Page 14

14

VANESSA

“ I would like to go on a date.”

“Excuse me?” I looked up from the email I’d gotten about my check deposit—the first one I’d gotten in ages, it felt like.

I hadn’t expected Leo to be all dolled-up in a pair of nice slacks, a blue flannel button-up, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and his long hair neatly brushed back. My heart ricocheted in my chest, and I had to swallow hard not to drool on the floor like a cartoon character.

“I said, I would like to go on a date. A real one. I realize I’ve never taken you out, and I want to change that.”

The smile that spread across my face had to be downright sappy, maybe even swoony, as my stomach flipped several times. “I’d like that. What were you thinking?”

“A picnic under the stars. I have the basket all set up, and a couple of very nice blankets Chiga’s family gave us.”

I flushed at the thought. It was simple, but at the same time it was so very us. Almost like a fairy tale.

“Do I have time to get ready?”

“Of course. Take as much time as you need. I’ll be right here when you’re ready. If you want, we can head out at dusk, watch the sunset and the stars rise, or we could get a couple of lanterns and head out in the dead of night. Like something out of a fantasy novel, yeah?”

God, he understood me so well. In all my years on Earth, I truly never thought it was possible for someone to be so completely on my wavelength.

“I’ll be, like, forty minutes,” I said, already rushing up the stairs. “Feed the cats for me, will you, dear?”

“As you wish.”

Oh, now that wasn’t fair. Quoting Wesley from The Princess Bride was usually a top-level move against book girlies, and I was no exception. I nearly giggled out loud as I rushed up the stairs and jumped into the shower. Thankfully, I managed that without cracking my head open.

I’d never gotten ready so quickly, but I did slow down when I started on my makeup. I wasn’t a high-glam girly—makeup was expensive—and I never really had special occasions to doll myself up for, but I still loved the art of it. So, I enjoyed putting white in the corner of my eyes and purple on my eyelid, with a smoky nude in my crease. Was it high art that someone would make an entire YouTube tutorial about? No. But it did make me feel pretty when I looked in the mirror, and that was what I needed.

My hair was a bit harder to figure out. I either wore it down or threw it up in a ponytail, but neither seemed right for tonight. After quite a bit of fiddling and one broken hair claw, I finally tamed it into two curly, cascading space buns. Yeah, that was definitely worthy of a romantic picnic.

Lastly was my outfit. Leo had seen me in quite a lot and also nothing at all, and yet the choice seemed so important. He’d seen me in work clothes. He’d seen me in garden clothes. He’d seen me in my lounge-around clothes. Oh, and not to mention the multiple disguises I’d donned during our hijinks. But he’d never seen me dressed up. Granted, I didn’t want to be too dressed up so I would be uncomfortable lying on the blanket. Talk about ruining the whole point of a starlight picnic.

In the end, I picked a milkmaid dress with a cute strawberry print and paired it with thin but sturdy, knee-high, white socks. I figured it would be a fashion faux pas to wear Crocs with it, but I didn’t wanna twist an ankle while we were walking. Besides, I could take the ugly shoes off once we reached the picnic spot.

Yeah, that sounded like a great plan.

Giving my reflection one last nod, I headed downstairs. It was a bit silly, but suddenly my heart was pounding like I was going to prom for the first time. Not that I actually ever went to prom, but the parallels seemed pretty strong when I came upon Leo standing in the kitchen, a heavy basket in the crook of one of his elbows, and a bouquet of flowers in his free hand.

“Are these for me?” I said a bit coquettishly. It sounded strange coming from my mouth, but Leo still grinned at me, nonetheless. Goodness, sometimes the way he looked at me made me feel... utterly incredible. This felt like a movie moment—one I never thought a girl like me would have.

“Do you see any other gorgeous women around?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. America is pretty gorgeous,” I teased.

Leo gave a little huff and rolled his eyes before handing me the bouquet. I buried my face in it, appreciating that it didn’t contain anything toxic to cats. Some people really underestimated how harmful a single lily could be, and yet somehow, Leo was on top of that.

