CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

 

 

“I’ve had it up to my ears with those lame-os!” Nat shouted, slamming her hands on the steering wheel.

“We just need to be patient,” Kaya asserted from her place draped across the backseat like a cat. The three girls had just come from the archery range where Sarah had given both of them a rigorous lesson. Now they were driving back into town and Nat was getting herself all riled up. “They’ll come around and tell us what’s going on at some point or another. They never hide stuff from us usually. And I’m telling Elizabeth that you called her a lame-o.”

“No!” Nat whirled on her sister, making the car swerve. “She’ll dock me dessert for a month.”

“Don’t threaten your lunatic sister while our lives are in her hands,” Sarah said to Kaya as she lunged for the steering wheel to straighten the car out.

Natalie batted Sarah’s hands away and glared at her. “I might be a lunatic, but my hands are very capable.”

“I still don’t understand why this hurts your feelings so much, Nat.”

“Well,” Natalie sucked on her bottom lip, obviously trying to think of a way to answer Sarah’s question. “Did you know that the boys are all adopted?”

Sarah nodded. “Seth explained about that a few weeks ago.”

“Right… well, Elizabeth is the kind of person, the kind of mother, who can make you feel like you belong. She sort of creates family wherever she goes.”

“She’s really sweet?” Sarah guessed.
Kaya snorted from the backseat. “Hell no, the woman is a total hardass. But in a good way. She expects the best from the people she loves. But if you do your best, no matter what the outcome is, she’s totally on your side.”

Sarah was quiet for moment. “Sounds like you two love her like a parent.”

Kaya was quiet but Natalie nodded vehemently. “We do. We’ve known her for two decades now. And she was always very stable. Our parents are…”

“Assholes,” Kaya chimed in from the backseat. “Complete and utter assholes.”

“They’re complicated people,” Natalie said by way of agreement. “Our house was not a wholesome place to grow up in. We spent every second we could at the Durants’ house. As soon as Kaya turned eighteen, we moved into our own place and still spent every second we could at the Durants' house.”

“What Nat is saying is that we’re really not used to getting cut out of their family. And not seeing them or getting invited over for such a long time, it’s a little hard not to take it personally.”

Sarah thought for a long moment. That all made sense to her, and she felt for the girls. But she also wondered if maybe it all had to do with whatever Seth’s secret was. Maybe something really was going on with them.

“Do you guys usually wait for an invitation? Or do you just go over?”

“We usually just go over there for Sunday dinner.”

Sarah looked at her phone. “Well, it’s almost time for dinner. On a Sunday. Why don’t you drop me off at my house and then head over there and see what’s cooking?”

“Great idea!” Nat said.

“Bad idea,” Kaya said at the exact same moment. “Nat, they want privacy right now, for some reason or another, and the least we can do is give it to them.”

“Well, we won’t crash the whole dinner, we’ll just drop off the pot pie I made this morning and bounce. They’ll barely even know we were there.”

“Hold up!” Kaya whirled around to look in the trunk. “There’s a chicken pot pie in the trunk of this fucking car, Natalie?”

Nat said nothing. Sarah merely watched the drama play out.

“Nat! You baked that pie this morning, put it in your trunk and were just innocently driving it around town? Have you been planning this the whole time?”

“Oh, don’t make it sound so sinister. I’m dropping off food! Everybody loves to have free food dropped off.”

“Don’t turn down their road, Nat. Don’t do it, you psycho! This is nuts! Give them space!”

“Oh, don’t give me this holier than thou crap, Kaya. If you weren’t so scared of seeing Jackson, you’d be banging down their door along with me.”

“Hold on, are we going there right now?” Sarah looked around, watching the car speed through the woods. “I’m really not invited to this house. Seth has never even mentioned me meeting his mother. There’s no way I’m just barging in.”

“See? This is insane! Nat, turn around.”

“If you two don’t want to come in, you can just wait in the car! See? Simple as that. We all get what we want that way.”

Sarah watched in muted amazement and horror as Natalie skidded neatly into the driveway of a very secluded log-cabin-style house. If her heart hadn’t been beating so hard, she might have noticed that it was a very beautiful place to grow up in. With the arcing, tall pines and the flowering bushes lining the house, the tree swing out front. But she was too flummoxed by Nat’s behavior to do more than pull her phone out of her pocket.

