by Tyler, Jules
Brady sat up and smiled, "Okay, then. Grab your stuff and we'll head over to the lodge so I can grab my trunks."
Stella watched him leave the room and waited for the front door to close before she began to undress. She needed to check the progress on the scars’ healing anyways. She had begun applying some scar cream to them when she got up here. So far the results weren't very promising, but she had only been at it for about a week so it was probably too soon to tell. Pulling her shirt gingerly over her head, she set it down on the bed and took a deep breath.
"Well, it can't be any worse than it was when I started this process, right?" Stella sighed, looking down that the claw marks on her abdomen.
The scars had gone from a dark and angry red color to a blush pink, causing Stella more confusion.
Odd, I swore when I checked these yesterday they were still really red. Maybe the scar cream is finally working?
Accepting that that must be the reason, Stella shrugged and crossed to the little dresser where she was keeping the rest of her clothes. Making quick work of the rest of her clothes, she opted to don her favorite red and black plaid bikini with a black pair of shorts and red tank top. Feeling much more secure having the scars concealed safely beneath her clothes, she pulled on her snow gear and headed out the door to meet Brady.
Chapter Ten
Brady was leaned up against the door of the lodge watching as Stella made her way from her little cabin towards him, resisting every urge within him that was telling him to go to her. He knew girls like Stella, the ones that were strong and independent but also were harboring some sort of traumatic past. Those were the girls that if you smothered them, they would bolt, and that was the last thing that he wanted her to do. He wanted her to trust him, and slowly, he knew she would. Intended mates worked like that. Deep down there was the pull, even with human mates, and eventually they gave themselves over to it. Brady would just need to be patient.
Stella stopped in front of Brady and beamed up at him, "Well hey there, stranger. Fancy meeting you here."
Brady chuckled at her as he found himself doing more and more with her quick wit and sarcastic remarks, "Hey there. You ready to go enjoy the water? It’s a comfortable one hundred and four degrees in there."
"Hell yeah, I am! That kind of heat is welcome for sure with how cold it is right now," Stella exclaimed, rushing past him into the lodge.
"Woah, woah, woah, where's the fire at, little darlin'?" A tall woman with silver hair asked as Stella bumped into her just inside the door.
Brady shook his head at the pair before telling the woman what they were doing, "Hey Mama, sorry. Stella tends to get a little over excited. You remember Stella right, the girl that I used to pal around with when Buck would bring her up when we were kids?"
Mama's eyes connected with his in a knowing glance as she held Stella at arm's length to inspect her, "You're Buck's girl? Holy smokies, little darlin', you sure did grow up. Last time I saw you, you were knee high to a grasshopper. Now look at ya. I’m so sorry I didn’t recognize you when you checked in last week. You’ve just changed so much from the little girl you used to be."
"I sure did, Ms. Eastern. Thank you for helping me make arrangements to stay up here. I know it's probably an inconvenience having me up here for such an extended period of time," Stella said, her cheeks filling with a rosy pink blush.
"I'll have none of that Ms. Eastern crap around here, ya hear? Call me Mama or Mama Ally, whichever makes you most comfortable," the woman said as she pulled Stella in for a hug.
"Mama, you can't keep forcing your love on everyone. Some people in this day and age like to have some personal space," Brady teased as he pulled Stella along with him.
"Sure I can. It works on you, doesn't it," Mama winked at him before turning her attention back to Stella. "Don't you hesitate to give me a ring if you need anything. I'm always here in the lodge, doing something or other, and am happy to drop whatever I'm working on to come help or lend a listening ear. I'm a real good listener."
Brady rolled his eyes at his Mama's antics, "Mama, how can you be a good listener if you don't let the poor girl get a word in edgewise?"
Mama playfully smacked him on the back, "Don't you sass your mama, boy. I still know what's best. Just cuz you run this place don't mean you get to be too big for your britches. Now you two go for a swim. Mama's got some reading to catch up on."
"Bye, Mama," Brady called after her as they watched her head towards the comfy armchair she had situated for herself behind the front desk.
"I like her," Stella said, mischief filling her voice and her smile as she looked up at Brady with a gleam in her eye.
I'll be damned. It really does work. Guess I'd better not tell Mama though. It'll give her too big of a head. It might explode, he thought to himself.
"Don't you go encouraging her now. C'mon, we've got hot springs to enjoy," Brady said, wrapping his hand around hers before giving her a gentle tug.
Once they were officially outside, Brady quickly stripped off his jacket and t-shirt, kicked off his shoes, and smiled wickedly over his shoulder at Stella. He waited until her snow gear was safely stowed in a cubby hole under the awning and drank in her appearance. He could see the red and black plaid bikini peaking over the top of her red tank top. It was hard to pretend he wasn't paying attention to her delicious curves and the creamy skin of her legs. Oh, the things he could do to that body.
