Piper

 

Balt carried me from the cab to the hotel room – exactly as he had through the streets. Only instead of placing me gently down, as he had in the cab, he all but threw me down on the bed.

“Have you lost your mind? Do you have a death wish?” I snarled, scrambling to sit up and wincing at the sharp, pulsing pain in my foot.

He ignored me, which was as infuriating as it was odd, and went into his room, before coming back with towels and his first aid kit. Shrugging off his jacket, I saw he was wearing a blank tank top and jeans, a typical Balt ensemble when doing grunt SoA field work. It made him look a little dangerous and sexy.

I blinked and shook my head. What?

Without thinking, as Balt reached for my foot, I pulled it away and he gave me a look.

“Don’t be obstinate, Piper,” he growled, his Greek accent more pronounced.

Staring at him, I realized I couldn’t read Balt at all. I had no idea what was going on in his head or why he was acting like this. It was a whole other level of surreal and I slowly gave him my foot.

Yet how many times before had we been like this? Balt’s big hands gentle as he patched up some battle wound? Sprained ankles and wrists in high school soccer? Then again during SoA training, only with more bruises, bumps, and cuts. I'd never given it a second thought, for I'd done the same for him. Usually, he’d crack bad doctor jokes and I’d indulge him with a smile.

Now, this dark, tattooed giant was suddenly missing a smile, his face serious and stern. There was a sense of energy crackling through him – a sky darkening before a storm.

Balt, who knew all my secrets, was keeping secrets from me.

There was a distance between us. A distance he wanted.

A burst of pain drove through my chest and I let out a small gasp as it seemed to echo through the fesootai tattoo. Balt stopped, his left-hand clenching and he looked up at me.

“What is wrong?” he asked.

The intensity of the question almost had me wanting to run away. I knew Balt had this side – I’d seen it before. I’d just never had it directed at me and now I fully understood why everyone was so worried about him. It was like watching the sun be devoured by shadows.

“N-nothing,” I murmured, trying to process all of this.

“Piper,” Balt said and there was no humor in his face as he stood up and put a hand on either side of me, his face looming over mine as I leaned back. “I felt that. You’re in pain. Do we need to go to a hospital?”

This close, I could see the glints of gold in Balt’s dark eyes, the melding of dark browns around his dilated pupils and the shadows under his eyes. Unable to take that gaze, mine slipped down and I realized I could see the individual black hairs of the scruff along his jaw and the way they framed his full, bow-shaped lips.

His lips looked soft. I wondered how they would contrast with the brush of that stubble. And the mere thought of that sensation sent a throb through me.

My brain reeled in confusion as my heart continued to throb in a quicker beat and I shook my head, looking away and wishing he’d give me some air.

“I’m fine,” I whispered. “Maybe, if you don’t mind, some aspirin please?”

He groaned and I watched his head droop out of the corner of my eye. Suddenly, he twisted and lay on his back on the bed next to me. “Of course, you’re fine,” he muttered. “You’re the strongest person I know.”

There were fine tremors running through my body and fire danced along the side where his body brushed alongside mine. Maybe not, I thought with a wry kind of hysteria.

A hysteria that was starting to become far too common a state with me.

Suddenly he picked up my hand and my brain went fuzzy. I watched as he studied it and turned it over, then traced a finger along the fesootai tattoo. Stifling a gasp, I shivered, hoping he didn’t feel it and waited for him to say something.

But he didn’t.

He brought it closer and for a wild moment, I thought he was going to kiss my wrist. The thought of it had my other fingers gripping the blankets and my breathing uneven.

Oh no.

“I’m not sure I deserved to be linked to you, Piper,” Balt suddenly said in a soft voice.

Pulling my wrist from his grip, I swatted him and said, “Oh, stop. You’re such a weirdo when you’re jetlagged.” That has to be it, right? “And a grouch.”

He sat up and sighed, letting his head fall into his hands. “Yeah, sure” he muttered.

For the second time that day, my eyes seemed to take in more of Balt than they should. I traced the solid lines of muscle across his back, ridged and hard, covered in tattoos. Designs that spoke of the wild and shifting, of his heritage and mine. I’d never really noticed how delicately they’d been interwoven, even though I’d watched Balt create them.

Artistic talent was something his cousin Isla and Balt shared. I suddenly wondered if she knew that and felt a sense of urgency that she find out as soon as possible.

My fingers reached out before I could help it and laid across the pattern of vines and stars creeping along his shoulder. He started and looked back at me, something twisting and pulling between us in that moment, but then he got up.

“You are good?” Balt asked.

“Yes,” I said in a breathless voice and then I cleared my throat. “Um, Balt?”

He turned to look at me and my fingers clenched the material of my dress. “Soraya isn’t back yet and I thought she would be – could you, um, unzip me?”

