“I’m serious,” he says with a grin, his white teeth flashing against tanned skin and a few days’ worth of stubble. “Alpha Eron swore up and down that the fae could make it bigger, cure impotence, the whole nine yards. Or nine inches, I suppose.”
Snorting, I write it down, although I’m skeptical. “I just don’t know why they would bother. What do they get out of it?”
“A phenomenal lover?” He shrugs, shaking his head. “Some of the stories about the fae are so dire and horrifying that they don’t bear repeating. Others… it’s like they’re just messing with us to prove they still can. It makes me feel like we’re missing something.”
Humming, I chew on the end of my pencil, my gaze going out of focus. “If there are water spirits, and there are the regular fae, the ones who look like us and humans, what if there are even more types we’re missing? Some who play pranks, and others who do far worse things.”
“That would explain why the stories out of the other packs are all different,” Kieran says thoughtfully, scratching a spot near his mouth where the scar ends. “Maybe we’re dealing with a type of fae we’ve never dealt with since… since Pack Onyx.”
Since my people, my family, the shifters who would’ve raised me and given me my wolf, all died in a horrible and tragic manner. If these fae are the same ones who killed my people, not just different fae using similar methods, then I want to know. So I can have answers—and give peace to my family beyond the grave.
“Whoever they are, whatever they’re up to, I just want to know what happened in the past,” I admit. “I’ll never have a family or a pack again. But maybe I can at least know where I come from.”
Kieran’s quiet for a long moment, the firelight dancing across his skin. “You do have a pack.”
“Not like that,” I remind him, shaking my head. “It isn’t the same.”
He stares off into the distance and admits, “You’re right. It isn’t.”
We’re quiet for a long moment. My gaze keeps catching on his face, on the lines that are there that weren’t before. Wanting to change the subject, I ask, “How’d you get that scar? I don’t remember it.”
He flinches at the subject. “The usual way.”
“But your healing?—”
“Let’s talk about something else,” he says gruffly, the subject change anything but smooth. “It was pretty amazing, watching you and Dana spar together. How’d you learn to move like that?”
“It’s called MMA. Dana taught me—she learned when she was at Pack Amethyst.” My heart hurts for a moment as I remember, “Alpha Tylin insisted on it.”
“Ah, right. His whole ‘fighting in human form is just as important’ thing. Yvette used to complain about the pre-dawn training workout.” Kieran says in a low, complimentary voice, “You’re pretty good at it.”
“Well, I didn’t really have a choice, once I moved to the outskirts.” The mention of my life after his rejection of me stings. “It’s dangerous out there, and as a lone shifter without a wolf, I don’t have much protection.”
For a moment we’re silent, the rejected bond simmering between us, reminding me of the pain I’ve endured.
Then Kieran dryly says, “If it’s protection you need, I’ve heard Marvin is offering up his services again.”
“Seriously? That old dog?” I laugh at the mention of his name. “Remember that time he tried to beat up your father?”
“Remember? I’ll never forget. Pretty sure they were putting him back together for weeks afterwards.”
“He was always a bit of an oddball. Could’ve sworn he left for Pack Emerald, though. Or was it Pack Amethyst?”
“Nah, he’s still with Jade.” Kieran shakes his head. “Dad tried to kick him out, but Marvin pulled the old ‘we’re family’ trick again. Never mind that he’s a second cousin twice removed at best.”
I chuckle. “Maybe I will hire Marvin as my bodyguard. I remember him offering to beat you up after you rejected me.”
Kieran’s eyes shimmer with warmth as he dryly says, “If he’d tried, I probably would’ve let him get a hit in, just to find out if his knuckle sandwich tastes as good as he says it does.”
I can’t help it—I cackle, the instinctive laugh turning into a full-on belly laugh as Kieran joins in. Maybe Marvin is easy to laugh about, given all his antics, or maybe it’s just the stress and anxiety of this trip getting to me. It feels good to laugh, and as the sound of it fades, our eyes meet over the fire. I’m reminded of happier times, when we felt like friends.
Kieran’s ice blue gaze is full of warmth, with crinkles at the corners of both eyes. His hair, normally carefully styled away from his forehead, falls forward to brush against his brows. For a moment, the air between us is charged with possibility. My heart races, hope and fear warring within me.
His eyes drop to my lips. Instinctively, I lick them, and his gaze follows the movement.
I look to the space between us, realizing we’ve both moved to the ends of our respective logs. There’s so little space between us that our knees graze each other. He’s turned toward me, his hips and shoulders oriented in my direction, his body language relaxed.
I can smell cedar and pine in the air. Can feel the warmth of the fire on my skin. I wonder what that warmth would feel like if I licked it off Kieran’s skin.
