Ethan sat up, and the minute his back left mine, I felt empty. I heard his feet move against the pebbles as cracking filled the air before something hard hit the ground.
I quickly stood and turned. His beast was eyeing me playfully and slowly walking back down the path. I sighed and motioned with my finger for him to turn around.
He shook his head with a ghost smile as I tossed the shirt off and lunged into my fur. My beast shook out the dampness a bit then walked up next to the male, her male. He watched her closely as she cautiously sniffed him. The scent tantalized her nose, it smelled like it was made for her; she walked a few steps forward and rubbed against him then rubbed her cheek against his.
Something vibrated off his chest which caused her to shiver. I rolled my eyes at her and pushed her forward; if she kept this up there was going to be a mark on my damn neck before I even knew it happened.
I trotted forward with him before we broke out into a run. We raced forward, competing with each other as we flew down the path. My female loved it, she was happy to show her male that she wasn't a weakling, that she was a true challenge to him–his equal. His male seemed to like it too, he was strong, so damn strong. He seemed to enjoy the challenge; pushing himself to beat us made him blood hum out to us.
To his surprise, we kept up and kept up well. Half that time we were beating the young alpha male who would nip playfully at us or run into us to throw off our game.
It was surprising, for a male with such strong blood, he held back. It was like the there a rope tied to him, only letting him go so far. It was a curious thing, something my beast let marinade in her brain as we ran.
We made it back to the cabins and ended up following Ethan to his house. He trotted into it quickly while we laid next to the small garden in front of his home. He came back out in some shorts and opened the door for me.
"There are clothes in the bathroom for you, first door on your right," he said while pointing to a hall next to the kitchen.
We trotted quickly to it then nudged the door closed with my nose. Thank God the bathroom was big, I was afraid I was going to have to do some kind of Matrix move to get into my skin.
I brushed my unruly hair out with my fingers and slipped on the long-sleeve gray t-shirt he left in here for me along with a pair of boxers. They both smelled like him, which my wolf more than approved of. I groaned and opened the door to find the first floor empty.
I looked around curiously, I could still feel him and I could definitely still smell him. I smelled him everywhere in this damn house. "Ethan?" I called out.
"Ya! Sorry! Hold on!" he yelled from downstairs.
"It's ok," I called back.
I sat down in a chair next to a square table facing a huge window. The house seemed to fit them as I looked around. The living room had three large couches and a TV propped above their fireplace mantle. On a bookshelf next to it was a PS4, an Xbox, and one too many video games; Evan, I thought to myself.
There were some pictures on the wall. I stood up and went to the first on I saw that was nailed onto a wooden column; it stood next to the kitchen counter that ran down to the wall with a set of cabinets hanging from the ceiling, leaving a window for people to peek through.
It was the three of them. They were standing in front of the house smiling; Ethan held out a set of keys with his fingers. They all looked much younger, Ethan couldn't have been over eighteen in the photo.
I laughed quietly to myself. Evan still had the same boyish face and Evangeline's hair was still just as red and curly, if not more. They had smiles, but they were not really smiles. If you looked closely you could see the pain still in their eyes, pain that made my heart ache for them.
Loud footsteps thumped as Ethan trotted down the stairs that emptied into the kitchen. He smiled at me, and I wondered to myself if he ever really smiled that way much at all?
"You ready?"
I nodded and looked at the two sets of saddlebags in his hands. "What's that?"
"Surprise sunshine, now let's go." He turned and started to walk outside.
I rolled my eyes. "Sunshine? I don't think we're at pet names yet."
He chuckled. "Whatever you say sunshine." I trotted down the front steps next to him and rolled my eyes with a huff. He looked at me and shook his head. "You're so much more like him than you probably think."
"Who?"
"Levi," he laughed out.
I smiled to myself as my heart twisted a little. "Well, I do have that 'grumpy ass Thorne blood' as your brother would say."
"He's not far off," he muttered.
