’t know - enough? There’s so much going on right now and I still barely have the basics of ‘turn into a wolf’ down. I’ve spent most of my adult life slinging drinks in a bar in Manhattan. I don’t know how to lead a pack of wolves. Do you know, I still can’t cope with taking a bite out of a fresh deer as a wolf unless it’s the full moon?”
She pressed a kiss into the center of his palm. “I don’t know, all the fighting and tension has me on edge and hormones probably don’t help that. I’m sorry, Finn.”
Finn had always been moved by how strong yet soft Skye was. It was her own special kind of strength, the kind that didn’t need to be fearful and tyrannical. “I’m sorry, too.” He said, caught up in her scent and her gentle nature. Finn stroked his big thumb over her cheek one more time before he kissed her sweetly. Normally when they had any sort of relation both of their wolves swelled to the surface, demanding that primal release. The need to be skin to skin, claws and teeth, perhaps because they’d both pushed their wolves back from claiming that connection for weeks and weeks.
If his wolf rose Finn didn’t let on that it had. Instead he kissed Skye slowly, pulling her closer to him.
“I’m sorry that I’ve made you so tense. I’m sorry that I made you feel second best to a ghost, Skye.” Finn said, pressing his forehead to hers once he pulled away.
Skye went willingly, her arms wrapped around his broad shoulders as he lifted her from her place on the mossy ground and into his lap.
“I’m not going to pinch your leg, am I?” Skye murmured in between the kisses that she was pressing to his jaw and down his neck. “Just move me if you need to.”
She relaxed into him and Finn realized just how long it had been since she’d just given herself over into his arms with that full trust. The last couple of weeks had been tension fueled.
“Am I too heavy?” She added after a moment as if the slight additional weight of their babies were going to crush him like a fragile flower. “It’s okay. What we have, it’s worth fighting for. I just don’t like it when the fighting is between all of us…”
“I think you’re all of three pounds soaking wet Skye, even when you’re full up with babies.” Finn said, his eyes half kissed as she kissed his jaw and face. He smiled at her and before she could say more he caught her mouth in another kiss, one a bit more fiery than the one before.
He liked this, just the two of them with nothing but the sounds of the forest around them as a sweet sort of music. The gentle pressure between them, the swell of new life. Her breasts were heavier, her learned that when the kissing led to the inevitable. Finn felt himself growing hard with need as their kisses deepened. He palmed her breasts with his hands, mud left marks on her shirt she could chide him for later. He was dragging her shirt up and over her head before he knew it. Finn stopped to stare at the way her body had changed. Her hair was thicker, the swollen curve of her breasts and then taunt skin of her belly. There was more, she smelled fantastic and the scent of arousal clung to him, urging him on.
He stopped though, despite his desire to claim her completely and quickly, to admire her and the way her flesh goose-pimpled in the spring air. Finn curved one big hand along hand on the top of her belly, his fingers tracing the tight flesh. It wasn’t the first time a woman was full of his child, but that didn’t make it any less fascinating.
“I hate sounding corny…” Finn started, looking into her face. “But something about you here and my pups in your belly makes you the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen.”
Skye glanced down, a flush on her pale cheeks of embarrassment and arousal at the sight of his large hand splayed over the curve of her belly. It was downright proprietary the way his hand cupped over her skin and there was something absolutely erotic about that.
“I went from barely showing to ‘oh-my-gosh-pregnant’ super fast,” Skye agreed, her voice taking on the husky timbre it did when moments between them turned sensual. “And that’s not corny, it’s sweet. I was a little afraid that you didn’t care - or hoped they weren’t yours.”
She leaned in, her fingertips working open the buttons of his shirt as Skye wasn’t going to be the only one stripped to her waist. She never got tired of running her fingers over the bare flesh of her mates. Every single one of them was so handsome to her even if they were all so different.
“I’m glad I was wrong,” she said simply, with the sort of open honesty that had sent him fleeing at first. Skye didn’t hold anything back from those she chose to share her love with. Once she’d gotten his shirt open, Skye’s fingers traced along the silvere
d lines that her mark left in his skin.
“I’m so lucky,” Skye murmured as her fingers traced his flesh, “It’s hard to believe everything that’s happened since I came to Belcrest. I do think I was meant for you, Finn. For the four of you. Even in that awful basement with silver chaining both of our wolves, I still felt it pulling on me. It’s like my wolf knew yours. Like she’d been looking for you.”
Finn nodded, he’d felt that too in that dank basement. Some strange call to Skye he couldn’t put his finger on, at first he’d thought it was because he’d been alone in that corner for so long and suddenly Halliday was chaining someone near him. It could have also been because of how desperate the whole situation felt, yet as the time had passed and the feeling had only grown stronger, more insistent, Finn knew there was something just right about them.
“I know.” Finn muttered, his hands cupping her full breasts gently. “I know.”
All of her mates had their strengths and speaking was not Finn’s. He didn’t know how to express that feeling with words.
Finn kissed her again, catching her mouth in a kiss that offered all of his unspoken thoughts; his desire and his affection. He pivoted, his hands against her back gently so he could set her flush against the grass. With her below him, her hair spread out like a fan, Finn propped his body over hers. He didn’t let his weight come down on her, ever watchful of the swell of her belly.
Unfortunately kneeling in this new leg wasn't exactly the most comfortable, nor was it in any of them. Nothing would ever replace the knee he’d lost so long ago. Seeming not to care, Finn reached and began pulling Skye free of the clothing that remained, he slipped the capri leggings off of her easily and tossed them over her head. Staring down into her face, Finn just smiled devilishly. His big fingers brushed over the skin of her throat, traveling over her soft skin. When she arched against him he grinned.