“They’re beautiful,” I said, taking a deep breath. We were starting to enter the wild phase of the growing season, and I’d always loved how that time was punctuated with wild blooms and thick, green foliage in the garden. “Let me put them in a vase.”

I rinsed the stems under cool water first, then propped them in the vase and set it on the kitchen table for all to enjoy. I could have taken them up to my room, but I wanted everyone to see and appreciate their beauty. Not only was it pleasing to the eye, but the flowers were a testament to the fact that I was loved. It was still such a new sensation for me.

“Ready?” Leo asked, but he didn’t offer his arm. I wasn’t mystified as to why, however, as he pulled a chair back from the table and revealed those comfy blankets he’d been talking about. They did look nice to lie on, that was for sure.

“Ready,” I confirmed.

Together, the two of us strode out the back door. Since I had been so quick to get ready, the sun was beginning to set, golden rays just beginning to sink down into the lilac of dusk. Sometimes, I got frustrated with the approaching darkness because it meant my time working in the garden was done before I’d finished my to-do list. But I still loved this time of day when the sky shifted to a beautiful range of soft golds to deep lavenders until finally being swallowed up by the cobalt of true night. It was undeniably beautiful, and I couldn’t wait to watch it happen with Leo.

We walked the now-familiar path toward the embankment and our cave. Although, I supposed it wasn’t actually a cave compared to the one where Leo had found a huge chunk of his people. I still couldn’t believe that had happened while I was at work, and it was a special surprise coming home to almost a dozen more people in my space. I wasn’t mad about it, though. In fact, I was overjoyed.

With the warlock brothers all gone, I’d figured we’d focus on finding the rest of Leo’s pack members, and I’d thought it would be a long, drawn-out process with a lot of disappointment in between. But thanks to Andromeda, most of the pack had returned. The change it brought about in Leo was palpable. He was still my same sweet, considerate guy, my garden helper, but he also was the alpha. I mean, he’d always been the alpha, but it seemed so different now. So much more real. He stood with his shoulders squarer, and there was a lightness to his step that hadn’t been there before.

I was happy for him. Sometimes it felt like I didn’t have the language to properly express it, but seeing him sit in a circle with his recovering pack members, his voice a gentle rumble as he told them things about themselves, made my heart soar. And, yeah, maybe I did prepare a near industrial amount of bone broth, buy a hundred dollars’ worth of Ensure shakes, and made sure I had the largest bag of rice my grocery store carried, but it was so worth it. No, it was beyond worth it. It legitimately brought me so much peace to help him heal his shattered family, because although I didn’t really know them yet, they were my family, too.

Who would have thought the orphan girl would end up with such a large brood? I certainly hadn’t.

“What’s going on in your head?” Leo asked softly. “You’ve been a bit quiet.”

“I suppose I have, haven’t I? Just thinking about all the changes that have happened recently.”

“There have been a lot, haven’t there?” Leo chuckled, but I picked up a sliver of uncertainty in his tone. “Are you okay with that?“

Ah, I understood that uncertainty now. He was probably worried it was too much, too soon. That I would be overwhelmed by his pack and everything that came with it. Thankfully, I was built of hardier stuff.

“You know, I was actually thinking we should bring some of the brothers back, go back to being hunted and having them enslaving people right and left. That definitely would be an improvement.”

Leo laughed and reached over as if he was going to ruffle my hair but seemed to think better of it. “Smart Alec.”

“But you love me anyway.”

Leo paused and turned his full gaze to me. Although the smile on his lips was kind and sweet, there was such an intensity to his gaze, I could barely breathe. “Yeah, I do.”

What a fucking thing to say. I could feel those stupid tears begin to prick at my eyes as pure happiness bubbled up within me. I had spent so many years begging to be loved, fighting for scraps wherever I could get it. But with Leo? With Leo there was never any emotional starvation. He never withheld his love and affection, not even when he was at his darkest.

