Chapter 31: Aiden

 

 

 

Erick and I spent a delirious two days together in my apartment. We ventured out every once in a while for the bathroom or for a snack, but most of the hours were whiled away in bed. My symptoms weren't so bad just yet, being too early in the pregnancy. I hadn't breathed actual fire since the night in the lab, but my heartburn was out of this world, and every once in a while I found myself burping up a curl of smoke.

Meanwhile, Caleb debriefed Kaden and the rest of the pack about what had happened at the spa. They must've included Rowan in the discussion, because she called me on Thursday morning with some pack business.

"Pack meeting tonight if you're interested," she said. "I'm going to release the animals that Eliza collected."

"Release them how?" I said.

"With a spell. The whole pack is coming to watch."

Thinking about the sixteen individual animal souls gave me a creepy feeling. "Can't we just, like, bury them in the ground or something?" I said. It earned me a fifteen-minute diatribe from Rowan about the integrity of magical souls.

"They're trapped inside boxes, Aiden. How would you like it if someone took your human soul out of your body and put it in a box?"

So that evening, Erick and I finally dragged ourselves out of the warm bed to get ready. I showered and shaved, and Erick spent some time combing knots out of his long hair. I noticed while getting dressed that I was the thinnest that I'd ever been.

"Isn't pregnancy supposed to make you fat?" I asked. While Erick watched from the doorway, I pulled out the front of my jeans and waved my free hand in the space it made.

"Yes, it is," Erick said. His arms were crossed, and there was a look on his face that made my hands and feet tingle with cold sweat.

For the first time since I found out I was pregnant, I wondered if something was wrong.

"Only shifter males can carry babies," Erick said quietly. He didn't elaborate any further, but the look in his eyes said plenty. And you're not a shifter.

For a moment, the room seemed to wobble on an axis. It righted itself when I sat down on the edge of the bed.

"That's true, isn't it?" I said.

Absently, my hand moved to my stomach. The baby that Erick had magically planted inside me was inside somewhere under the flatness. From the back of my mind, the Lady's voice trickled through my mind like the rustling of leaves.

That thing inside you is precious. Make sure it thrives at all costs.

I stared at the carpet, silenced by my own growing dread. Erick walked towards me and placed his hand on the back of my bent neck.

"The child will live," he said firmly, more in determination than in reassurance. "I'll make sure of it."

It comforted me.

"Thank you, Erick," I whispered, and I let him wrap me up in his arms.

 

* * *

 

Rowan pulled a long twig out of her bag. I raised my eyebrows at it.

"Is that a wand?" I asked incredulously.

Rowan froze and glared. "It is," she said stiffly.

Before us, the fire crackled and popped as it chewed up the twigs gathered by the pack's young kids just an hour earlier. Now, those kids were sitting two yards from its edge, their eyes glittering in its warm glow. Erick, Kaden and the betas were on their feet, pacing back and forth, keen eyes fixed on the woods to ensure we had our privacy. Rowan, Caleb and I were standing as close to the fire as we could stand. The Black Paw clubhouse loomed in the distance, blocking the light of the moon.

"The first box, please," Rowan said with a theatrical raising of her arms.

I reached inside the duffel at my feet and pulled out a box that belonged to a Tonya Laramie. As Rowan murmured tonal, ancient words that sounded more like creaking wood than actual language, I handed the box to Caleb, who fed it to the fire.

The flames suddenly flared huge and scarlet. For a brief second, the entire meadow was lit up like daytime, and the faces of the seated packmembers were illuminated in startling detail.

When the fire dimmed back down to its natural size, a silvery shape slithered out from its flames. It looked like smoke at first.

But it clearly wasn't smoke.

It was the spirit of a snow leopard.

Someone gasped. Everybody else was as speechless as the dead.

The snow leopard sat down right in the middle of the fire and regarded us with a look of cool indifference. The eyes were white and endless.

I stifled a shiver.

Rowan murmured some more of her strange words and flicked her wand toward the sky. "Go home," she said in English.

With a flick of its spotted tail, the leopard bounded toward the sky as if ascending a gigantic, invisible staircase. Everybody watched in silent wonder. When the leopard finally disappeared among the stars, Rowan asked for another box, and another, and another, and she spent the next twenty minutes shepherding a wolf, a hawk, and another wolf towards the sky.

"Where are you sending them?" Emma, Sam's preteen, pigtailed daughter asked from the ground. She hugged her knees to her chest, her head still craned back to watch the silvery apparition of a crow flapping away from us.

