by Camryn Rhys
Now that he knew Sylvie was a wolf, too. She could be his mate.
The word had never thrilled him the way it did this morning.
Her car was gone, and in its place was Caleb’s big red truck. The same one he’d driven Paul around in the previous night.
He pulled in beside it and saw someone in the cab.
Roman. The big beefcake bodyguard, or enforcer, or whatever Caleb called them.
He bounded out of his borrowed truck and ran around the side of the red vehicle, pounding on the door. “Where’s Sylvie?”
“What?” Roman asked, climbing out of the truck.
“Where’s Sylvie?”
“I’m not supposed to tell you that.” He crossed his arms, bodyguard style, and glared.
“Caleb sent me here to find her.”
“Oh.” The big man’s face lined with concern. “He changed his mind?”
“I guess the short answer is yes,” Paul said, looking around the big, wide driveway. “Now tell me where Sylvie is.”
“I don’t know.”
He leaned against the truck. The anticipation had been building so hard, he wasn’t sure how to channel it. He pressed his palms into the cold metal. “When will she be back?”
“She’s not coming back.” Roman’s concerned lines deepened. “Caleb sent her away.”
“Yes, but that was before…” Paul pulled out his phone and dialed Sylvie’s number. Her ring tone sounded from somewhere inside the truck. He pushed past Roman.
On the leather console between the seats was a ring of keys and Sylvie’s phone.
“She left her phone with me.” The man’s voice was underlined with sadness. He put a hand on Paul’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, man. She’s just gone.”
“Well, where did she go?” Paul turned, searching the road. “I had to have just missed her.”
“Probably by an hour or so. She’s long gone by now, wherever she was going.”
He walked out, into the middle of the driveway, the phone still ringing in his ear. It finally clicked to her voice mail, but the sound of her voice tore at his heart.
“She’s going somewhere off the grid,” Roman said. “That’s all I know. Somewhere with a beach.”
“A beach?” Paul whirled, shoving his phone in his pocket. “Why would she…I mean, last night, she… I don’t understand why she would just take off.”
“She didn’t want to go home, she thought she couldn’t stay here, so she just left.”
He raked his hands through his hair and bent over. This couldn’t be happening. Just when he thought they could finally be together…
Now she was just…gone.
Paul rested on his knees and tried to concentrate on breathing. An hour head start, and he had no idea where she would be going. “How long will she be gone?”
“I don’t know. I only know that she wanted to disappear.”
He walked through the driveway and kept walking, all the way to the edge of the road. The tracks of the accident were still there, on the side of the road, in the opposite ditch. He could climb back down there and sit in the last place he remembered Sylvie.
Paul could stay here and mope about her being gone. Or he could do something. There had to be a way to find her or contact her.
He wasn’t going to rest until he did.
Chapter Eight
Whitewater, Wyoming
Five months later
Sylvie came around the last corner before her family’s ranch. There was a big wooden sign of the Diamond D brand hanging down from a wood bar framing the long ascent to the main house.
She still hadn’t bought a new cell phone, so she hadn’t called her mother to prepare the family for her arrival, but she hadn’t been completely sure she wasn’t going back to Springfield until she’d driven by the exit on I-25 and kept going.
It wouldn’t be fair to Paul to go back now.
The cattle guard rumbled under her wheels and she turned off the winding road, into the driveway. The road kept going, to her aunt’s house, and the circle around to the barns. But Sylvie needed to see her mother.
She was sick from all the driving, and she mostly needed to find a bed somewhere and sleep for a couple of days before she could get back to anything. She also needed to work again. She’d missed working.
It was near to supper time, and the yard was empty. In the middle of July, everyone was probably up at the barns, or out in the pasture. It was high work time on the Diamond D.
Sylvie pulled her car in to her old parking spot, beside her mother’s blue, stubby-cab F150. The house had gotten a new paint job since the last time she’d been there.
The white trim seemed whiter, against the backdrop of the barely-snow-capped mountains behind it. The snow would melt for good in a week or two, only to return in the early Fall. Such was mountain life. It’d been the same in Springfield.
Part of her would miss her little beach condo in San Diego. With a fire pit on the veranda that’d been bigger than her inside space. If she could’ve stayed four months longer, she might have. But she didn’t want her baby to be born in California, when that wouldn’t be home.
Their home was in Wyoming.
She rested her hand on her stomach and gazed at the house she’d grown up in. A sprawling ranch-style, with a creek in the back, plain white columns holding up the long porch. Flowers in the sills. Mountains in the backdrop.
It was as perfect as she could imagine, without Paul.
Nothing would be really perfect without him, but she’d manage.
The beach and the ocean had gone a long way to healing her broken heart. Roman hadn’t been kidding. Breaking all contact with the family had gone the rest of the way. However, when she’d driven past the Springfield exit, it’d all come rushing back.
Sylvie slung her purse over her shoulder and patted the protruding stomach. She had popped, as they called it, a few weeks back, and decided it was time to go home. At least she still had the rivers and the creeks. Being near the water had been good for her. She’d still need that peaceful rhythm to calm the ache in her heart.