I let out a low growl and shot him a sardonic look. Before he could reply I ran two steps forward then lunged quickly, ripping his shirt in the process. I took that as my little act of revenge for calling my blood 'grumpy' even if it was, I knew it was.
He sighed and tossed the bags over his shoulders then shifted to his fur, sliding them impressively onto the right spot on his back in the process. I huffed inwardly, I needed to learn how to do that.
I felt a push into my mind and I pushed back. He winced a little then gave me a low warning growl while I looked at him innocently. He shook his head then pushed again. I let him pushed for a while, much longer than he needed to, before letting him in. My beast and I wanted to make it clear that we were no ordinary female that he could swoon.
"Are you always this difficult?"
"Well, I am a Thorne," I replied cheekily. He sighed as we walked forward. We trotted to our right, away from my cabin and towards a wild looking path in the woods. "Where are we going?"
"It's a surprise sunshine, remember?"
"Fine, fine..."
He chuckled a little then trotted forward with me in tow. We started to run, carefully though so he didn't loose the bags. The trail was very unused. The only scent on it was Ethan's and faintly Evan's.
It was wild looking; like nature was claiming it back as her's. My wolf loved it, it reminded her of our bear hunt; a place in the wilderness where the only law was mother nature.
We had to be careful, though, roots, rocks, and other debris seemed to have littered the path over time. My wolf slipped a few times, a careless mistake because she was excited about this 'surprise.' Ethan always kept an eye on us, though; never running off, always patient and letting my beast figure things out for herself.
We ran until the trees got taller, more proud with thick trunks. They had limbs that were more like strong arms reaching towards the heavens, they looked damn near close to heaven; but there was one tree that caught our eye, one that had a house in it.
It wasn't big, but it was a tree house. There were wooden planks nailed onto the trunk of the tree as a ladder, that led up to the hole in the base of the platform of the house.
Ethan slid the bags off then dug around in one and pulled out a shirt and some shorts. He tossed them to me, then pulled out some shorts for himself. My beast was happy it was only shorts, though, she liked sneaking peaks of his torso too much. I groaned a little inwardly and picked up the clothes.
We found a nearby bush to change behind. It was a simple white men's v-neck and some black boxers. I laughed again because the clothes reeked of him, I wondered if his wolf rolled on them before he packed them away at his house.
He was waiting with the bags slung over his naked shoulder as the sun started to set some more. It was close to being dark, almost dusk, probably my favorite time of night.
"What's this?" I asked looking up at the house in the tree.
"This is obviously a tree house." He smirked a bit as I walked up to him, rolling my eyes along the way.
We walked over to the ladder which looked kind of questionable. "Go on, I'm right behind you." I looked back cautiously at him then the planks. He chuckled a bit from behind me. "I come here all the time, I promise it's safe."
I sighed and started to climb up the ladder, which was in fact surprisingly safe. It wasn't a bad climb maybe thirty or forty feet in the air. The ladder led to a hole which led to the porch of the structure, held up by a platform on two strong branches.
I pulled myself through the hole and stood as Ethan climbed through after me. The porch looked new, newer than the ladder. I looked back to Ethan who was walking towards the door of the actual 'house' part. He scanned over the porch then gave me a small smile. "I redid the porch with Evan a few years ago. We've had this forever."
I cocked a brow as he opened the door. The house was not at all what I expected. It was quite spacious, almost the size of their living room. There were couches up there, actual couches.
The trunk came through a hole but in the middle and left through a hole cut in the roof while some of it's trimmed branches stuck out a bit in the room. The house was more tree than a house and I loved it for that.
There were bean bags, rugs thrown around, and an old pink lawn chair. Some books were stacked on an Ikea-like bookshelf and a set of walkie-talkies sat on a coffee table in the middle of the couches.
String lights of various kinds hung around the house along with lanterns that all connected to a 'Christmas Vacation' style type battery of some sort. I chuckled and looked around some more.