"I'm not sure. I'm just freeing them," Rowan said. "Maybe they're going to the great beyond. Or maybe they'll go look for their humans."

"How do you know they'll get there?" Emma continued.

"They'll find their way," Rowan assured her, wand still held aloft. She said it so confidently I had to believe her. "Next box, please."

Her free hand was stretched behind her towards Caleb, who in turn angled himself in my direction. I stayed right where I was, frozen, the next box clutched in my fist.

From across the fire, Erick's eyes shimmered, reflecting the fire's light like twin polished mirrors. His lips moved as he muttered something under his breath. I managed to catch some of his voice, only because I happened to be looking at him. It sounded like he'd just said something like, Rowan is the key.

At some point, he caught me staring at him and grinned. Feeling his attention on me filled me with enough courage for what I had to do next.

When nobody handed her a box, Rowan swiveled around. "What's the holdup?"

Now, the entire pack was staring at me. My grip on the box tightened.

"I think I'll keep this one if that's okay. It…it has my name on it," I said.

Caleb lowered his hand, his mouth gone soft as a look of understanding spread across his face. Rowan merely smiled a little bit.

"Sure. Then give me the next one."

I exhaled silently, thankful that nobody was making a big deal out of it.

As the pack continued to watch, Caleb and I continued to pass her boxes, and Rowan continued releasing the animals with each flick of her wand.

The duffel emptied quickly. After an hour, it was completely flat, its emptiness emphasized further when Caleb stomped on it.

"Hey!" Rowan protested.

I laughed as Caleb hurriedly picked up the bag and made a show of dusting it off. The seated packmembers stood up and stretched, filling the clearing with their murmurs as they excitedly recounted what we'd all just witnessed.

"Do you think they'll really go back to their humans? Will they turn back into shifters?" I heard Emma asking her mother, Diana.

"I sure hope so. Maybe if you pray about it tonight, it'll help," Diana said.

In the dying light of the fire, I held my box against my chest.

This is the other half of me, I thought. I reflected on the fact that I was pregnant, but empty. Only shifter males can carry babies…

Erick found his way back to my side. I felt the warmth of his body before the kiss he bumped onto my cheek. He was in the middle of asking to hold my box for me when a shout in the distance made everyone freeze.

All heads turned towards the southern edge of the clearing, where the shout had come from. Mickey and Logan emerged from the trees. Each beta was frogmarching a woman towards us. When they came close enough, I instantly recognized them.

"Carla?" I said, breaking away from Erick. "Sarah? What are you guys doing here?"

"We caught them spying from over there," Logan said, jerking his head back in the direction he'd come from.

At least Carla and Sarah had the decency to look embarrassed about it. It was weird seeing them outside of the spa, and it was especially weird seeing them mixed in with the shifters. When Logan and Mickey released their arms, they gave each other a cautious look.

"Why are you here?" Rowan said. "Eliza's dead."

Around us, the entire pack was watching. Carla cast her gaze from Rowan to Sarah and then to me before directing it at her feet. Sarah cleared her throat and wrapped her cardigan tighter around herself.

"That's right. Eliza's dead, and most of the coven left," Sarah said. "Carla and I are the only ones left."

"Witches are stronger in a coven," Carla added.

"Weak witches, you mean," Rowan said.

Carla's eyebrows shot up, and I felt a deep pit forming in my stomach because I knew that look, from working stressful shifts with her at the spa. Before she got a chance to blow up, though, Sarah butted in.

"I know how it must look. But most of us didn't agree with Eliza. We followed her because she was the most powerful. Now that she's gone, Carla and I just want to get back down to basics. You know, work on our craft. Support each other. Sisterhood…" She trailed off helplessly.

"So start your own coven with all that stuff in mind," Rowan said, beginning to turn away.

Carla jumped forward. "But we need you!"

Rowan hesitated. Noticing this, Sarah added, "With Eliza dead, you're now the most powerful witch in Riverrun. Carla and I need a leader."

The clearing fell silent. Even the young Black Paws playing at the fringe of the gathering stopped to watch and listen.

From the tension in Rowan's posture, I could tell she wanted to turn them away. Having everybody's attention on her was giving her second thoughts.

"We can talk about it in the clubhouse," Rowan finally said.

"The clubhouse?" Carla said, looking apprehensive as she glanced at the shadowy barn.

"It'll be fine, Carla," Josh interjected. He sidled up to us with a toddler hanging off of each hand. "It's just to talk."