That ache might always be there, but if she couldn’t be with Paul, she was going to focus on giving his baby the best life she could manage. If that meant she had to live in Springfield, near him, but not with him, so he could see his son or daughter, then that was what it would mean.
But first, she needed her mother.
She walked along the stone path and smiled at the manicured lawn. Her mother had always had a green thumb, and their house always looked like a postcard shot.
It’s good to be home.
Sylvie came around the side, to the kitchen door. There was smoke coming from the big grill on the back porch, and the scent of roasting meat made her insides roll. Some days, the baby was not a meat fan, but today, they were both ravenous.
She knocked and walked through the door at the same time. Her mother stood over the sink and the shuck-shuck sound of the peeler was unmistakable.
Sylvie laughed. Her mother was forever peeling vegetables, feeding the ranch staff and her children and whoever was around to feed.
“When the meat’s done, I’ve left you a—” Her mother turned in the middle of her sentence and froze, when she saw Sylvie. Her eyes went immediately down her body, and rested on her stomach.
This was the moment she’d been dreading for days as she drove from California. The moment when she’d have to tell her mother about Paul, and about Uncle Caleb’s edict, and explain why she’d been off-the-grid for almost half a year.
She gritted her teeth, waiting for the lecture, but her mother gasped and smiled, and rushed forward, taking Sylvie in her arms.
“Oh, honey. I’ve been so worried. Where have you been?” Mom’s grip was titan, and she choked out a breath.
“Stop, Mom. You’re suffocating me.”
They separated, and her mother held her at arm’s length. “The baby bump, honey. Can I ask…” She put one hand on her neck, tentative
ly. “Is it Paul’s?”
Sylvie’s mouth dropped open. That hadn’t been the question she’d expected. She managed a nod and her mother collapsed on her in a hug again.
“Oh, thank God.” She kept squeezing. “He’ll be so…I mean, he’ll just be…”
“Wait.” She wrenched out of her mother’s grip “How do you know about Paul?”
Mom thumbed behind her. “Oh, he’s up at the barn.” Her tone was so innocent, like Sylvie should’ve known.
Heat crawled up her insides and lit everything on fire.
Paul’s here.
“What’s he doing up at the barn?”
“They just got done moving the herd. I imagine they’re cooling down the horses and getting ready to come in for supper.”
“Paul’s…working here?” She didn’t like the chokey sound in her voice, but she couldn’t help it.
What the hell is Paul doing, working on my family’s ranch?
“Ever since you left Springfield.” Mom turned back to the sink. “I’m sorry, honey. I have to finish these. Do you mind if we talk over here?”
A pile of carrots and peelings was spread over one side of the silver sink, and Sylvie had the weird urge to pick up a peeler and start helping. Like it was the most normal thing in the world that Paul would be there, working the ranch, and she and her mother would be in the kitchen, making supper.
Her heart warmed a touch. It was normal.
But…Paul.
Sylvie put a hand on her mother’s arm to still the work. “What about Uncle Caleb?”
“Oh, he’s back in Springfield. Probably at that restaurant. I swear, I don’t know with that man. If he’d make up his mind about what business he was in, it’d do us all a world of good. With Sean taking over the vacation rentals, and—”
“Mom.” Sylvie pulled her mother around to face her. “I mean, Uncle Caleb… Does he know that Paul is here?”
“Of course he does, honey. He’s the one who sent him here.” She picked up the peeler and a carrot and started the shuck-shuck again. “When we couldn’t find you, Paul went looking for a while. He went down to Mexico. But then Caleb sent him up here. They figured you’d come here, instead of going back. I guess that boy knows you pretty well.”
Shock rolled through Sylvie’s body and she reached out to steady herself on the counter. So much to take in.
“You can wait for him here, if you want, honey.”
“No.” She gripped the cold granite with one hand, and her stomach with the other. “I need to… I need to see Paul.”
“There’s an ATV out by the grill. You shouldn’t go walking around too much. The ground is so uneven.”
She pushed off the counter and crossed the kitchen, information whirling in her mind.
Paul is here. Uncle Caleb sent him.
Did that mean…
She couldn’t process what it meant. Not until she saw Paul.
“I can smell the flank steak from here,” Tyler Proulx said.
Paul laughed and hung the body brush on the tool rack near the last stall. Sylvie’s brother had a nose for food like nobody he’d met before. There were days when Ty could smell dinner from miles away. It was a shame Kyle was so far away. Ty would love his brother-in-law’s mad cow skills. Or. Grill skills. Yeah. Much more appetizing.
“You want to put money down on it this time?” he asked.
Tyler swung his saddle pad onto the rug rack and shook his head. “I don’t want you to go broke. I promise you. It’s flank steak.”
He shut the stable door, leaning against it. “Well, I’m gonna head up, then. I’ve gotta shower before we eat this time, or your mom’s going to kick me out.”
“Right.” Ty’s voice had the sarcasm undercarriage they always took on when they talked about Sylvie. “Like she’s going to put her future son-in-law on the street.”
“We don’t know that,” Paul said, forcing a laugh. No one had heard from Sylvie since Roman saw her in Springfield. All he knew was, she had to be alive somewhere. Where, he didn’t know. “Relying on Sandra’s good graces might not always be a solid bet.”