“I’m definitely staying in the car.” She opened a text and immediately sent a message to Seth.

-Natalie’s lost her mind and is storming the castle right now (your mom’s house). But I didn’t want to intrude so I’m waiting in the car. Just thought I’d let you know.

“Me too,” Kaya agreed. And they both watched as Natalie shook her perfect little ass all the way up the front porch, pot pie in hand.

 

 

***

 

 

“Nat thinks we’re avoiding her and Kaya,” Raphael told the family at Sunday dinner.

Elizabeth sighed. “Well, we haven’t been spending very much time with the girls lately. And never once at the house since…”

She trailed off. They all knew what she meant. Since Bauer had come into their lives.

The older man chuckled humorlessly and set his fork on the edge of the plate. “You want me to be somewhere else for a couple of hours a few times a week, I can do it. You can have your friends over. I won’t stand in the way of that.”

“I don’t understand why we can’t just introduce them to Bauer,” Raph said candidly.

Bauer’s eyes grew wide and wary.

“Seriously,” Raph shrugged. “They already know that we’re shifters. They’ve known since we were all kids. That ship sailed a long time ago. And they’ve never had a problem keeping the secret. Why can’t we just invite them over, introduce everyone and get it all out in the open?”

Bauer leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Just because,” Jackson said in a low voice, “they happen to already know the truth about us doesn’t mean we should compound it by giving them more information punishable by prison time, Raphael. Besides, I don’t think Bauer is comfortable letting just anyone in on who and what he is.” 

All eyes turned to Bauer and he was quiet for a long minute. “Raphael, I’m sorry that this is causing a rift between you and your friends, but Jackson is right. I’ll never, ever tell anyone—besides another shifter—what I am ever again. It’s too much risk. For everyone involved. People can have the best of intentions, be unbelievably loyal, but the government has ways of making even the most loyal of friends talk. And then you end up in an internment camp and she ends up in prison. It’s not worth it.”

Chastened, Raphael pushed food around his plate like a little kid. “It just feels weird to keep a secret from them, is all.”

“Like I said, I can disappear anytime you want to invite them over. I’m not trying to ruin your lives here, boys. I—” Bauer cut off for a moment. “I’d like to make your lives better if I could. You’re good boys.”

There was a strange, light silence that fell over the group. It was still strange for all of them to be seated at their mother’s dinner table with a man there as well. And then to have that man express affection for the boys, no matter how gruff it might be? Seth wasn’t the only one shifting uncomfortably at the table.              

“That’s a good idea,” Elizabeth said after a minute. “I’ll invite the girls over this week and Bauer can take a walk in the woods. Can you all be here? Maybe on Wednesday?”

Raphael nodded and Jackson grunted. Seth said nothing.

“Seth?” his mother asked.

He pursed his lips. He really didn’t want to commit to any plan that didn’t involve Sarah. “I’m not sure yet.”

“You’re busy?”

“Oh, Seth’s been very busy. He’s been busy all night lon—”

Seth flicked Raphael on the ear hard enough to make his brother squeak like a little girl.

Elizabeth looked wryly between them. “I take it there’s a new girl in your life?”

Seth nodded. “I just started seeing her. Sarah. She’s the neighbor I told you about. The one I helped get her house together.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me, Seth.” Jackson was glowering at him across the table.

“What?”

“I thought you’d decided to stay away from her. For her own good. For your own good.”

“I—things changed, Jacks.”

“Things changed how?” Jackson’s voice was getting lower and more ominous.

“You need me to spell it out for you? We got together. We’re not just friends anymore. There’s feelings there.”

“Seth, God. Why are you making this so hard?” Jackson shoved his food away from him. “You knew what was going to happen if you indulged this little crush. And now all of us have to deal with it!”

“Deal with what?” Raphael asked, his mouth full again. “Jeez, Jacks, you’re such a drama queen. So what if Seth wants to get his dick we—” Raphael swallowed hard and glanced nervously at his mother. “Wants to date around with a cute girl. Who cares? You’re so uptight. Why would that put any of us in danger?”

“No,” Seth cut in. “Jackson is right. I mean, what he’s sensing is accurate. It’s more than that. It’s more than casual. I’m in love with her.”

Elizabeth sucked in a breath and Seth knew that if he looked up, her face would be white. All those years of protecting her boys were about to go up in smoke. But when he finally looked at his mother, there were tears in her eyes, and a small smile on her lips. “Oh, Sethy.” She reached across the table and gripped his hand. “Oh, Seth, I’m so happy for you.”