The house had so much life, so many years. There were small little lines on a plank with initials next to them and years. Along the other side of the wall was a giant paint stain, blue, that had been splashed with other colors in some weird splatter art creation.
"This is very cool," I breathed out.
He nodded and walked over to the coffee table where he set the bags down. "My uh–my dad built this for us with Levi actually." My breath hitched as I looked around again, this definitely was Levi's work. It was too nice of a tree house not to be. "I don't even know if Evangeline was talking when they built it, it was a really long time ago."
"It's held up well," I commented as I continued to explore.
Ethan was unpacking the bags while my curious eyes roamed the house. "Ya, well, Evan and I have had to do some repairs over the years. Otherwise, she's held up pretty good, our home away from home."
"I never had a tree house as a kid." I chuckled to myself as I looked at a cooler labeled 'Evan's Damn Beer Cooler.' "Crazy, though, my dad was an architect. You would have thought that he would have been all about that."
"What did he build?"
"Bridges mostly."
I looked over to a thicker limb, more like part of the tree trunk, that was in the center. It had gashes in it, deep and angry. Claws had raked through it over and over and tried to do some damage. I ran my fingers over and shiver. Even still I felt like I could feel the anger from them.
Ethan coughed quietly, snapping my attention away. He had all kinds of snacks and sandwiches set out with wine and red solo cups. He was pouring some red wine in a red solo cup, which made me smile some more. It was a make-shift picnic in this little house in the trees; surprisingly romantic which made my heart swell.
I walked over to him and settled down caddy-corner in front of the coffee table. "You made all this?"
He shook his head as he poured another glass with a ghost flush on his cheeks. "Would you be disappointed if I told you that Derek may or may not have volunteered?"
I rolled my eyes and popped a grape in my mouth. "No, that was probably a very good decision. I doubt either of us could cook better than him."
"I know," he laughed out. "Evan told Evangeline that he's never eating at home again."
I laughed and took the red cup from him. He had grapes, a variety of meaty sandwiches that Derek made, popcorn, chips, and cookies. I was mostly excited about the cookies.
Ethan stood up and walked over to the very sketchy battery thing that the lights were hooked up to. He shook it around for a bit and huffed. "I have no idea how Ryder rigged this thing, I think he was high or drunk."
"Can we even get high? Is that even a thing?"
Ethan nodded as he rolled his eyes. "Yes, a few years ago Ryder and Evan decided they wanted to see if they actually could, so they made a bunch of really potent pot brownies." He clicked something and the lights came on, providing a soft light as the night started to fade in; some were Edison bulbs, a little brighter, while some were gentle fairy lights that made the place seem magical. I smiled, it reminded me of the forts my mother used to build me. "Anyways, they ate them and after half an hour when nothing happened, they ate some more, then more, then more until they were both puking all over our house."
I cringed. "Note to self..." I muttered as I sipped my wine.
I picked up a sandwich and leaned back against the bottom of the couch. It was cozy in here. For a bunch of guys, this was a pretty cozy house.
Ethan sat next to me and bit into his sandwich as well, I couldn't help but look around some more. I found my eyes going back to the grooves in the wall I had seen before. "What are those?" I asked pointing to them.
A ghost smile tugged at his lips. "We used to keep tabs on how tall we were." He chuckled a little. "Evan always cheated, though."
I got up with my cup in my hand and walked back over. I started to trace my thumb over a line with the initials 'E. L. E.' With '8' written next to it. "Whose 'E.L.E.'?"
"Evangeline Lucille Everett, she's named after our grandmother Lucy." I smiled and traced over another groove.
The groove was taller than hers, much taller. I figured it was one of the boys. It was 'E. C. E.' With '15' next to it. "What about 'E. C. E.'?"
He sighed and leaned back against the bottom of the couch with a cookie in his hand. "Ethan Christopher Everett."
