Page 6

T he following day went by without a single problem. No bear, no wolf, no quicksand, no deadly enemy. They just walked.

Calliope started to have her doubts about their assessment of the place. They rarely had days where there was nothing going on. They were always coming up with some amazing adventure.

Just when she was about to have her doubts, it suddenly became abundantly clear.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Calliope said.

In front of them was a bridge, which was missing several steps. Some of them were cracked and hanging down. The rope didn’t look like it was going to hold either of their weights. It was so high up, she could barely see the water below.

“The rickety bridge,” Jaxson said.

This was no joke, and now she hated their childish ideas. Who would agree to allow them to play like this? It wasn’t fun, nor was it exciting. As kids, this was everything she lived for. Right now, it was terrifying.

“We’ve got to get over to the other side,” Calliope said.

She glanced behind and watched as their open forest changed to that of a cliff edge, with no way of going back.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said. “There’s no other way than going across this bridge.”

“Which is exactly how it was when we played, remember?” She glanced over the edge of the cliff and took a step back. “Oh, this is not good. This is so not good.” She couldn’t help but open and close her hands.

She felt that wedge of fear slide down her back.

Jaxson reached for her. “Stop it, okay? We made this game up when we were kids, and remember, this was fun.”

“Damn it, Jaxson. Of course that was fun. We had gotten a bunch of old rotten planks and placed them on top of chairs, or bricks. This is not fun. We didn’t have to deal with a hundred-foot drop that would kill us.

I know you’re a wolf, and it takes a lot to kill you, but I’m not.

Okay, I’m human, and this is...” She put a hand to her chest. “I think I’m having a panic attack. ”

She felt her heart race and before she could say or do anything, Jaxson was there.

She didn’t know what it was about him cupping her face, but the moment he did, it was like she could finally think.

Only, he didn’t just cup her face, he took possession of her lips and kissed her, hard.

This was not a gentle kiss, nor exploratory.

This was an intense-moment-in-time kiss.

It was either sink into the moment, or flail around panicking.

She kissed him back, wrapping her arms around him. Everything was forgotten. The insults over the years, the anger, the hurt. It all faded into nothing.

They couldn’t keep kissing, and as he pulled away, he cupped her cheek. “We’ve got this. You and me, we can do this. Just like we did when we were kids. It’s just a bridge, formed from our imagination.”

She took a deep breath. “You’re right. We can do this. It’s easy.”

Jaxson took hold of her hand. “Together?”

She tightened her hold around his, and together they started to make their way across the bridge. That first step on, Calliope thought she was going to plunge to her death. They had no choice but to stop holding hands as they grabbed onto the rope.

“It’s okay,” Jaxson said. “It’s going to be okay.”

The creaking seemed to echo and was deafening.

“You’re right, it’s fine.” She hoped if she kept telling herself and Jaxson this, she would start believing it.

“One foot in front of the other,” Jaxson said.

“We’ve got this.”

“Yes.”

They slowly began to make their way across the bridge.

“You know, I don’t recall this being so ... long,” Jaxson said.

She couldn’t help but laugh. “We ran out of chairs and bricks, if you remember. We had to manifest a small bridge.”

Playing back then, when they were kids, they came up with all kinds of games and experiences. It was so surreal that now, as adults, they were actually reliving them.

There was a sudden gust of wind, and they had no choice but to hold on.

Panic gripped her. “We never said it was windy, Jaxson. We never did a rickety bridge when it was windy.”

“I know. I know. This is just part of the challenge. Making it across. We can do this. You and me.”

She wanted to argue with him, but there was no point. No reason.

The wind slowed, and they were able to move. Only, the next step Calliope took ended on a scream as she fell straight through. She tried to grab onto the rope, but it was no use. Jaxson grabbed her wrist. She felt tears spring to her eyes.

“I’ve got you,” he said.

“Please don’t let me die.”

“I’m not going to let you die. You’re right here with me. You and me, remember?”

He heaved her up and helped her onto the step in front of him. She could feel her whole body shaking.

“I will never let you die. I will never allow anything to happen to you. I promise.”

And with that, he kissed her temple. It was the strangest thing, because in that moment, she wanted to tell him she loved him. She didn’t even know why she wanted to tell him that, but she kept moving.

As they made it more than three quarters across, she heard the first snap. Glancing behind them, she saw what looked like the bridge was magically snapping.

“Run!”

There was no time to waste. She did as Jaxson ordered and ran as fast as her feet could carry her.

The bridge started to shake as it loosened.

She didn’t want to slow Jaxson down, and she saw the ending in sight, but the bridge suddenly gave way, and she tried to hold on.

Once again, Jaxson caught her, this time by her ankle.

She looked down and it was like staring into death. The water didn’t look deep enough, and she couldn’t help but wonder if there was going to be a giant shark or the kraken coming out to eat her.

“Please tell me your wolf has super strength?” She was not a small woman. Not that her weight had ever bothered her. Sure, there had been peers who would tease her about her weight, but she ignored them.

“I’ve got you, Calliope.”

“I think I’m going to throw up.”

“The throw-up will only fall to the ground.”

She couldn’t hold it in. As the ground started to disappear, she threw up everything she’d eaten that morning.

