Page 6 of Fated To The Wolf (Bay Harbor Wolves #10)
“The security glamour that Sasha used has brought to light a magic spell that exists on the bay side from the southern border to the forest line. We didn’t put it there.
” Javiar reported the illicit intrusion to Henrik immediately.
“Sasha removed it, but he said it has been there for quite some time gathering information on the property and the pack.”
“Why didn’t we know it was there?" Henrik barked, clearly disappointed in the lack of thoroughness.
“It was cloaked and placed deep within the aura of the lake. Even Sasha didn’t know it was there until his magic bumped into it.
” This was serious, and the ramifications were endless.
Henrik ran his hands through his hair, furious at the breech and desperate to find the source.
He called Derek and put him on the case, and asked Sasha to try and find the author of the magic.
“Sasha is doing a complete sweep of our borders and every inch of pack lands to see if there are any other surveillance spells in place.”
“Bring Sasha to me as soon as he is finished.”
"I'm sorry, Aidan, I overreacted.” Jake sat with Aidan on the back deck.
“I knew that your mate was here somewhere, but it just seemed so odd that you'd just run into him while on a walk.
Everything struck me as contrived the more I thought about it, and then I felt responsible for you, and what if I'd drawn you into something that wasn't real.
" Jake continued to drone on and on, trying to find the right words.
"I can't very well chastise you for overreacting, considering how I acted yesterday, but the way you spoke to Isaiah was uncalled for.
" Aidan sat there with his brother, but every molecule in his body was pushing him to go and find Isaiah.
It had been hours since he left him there by the bench, and the void was beginning to become painful.
“He’s really your mate?” Jake once again asked for reassurance.
"Based on the way I felt when I saw him and the way I'm feeling right now, I'd say yes. I don’t know much about this culture, but I know how I feel when I'm with him, and it is like nothing I've ever felt before.
I want to investigate these feelings, and I want to know him, and more importantly, there is an urgency stirring in my heart that is compelling me to go find him.
" Aidan spoke calmly, but it was calm. He was not feeling.
It had been too long he needed to go to him.
Aidan suddenly stood and looked down upon the beach below them and saw a man walking and recognized him immediately. That need brewing in his soul exploded, and he jumped from the deck and began racing down to the beach. Jake did not interfere with him this time. He obviously knew better.
He was at a considerable distance, but he knew his mate.
He knew it was Isaiah, and he needed to get to him.
He should have gone sooner. Suddenly, he was feeling guilt descending upon him.
He shouldn't have waited. He should have sought him out earlier, but so many things had held him back, not least of which was his own lingering doubts that kept getting in his way.
The what-ifs were killing him and had kept him at the pack house waiting instead of going to Isaiah.
Isaiah was a stranger, and yet there wasn't anyone on this earth that he knew better.
The truth of that was what had kept him frozen and waiting, not trusting himself until he saw him on the beach, and then nothing would stop him. All doubts and hesitations disappeared.
Isaiah stopped when he saw him. He didn't come to him.
He simply watched and waited. The insecurity he was feeling filled the air between them, and Aidan felt like an ass for having waited so long and for having left him to begin with.
He made some mistakes today, but going forward, he would not, ever again, take this man for granted.
“Isaiah.” He called out, but Isaiah remained rooted to the spot.
He ran faster, needing to get to him as soon as possible.
“I’m sorry.” He said quickly and stopped a few feet in front of where Isaiah stood.
He looked tired and sad, and it tore at Aidan.
“I shouldn’t have left you. I shouldn’t have stayed away so long.
" Still, Isaiah did not respond. He stared at Aidan, his expression changing from uncertainty to what looked like hope.
Aidan moved closer until they were mere inches apart. “I’m sorry." He said again, and Isaiah reached out, brushing the hair back from Aidan's face. He let his fingertips linger, brushing them gently across Aidan's cheek.
"I'm not trying to deceive you, Aidan. I am not a liar." The words came out like gravel, low and coarse.
