Taking the Leap

Chapter 21

I was saying sure before there was more knocking at the door. I whipped the door open, glaring at the same three stooges on my porch.

This time Jake's thin, reedy voice stood out, "You don't get to act like this is normal. We're compiling a petition. After we get enough signatures, we'll be bringing it to the alpha. I don't have anything against you, Lee, really, I don't. But, my kids were there last night...I just don't know if being exposed to this is okay at their age. They were born here, this is supposed to be a safe space." He almost sounded sympathetic.

"I was born here, too, Jake." I said, gripping the door knob far too tight. "I deserve a safe space. Why should I have to go somewhere to be accepted? Why can't the people around me, just accept me? This is the last time I'm going to tell you guys to get off my porch." I felt something in me shift as I lost my patience.

The air charged with the heavy thickness that percolated before violence. My lips thinned into a snarl, growls emanating in a deep but penetrative rhythm from the back of my throat.

The degree to which they shrank back was just as fascinating as it was startling. I could see the sudden fear their widespread eyes and beneath that I felt our hierarchies shift. We weren't equals anymore, if anything my wolf was telling me to make them submit.

I shook that thought away and closed the door, softly this time. I turned to Xander, wanting to know if he felt what I had, but his head was bowed over the desk, furiously writing something out on a pad of paper.

Walking over to Xander, he was singing softly in that low melodic voice of his writing out music notes that may as well have been another language.

A few minutes later, Xander's head shot up like he didn't know where he was. He stopped writing and blinked, looking for paper. "Ah, there's no more paper left. It's odd, I just can't place this song."

I stared at Xander for a moment, just kind of taking in that he was my boyfriend. It still made a bit light headed whenever I though about it, knowing that he was mine for the long haul.

I thought back to last night, flushing at how needy I was with Xander. Remembering how much I needed to mark him, the feel of his skin, the softness of his hair. I went over last night in my head but then I heard Xander clear his throat.

I looked up and he had an odd expression on his face, "I'm not jumping back into bed, so how about we get going?"

"I didn't suggest anything of the sort." I murmured.

Xander laughed, a short and soft sound. "It's your pretty brown eyes, Achilles. You've got bedroom eyes."

"Well," I said honestly, "I only have bedroom eyes when I look at you."

"Flattering." Xander said, but I saw he was struggling not to smile. His next words were even quieter, "You're strangely romantic, you know?"

Sometimes Xander would do something strange like that, act distant, or far away. Even when he was right next to me. I didn't like that. It didn't matter if we had slept together just last night, Xander wasn't the kind of person to truly bare himself to me. Sometimes, I thought he was insecure but I just wanted to really know him, the good, the bad, all of it.  I hoped one day I would get there.

#
After we left pack grounds, I spent my day doing some last minute Christmas shopping, decorating and attempting to inject the Christmas spirit into my bloodstream. Xander had gone to a university faculty benefit and came back that evening bit drunk and not making much sense.

He was curling up beside me in slacks that were probably more expensive than my last paycheque, a deep blue that were tailored to perfection over Xander's shapely thighs. Xander's hands were a blur as he tamed his riotous curls into corn rows against his scalp. His lips were pursed as he watched me, still braiding. "Achilles, love, I'm a bit drunk." Xander's voice was like a kiss, a bit rough, and a lot intimate.  He moved into me on the couch, lips glossing over my ear, "Let's take a bath together."