After his father, my heart panged for him. I didn't want to push the topic so I looked back at the wall again, well more like up. There was an 'L. E. T.' With '16' written next to it. It was a Thorne, I was sure of it. It was tall too, so tall. It had to be Lucas. I felt my chest tighten. He must have been a strong wolf to be so big at sixteen.
"What about E.M.E.? The one with eleven and a half next to it?"
Ethan laughed light to himself. "Evan Matthew Everette. He's named after my mother's father Matthew. He also cheated there. I think he added like two inches."
I laughed with him before I looked over to another set of letters around where Ethan's were. It was 'E. E. E.' With '14' next to it. "What about 'E. E. E.'?"
He was silent for a second. I felt my heart still as I looked back at him. He looked into his cup as he swirled the liquid around. "Eli Emmett Everett."
I bit my lip and mentally kicked my own ass. I looked back and cautiously walked back towards where he was sitting and sat down across from him on the floor. "I'm sorry."
He shrugged a little. "It's not your fault you didn't know, besides it's in the past."
It was in the past but I had a feeling that it wasn't that far behind us in this pack, or behind him. I took a long drink of wine while he kept swirling his glass, Levi did the same thing when he was thinking.
"Well, how old are you? Are you like Levi and like three hundred years too old to logically be alive?"
He laughed hard and loud. I felt my heart swell as the moment tense with sadness dissipated. He shook his head and looked at me playfully. "And what if I was sunshine?"
"Well, in most states this," I said while gesturing between us, "would be very illegal." I bit into my cookie, proud of my very matter-of-fact answer.
He rolled his eyes and sighed. "No, I'm twenty-six, Didn't Levi tell you how we age?"
I rolled my eyes. "Obviously, I was just giving you a hard time."
He sighed and took another cookie. "So, how was living with Levi as a human?"
I laughed and almost choked on my cookie. "Horrible at first. The first day he had me chopping wood and doing physical labor that I didn't even realize existed." Ethan cocked his brow at me and at some chips while I sighed a little. "Before I ran, I lived in Malibu, California. I had a husband who had too much money, too much time, and too much to drink all the time; a horrible fake tan, blonde hair–God it was so damn blonde, and let me think, the most physical labor I did was either reaching for something at SuperTarget, or climbing the stairs in our oversized home. God, I hated that house."
I didn't realize how quiet he was until I looked over at him. His mouth almost hit the ground as he looked at me, then my hair, then the skin on my arms, then back at me completely flabbergasted. "Blonde? Really?"
I chuckled and nodded into my cup. "Mhmm, he umm, well I didn't make a lot of my own choices back then."
"That's insane, why the hell would he ever change you?" he grumbled into his cup.
I felt my heart swell as I bit into another cookie. "Won't anymore, I made sure of that."
He chuckled somewhat darkly. "I'm only mad that I wasn't there to help."
I felt a blush run over my cheeks. I shrugged and picked at the cookie. "Anyways, for the first week or so, Levi pretty much wanted to kill me, legitimately. I mean, I was so weak there was no way I would have survived the shift; but something changed, I don't know. I don't know if it was him, me, or both of us. We started working together." I paused and smiled to myself at the memory of chopping log after log after log. "One weird-ass team, but I don't know. Somehow I'm still alive after all of it."
"What was it like to shift for you?"
I flashed my eyes to his; a pool of concern with curiosity. "Hell. Absolute hell. I think towards the end I was begging Levi to kill me, he didn't though. He pumped my veins full of Adrenaline and somehow got my wolf out."
He sucked in a breath and nodded. "We didn't believe it you know? Lander told Evan and I and we just laughed at him. We thought that Levi had actually lost it. He told us that you were some alpha female who apparently put a beating on Liam the first time he met you, and then we really laughed. We thought that everyone over at Tikanni was smoking something crazy."
I laughed to myself at the thought of my first spar with Liam. "Ya, Liam and I got into it pretty good that day."
Ethan sighed and scanned me over again. He was curious. He was always curious around me, like I was his own fairy tale come to life. I felt so aware of myself so conscious of everything on my and inside me.