“Happy for him?” Jackson’s eyes were bugging with emotion. “Happy? Ma, don’t you realize what he’s really saying? He’s going to want to tell her. If he loves her, he’s going to want to make a life with her. He’s going to expose her and us all at once. Putting everyone in danger. And you’re happy for him?”

“Oh my God,” Seth scraped a hand over his face. “I’m so sick of all the things I can’t have. Or can never have. I’m so sick of hiding who I am and running from it and fearing it. I’m so sick of living a sick little secret every month. You won’t be happy until we’re all chained up in the basement. Isn’t that what you want, Jackson? You want all of us to die alone and harmless? You want all of us to be just as sterile and controlled as you are?”

Jackson’s nostrils flared in and out and his eyes were squinted down in high emotion. At Seth’s side, Bauer slowly stood from his chair.

“Don’t make this about me, Seth. Don’t make this about whatever buried issues you have about me being your older brother. Don’t make this a family thing. Didn’t you just hear what Bauer said? Are you deaf? Telling her is too much risk, Seth. For us. For her. For you!” Jackson put his head in his hands, gripped his hair.

“Jackson!” Elizabeth was standing. “Hold on, now. That’s not fair. Seth is allowed to date a girl he’s interested in. He’s allowed to live his life the way he sees fit. There’s no law against that.”

“No,” Jackson roared, standing too. Seth had never seen his brother this raw, this angry, this fired up. “Not when it puts the rest of us in danger. And her in danger as well. It’s our job,” he inhaled hard, his eyes dilating and contracting. “It’s our duty, to hide ourselves away. And that includes our fucking feelings. We cannot inflict ourselves on other people. It’s too dangerous!”

By the last word he was at top volume, his voice terrifyingly shredded. Seth watched in muted horror as Jackson’s body cracked forward.

He knew what was happening. His brother was shifting.

Holy God. Jackson was shifting outside of the full moon for the first time in his life.

“Jackson!” Bauer shouted. “Meditate, breathe, calm down. Anything. Picture the sky, Jackson. You’re at the bottom of the ocean. Listen to the sound of the water against your ears.”

But it was too late. Jackson’s bones were cracking, his teeth elongating, fur was rising from his skin.

“GET HIM OUTSIDE!” Raphael shouted.

Seth lunged forward and ripped Jackson’s shirt over his head before he grabbed a shoulder and started hauling his brother out the back door. Normally, the shift would be over by now, but obviously Jackson was fighting it because he was still doubled over in pain, his bones cracking and reshaping one by one.

Raph and Seth dragged Jackson into the backyard, yanking his shoes and pants off and then getting the hell away from the snapping, growling, fully irate wolf in front of them.

Tears instantly sprang to Seth’s eyes. It had been years since he’d seen Jackson’s wolf. He was bigger now. More stately. More deadly. Seth and Raphael were reddish wolves, with gray and white hues here and there. But Jackson was a perfect, snowy white. His eyes were the same dark as they were when he was human. But there was nothing human in this wolf’s face. He looked wild, vicious and dangerous.

“Elizabeth, get your bear spray,” Bauer said in a low voice.

“What? No! I’m not macing my son,” she said, her voice just as passionate as Jackson’s had been moments ago.

“Ma, do it!” Seth shouted as Jackson’s wolf came forward a few steps, snapping his jaws and growling at his family.

He heard the door slam and then shouting. Jackson’s wolf looked out of his mind, red-eyed, furiously spitting and growling, his posture that of attack.

Seth was terrified that Jackson was going to attack them, but he was even more terrified that his brother was going to sprint off into the woods and disappear. Who knew how long it would be until he could shift back into his human form? Who knew what he could do to himself or others in the meantime?

“Son,” Bauer said, limping forward, his wound still bothering him. He held his hands out to Jackson, as if he were a lion tamer. “I know you can hear me. Try to concentrate on my words. You might not be able to piece the English together, but hear my meaning. Just try.”

Bauer took a few steps forward.

“You’re a good man, Jackson. You’re not a dangerous person. You’re not a dangerous soul. You can come back from this. You just need to get control. You just need to get your temper down.”

Jackson growled more, baring all his teeth, shaking his head from side to side as if he were trying to free himself from a bee.