How did I ever get so lucky?

“I love you, too,” was all I could utter, and then I was in his arms.

It wasn’t like any of those bodice rippers my aunt used to read—we didn’t suddenly fall to the blankets below us and begin tearing at each other’s clothes. Mostly because I got the impression it would hurt. We held each other, our heartbeats ricocheting off each other’s chests until they slowly, slowly began to synchronize.

God, I loved this man, this wolf, and every day we got to be together was a gift I would not let go to waste.

Eventually, we parted, but only to arrange ourselves across the blanket. I got the feeling Leo was quite proud of whatever he’d put in the basket and wanted to show off a bit. Sure, I wanted to jump his bones, but there was no reason it couldn’t wait until after I saw all the effort he had gone through to make the date special.

“You sure you’re ready for this?” Leo asked, waggling his eyebrows.

“Oh, I’m on the edge of my seat.”

“Actually, you’re on the ground.”

I let out a soft huff of laughter. “Now who’s the smart Alec?”

“Well, I did learn from the best.”

“Damn right, you did.”

We were both grinning like loons, and I loved it. Talking had always been easy between us, but now the threat of the brothers was gone, it flowed that much easier. It was amazing how not having the threat of imminent death hovering over our heads really lightened things.

Granted, I wasn’t stupid enough to think everything would be peaches and roses for the rest of our life. There had to be some fallout from taking down such a powerful family, and I was sure there would be other people who would rise to take advantage of the power vacuum, but I wasn’t going to sit here and dread what was to come. I was going to enjoy my time with my mate and all the new people I had the honor to get to know. I was going to enjoy myself, starting with the soft cheese Leo pulled out of the basket.

“Is that brie?” I asked, my salivary glands waking up. Like most people with taste buds, I loved cheese, but I rarely got to indulge in anything fancy. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been able to buy a little wheel of something so fancy. Maybe my birthday a couple of years earlier?

“It is.” Leo beamed at me. “And this is camembert.” However, the container he pulled out wasn’t one from the store, but rather one I recognized as my Tupperware. “I roasted this in the oven with honey and some walnuts over it. It’s not as warm as it could be, but it is still a little toasty.”

Was I getting emotional over cheese? Yes. Did that say something about me? Probably. Was I ashamed about it? Not in the slightest.

Leo continued to pull treats from the basket that showed how much he cared and how much he knew about me. I didn’t even remember telling him that I only liked dark chocolate when it was paired with peanut butter, and yet he knew. I also didn’t remember telling him that I preferred plain crackers so the flavor of whatever was on them wouldn’t be interfered with, yet he knew.

Could he get any more perfect?

Well, I supposed it would be cool to have a boyfriend who could fly, but that also seemed a bit complicated. Time-travel powers? No, that would get problematic way too fast, and I didn’t want to end up in some sort of time shenanigans where I met my own grandmother and therefore stopped existing.

Wolf shifter boyfriend it was, then.

“I love you,” I said when he finished his grand parade of lovely things.

Leo looked a touch surprised, but then the corners of his eyes crinkled and he gave me the sweetest, sappiest smile.

“I love you, too.”

It was the perfect note to dig in on, and we did. We served each other and ourselves, chewing between long bouts of conversation. Entirely too soon, the sun began to set, which I didn’t even realize until I had trouble seeing Leo’s features beyond his piercing eyes and bright white teeth. After a couple of minutes of squinting, my mate chuckled before pulling a small camping lantern from the basket.

“I thought you might like this,” he said as he set it beside our blanket and flicked it on. It was dim enough that it wasn’t blinding or disruptive to the nature around us. We could still look up and watch the gradual arrival of the stars as the sky slowly dipped itself into ink, but I could also see Leo’s face whenever I wanted to… which was pretty much all the time.