I could’ve probably done it myself, but the question had already left my lips.

Balt was staring at me and I thought I saw a muscle twitch in his jaw as he strode over. I turned around heart fluttering and then almost jumped. Balt had lifted my hair and placed it over my shoulder, where it spilled down.

For a moment, he hesitated as though he was psyching himself up.

Then cool air rushed along my back as he unzipped it.

“Thanks,” I said, glancing back.

Balt patted my head. "No problem," he said in my ear. "Good night, bestie."

And with that, he left.

I came to myself with a gasp. What was that? Why did I ask him…? What was wrong with me?

Standing up, I limped over and shed the dress, grabbing pajamas and mechanically going through the motions of getting ready for bed. I was so distracted, I almost threw out my toothbrush.

Crawling back into bed, I stared up at the ceiling and tried to steady my breathing.

My stupid little attraction to Balt was back.

It came and went, usually within a few days. So long as I had work to bury myself in, I could ignore it and those silly, fluttering feelings would vanish on their own. It had started as a teenager – lasting for almost a year back then – until Shifters of Anubis first year work had ended it.

In some ways, it made sense. Balt was an incredible guy. Handsome, caring, and smart. It wasn’t any wonder that sometimes he made me a little idiotic.

However, I was good at burying those impulses. Both in the name of our friendship and because I knew Balt did not feel that way about me. He had a thing for busty blondes and zero interest in settling down. I couldn’t do the butterfly thing – I knew that much.

I wanted him to be happy. I rolled over as an ache grew in my throat. Maybe he was broken up over some girl or something. Had my disappearance screwed up a relationship?

Had it screwed up ours?

Unbidden, the one image I tried not to replay in my mind hit me and I bit my lip savagely. The look in Balt’s eyes before he wrapped his arms around me in the desert.

Unfathomable relief. Raw fear. And joy.

The kind of joy that makes you dance in public or dive off cliffs into the ocean. A wild, reckless joy that encloses lovers into their own world. A joy of peace and belonging.

No one had ever looked at me like that before.

I remembered the feeling of standing there, holding onto his shirt, his grip so tight I thought he wouldn’t let go and the pounding of his heart. The sense that I was finally safe. I was home.

It had broken something between us at the same time, though.

After that moment, I’d sensed something had changed and though I tried to ignore it at first, I couldn’t anymore. Tears trickled down my face as I lay there, pain thrumming through my body. It was only with monumental effort that I kept the fesootai from alerting Balt.

Before, I’d always been able to keep my emotions and feelings in check. I’d known Balt was a worrier, so I’d had my family in Samoa teach me how to block the fesootai link when necessary.

Now, I was barely hanging onto it and Balt was easily locking me out.

Everything was different and I hated it. I wanted things back the way they were. Burying my face in the pillow, I cried quietly and tried to tell myself in the morning things would be better.

 

In the morning, things weren’t better, but I woke up determined. Kicking back the sheets, I was relieved to see my foot had healed. Thank goodness for shifter genes.

I took a long, indulgent shower and made my plans. When I came out I noticed an envelope was propped up against a vase of flowers and I sighed. My name was on it in Soraya’s writing.

Glancing through the contents, I made a face. She’d received a call to move on to South Africa. Only then did I realize her stuff was gone, too. After a lot of paragraphs gushing about wishing me and Balt well, she’d signed off, don’t worry, change only sucks initially.

Huh. I thought. That’s a weird send-off.

As I got dressed, I was determined to follow through with my plans. I’d humor Balt’s moods for now. I’d be patient and understanding. Whatever he was going through, we would get through it. After all, Balt had been there for me during the hardest parts of my life.

What kind of friend would I be if I wasn’t there for his?

Although, I felt as though younger Piper would be much better at this.

She’d been his first American friend and had helped him learn English. Back when kids had called Balt a “dinosaur” and made fun of his accent, she’d gone after those bullies like a wildcat. When his aunt and uncle had died, she’d made him feel welcome in her house.

But that Piper had a mother. This one didn’t.

Swallowing, I sat down and ran a hand through my wet hair. The wound was old but it felt as fresh as yesterday. Loss had forced me to become strong for my brother and father, both of whom had been devastated. There had been times when I was afraid my father wouldn’t make it. Or that Kai’s wild and reckless behavior would destroy him.

I'd had, of course, my Aunt and Soraya to lean on, but they didn't live with us. Balt did.

I wouldn’t have made it without Balt. I owed him everything. He’d been the one to get me out of bed. To corral Kai when he was getting out of hand or flirting with getting expelled from school. And he’d been the one to get my father to take us on road trips to museums across the country, playing on his weakness for language and art. He’d kept us together and made us a family again.

Balt and I, who through shared loss and strength, had become utterly inseparable.

My jaw set harder this time as I thought about it.

That was something that would never change so long as I drew breath.