“Hey,” Ty called out. He had a serious glint in his eyes. They didn’t speak the words, but Paul knew what he was thinking.
Don’t be negative. She’ll come back.
They’d been not-saying that for a couple of months now. At first, it’d been a hopeful look, every time a strange car turned in to the drive. And then, a hopeful look every time there was a knock on the front door.
But eventually, they’d stopped acknowledging they were all just waiting for Sylvie.
It’d taken Paul a long time to calm his need to go looking for her. He’d gone to Mexico, to the place Roman thought she might be, but four solid weeks of searching the beaches in Puerto Vallarta, had driven him crazy.
Waiting was worse, or it had been, at first. But eventually, he’d settled into his routine of working all day and trying not to think about her. Settled into a new pack.
“I know, man,” he said, pressing his fist into the wood of the barn wall.
She’ll come back.
“Save me a seat. I’ve got a bit of work to do still.” Tyler picked up the body brush and went back into the stall where his horse waited. “And don’t eat all the flank steak.”
“I won’t,” Paul called back. He opened the side door of the barn and stepped out into the warm, sweet mountain air.
A buzzing caught him off-guard, like the electricity before a storm.
He looked up, expecting to see dark clouds over the mountains, but the sky was blue and crystal clear. Not a cloud in sight.
He glanced down the hill toward the ranch house. Someone was riding an ATV up the back path toward him.
Paul’s entire body froze still. The blonde, ruffled hair…the set of her shoulders…
Sylvie.
She’d changed her hair back. She was the same old Sylvie.
His wolf energy pulsed under his skin, but he bit down to keep the change at bay. He’d been getting better at controlling the wolf, but seeing Sylvie was…
Paul took off at a run, sprinting down the hill. He pumped his arms, running as fast as he could, holding the wolf off—his animal knew he could go faster if he shifted, but he wasn’t going to shift. He was in control.
Sylvie slid off the ATV and started toward him. She had on jean shorts, which showed off her gorgeous legs, and a long, maroon shirt, with thin white stripes… But something looked different about her.
He could feel the energy pulsing between them as he ran, and when there were only a few feet apart, Paul stopped.
Her belly.
She was…
No.
Sylvie slowed her pace and put her hands around her stomach, in an obviously self-conscious movement. The contrast of her pale skin and the dark shirt and the white striping…
She was absolutely pregnant.
Had she been…
His jaw flapped, wordlessly, and he tried to think of words to say. Here, he’d spent all this time waiting for her… assuming she wanted him… and… “You’re…” He looked at her belly again. “You’re pregnant.”
Her smile was shy, but she took a step toward him. “I am.”
Paul held out his hands, trying to stop her from taking any more steps. “But all this time, I thought…” He shook his head, trying to force himself to think back. The last several years had blurred together. “I came here and waited for you.”
She tilted her head to one side, drawing her brows together. “You… You know this is your baby, right?”
He shook his head. “It can’t… I mean, we haven’t…”
“The night of your accident.” Sylvie took another step forward. “You don’t remember?”
Paul flickered through the events of that night. He’d seen her at the restaurant, she’d run away from him. He went home. Drove back to her house to see her one last time, then gotten in the accident. “When?”
“It happened so fast…j
ust before your accident,” she said, dropping her gaze. “I think the magick was just too much to resist.”
Magick. Of course.
Her features turned down, full of concern. “I’m so sorry, Paul.”
The memory flashed back to him. She’d touched him, and in a flurry, he’d been inside her house, and…inside her. Yes. It’d been a blur, but it had happened.
Paul crossed the distance between them and swept her up into his arms. “I’m so sorry, Syl. I… I didn’t remember. So much of that night is still black in my mind.”
She slid her hands across his back, into his hair, and held on to him so tightly, his insides would likely burn straight through them both. It felt so good to have her in his arms again.
“Well, you almost died right after,” Sylvie whispered with a giggle in his ear. “I would repress that, too.”
“No, it’s not that.” He set her down and held her face in his hands. “That accident saved my life. You saved my life. If you hadn’t changed me…”
“I know. You would’ve died.” She smiled and stroked his hands with her fingers. “I had to turn you.”
“No. Getting in the accident saved my life.” He bent down and pressed his lips to hers. Electricity shot through him, bringing every part of his body to life. A life Paul never thought he’d have again. “Almost dying saved my life.”
He could feel the press of her belly into his. The life they’d made together, between them. Heat surged in his veins and he pulled her against him.
“You’re not making sense, honey.” Sylvie giggled again, and the sound brought all his nerves to attention. He’d always loved her laughter.
“If I had to spend my life without you, I wouldn’t have had much of a life. Trust me, I was a mess.” Paul stared into her luscious, brown eyes, savoring the feel of her, the smell of her, the taste of her. “And until I was turned, Uncle Caleb never would’ve let us be together.”
Sylvie smiled and Paul fell on her, kissing her until he couldn’t breathe. He meant every word. He never would’ve had a life without her. Now she was in his arms again, and it was like he could conquer the world.