My wolf loved it. She liked how patient our male was with us. I sighed. I sipped my wine and crossed my legs Indian style. "Ok, let's play a game."
He cocked his brow and gave me a smirk laced with hints cockiness. "Sunshine, you should only play games you can win."
"God I am going to enjoy the day I put your ass on the ground," I grumbled. He gave me a teasing growl which made me roll my eyes. "Levi and I do this all the time, well, we did. We ask each other questions. You get one and I get one, and you have to answer truthfully or you have to finish your drink."
Ethan sighed and gave me a pensive playful stare. "Alright, sunshine."
I filled up our cups then leaned back on my couch. "Ok, go on, go first."
He sighed and bit his lip. "Is it true that you put Taylor and Ben in the pack hospital back home for like a week?"
I laughed and nodded. "Yes, they tried to come to close to my neck on the bear hunt. They learned quickly that it was a bad idea."
Ethan rumbled then let out a long sigh and nodded. "Well, it was a bad idea. You should have beat them a little more and made it a month."
"Levi said something very similar," I chuckled out. I ate a bite of my cookie and swallowed it before looking back at him. "How long have the three of you lived together, in that house that is?"
He thought for a second, before looking back at me. "About eight years now. We were with my grandparents until I turned eighteen."
"Your grandparents are still alive?"
"That is two questions sunshine, it's not your turn," he shot back playfully. I sighed and nodded into my glass. "What about your real family? What happened?"
I sighed and picked at the chocolate chips in the cookie. It wasn't that it made me sad or that I didn't love them, they just felt like a past life, a part of me that I had put to rest. "My mother died of cancer when I was fifteen, and my father drove his car into an icy lake in the middle of winter right before I turned eighteen."
"I'm sorry Char," he breathed out.
I shrugged. "It's ok. It's in the past. It's a part of me that doesn't really exist anymore. I still love them, but I feel like closed the chapter on my human life a long time ago."
He nodded then took a sip of his wine. I sipped on mine then set it on the coffee table. "So your grandparents are still around?"
He chuckled and nodded. "Yes, they don't live here anymore, we'll, they have a cabin but they travel a lot. My grandfather never got to when he ran the pack and my grandmother always wanted to. They come back from time to time, but gran loves to travel. When I was old enough to look after Evan and Evangeline, we decided that it was ok that I took them with me. Evan was like fifteen anyways and pretty independent, and Evangeline has always been more like our mother than anything else."
I smiled slightly and nodded. "Yes, I can tell. She definitely worries."
He took a big drink then looked at my folded legs then back at me. He was nervous, I could feel it. My wolf cocked her head at him, her male was a curious one at times. "What are the lines on the back of your legs? I saw them and just–"
"It's ok Ethan," I said softly. He calmed down a bit and flickered his eyes to my lips then back at my eyes. "I um, well he did that to me. He wanted me to know how many times I had been 'bad.' It was like his own running tab. I guess some of those scars won't fade."
Ethan let out a chilling growl that almost shook me. He tugged at his hair then looked back my legs before taking a big drink. I knew I should have felt anything but what I was feeling, but I felt relief after I told him; it was like I unburdened myself from those scars forever.
"He is so lucky that you got to him before I did," he said lowly.
I chuckled darkly. "I wouldn't say that, you should have seen what my wolf did to him."
He smiled at me, a smile of relief and pride. My beast could see his through his eyes, he was proud of his female. My beast was one that could protect herself, protect her own.
He set his glass down and held his hand out for me. "Come on, I want to show you something."
I cocked my brow a bit. "Another surprise?"
He rolled his eyes. "Obviously."
I took his hand, a touch that seemed simple but it sent chills all over my body. Chills that I liked. He smiled to himself and led me to the tree in the middle of the house.
He started to climb up it and gestured for me to follow. It wasn't a hard climb, but soon there were more planks that lead up to a platform about ten more feet up in the tree. We climbed quickly as the night started to set in, covering the forest with darkness.