The wolf’s eyes flicked behind Seth and he growled at Elizabeth, who was holding the mace in one hand. She didn’t tremble, but she looked heartbroken as she stepped up to Jackson.

“I don’t want to do this.”

“We have to, Ma. We have to incapacitate him.”

“Oh, shit,” a voice said from behind them.

They all whirled to see Natalie standing on the back porch, a pie on the ground where she’d just dropped it. “Is that Jackson? What’s happening? It’s not the full moon.”

The wolf growled more, snapping his jaws and taking a step toward them.

“Why are you here, Nat?” Raphael said, positioning himself between Nat, his mother, and Jackson.

“We just came by to drop off some food.”

“We?” Seth’s stomach dropped to his toes. “Who else is here?”

But Natalie didn’t get a chance to answer because just then, from around the corner of the house, Kaya and Sarah came running, extremely concerned looks on their faces. They must have heard the shouting.

Running up behind any wild animal is a bad idea. But running up behind a very angry, very on-edge wolf is even worse.

Jackson whirled at the movement, at the intruders. And before they could yell, before Elizabeth could uncap the mace, before the girls could even register the fact that they were seeing a wolf, that wolf was sprinting toward them.

Teeth bared, a horrible noise emanating from his chest as he ate up the ground. He was going to attack them.

Instantly, Seth was running forward with one thought in his mind.

Sarah.

Sarah. Sarah. Sarah. Sarah. Sarah. Sarah. Sarah. Sarah. Her name blurred into something that wasn’t even English. It sounded nothing like her name. As he sprinted, the world blurring around him, her name blurred too—it was no longer a word, it was a feeling. He was sprinting toward love. Toward mate. He was sprinting toward protection. Toward instinctive, desperate care for her. He would do anything to take care of her.

The world blurred, Seth was thirty feet away from them, twenty-five, closing in on Jackson. Seth was dimly aware of his clothing constricting him, he was dimly aware of pain, of venom in his veins. But nothing overrode his need to get to Sarah. To protect his mate at all costs. Nothing.

Seth was ten feet from Jackson and Jackson was ten feet from Sarah and Kaya. The women were frozen in fear, everything happening way too fast for them to process. Seth wasn’t going to make it in time. He pushed himself faster, his eyes zeroing in on Sarah.

He realized her eyes were zeroed in on him as well. She was staring at him in something like complete and utter shock, but he didn’t have time to register it, because Jackson was almost to them.

Mate. Mate. Mate.

The need to protect his mate pounded through Jackson’s body, propelled by mad desire and instinct and love. Jackson was less than four feet from the women when Seth launched his body at his brother and crashed bodily into him, rolling him hard to the side.

It was then that Seth registered his paws. He snapped his teeth, licking his canines. His tail counterbalanced him as he rolled and skidded out, his claws digging into the soil for purchase as the two brothers came to face one another, Jackson’s wolf rounding on Seth’s.

Seth’s wolf dissolved all thoughts and concentrated only on Jackson. He saw, in the corner of his eye, Sarah and Kaya sprint away to the front porch, out of the immediate danger zone, but then his focus was back on Jackson. Back on the wolf in front of him.

Jackson lunged and the brothers rolled again, scratching and biting at one another, their growls monstrously loud. Seth yelped when Jackson’s mouth closed on his side, drawing blood and pain right out of him.

Jackson jumped back, his teeth red with his brother’s blood and that’s when Seth saw it. The rage disappeared into something like horror in Jackson’s eyes. Something human flickered across Jackson’s gaze.

And then the white wolf turned and sprinted into the forest. Seth didn’t hesitate. He wanted to stay with Sarah, to ensure the safety of his mate. But he couldn’t leave his brother alone in the forest like this. Alone and filled with self-hatred and shifted and dangerous. Seth sprinted after Jackson, the two wolves swallowed up in the gloaming burn of the evening.

 

***

 

 

Seth woke up, naked, freezing and in a pile of leaves as the sun rose in the far sky. His body was convulsing with shivers, but at first glance around, he was lucky to recognize where he was. Not more than a mile from his mother’s house.

Snapshots of the night before roiled in Seth’s head and he groaned. Jackson’s rage. His unexpected shift. And then Seth’s even more unexpected shift. The fight. Sarah’s face. The sprint through the woods.