Our conversation went anywhere and everywhere, meandering through past anecdotes, through his concerns for the newly recovered members of his pack, to my stories about working at the grocery store. It was surprisingly cathartic to be able to grouse about something so mundane. So banal. It seemed like Leo enjoyed the stories, which made sense since he’d never had a minimum-wage job. From what he’d told me his pack had gotten by on freelance labor gigs and pooled all their money to support each other. I couldn’t imagine it, but it sounded nice.

“Do you think you’ll ever go back?”

“Go back?” Leo echoed.

The two of us were lying on our backs, watching the stars overhead.

“To your pack’s old grounds. Your homes are all there, right?”

Although I’d never gotten a clear description, I got the impression Leo’s old stomping ground was somewhat like a trailer park, but with cabins, shacks, or ranch houses built by members of the pack over the past few generations. I knew they had running water and electricity, but they were largely cut off from contact with human civilization unless they traveled through the woods that surrounded them. It was hard to believe there were still places like that in America, but it did sound peaceful. And although I loved my cabin, there simply wasn’t enough room for a long-term situation. The tents, the trailers, the RVs… all of that was temporary. And if we were ever unlucky enough for my landlord to come around, he might kick me out.

“I’ve thought about it,” Leo said, and I could hear the deep introspection within his voice. “But I don’t know how much is left there for us. Sometimes I think it would be better to start over completely rather than chasing ghosts from our past.”

“What do you mean?”

“When the brothers cursed our pack, I’m pretty sure they torched our homes. It’s fuzzy… that whole night is, but I think if we returned home all we would find is ashes.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” In my mind, Leo’s original home was waiting for him to return. I had been bracing myself for the day he would leave me, but after everything that had happened, it was pretty clear he wasn’t going anywhere unless I was with him, so I’d begun to wonder if I would move right along with him. Seemed like all that worrying was for nothing.

“It’s all right. To be honest, I didn’t even think about it for a long time. I had an extremely hard time recalling anything solid about that night, and I don’t think it’s from the brothers’ magic. I think it’s from trauma. Now that things have calmed down, maybe I’ll get a chance to sort it out. I’ve talked to Ricky, and he remembers even less than I do. So, who knows?”

The pain in his voice had me rolling onto my side and staring at his profile. Sometimes I felt a bit overwhelmed by the intense magical world I had stumbled into, but at the same time, I couldn’t help but admire everything Leo had survived. Had worked through.

“You know wherever you go, I’d follow, right?”

He didn’t say anything for a moment, and I wondered if I had gone too deep too quickly. I watched his throat bob as he swallowed, and then he rolled over to face me.

“I know you mean exactly what you say, but sometimes it’s so hard to believe that I could possibly be so lucky.”

He reached up and cupped my cheek, and I pressed my face into his palm. I loved the rough callouses of his finger pads as they dragged against my skin, and I wished I could bottle up that feeling to use whenever I was down in the dumps. Knowing Leo was so incredibly powerful that he could rip me limb from limb without breaking a sweat, but he still chose to be so delicate, made my heart pound in a way I didn’t know was possible.

“I think I’m the lucky one,” I murmured, placing my hand on his chest. While his flannel covered the muscles I was so familiar with, I could still feel his heartbeat. The steady thump - thump against my palm assured me that both he and I were alive. That we were together in the moment.

“I guess we’re just lucky together, then.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

We closed the distance between us, our lips fusing together. We’d had all sorts of lip locks in our relationship, from feral and wanton, to sweet and soft. But this was different. It was deeper. Urgent but unrushed. Like it was a confirmation of everything we’d already said. There was no thought, no second-guessing, just the two of us and the love we shared.

Our hands slid over fabric and flesh. Even after all the time we’d spent together, after everything we’d been through, his touch never failed to make goosebumps rise along my skin. I never thought someone could look at me the way he did, and every time it was the most welcome surprise. A thousand years could pass, and I would never find anyone else like my love. Not that I would want to, anyway. I knew who I was meant to be with, and he was right in front of me.