Jaxson made it up to the land and dragged her along with him. She was so pleased to feel hard ground that she pressed her face against it, and then kissed it.

“I love you. I love you. I love you.”

Calliope wasn’t sure in that moment if she was telling the ground she loved it, or if she was telling Jaxson. He had stopped her not once but twice from falling to her death.

“Just out of curiosity, was I this much of a moaner when we were kids?” Calliope asked.

She heard Jaxson laugh. “Nah, it was you that always came up with the good games.”

Calliope didn’t know what had happened to her, but it sucked. She missed the old Calliope who just had fun, when she wasn’t sad about losing her friend, or trying to figure out what went wrong. She missed that girl.

****

T hey had made camp several feet away from the cliff edge. By several feet, they’d actually traveled for nearly two hours before they were far enough away from it.

“You ever think we might have had too much time on our hands when we were kids?” Calliope asked.

He couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “I didn’t think that, but now I am starting to have my doubts.”

He sat against a tree. They had already eaten their food. Once again, sausage and eggs. He was getting tired of eating the same kind of food.

Calliope came to him and he opened his legs and patted the ground right in front of him. She smiled but didn’t hesitate, nor come up with an excuse not to sit with him.

“Thanks,” she said.

She sat between his spread thighs, and it felt right, especially as she leaned back. They hadn’t done this in so long. They would often sit out, late at night, staring up at the stars. Sometimes they would even talk about how lame their game had been, and plan to make it even better.

He missed this.

“You know, I don’t think I have any complaints about the rickety bridge. I think it was one of our finer games,” she said.

And for some reason, he couldn’t help but laugh.

The moment he laughed, she started to, and for several minutes, neither of them could do anything but laugh, and it felt great.

He couldn’t help but wrap his arms around her.

Part of him expected her to push him away, but instead she just ran her hand over his.

It had been too long since they had felt this right together.

He didn’t know if he was going to be pushing his luck, but he pressed his lips against her neck.

“I missed this,” she said.

“I don’t think I’ve ever held you like this.”

“No, but I’ve missed us, working together as a team.”

It was like she sunk against him.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

He felt her tense up, and he didn’t have to wait long for her to spin around in his arms. “You’re sorry?”

Jaxson reached out, touching her cheek. “Yeah, because I didn’t go to the elder, nor did I even try to make this work between us.

I didn’t want to tell him he made a mistake.

Elders don’t make mistakes, and the truth is, Calliope, I missed you.

When he told us we were destined to be mates and he joined our hands, it was like the world had finally been righted again. I know I don’t deserve you.”

She pressed a finger against his lips. “I want you to stop.”

“But—”

“Shut up,” she said. “We made mistakes. We’re kids, or at least we were kids, and in a way, that is totally acceptable.

” She shrugged. “We can’t change what we did, the only thing we can do now is live with what happened.

We’ve got to survive this, and to do that, we’ve got to learn to forgive one another, and that is exactly what I am doing now.

I’m forgiving you. I’m not going to hold the past against you, but I will warn you.

If the past couple of days are anything to go by, we’re going to start hating our younger selves. ”

He laughed. She looked into his eyes, but then he noticed her gaze dropped toward his lips.

“You want to kiss me,” he said.

“Shut up.” She went to move as if she was going to sit back between his thighs, and he was more than happy for her to do that. Only, he wanted to kiss her. He didn’t want to let this moment slide.

“No, tell me. Lie to my face that you don’t want to kiss me?” he asked.

She sat back on her heels, folded her arms across her chest, and he found her complete stubbornness so cute.

“Fine, I’ll be the one to say it first. I want to kiss you, Calliope. I want to feel those lips on mine.”

She glared at him and he was about to move into position to take charge of kissing her.

Only, she managed to stop him, put a hand against his chest, and then press him up against the tree.

Jaxson didn’t put up a fight. What was the point?

The kiss was what he was heading toward, and it was what he wanted more than anything.

She leaned in close. He looked into her brown eyes. He missed being this close to her, and he hated his childish self for not speaking up sooner. He nearly messed up one of the best things in his world. Calliope meant everything to him. He loved her. He’d loved her since they were kids.

Her breath fanned across his face, and this time Calliope pressed her lips to his, and it meant everything.

At first, he put his hands on her arms. She wasn’t touching him, and then he placed her hands on his shoulders.

He wanted to feel her body against his. The moment she touched him, he was able to slide his hands up, circle them around her back, and just hold onto her. He didn’t want to stop touching her.

The scent of vanilla was heavy in the air, and he felt something else, something that shifted within him. This was his mate. The elders had decided. Calliope was meant to belong to him, and he didn’t want to ever give her up.

Sliding one of his hands up and into her hair, he held her in place and kissed her. Ravishing her lips as he just couldn’t stand to not have her.

Jaxson didn’t know how it happened, but she ended up laid against him on the ground, making out.

Touching her was everything he had ever wanted.

Kissing her was so damn right. It was like for the past three years, or even longer, a part of him had been missing, and he knew it was his own stupid fault.

All too soon, the kiss was over.

“I think it’s time we got some rest,” Calliope said.

“Yeah, I think you’re right.”

And with that, she snuggled against him, and Jaxson couldn’t do anything other than watch her sleep.

She was perfect—his woman, his mate—and he would never let her go.