The two wolves had run for at least an hour before they’d tired. They were no longer fighting with one another. When they turned back, walking slowly in the direction of their mother’s house, both wolves had done so with dread and fear in their hearts.

Seth knew what had weighed heavily on Jackson without even asking. He’d been out of control. A mad animal. And he’d raced forward to attack two innocent humans. One of whom was Kaya, for fuck’s sake. Seth could only imagine how much that would have horrified his brother.

The dread in Seth’s heart was a bit more complicated than that. Not only did Sarah now know everything, she’d seen it with her own eyes. She’d seen Seth shift, she’d seen him fight. She’d seen him leave. He had no idea at all how she was taking this news. He’d left before he could register anything other than blind shock on her face.

Would she let him in when he came knocking at her door later that morning? Would she turn from him? Would she be able to touch him again?

Seth fought to his feet, wincing against the cold that enveloped him.

“Easy.”

Jackson’s voice had Seth turning. His brother shivered where he leaned against a tree, his head down.

“You’re injured.”

Seth looked down and saw the line of bite marks over his ribs. They were puncture wounds with a fair amount of bruising. But they didn’t hurt that much. They didn’t even look like they’d bled all that much. Seth tested the area with his fingers and shrugged. “Let’s get back to the house and then you can stitch me up.”

Jackson blinked at him, still sitting in the dirt. “You’d want me to stitch you up?”

Seth was confused. He reached down to help his brother stand but Jackson didn’t take his hand. “Of course.”

Jackson stared at his brother’s extended hand. “But I’m the one who hurt you. I’m the one who attacked you. And tried to attack—” he cut off when his voice broke. He dropped his head in his hands. “How could you possibly want me near you?”

Seth was fresh out of patience. “Jackson. You’re my fucking brother. You broke my wrist pile-driving me into the ground in third grade. You’ve given me seven hundred purple nurples in my life. I don’t see how this is any different.”

“You don’t see how this is different? Seth, I was out of control. I attacked you in anger.”

“So, go to fucking therapy, Jackson. I don’t know. I love you. I’m freezing my cajones off out here and I want to go home. With you.”

Jackson still looked uncertain.

“Jacks, yes, you attacked me last night. But you know what else you did? When I was exhausted and wounded and couldn’t go any farther last night, you laid down next to me. Right there. In the dirt. You are not a wild animal, okay? You kept me warm while I was injured. You stayed with me. Right there. Now get the hell up and walk home with me. Apologize to Kaya and Sarah and stitch me up. You’re not helping anyone if you just lie down and die out here, okay?”

Jackson still didn’t look convinced but he took Seth’s hand and the two of them stood, starting to make their way down the mountain.

It wasn’t more than fifty degrees in the shade, but each patch of sun they stepped through was warm. They were still butt naked and freezing cold and hoping they didn’t run into anyone.

Halfway down the mountain, Jackson froze. He tugged Seth into a stand of pines and they crouched down in some brush.              

Seth’s blood froze when a few moments later, two hunters came into their view. They were studying the ground. Studying tracks.

Seth recognized them. They were the men who’d shot at them the last full moon. And they were the men who’d been at the CTAARUS meeting.

“Wolf tracks for sure,” one of them murmured.

“I saw them last night. They were much further up the mountain. Running together. Went right past my deer stand up there by the creek.” The man speaking was the one called Race. Small and cruel-faced, he stared down at the tracks.

“Running together?”

“Yeah.”

“Gray wolves?”

“One was a red. And the other was dead white.”

“A white wolf? Jesus. I haven’t seen one of them in…”

“I know. I’m gonna get it. Once I rid these hills of shifters. I’m going after the white wolf.”

“You don’t think they were shifters, do you?”

The man was quiet for a moment. “I’ve heard rumors that some shifters can control their shifts. That they can shift anytime. So, you never know. I’ve never seen two wolves act like that before. Maybe so.”

“You think they live around here?”

The man’s eyes swept over the brush where Seth and Jackson hid.

“Maybe so.”

And then they were up, tracking through the hills, further up the mountain.

 

 

***

 

 

Sarah was pretty surprised that she’d been able to sleep. But she woke up the following morning to commotion downstairs. She’d slept soundly, without any dreams, and she had no confusion when her eyes came open. She knew exactly where she was and what had just happened to her.