Ethan climbed through the hole in the bottom of the platform then helped me up. He walked to an edge and sat down so his feet were barely dangling off. My wolf smiled in the back of my mind, she was starting to like the male more and more.
I sat next to him and felt in awe at what I saw. It was beautiful. You could see through most of the forest from where we were; there was a small creek that ran by and a meadow with plenty of wildflowers starting to bloom. I looked up into the night and saw the stars. They were gorgeous; twinkling brightly in the crystal clear night. It felt like we were so close to them; like I could almost touch them.
"I come up here a lot, mostly to think. It's quiet, usually away from where people can find me." Ethan sighed a little. "It felt like someone twisted my skin."
I furrowed my brows. "What did?"
"Today, when I upset you. It caught me so off guard. My torso burned where she touched me, and the bond twisted up like someone took my skin and twisted it. My wolf was so angry, I hadn't seen him lash out at a pack member like that in a long time."
I sighed and looked back up into the night sky. "She just felt like you didn't want her, that and she felt like killing a few people."
"She shouldn't, I'll never want anyone else."
I snapped my head around to his. His blue eyes were softly swirling, like a healing water that I wanted to dive into. The bond was sparking between us, it felt like it was drawing us closer together, an anchor being pulled into its ship.
He tucked some hair behind my ear and grazed the side of my cheek with his fingertips, causing tiny flames to erupt there. I shivered. I had never felt anything like it before, but I knew that it was dangerously addictive. He was dangerously addictive.
"I didn't chase you up a tree for nothing," he said with an amused smirk.
In that moment I felt like all my reason and logic was suspended. My beast wasn't even pushing me, but I couldn't help myself. He was so close to me, so damn close. The more I held his gaze the more I knew I was in it too deep, but I didn't care, I wanted to drown.
Somehow my head leaned forward, meeting his lips, and in that same moment, I knew that my life would never be the same. In that moment I knew that I would never find another male, another man, like Ethan. In that moment I felt so much pent up desire and passion explode into fiery euphoric waves that rolled all over my body; but it was in that moment, that I knew no matter how much I wanted to deny or fight it, that I wanted Ethan.
He kissed me back and he was gentle. He was gentle with me, but I needed more of him. I needed more of his soft lips and rough stubble that tickled my cheek in the most tantalizing way.
I felt myself melt into his kiss, it was like my lips were moving with their own mind. His hand somehow wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer and my hands found the hair on his head that they so desperately wanted to touch.
I tugged on his hair and he groaned into my lips which only made me rumble a bit. I felt him fighting for control, fighting to be gentle, to be careful with me; but I wasn't a china doll, not now anyways.
I bit his bottom lip then sucked on it, snapping something inside of him. He growled low and loudly then took control of our kiss; kissing me with animalistic passion that I craved, that I wanted more of.
His tongue teased my bottom lip, and I teased him back by keeping my lips closed. He growled a little, his beast was frustrated and wasn't a fan of his female denying him what he wanted.
I chuckled inwardly as I opened my mouth to him; God he tasted so good, I didn't think a person could taste that divine. I didn't think kissing someone could make me feel drunk, intoxicated, and high as a damn kite.
He moved his hands in small circles on the exposed skin of my waist, making me shiver and gasp when they rose under my shirt to touch the skin around my waist. I let out a gasp from the tingles it created while my wolf purred in the back of my mind; it was more than delightful.
He growled into his kisses, the alpha side of him was coming out and my beast loved it. We could feel it. We could feel it radiating off of him and blanketing us; Evan was right, it was like a wave that kept crashing into me, a very euphoric wave. It was like his scent slowly started to change as the power in his veins started to slowly come to life; it excited my beast, she yipped in the back of my mind in delight for the male the moon had blessed her with.
I tugged at his hair then let my hand trail down his torso that had been teasing me since the first day I saw him. My fingers played with the tiny bits of hair on his chest before letting themselves glide around his side to feel his back.