When his hand cupped my breast, I gasped into his mouth, alight with the sensation of it all. That simple sound unlocked a furor in him, because his hands slid up over my thighs and under my dress. I rolled onto my back to give him better access, and Leo followed me, positioning himself on his elbows above me. God, I didn’t think I would ever get tired of that sight. Of his face hovering above mine, pupils so large and dark his eyes were almost black, his canines slightly elongated. I loved that his desire for me wasn’t always civil. That it was as wild and untamed as the wolf inside him. I doubted there was much else that could make me feel as beautiful. As desired.

“I want you,” he growled as if he could read my mind.

“You have me,” I said before kissing him for all that I was worth. “You’ll always have me.”

The rumble that issued from his chest was downright intoxicating, and I didn’t fight its pull. I raised my hips to help Leo strip my dress from my body. I wasn’t exactly an exhibitionist, so never in a million years had I imagined something like this happening in the middle of the woods, yet it felt so right, almost inevitable in a way, as if our love was so potent, so raw, it couldn’t be contained in my cabin.

Or maybe I was already fuck-drunk. It wouldn’t exactly be surprising considering the way Leo consumed every single one of my senses. My brain was alight with him, and only him.

And, God, did I love it.

I knew from experience that Leo was quite the fan of foreplay. Throughout high school and college, I remembered multiple girlfriends complaining their partner was only concerned with getting it in and out, but if Leo had his way, he’d eat his way to my heart.

But now, as he spread my legs and knelt between them, I got the feeling we wouldn’t have as much prelude as we normally did. Which was perfectly fine. I wanted him inside me. I yearned for him. As much as I really appreciated all the orgasms from Leo’s tongue, I so very desperately wanted him to fill me. It felt like a lifetime had happened since the last time we’d been together, and I was eager to experience that ecstasy again. There was something so primal about being joined together in that way, something that made me feel safe, protected, and wilder than I’d ever been in my life.

“Yes, please, oh, God, please,” I panted as Leo fumbled with him zipper. That was one thing I never quite enjoyed. Girl clothing, while complicated, was often pretty easy to get off. Men’s clothes? Not so much. Luckily, Leo didn’t need to shuck his pants off completely. He was already hard for me, and my stomach flipped at the thought of him buried deep inside me. While it was often hard to believe that someone could want me how Leo wanted me, it was very convenient how physically evident that attraction was. Something like that couldn’t be faked, no matter how insistent that little mean voice in my head tried to be.

“Don’t worry, love, I won’t make you wait. Not when you’ve been so good. No teasing tonight.”

I was definitely on board for that. Especially when those calloused finger pads I loved so much slid against me, testing my center to see how ready I was. And when he found I was already wet for him, the sound that issued out of him was pure sin. If I was remotely religious, I’d definitely have to go to confessional, but I was pretty sure that being on my knees would conjure all sorts of memories and sensations no priest could absolve me of.

“Leo. Please, I need you.”

Those words always got to him. And maybe it was a bit underhanded, but I was playing to my strengths. I wanted him inside me. I wanted to be completely enveloped by him. I wanted, for the fleeting time that our bodies were joined, there to be no one in the world but us.

“God, you’re so fucking wet for me.”

“For you and only you.”

That was the truth. Never with any of my partners had I had such intense sexual compatibility. And the fact that we had intense love and connection to go with it made it that much more .

Leo let out another groan of appreciation before gripping his straining length and rubbing it along my entrance. I opened my legs more, wanting to wrap them around his waist, but I knew I needed to wait until he was fully seated inside me. Patience was not my strong suit, but as he began to slowly enter me, I found the grace to lay back and let myself experience the slow, deliberate, and delicious slide of him.

It still seemed impossible that he would fit. The stretch of him, that burning slide, bordered on too much. But every time, I got over that hump without too much issue, and all of the good feelings came pouring in. It felt like every nerve in my body was alight, synapses singing with an overload of pleasure and excitement, and he hadn’t even started to move.

In true Leo fashion, he let me adjust before he pulled out, making sure I was comfortable and ready for him to plunge in again. I lost my patience, wrapping my legs around his waist so he could go that much deeper into me.