She was in the guest room at Seth’s mother’s house. Actually, from the look of things, she was in Seth and Raphael’s childhood room. Natalie and Kaya slept in one bed and Sarah slept in the other.

She guessed she was in Seth’s bed because there were a few neat art prints on the wall beside her and on the wall beside the bed where the sisters slept, there were a hundred wrinkled magazine tear-outs of half-naked women. Yeah. That was definitely where Raph slept.

Sarah sat up, listening to the sounds of voices downstairs.

She heard Elizabeth, Seth’s mother. And Raphael. She heard the voice of the older man who no one had introduced her to.

And then… yup, that was Seth’s voice.

All the hairs on her arms stood up as she vaulted out of bed.

She paused in the bathroom just long enough to pee, wash her face and scrub some toothpaste on her teeth with a fingertip.

And then she was taking the stairs two by two and straight into the kitchen.

She skidded to a halt at what she saw in front of her. Seth sitting on the kitchen table, shirtless, dirty and wincing as Jackson bent over him with a surgical needle, stitching up his side.

She just had time to register the pained, trepidatious look on Seth’s face before she was jogging forward.

“You’re back,” she said breathlessly as she hopped up onto the table beside Seth, on her knees. Mindful of the fact that he was getting stitches, she carefully laced her arms around his neck and jammed her cheek against his. She felt hot tears sliding down her face but didn’t care. Sarah pressed kiss after kiss to his brow, his ear, his hair. “You’re back. I’m so glad you’re back. I was so worried. Your mother told me not to worry, that you could survive in the woods even if you were gone for days, but I’m so glad you’re back.”

Only silence greeted her. After a second, Sarah brought her head back to see a room full of people staring at her.

Jackson and Bauer were staring at her skeptically, as if they figured she’d suffered some kind of closed head injury and that was the reason for her behavior. Elizabeth was staring at her happily, hopefully. Raphael’s face just looked confused. And Seth was staring at her as if he didn’t dare let himself believe her reaction.

“What?” she asked the room.

“You’re… hugging him,” Jackson said after a minute.

“Yes,” Sarah replied slowly, as if it were obvious. “He’s my boyfriend.”

“I’m your boyfriend?”

Sarah turned to Seth with a little frown on her face. “I mean, sure, I guess we haven’t defined things, but isn’t that what all of this means? All the feelings? The time spent together? The everything?”

She’d posed it like a question, but really, she was telling him. And honestly, she was starting to get a little irritated at him. She pulled back from him a bit, scowling.

“Don’t you dare act like I’m a clinger when you know as well as I do that this hasn’t been casual, Seth.”

He suddenly burst into laughter. “Sarah, I haven’t been able to pretend this was casual, even to myself, since that first night. I’m not trying to say that you’re moving things too fast or something. I’m surprised that you want me to be your boyfriend. I’m confused because you found out I’m a wolf shifter, in the most dramatic way possible, yet you’re sitting here, kissing my eyebrows and telling me how worried about me you were.”

Her irritation hadn’t subsided. “It was obviously a shock, because I hadn’t expected it. But I already knew you had some sort of monumental secret. And, if you’ll remember, you’re not the first shifter I’ve ever known or loved. So, duh, I was worried about you. I love you.”

Raphael looked thrilled while Seth looked slightly shocked.

“You… love me.”

Sarah wasn’t easily embarrassed, but she was very conscious of all the people staring at them.

“We’re both speaking English, right?” she asked him, finally taking her hands from around his neck and putting them on her hips. “I feel like you’re having trouble understanding me.”

He still had that sort of terrified look on his face. “Sarah… I’ve placed a ridiculous burden on your shoulders. You have to decide if you want to keep my secret. If—”

She resisted the urge to slap some sense into him. “Seth! Are you joking? I would never, ever give up your secret. I saw what happened to Simon. I kept his secret happily until he was outed and sent away. I’d never condemn you to a place like that.”

“But what if you have to lie, Sarah? In a court of law? That’s perjury.”

She thought for a second, considering Seth, considering their time together, considering his heart that she could feel banging against her palm.

“Let’s just get married, then,” she said with a shrug.

A feather dropped in that room would have sounded like cannon fire.

“Um. What?” Raphael was the first person to speak, and he did so while scrubbing a finger in his ear like he was fishing for seawater.