Pull yourself together. You can't keep treating her like a baby deer that might spook. Man up and go get her.
Throwing caution to the wind Brady, quickly strode towards Stella and scooped her up in his arms as he teasingly said, "You're taking too long."
"What? No, Brady! Put me down!" Stella squealed at him as he went running towards the deep in.
Brady pulled her close as he launched them both into the air and came crashing down into the hot spring. Pushing off of the bottom as he touched down, he pulled them back towards the surface. Both of them gasped for air as the crisp winter air touched their lips. Brady tried not to laugh when he caught Stella glaring at him.
"What?" Brady said innocently.
"Not fair," Stella pouted. "You picked me up like I weighed no more than a sack of flour."
"Well, you don't in my opinion, so there's that," Brady shrugged as he swam backwards with her still held close to him.
"Umm, Brady?"
"Yeah?"
"We're, umm, in the pool now," Stella said nervously as his fingers skimmed her waistband of her shorts.
"Yeah, so?" Brady asked, smiling mischievously at her.
"So, you can let go of me now?" Stella said, sounding much more unsure of what she wanted with every word.
Brady could sense her hesitation about whether or not she actually wanted to be released from his embrace. Gliding through the warm water, he looked up into her eyes. She was slowly beginning to relax as he continued to paddle them around the pool. He smiled up at her.
"You're safe with me. You know that right?" Brady asked as he scooped up a handful of the water and poured it over her back.
Stella bit her lip and nodded, "Yes."
"Then you know that you can be honest with me always, right?"
Again, she nodded, "Yes."
"Okay, good. So trust me when I say if I make you uncomfortable, I want you to tell me. I'm never going to pressure you into something you aren't okay with. I promise you that with my life," Brady said, pausing to watch her reaction to the words he was saying to her.
"That was really… Intense, but oddly enough, I trust what you're saying to me about it. You're the only person in my life right now I could wholeheartedly say that I trust without a doubt. That's weird though, isn't it? You haven't been around since I was a kid, now I'm back around you for the first time in twenty years, and it's like I never left. Why?" Stella pondered out loud, furrowing her eyebrows as he set her down in the shallow end.
Tell her. Tell her what she is to you.
Brady ignored th
e thought and shrugged at her, "Maybe it's just that because I'm a familiar face? Someone that you knew while your Grandpa Buck was alive?"
"Yeah, that could be it," Stella considered, plunking down in the water so she was sitting in its warmth instead of standing in the cool winter air.
"You don't seem sure," Brady said as he sat down next to her.
"This is all too much to think about right now. Let's talk about something else," Stella suggested as she shifted uncomfortably next to him.
Brady frowned at her before turning his attention to the hillside that came down to the side of the hot spring. How many times had he climbed that hill thinking about how badly he wanted Stella to come back to him? How many times had he looked up at the stars and wondered if she could see the same stars or if she was thinking about him too? It took time for her to come back to him, but now he needed to find patience and give her the time she needed to heal from whatever she was hiding.
Chapter Eleven
Stella closed her eyes and leaned back in her favorite armchair by the window. She'd been up here for three weeks now and had been loving every minute of it. When she'd first came up here, she'd expected that she'd be homesick for Seattle and her friends there, especially since she didn't have a way to communicate with them with the lack of technology up here. Not that it mattered, as keeping Alaric unaware of her whereabouts meant not interacting with anyone from her previous life. She had to keep them in the dark to keep them safe and to keep herself safe. It really was for the best.
Brady and Mama Ally had been taking good care of her too. It was so nice to have them around to keep her mind busy with new and old memories. She honestly could not have picked a better place to go into hiding.
Stella absent-mindedly ran her hand over her scars, which had now faded to silver. They didn't hurt as much anymore. They were still tight from healing, which made stretching during her morning yoga sessions difficult, but she wasn't about to let that stop her. She had loved yoga when she'd lived in Seattle.
Stella had never been one for running. Her friends back in Seattle liked to crack jokes about it because they were all gym rats and marathon runners. Not Stella though. She didn't feel relaxed or energized from that kind of training. To her, there was nothing better than stretching out on a yoga mat and clearing your mind for thirty minutes a day.
A knock on the door brought her attention back to the present, and she smiled as she said, "Come in, Brady."
She could hear him stepping through the door before closing it and slipping off his boots.
Ever the one for manners, that one.
"You know, you don't have to knock. You can always let yourself in," Stella grinned, eyes still closed as she listened to him come around the corner of the little brown couch next to her armchair.
"It's polite to knock," Brady shrugged as he plunked down onto the couch and stretched out, legs hanging over the edge.
Stella let her eyes flutter open so she could look over at him, "Maybe amongst strangers, but amongst friends, it's just obnoxious."
"I like giving you your privacy. Who knows what kind of amorous activities you get into while I'm at work," Brady said cheekily.