Josh and his twin children led the witches toward the clubhouse. Caleb and Liam tailed them. The lights turned on once they disappeared inside. I could see them through the barn doors, rearranging bales of hay into a circular formation so they could sit and chat. The rest of the pack was beginning to splinter off. A dozen conversations about how to get home were happening all around me.

"Kaden's leading a pack run for anybody who's interested," Jimmy announced. He patted my shoulder as he walked past me and Erick. "Everybody's invited."

Erick turned to me and grinned. "I don't think he realized he was talking to you."

My arm was still curled protectively around my box. A breeze blew through the clearing, carrying with it the sound of the Lady's voice.

Make sure it thrives.

"At all costs," I whispered.

"What?" Erick said.

"Nothing." I shook my head and switched my box to the opposite hand. Grinned. "How do you feel about taking a walk with me?"

"I'll always want to walk with you," Erick said, which made me blush in the darkness.

While mothers shepherded their kids towards the parking lot, the rest of the pack gathered around Kaden, preparing to shift for their pack run. Of course, I couldn't join them because I couldn't shift, and they knew that. Nobody said a word when Erick and I broke away to walk into the forest.

The atmosphere seemed to change now that we were alone. The light from the barn and the noise from the clearing faded away, and the darkness of the damp woods encroached upon us. The moon's fierce glow made the shadows look dark and solid enough to grab with our hands. It almost felt like we were in some twilit version of the Wood, just me and Erick.

"You're trembling," Erick said softly. "Is something the matter?"

We stopped walking. The trail under our feet had grown so narrow it was almost useless, so it was a good time to stop. Standing in a wedge of moonlight, I stared down at the box in my hands.

"You said I wouldn't be able to carry this baby as a human," I said numbly.

I could hear the weight of Erick's disbelief in his silence. "What are you saying?" he finally asked, his voice breaking only once.

My eyes flicked up to meet Erick's face. A pattern of a bald tree branch was draped over the top of his head, like lace.

"I have a theory," I began. "I don't think I was ever really cured. I think my soul was divided in half when my wolf was pulled out of me. Now, the missing half of my soul is right here in this box."

Erick took a tentative step forward. I barely heard the dry crunch of pine needles under his boot. "But you hated being a shifter. It reminded you of the worst night of your life," he said gently.

"That's true. But it's not about me anymore." As Erick's gaze fell to my abdomen, I raised my chin. "I'm willing to do whatever it takes to give our baby a chance at life."

"Are you saying you want to go back? To being a shifter?" His tone was sharp with alarm.

"Yes," I said breathlessly. My heart began to pound so fast and hard I could feel it in the soles of my feet. When he opened his mouth, I predicted what he'd say next. Why didn't you get Rowan to help you just a little while ago? Red-faced, I explained quickly, "I didn't want to do this in front of Rowan and the pack. I want to do this in private."

"I understand, Aiden," Erick said

He looked solemn. I felt solemn. Hell, the whole feel of this place was solemn, and serious, and grim. I imagined the rapidly dividing cells in my womb, growing less alive with each moment. I was eager to get things moving, and impatient to become a shifter again.

"What do you have to do?" Erick asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know. I'm just following my instincts."

With blood roaring in my ears, I slid my fingernail under the metal latch of the box. When I couldn't bring myself to flip it open, I handed it off to Erick.

"Just get it over with," I said.

Erick held the box with his arms fully extended, as if he were holding a bundle of dynamite with a ticking alarm clock stuck to it. With one final, hard look at my face, he unlatched it and flipped it open.

I braced myself for another spine-chilling howl, but my wolf floated out without much fanfare, soundless as a cave.

It stood about three feet in front of me and was facing the forest, but its head was swiveled in my direction. Even though I couldn't see its eyes, I could feel it watching me. It made my skin prickle. For the first time in years, I thought about what it had felt like to shift between bodies. How natural it had been.

"Destroy the box," I whispered.

"What? Why?"

I wasn't sure what made me say it, or how I knew. I was just following my instincts. "It doesn't need the box anymore. I'm its home now."

My gaze was fixed on the faintly glowing wolf, but I saw a burst of blazing orange light whipping towards me in my peripheral vision as Erick breathed fire onto the box. Once the flame caught, he threw the burning box onto the ground and coughed.

As the box burned, the wolf seemed more solid around the edges, changing from smoke to cream. It was still watching me.

"Aiden?" Erick said softly.