“Married people aren’t legally obligated to divulge information that could incriminate their spouse. If I were ever interrogated, I would have to be careful about what I said, but I wouldn’t necessarily be convicted of perjury.”

“She’s right about that,” Jackson said after a moment.

“Okay. Wait a second.” Seth held up a hand and then winced when it tugged at the wounds Jackson was still connected to with string and needle. “Jacks, could you please shake a leg and get me stitched up? It doesn’t have to be a work of art, just close the damn wounds.” He shook his head as if to clear it. “Sarah, you love me and want to marry me and don’t care that I’m a shifter?”

“Yes, yes, and correct.”

“I…” he looked around at the room. “Could we have a private minute?”

Sarah looked around at the whole family and realized that even Kaya and Natalie were standing in the kitchen doorway.

For a moment, she thought they were going to say no, but then everyone started filing out. Elizabeth stopped and kissed Seth on the side of the head and then shocked Sarah by kissing her, too.

Last to leave was Jackson. He finished stitching up Seth, looked like he was going to say something to Sarah, but then turned and left instead.

Seth frowned after him. “He owes you an apology for almost attacking you last night.”

“Obviously. Hey, I really like your mom.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. She was so composed last night. And she basically put all three girls to bed. She made us some dinner, tea, assured us that everything was all right and shut the lights off. It was incredible.”

There was another quiet moment while Seth rearranged himself so that his legs hung off the side of the kitchen table. “Sarah, I don’t want you to marry me just because you feel compelled to protect me.”

Irritation flared within her again.

He held up a hand when he saw it on her face. “I just needed to say that out loud,” he told her.

“Seth, you love me, right? Because it really seems like you love me.”

His eyes dilated a little as he slipped a hand around her waist. “I loved you almost immediately. Even before I knew I did. You’re the easiest person to love I’ve ever met.”

“Great! So, let’s get married.”

Seth laughed and shook his head at her. “Somehow I thought this was going to go differently.”

“You thought I’d run screaming from the house and turn you into the authorities?”

“No. I didn’t think you’d do that. I’ve known for a while that you would never turn me in. I guess… Sarah, I’m not altogether tame. I can’t really control my shift. It could be dangerous or scary for you.”

“We’ll get used to it, Seth. And I’ll buy some tranquilizer darts for my bow. I’m a great shot. You’ll never know what hit you.”

Seth laughed, like the thought had never occurred to him. “I’m not a soft, furry ferret shifter, Sarah. I’m a wolf.”

“A very pretty wolf. You looked so handsome.”

“We haven’t known each other very long. What if we fight all the time and get sick of each other and want a divorce?”

“Well, we don’t have to get married today. Let’s wait a while and get used to each other first. At least we know it’s an option, right?”

“I’ve never thought marriage was in the cards for me.”

“Dying alone is overrated.”

He laughed. “Should I propose? Like on one knee?”

She shrugged. “I think I already kind of stole your thunder on that one.”

They both laughed this time and he shook his head. “I’m thinking I should probably get used to you stealing my thunder.”

“I can’t help it if I’m so kickass.”

“I’m in love with you.”

“I’m in love with you, too.”

Seth leaned forward and pressed his forehead to hers. “How is this real? How could this possibly have worked out that way?”

“All that worry for nothing,” she agreed.

“All that worry.” He paused, frowning. “I hate to admit this, but I think me and my brothers’ lives are kind of defined by worry and deprivation of everything we want.”

“That’s no way to live. And as of today, that changes for you. We’ll work on your brothers.”

Sarah swung her legs off the side of the table too and just looked at both of their feet for a long minute. Seth’s feet were dirty and scratched from his night in the woods.

“Seth, my life isn’t so simple, either.”

“I know.”

“We haven’t seen the last of my father. And I’m not going to sit back and just let CTAARUS run this town. I plan on fighting back.”

“Both of those things sound very manageable to me.”

She was quiet for a minute. “What if I want to try to qualify for the Olympics again?”

“Sarah,” he said as he slid off the table and gathered her hands up in his. “Are you serious? Nothing would make me happier! That would be so freaking cool.”

She smiled at him. “So, I take it you’re saying yes? You wanna get married?”

Seth’s green eyes filled her vision as he pressed his forehead to hers, their hands clasped between them. “I’m saying yes, Sarah. For the first time in my life, I’m saying yes to exactly what I never thought I’d be lucky enough to have.”

 

 

The End