Chapter 95

The Pack

Celeste is still trying to bring herself back from the dead.

It has only been a few days, and the Pack compound is beginning to feel familiar again. She takes a morning walk among the houses and buildings, reacquainting herself with the street names and the families who live there. Pushing aside her pride, she carries a small notebook to write down anything she’ll want to remember later.

An outside observer would recognize the confident young woman strolling among her people. Her dark hair is longer, and she wears it down to cover the few grey hairs that have sprouted prematurely at her temples. She keeps her slender arms covered, even in the warmer weather, to hide the last marks where needles and IVs were stuck by the lab technicians.

They are a constant reminder of her failure, her inadequacy. Even when it was clear she wasn’t the one they wanted, they still kept her. There were other uses for a young she-wolf from the Grey Pack.

A buzzing phone is pulled from her pocket, and she scowls as she sees the unknown caller on the screen. She laughs, morbidly, because she does in fact know who is calling her. Ignoring the call, she puts the phone away and continues walking.

Her stroll is interrupted there more times in five minutes, each time sending a new shock and tremor through her body. Her hands are shaking as she looks at the phone the last time, raising it into the air as if she would throw it into the road to be smashed by an oncoming car.

Two fingers reach up to the bridge of her nose, pinching firmly to keep the migraine from consuming her like the wave of a tsunami. With closed eyes she takes a few deep breaths, muttering calming words to herself, then feels right again.

When her eyes open they are bright and staring at a distance, and the smile on her face is just slightly left of sincere.

“They’ll believe what they see,” she said out loud, a pep talk, “just show them you’re fine, and you will be.”

The caller appears on her screen again, but this time she is calm as she sends the call to voicemail. Not that they would ever leave a message for her. Staring at the device in her hand, and thought crosses her brow.

She opens up her messaging app and types quickly, then hits send. The response comes in less than a minute, and she smiles as she reads it.

The message is from Lucian.

Dominic

It was late when I heard Mira come in the door to our apartment.

She tried to be quiet, but when she was upset or tired her breath had a higher pitch.

All evening I was worried about her being away and about what would happen when she came home. I knew I had to tell her about Celeste, and had been practicing various phrasings all afternoon.

I rose from my reading chair and went to meet her.

The medical kit was just touching the surface of the side table when she saw me, and she froze with her arm in midair. It then dropped heavily to her side, and with it all the adrenaline in her body rushed out of her.

Fighting tears, her chest started to heave with the emotions broiling within.

“I, I—“

I was already moving towards her as she tried to speak, each syllable anguished sob. I put my arms underneath hers, picking her up like a rag doll. She cried and I held her up, and then a new burst hit her and it seemed she cried for a different reason.

Her legs wrapped around my waist, her arms were suddenly in my hair. Holding her from under her legs, creating a basket with my arms, she leaned back to look at me. Her eyes were red, but the golden irises were bright.

She looked over my face, and I wanted to kiss her badly. It hurt. I didn’t have to wait long when I leaned in and put her lips to mine. It was soft, tentative, almost like it was the first time. And maybe it was.

We both exhaled into the kiss, and leaned further into one another. A soft moan vibrated from her mouth into mine, and I almost fell over. Her tongue slid between my lips and I parted them as she wished. She needed something from me, and I was happy to oblige.

Her fingernails scratched my scalp, and I shifted my grip so I could bring a hand to her back. My hand reached around to the side of her ribcage, one of my favorite places on her body. It was on the left side, next to her heart.

I bit her lip and she yelped like I’d stepped on her tail. She bit me back in fairness.

Holding her securely to me, I carried her into our bedroom and placed her on the chair I’d left empty. Finally breaking our kiss, she pouted upon landing on the soft cushion.

I knelt on the floor, taking off her shoes and socks. I rubbed a knuckle along the sole of each foot, eliciting a different kind of moan. She had her eyes closed, her head leaning back. She was resting, but not relaxed. I could see a tear forming again in the corner of her eye.

“Mira,” I said, almost a whisper. “What happened?”

She sighed out her mouth, shook her head, and opened her eyes. They had seen so much in such a short life, and I wanted to bear her burdens.

“Rae found him, Julian, their link,” she said, slowly and shakily. “he said he— he doesn’t—“

Her sentence was lost as a heave of sorry hit her. My hands were on her thighs, and I rubbed them now to bring some sensation somewhere else in her body.

“He said that he doesn’t want to be found,” she said, her voice cracking. “It seems that he’s happier now, or more powerful maybe, or brainwashed, but she can’t get through to him. He shut her out, and she’s devastated. I held her for so long…”

Her arms crossed over her chest reflexively as she thought of Rae’s pain. Though Mira could close herself off to suffering patients in order to do her focus on the work, she could also deeply empathize with almost anyone.

“We will keep trying,” I told her, a vow, “we won’t let them keep him, or take anyone else. Mira, we’ll find him.”

She nodded, unwinding herself to put her hand on mine.

“I know,” she said, “I know we will.”

The way she said ‘we’ cleared all the cobwebs in my mind.

“I need a shower,” she said, patting my hand to signal me to get up.

I moved but stayed kneeling on the ground for a moment, watching her walk to the bathroom. She turned back and put out a hand, an invitation.

“Will you join me?”

I practically ran across the room.

She was already pulling her shirt over her head, then reaching into the shower to turn on the water. Turning back to face me, she seemed both confident and shy as she stood partly undressed.

I came to her, tracing my fingers over her collarbones and shoulders and down her back. I kissed her as I undid the clasp of her bra and pulled it off her. Hands were under my shirt, lifting it. We parted for long enough to remove it and then were locked back together.

My lips moved down her neck, her chest, and to her breast. My tongue played with the protruding rosebud and it hardened in my mouth.

Our hands found buttons and zippers and we made quick work of removing the rest of the layers between us. We stared a moment at each other, then she smiled and stepped into the shower.

I hesitated for a moment, enjoying the view of the warm water cascading over her. I feel like the luckiest man in the world.

And then the guilt crept in.

My plans to tell Mira the truth about what happened with Celeste, but it didn’t seem right given her state. I shook the thought off tomorrow, and followed her into the shower.

It would have to stay a secret, for now.