Something tugged at me from the bottom of my stomach. The pull of instinct. The wolf flicked its ears in my direction, then took a step towards me. All I could do was raise my arms, ready to catch it, just as my instincts told me to do.

The wolf cantered. Then, it ran. The grass under its paws remained straight and unblemished as it bounded over it, closing the distance between us until all I could see was its whiteness.

I flinched the moment I expected impact, but none came. When I opened my eyes, the wolf was gone, I felt completely normal, and Erick was as rigid as a board.

I patted myself with my hands. Everything was as it had been before the box was opened. My bones were all in the same place. My skin was still humanly smooth. I glanced up at the sky, wondering if the wolf had gone in that direction.

"What happened?" I asked.

"The wolf disappeared into you," Erick said. "It was like watching a snowflake melting onto the back of your hand."

My hands were still pressed flat against my front. My heart was racing, and I needed a few more seconds to catch my breath. A few feet away, the wooden box was reduced to a vaguely rectangular pile of smoking black carbon.

"Do you feel different?" Erick asked. He moved as if he wanted to touch me but hesitated.

"I don't know," I said honestly.

Was the wolf truly inside me? Did that mean that I could shift like before?

I closed my eyes and listened to my body. Under the tick of my heartbeat and the dry hushing sound of my breaths, I felt it.

My wolf.

It was there, suspended inside of me. The moment my consciousness touched it, it was like a dam had burst, and I felt all its power raging through my veins.

My entire body quaked. My hands were shaking so bad I couldn't even take off my clothes.

"I can't stop it!" I said through my clenched teeth.

Erick grabbed my wrists. He gave me a firm jerk until I was finally meeting his eyes.

"It's okay," he said, pushing his face closer to mine. "Just let it go. I'm here. I'm here…."

My ribs and shins cracked, forcing me to my knees. Erick walked backwards away from me, giving me space as my body shifted for the first time in years. As I gazed down at my hands in the dirt, they began to grow fur, claws, hardened pads, and extra joints. Soon, they weren't recognizable as hands at all.

My human clothes were weighing down on my fur, making me itch. I stepped out of my jeans and shook off my shirt.

When I searched for Erick's face among the scenery, I couldn't help but notice how the forest around me came alive with rich detail. I could hear the mouse rustling in the bushes straight ahead, feasting on a crackly beetle. I smelled the smells of the mountain: animal pheromones, damp earth, and a million varieties of flora and fauna. When I finally found Erick standing under a red-leafed maple tree, the features of his face appeared sharp and alive to my new wolf eyes.

Suddenly, Erick began tearing off his clothes.

My ears pricked up.

What are you doing? I wanted to say, but I forgot that I couldn't speak. All that came out was a long, undulating whine.

"Follow me," a now-naked Erick said. His body as perfect and unblemished as milk, he stepped out into the moonlight and shifted faster than I thought possible.

He grew…and grew, until he was as large as a house. And during his growing, iridescent scales covered his entire body, and huge wings of bone and webbed skin erupted from his back. Within seconds, the Erick I knew was gone.

What remained was a beautiful and terrifying dragon.

Erick made a low, rumbling sound every time he breathed. It seemed to vibrate down his sturdy legs to shake the ground. I flattened myself, dually in awe of and petrified by his enormous, spade-like head. When he stretched out his wings, the entire world was plunged into shadow.

With a great whoosh, Erick lifted off and flew west. His wings made chopping noises in the air like a helicopter. I had to sprint to keep up with him, and it was so easy. My legs were like coiled springs. There was so much power in my body that I could've run miles and miles and all night long if I really wanted.

But the only thing I wanted in the primordial, hindbrain of my wolf's mind was to follow my mate.

My dragon.

It only took ten minutes for Erick to lead me to the Black Paws. I heard them before I saw them as flashes of white-gray between the trees.

My pack, I thought. My chest inflated at the sight of them. I'd never had a pack before.

Erick rotated his head, and I got the impression that he was looking over his steep, scaly shoulder to make sure I was there. He brought me here on purpose, I realized.

In the valley below me, the pack was spread out, soft and gray against the dark landscape.

I stopped on the hillside and howled.

 

* * *

 

 

Later that night, Erick and I made feverish love with all the windows open, so the crisp and wet scent of the outdoors could permeate my apartment. He was on top of me and between my legs, each one of my ankles hooked over his shoulder for better access to my tight heat.

When he pushed my legs back, I could still feel the ache from the hours-long pack run. Flashes of imagery zigzagged through my mind as he brutally thrusted himself deep and hard into me. The playful nips from the other wolves as I scampered into the valley. Caleb and Kaden and their identical, wolfish grins. The rising chorus of howls while Erick soared a quarter-mile above us, screaming fire.