“I know," Aidan responded softly. "I know, and I should have defended you.”
"It's okay; you were placed in a difficult position between your brother and a man you'd only known for a few hours. I understand your struggle." The sadness was still dripping from his words, and Aidan didn't know what to do or say to take it away.
"I want this, Isaiah." He said and gestured between them. "I want to see where this takes us.” Isaiah cupped the back of Aidan’s neck in his hand and gently urged him closer while bending to take his lips in a careful but explosive kiss.
The second their lips touched, Aidan felt a fire that had been simmering suddenly burst and began to rage. The feeling of being home and being exactly where he was meant to be consumed him, and he eagerly reciprocated the kiss and its urgency.
The kiss came slowly to an end, but they continued to hold one another as the commitment and desires they felt began to consume them.
“I was waiting till morning, and then I was coming to you. I had so many fears I didn’t know what to do or how to make this right.
To be honest, I was afraid that I might have ruined everything and that you wouldn't trust me or believe me when I told you how I felt.”
"How do you feel?" Isaiah's voice was a whisper, and it danced along Aidan's flesh, reigniting the flames and sending a tremor through his body. There was no doubt whatsoever that this man was his everything.
Aidan didn’t use words. He instead locked his eyes onto Isaiah’s dark stare and pulled him down to him, taking his lips in another mind-bending embrace, channeling everything he was feeling, everything he wanted, and everything he believed into that kiss, branding his lover with his desire.
Isaiah took everything Aidan was offering.
They devoured one another as their need to be close and to experience everything overtook them.
The kiss went on for ages, each of them desperately searching and finding the meaning and finding their answers.
Isaiah felt his wolf surging to the surface, eager to mark and to claim.
“The Alpha gave me a room on the second floor," Aidan said with his breath catching and his heart beating out of his chest. He leaned his forehead against Isaiah's chest and steadied himself.
"Come home with me, please. I need you so badly.
" Isaiah could hear the pleading in his tone, and it touched him, touched his heart, and melted all his fears.
This was his mate, his Fated mate, and that was all that mattered. Everything else was just details.
“I want you too, sweetheart, so badly. These hours we’ve spent apart have been a torment, and the fear I felt that you might never come back had me in shreds.
I couldn’t think straight, and I felt like my life would be forever hollow and empty.
It was terrible.” They continued to hold one another, desperate to get their feelings across and their desires clear.
"Come with me, please." Aidan pulled on him, urging him to follow.
"If I go to your room with you, my wolf and I will claim you, and then there will be no going back, no walking away. Our lives will be made one." Isaiah wanted him to be clear on where this path was taking him.
"I know what to expect, and I’m ready.” He said without pause and continued to pull Isaiah along.
That was music to Isaiah's ears, and he hurried to Aidan’s side and slipped his arm around him.
The night that had started with sadness and regret had turned into one of joy and expectation, and he couldn't ask for better than that.
The sudden exuberance that passed between them was electric, and Isaiah picked up speed, pulling Aidan along, and contemplated picking him up and racing back to the Pack House.
Waiting and being patient were so overrated, as were bedrooms since the beach was beginning to look like an adequate place to complete their bond.
All those fevered thoughts were abruptly halted when there came a flash and a movement before them.
It wasn't natural, and it wasn't initiated by the pack.
Isaiah recognized it for what it was: a raid.
He scooped Aidan up and deposited him in the thick brush.
"Stay there until I come for you. Do not move.
" He then turned, and as he rushed toward the interlopers, he shifted and attacked.
They were coming up from the bay dressed in black and cloaked by night.
He leaped upon one and realized the person was human, and he was prepared to kill.
Isaiah tore at the suit he was wearing, but it resisted the force of his claws.
The suit was tactical and specialized. The suit was protective, but the man had nothing covering his face, so Isaiah went for the kill in a brutal and bloody fashion and then tossed him aside.