It was bliss. I didn't think anything could ever feel this good, this right, this perfect. It was soon. It was so soon. It was a lot. It was so much. Yet in the heat of the moment, I didn't care.
Soon though, to my beast's and my displeasure, Ethan pulled away and rested his forehead on mine. Our breaths were labored and our hearts were racing as the bond sizzled in delight between us.
Ethan's hand raised to my cheek and caressed the skin before trailing down alongside my neck, over an area of sensitive skin that made me gasp. My eyes shot open, a little panicked, meeting his that were calm. He looked to where his fingers had touched then chastely kissed me. "I won't go near your neck unless you want me to."
Dammit, he certainly wasn't making this easy. "Thank you."
He kissed my forehead then laid on his back and looked up at the night. He patted the spot next to him with a smile of swollen lips. "Come on I won't bite you...yet." I teasingly growled at him the laid back. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to him, drawing a ghost purr from my wolf.
I couldn't help but enjoy the closeness, it calmed my beast and fed this bond that felt like it was purring in my mind. I also couldn't help but like Ethan, maybe more than like him. He was kind and considerate, he never pushed too much. "Like you would get that close," I said with a coy smile.
He looked down at me through his lashes and I could see his beast admiring his female. His beast knew all too well what we were, he knew that his female had sharp teeth that knew well how to use.
He smiled and brushed some hair out of my face while chuckling breathlessly to himself, still accessing my face with his blue-green pools that were his eyes. "You're something else sunshine."
"Why's that?" I asked as my wolf perked up.
His brows slightly furrowed as his hand that was around my shoulder started to play with my fingers. A ghost of sadness flashed in his eyes which made my wolf perk up even more. "When I first felt you come, I thought you were Lucas or Lydia for a moment. I was in the pack house finishing paperwork for the transfers, my beast had been on edge all week, I figured it was because I hadn't taken him hunting in too long.
"I just remember this familiar feeling hitting me in my office. I think I actually dropped my coffee on the floor when I ran out, everyone in the pack house looked at me like I was on drugs or something. It just–It felt like them. It felt like Lucas, I wouldn't forget how he felt, I couldn't if I wanted to."
"Evan said something like that too at first," I whispered as I leaned my head against his chest.
He sighed and nodded. "I wish he would have told me. I just ran outside because not only was my beast going insane, but I thought that something that could never be was happening. I guess that's sort of what happened. It's just strange how much you feel like they did and smell like them, like one of his natural pups. I can't believe his blood took to you the way it did."
"So what do I smell like then?"
He gave me a coy smile and shrugged. "Like a lot of things."
I gave him a long look while he chuckled and kissed my hair. "Care to elaborate?"
He shook his head with a coy smile. "Maybe one day, but not today."
I huffed a bit while his fingers continued to gently toy with mine. "Secrets don't make friends you know."
He rolled his head back to the sky with a small smile. "We're not friends, we're mates, there's a difference sunshine." He sighed like he was relieved somehow. "I should probably get you back."
"Do you want to go back?"
He smiled again and shook his head. "Not at all."
"Me either," I whispered through a smile. Because I didn't. Because right now all I wanted to do was enjoy Ethan and forget about the world around us. He took my other hand and kissed my palm before holding it on his chest. I shivered slightly as I looked to the sky through the branches and smiled. "I feel like we made some kind of odd full circle."
He let out a breathy laugh. "How's that?"
"You chased me up a tree at first, and now here we are, up a tree technically."
Ethan laughed then kissed my hand again. "Sunshine if all you ever wanted was to run up trees, I am very sure I would gladly chase you up them."
I smiled again and let the calm set in. Let the buzz of the bond set in. I was so content, as was my wolf. It was like the heartbreak from days before was worlds away. I could only hope the heartbreak would stay away, that my mate would settle my wolf who had been unsettling unsettled.
But then again, I guess this mate-pull in itself is quite unsettling.