Thinking about the powerful dragon hidden inside of him filled me up with an unexpected wave of tenderness. In the darkness, I reached for Erick's face. Half of it was carved out by the moonlight. I felt his breath on my thumb just before my fingers reached his hair. I pulled the strands away from his face and held it in a loose grip at the crown of his head.

"I think this is my favorite position," I said.

I caught the flash of Erick's grin in the light of the moon. "Good," he growled. Digging his fingers to my fleshy hips, he sank all his weight into me.

An animalistic scream tore out of me as his girth forced my hole to stretch wider. His cock was buried so deep that his hipbones were cutting into my ass cheeks. I grabbed his hair even tighter and pulled. Erick grunted with surprise.

"Tell me now," he said, his voice low and rough like whisky, "if you want me to be gentle."

"I don't want you to be gentle," I blurted out.

The last thing I recalled was Erick lifting his arm to grab the edge of the headboard, his thick bicep partially blocking my view of his face. After that came a full minute of biting, blinding pleasure as Erick fucked me hard enough to break bones. My screams—equal parts fear and ecstasy—throbbed in my ears as Erick assaulted my asshole with his dangerously stiff cock.

He was hurting me, and it felt good.

I was buzzing, floating on a cloud from all the adrenaline in my system. Erick moaned above me, hips pumping furiously while I gripped his silky hair like reins. My own cock was a turgid, shuddering mess as it bounced on my stomach with Erick's movements. After a while, Erick paused to catch his breath.

"Get on top," he finally rasped.

My ass was sore and aching when I got up, but it was a satisfying feeling. It meant that my mate was fucking me hard and good with all the weight of his love for me. Eager to show him how much I loved him back, I straddled his hips and rode him like a bucking bronco.

His head was crushed against the pillow. His eyes were closed in surrender. I studied his beautiful face, his hard chest, and his taut stomach as I drove my hips up, down, back, and forth, rubbing him up against every tender nook and cranny of my asshole. My calves burned from the effort, but it felt too good to stop. I wrapped my fist around my cock and jerked myself, keeping time with the hitch of my hips.

Erick muttered something in another language.

"What?" I said.

"Nothing," he said in English. He thrust upward to stab his cock into me.

I threw my head back and moaned. My fist twisted faster and faster around my shaft.

My nipples were tingling more than usual. When Erick reached up to brush his fingertips over them, I felt a sudden explosion of rapture. A few more pumps was all it took for me to reach orgasm.

I came loudly. My asshole twitched and pulsed. I stroked my cock twice before cum streamed out from the tip. Erick grabbed my hips and tried to lift me off of him. I just slammed my ass back down onto his column.

"But the child—"

"I want it, Erick," I said. I was still coming, like a rolling ball that slowed as it lost its momentum. I bit my lip as I bounced on him, begging his cock to give me what I wanted. That knot…

Erick's eyes fluttered shut. He said some more words that I didn't understand. Then, his entire body tensed up, and he finally climaxed. A few seconds after filling my cavity with his rich cum, the knot bloomed out of the base of his shaft. Shivering with delight, I pressed close to him.

"My nipples are so sensitive," I whispered, brushing my chest across his. Testing me, he gently pinched one between his thumb and index finger, making my entire body jump.

"Mmm, so delicate," Erick said, and he soothed my aching nipple by caressing it with his thumb. His cock was still knotted inside me.

I looped my arms around his neck. "What language you were speaking, anyway?"

Erick raised his pale eyebrows. "I was speaking another language?"

I grinned. "Yes, you silly man."

Chuckling, Erick kissed my nose. "Old Norse." He let his head fall back on the pillow and sighed. "I didn't even know I could still speak it. Sex with you has resulted in all sorts of miracles, it seems."

The movement of his Adam's apple caught my eye. I pressed my lips to it, and then the very tip of my tongue, tasting the salt off its peak. Erick's hands drifted lazily down my back.

"We won't be able to fuck like that for much longer," I said with a wistful sigh, resting my cheek on his chest. "Pretty soon, I'll be massive."

"And soon after that, we'll have a baby," Erick said, reminding me that in the end, all of these changes would be worth it.

He wrapped his arms around me and held me close. I rose and fell on top of his belly as he breathed, like a boat on a calm sea. Even when I drifted off to sleep, his hard knot remained, locking both of us together.