Chapter 32: Erick

 

 

 

The next few weeks passed in a whirlwind of morning sickness, swollen feet, and tears. One day Aiden developed a hair-trigger sobbing reflex, seemingly overnight.

"It's the hormones," he explained, frustrated to tears from attempting to reorganize the hallway closet. He also cried at the television when it played a commercial for cat food, and he cried over the apartment being too small for a growing family.

A month into Aiden's gestation, I enlisted Rowan's help in locating the closest dragon's hoard. I knew from the old times that there had been two dragons in North America that were no longer here. Perhaps, like me, they'd grown tired of immortality and retreated to the Wood for eternal sleep. I didn't concern myself too much with their absence.

I only wanted their gold.

Eventually, Rowan triangulated the possible location of a hoard. Leaving Aiden to sleep fitfully late one Saturday night, I flew down to Arizona and searched a network of caves in the low desert landscape. By dawn, I discovered a gigantic stash of Spanish gold. The resulting funds afforded me a house in Southside, just a few blocks away from Sam and Diana's. The papers were signed on a bleak Monday, and we moved in the next morning.

The front lawn was frosted over in ice on that day.

"You really didn't have to come," Aiden kept apologizing to a few Black Paws who had shown up to help.

"What are packmates for, right?" Kaden said. He and Josh were in the process of crab-walking sideways through the front door with a coffee table between them.

"P-packmate?"

"If you want to join us, that is," Kaden said.

Caleb walked out of the living room after dropping off the T.V. "There's a ritual involved—" Aiden flinched "—but it's practically harmless."

I caught Aiden's eye and recognized a flash of longing. He'd had that same look ever since he was reunited with his wolf.

I smiled encouragingly. "Every wolf needs a pack," I said.

The very next night, a pack meeting was called to finally accept Aiden as an official Black Paw.

 

* * *

 

The moon was high and full, like Aiden's growing belly as he stood naked in the woods behind the clubhouse. Rowan was squatting on the ground with an array of jars and pots, all filled with different oils and powders. She dipped a finger into each concoction and painted gleaming stripes across Aiden's skin.

"Are you nervous?" she asked in a light, conversational tone.

Aiden shook out his arms. "A little," he admitted.

"Don't be. The initiation ritual is pretty basic. After that, you'll shift and go on a pack run," Rowan explained.

I gripped Aiden's shoulder. "After this, you'll be part of a real family," I said.

He leaned his head to the side to nuzzle the back of my hand with his cheek. When Rowan wasn't looking, he turned his face to kiss my skin.

"Can't wait to be part of a real family," he said, holding my gaze with a smile. His hand rested on the swell of his lower stomach.

After Aiden was suitably anointed, Rowan and I left him to meditate alone and made our way to the clubhouse. The night was unusually clear and crisp, and it was just cold enough that we couldn't stand to keep still. Rowan puffed out tiny clouds of steam as she pressed through the trees, sweatered arms crossed tightly across her chest with a gloved hand shoved in each armpit. She hunched against the cold, but I welcomed it as I loped easily behind her.

"How is the coven coming along?" I asked.

"It's not a coven," Rowan said automatically, "but to answer your question, it's coming along fine. Sarah and Carla are better witches than I thought, and Eliza taught them a thing or two that I haven't learned yet."

I nodded. "And how is Jimmy taking it?"

Rowan laughed. "He doesn't appreciate that I don't have as much free time as I used to." She pretended to sound bitter, but there were dimples in her smiling cheeks when the trees opened up over our heads.

Across the clearing, the barn was abuzz with lively chatter and packed with naked humans.

"It's almost time!" Rowan shouted to the crowd the moment we walked in.

The betas began organizing their packmates into two parallel lines, seemingly by pack rank with Kaden and Caleb at the very end, across from the barn doors. Then, Caleb gave a nod, and everyone began shifting at the same time. By the time Rowan and I took our seats in an out-of-the-way corner, the two lines of humans had transformed into two lines of wolves.

"He should be walking in any second now," Rowan whispered.

Just as she said, Aiden trotted in a moment later. Even in his wolf form, his belly was noticeably swollen, as if he'd swallowed a melon whole. We watched him approach the two lines, where the two lowest-ranked wolves lunged forward to deliver quick bites to his legs.

In that fashion, he proceeded down the aisle while Black Paws on both sides waited their turn to bite him. Eventually, he reached the twin alphas. Their bites would finally seal his membership into the Black Paws. Kaden and Caleb moved together so perfectly that they could've been mirror reflections diving for the back of Aiden's scruffy neck.

Once the alphas' bites were given, a howl cracked through the stillness, and it was time for the pack run.

Wolves streamed out of the barn doors, spilling into the night. The last to leave, Aiden paused in the doorway and looked towards us, as if he were waiting.

"Oh, go on then," Rowan said. With a start, I realized she was talking to me. "You might as well join them."

Feeling a grin coming on, I stood up and stripped down to the skin. Evidently satisfied, Aiden galloped away with his tail held high. I walked after him and shifted at the same time.

By the time I took wing as a dragon, the pack had traveled nearly four ship-lengths. I caught up to them easily. They howled distantly below, their voices rising up to me like creeping ivy. I turned my head to fix one eye on the ground. The wolves' gray backs peppered the black landscape. Aiden was down there somewhere, his destiny somehow intertwined with mine.