“Oh, fuck, Ven, the things you do to me.”

If I was in a bit more verbose mood, perhaps I would have told him what he did to me, but I could feel that haze that always came over my mind whenever Leo was giving it to me good, and I didn’t want to disrupt it by trying to be witty. I let myself feel everything, I didn’t chase the sensations, but I held on to every one of them, relishing the incredible things he could draw out of my body.

We moved as one, hips meeting fervently, the sound of our joining filling the quiet forest around us. I wasn’t embarrassed by the noise. No, it urged me on.

Even our breathing, which had started out as ragged counterpoints, were slowly drawing closer and closer to each other. It wouldn’t be that much longer before we were on the same frantic inhale and exhale, and for some reason that struck me as so incredibly lovely.

I’d been alone for so much of my life. My cowardice had caused the death of my mother, and then my guardian had rejected me for that. Even after that, I was so busy on the grind that there wasn’t much time or energy for much else.

But now I would never be alone again. Sure, I would have my moments of solitude when I needed them, but it would never be forced. It would never be my only choice. I had Leo, and he had me.

“Fuck, Leo, I’m close. I’m so close!”

Normally, it would take at least half an hour with my vibrator, but with Leo, it never seemed to take that long. None of my previous partners had had his skill, or maybe it was because I was never in love with any of them.

I didn’t know the reason, but I didn’t need to. All I needed to know was that Leo could get me to reach new heights I’d never thought were possible, and we had an entire life to figure out how high we could go.

“God, me, too, baby. Come with me. I want you to come with me.” The way his words fought to get around his sharp canines made my body react viscerally. Even his hands felt bigger as he gripped my hips, pounding in and out of me with abandon. “I want you to come right on my cock. Can you do that?”

I nodded fervently, tilting my hips up to get more of that delicious friction. But then, just when it seemed like we were both about to tumble into the abyss together, he stopped.

“Wha…?” I huffed, more than a bit flustered, my vocabulary not exactly fully loaded in my mind.

“Your hair,” he murmured, and strangely, he looked almost… awestruck?

“What about my hair?” I asked, frustrated as my orgasm slipped further and further away.

Leo reached to his side and grabbed one of the more reflective plates, holding it in front of me so I could see a very hazy rendition of myself. But even in the imperfect reflection, I could see that nearly a dozen flowers had bloomed in my hair.

“Oh, my God!” I cried, reaching up, but when I gently enclosed my fingers around one of the buds, it lifted easily, no stem. So, they weren’t growing out of my scalp or anything horrific like that. They’d just… bloomed out of nothing.

Wow. I’d really only just begun to scratch the surface of my powers, hadn’t I?

“You’re beautiful,” Leo rumbled as he rolled his hips again. “A goddess. You’re perfect. ” His words were more than enough to rev me up even more. His head dipped down to kiss me at the same time as his hand snaked between us to rub my clit.

That was all I needed to get over that final hump. I arched upward, crying out into the night sky. I was well aware that the sharper-eared of our group would be able to hear me, but I didn’t give a damn. I was awash with waves of pleasure that nearly lifted me off the ground and probably would have if Leo wasn’t on top of me.

Somewhere in the rush of my orgasm, I heard a primal sound tear its way out of Leo, and then I felt his warmth fill me, our sweat-slicked bodies crashing together as we rode out the deluge.

When we eventually came off from the high, I shivered. The night air was cool, and the sweat on my skin turned clammy. Leo rolled off me and pulled out another blanket, then wrapped me in it.

“You really thought of everything, didn’t you?” I mused, snuggling into his side once we arranged ourselves.

“I try. Thankfully, I’ve got some pretty great motivation.”

“Is that me?” I said through a yawn.

“Yeah, it’s you.”

We shared another kiss, then settled into our happiness. I didn’t care that we weren’t presentable or that anyone could come across us like this. For the moment, we were exactly how we needed to be.