Stella gave him a sly grin, "Like you wouldn't want to know, you pervy bird."
"Hey, I'm just sayin', for all I know you walk around naked all day when I'm not here. Out of respect, I choose to knock before entering so you can choose to put clothes on," Brady teased as he craned his head back to look at her.
"You and I both know that I wouldn't walk around naked in here. One, even with the woodstove going, it's too cold for that. Two, the lack of blinds makes it impossible to not be seen by some passerby or Peeping Tom. Three, who would walk around naked in the first place?" Stella asked, looking at Brady like he had grown a second head.
"You've never walked around naked?" Brady asked, sitting up to look her in the eyes.
"Uh, no? Once again, who would walk around naked in the first place?" Stella asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow at him.
"Don't knock it 'till you try it," Brady chuckled.
"Whatever, pervy bird," Stella rolled her eyes at him before sitting back in her chair and grinning at her friend.
Things between them were simple and flowed easily. Stella had grown to appreciate Brady's laidback attitude and his willingness to support her independence while she figured out who she was on the inside. He never treated her with kid gloves, he simply treated her like a friend. She appreciated this dynamic between them, but she would be lying to herself if she pretended there wasn't a part of her that wanted to be with Brady as more than a friend. She cared about him and could feel this pull in her chest to be more with him, but she was hesitant to dive into anything. After everything that happened with Alaric, she doubted any guy would want to get themselves wrapped up with someone that was as damaged as she was.
Chapter Twelve
Brady frowned at Stella as he watched her zone out on him. He wasn't quite sure where in her head she went when she did this, but he knew that it wasn't anywhere good. He could feel the pain rolling off of her in waves and he wanted nothing more than to go to her and hold her to his chest. He wanted to stroke her hair and tell her it would be okay and whatever was bothering her would go away. He knew that it wasn't that simple though. It never would be. Whatever she had been through had messed her heart and head up real bad, and sometimes people didn't come back from stuff like that.
Wanting to get her mind off of whatever she was thinking about, Brady placed a hand on her shoulder gently and smiled at her.
"Come back to me," Brady whispered gingerly, waiting for Stella's eyes to meet his.
Stella gave him a sad smile, "Sorry about that. I don't know why I do that."
"It's okay, Stell. Whatever you went through before you came up here, it obviously rattled you. It's okay to think about it, but don't lose yourself in the past. I'm always going to be here to pull you back to the present, that much I can promise you. I just don't want to see you get stuck in a rut forever because you can't move past what happened. Your feelings are valid and whatever happened to you is probably scary, but my goal is to make you crave the future," Brady said as he worked his fingers down her shoulder to her hand.
Stella watched as he traced her palm before asking shyly, "What do you mean by 'crave the future'?"
Using his free hand, Brady reached up and stroked Stella's cheek before leaning in close, waiting for her to pull away from him. When she didn't pull away from him, he threaded his fingers in her hair and guided her lips to his. Gently he touched his lips to hers, giving her the option to pull away from him if she wasn't comfortable. He listened as her heartbeat quickened and her breath hitched in her throat from the surprise. Slowly he felt her lean into the kiss, and that was all the hope he needed from her.
Leaning back from their embrace, Brady smiled at the love drunk look that had washed over Stella's face before whispering into her ear, "I mean that this thing that's been budding between you and me? The unspoken bond between us? I'm going to make you need it more than you need your precious snacks. I'm going to make you fight whatever demon is lurking inside of you, and I'm going to help you win. It's you and me, however you'll take me."
Brady sat back in his chair, him and his bear both satisfied with the kiss that they had shared with Stella, and watched as she mulled over what he had just said.
"What if you can't handle the truth about the demon inside of me?" Stella asked, worrying her bottom lip like she did every time she was concerned about something.
"C'mon, darlin’, look at me. There is nothing in this world, nothing, that I can't handle. That is the truth. I will do whatever I need to do to make you blissfully happy, whether that's as your friend or something more. I'm here for you, always. You have my word," Brady said as he brushed his thumb over her lip to get her to stop chewing on it.
"What if I'm scared?" Stella admitted as she stood to walk over to the other side of the window and stared out at
the falling snow.
Brady followed her and wrapped his arms around her middle, trying to ignore the way she flinched as he slid his hands across her abdomen.
"Then I'll be brave enough for both of us," he murmured before pressing a kiss into her hair.
"Promise me?" Stella asked, locking eyes with his in their reflection.
"Only if you promise me you'll give us a chance to see where this can go," Brady said, smiling at the fact that she was finding her bravery on her own again.
There was a pause in the conversation before Stella turned in Brady's arms and looked up at him. Holding up her right hand, she extended her pinky and smiled up at him.
"Pinky promise?"
Brady chuckled at her silliness before nodding and wrapping his pinky around hers, "Pinky promise."
Chapter Thirteen