Pack of Her Own, page 13
“Don’t tell me to calm down again!”
Dr. Maru raised an eyebrow. “I’ve only said it once.”
“Then why the hell did I hear it before? When you told me to stay calm inside my head?”
They shared another significant look.
“Stop doing that!”
Dr. Maru shook her head. She looked almost sad as she went to Wren and pulled out the IV needle. “This is about done, dear. I’ll leave you two to have a conversation.”
I stared at Wren’s arm. It barely bled at all before the puncture closed without even a scar.
“Thanks, Hikaru,” she said.
“Don’t thank me. You know there’s no going back from this.”
“I know,” Wren said, and the doctor quietly left the room.
“What the fuck is going on?”
Wren found the wheeled stool that seemed to be a staple in the exam rooms and pulled it up beside me. I drew back as she brought one hand up to touch mine. The hurt look on her face was breaking my heart.
“Natalie, I’m sorry. I never meant for you to get caught up in all this. I just…I just…” She looked away and I could see tears falling. “I just wanted my own life. A life outside of everyone and everything else.”
“Wren, what are you talking about?” The tears did me in. I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out, tilting her chin up so I could look her in the eyes. “Please tell me what’s going on.”
She cleared her throat a couple of times and I patiently waited for her to begin.
“I’m a shifter,” she said finally. She looked everywhere but at my face. “A wolf shifter. Most people call us werewolves and it fits, I suppose.”
“So that silver wolf I saw,” I murmured, “that was you.” It wasn’t a question, but Wren nodded anyway.
“Yes. It was.” She shook her head. She lifted her shirt, showing off a nasty-looking wound in her shoulder. “It’s why I left so abruptly after dinner. My wolf wanted—needed—to run. When I give her the reins it’s like—”
“Like an escape,” I whispered, “like being free from everything, if only for a little while.”
Her eyes went wide. “Well, yeah. How did you know that?”
I grimaced. “Because I’ve spent years dreaming of that kind of escape. Anyone who wants a life outside of everyone and everything else either yearns for or knows the feeling.” I didn’t tell her that I could almost feel what she was trying to describe deep down in my gut. The way I’d felt her coming for me at the cabin, or the way it physically hurt when she left that morning without me. But that was all unreal, right? How could I be feeling these things?
She nodded slowly, with an understanding look in her eyes. “Yeah.” She took a deep breath. “So, we were running and enjoying the night. Then the gunshots happened. I got lucky and they missed me until that last one that got me in the shoulder.” She shook her head. “I’ve been shot before, but never like that. It was agony. But my wolf was stronger than me. She ran. I think I nudged her in your direction because I was sure you could help us.”
“Because I work at a vet clinic.”
“Yeah.” She hesitated. “And for other reasons.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What reasons?”
She shook her head again. “Anyway, you helped me. I couldn’t shift before you pulled the bullet out and then you gave me that sedative. When I woke up you were passed out beside me, and I was half-shifted, and I knew I had to get out before you saw me. I put a blanket on you, took the bullet, and left. I went back to my Jeep and slept in the back.”
“But I woke up in bed, not on the floor.”
“Yeah, because I came back at first light and tucked you into bed. I needed to make sure there was no evidence of, well, of what I am.”
I stared down at the bed for a long moment. “Then you made me breakfast.”
“Then I made you breakfast.”
I leaned back with a sigh. Mind racing, I had no idea what to think. I should be going nuts, getting angry at such a blatant retelling of a fucking fanfic or something! I mean, werewolves were real? What the hell?
But it was all just a little too rational. Too logical. After what I’d seen today, Wren with fur and those men turning into full-on wolves. The way Wren tracked Meg in a speeding car with only her nose. It all made sense.
“This is…I don’t even know.”
Wren smiled. “All things considered, you’re taking it surprisingly well.”
I laughed. “There are people in this world who are more likely to believe in what you are than what I am.” I glanced down when her eyes darted to mine. “Oh shit. That slipped out.”
“What does that mean?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Nothing. Never mind. It’s nothing.” Now was not the time to tell her I was transgender.
“Natalie…”
“Wren, please. Not right now, okay? One massively world-shattering revelation is enough for today.”
For a long moment I wasn’t sure she’d agree, but then she nodded and let out a breath. “Okay, okay, I got you.”
I heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank you.” My gaze drifted over to Wren’s face as she looked up at me from the low stool. Her beautiful green eyes, those gorgeous lips, a pert nose that looked out of place on her more rugged features. I glanced down to her mouth and couldn’t help but wonder what it’d feel like to press my lips against hers.
“Natalie,” Wren said.
My eyes swept back up. “Huh? What?” I shook my head. “Oh, yeah.”
She smiled. “Did you have any more questions? I mean, I just told you that I’m a werewolf.”
I gave her a shy smile. Maybe it was the adrenaline from today, or something else inside me, but this time when my eyes fell on her lips, I felt a surge of courage. “Wren…do werewolves…I mean…can werewolves…um…” I shook my head with irritation. “I want to know what it’s like to kiss one.”
She stared at me for a long moment, and emotions warred across her face. She stood and I leaned in, putting us at exactly the right height.
I don’t know who moved first, but a second later our lips connected, and I was drawn deep into this mysterious woman. Soft, warm, with a hint of coffee in there. I melted into that kiss as it deepened, her tongue probing. I opened for her, letting her take me, take everything I could offer her.
And she did.
My mind flickered back to seeing her at the cabin door, bag of greasy food in her hand. She’d been on my mind since, the first thing I thought about when I got up, the last thing before I went to bed. Kind. Funny. Easygoing. And somehow, she seemed to want to spend time with me. I mean she offered to come over and make me dinner! Who does that if they aren’t interested in a person?
And her lips. I ran my hands over her back as she gripped my hips, pulling me into her. I slid my fingers underneath her shirt, shivering as I caressed her bare skin. Her moan against my mouth sent flares of heat through my body, settling down in my core as I resisted the urge to thrust against her. A part of my mind warned me away from that action. I had my own secrets, and she wasn’t ready for them. I wasn’t ready to tell her.
My body didn’t seem to care. Instead, as she drew her hand up my thigh, I couldn’t control myself. I gasped as she kissed her way down my throat, my neck, my shoulder. She pulled the neck of my shirt aside and her lips touched my chest, a cluster of kisses at the top of my breast. Without thinking I slid my legs around and wrapped them around her waist, urging her closer as she groaned under my hands.
“Natalie.” She breathed into my ear and used her teeth to pull lightly on the lobe as I cried out.
“Wren.”
I thrust my hips forward into her, wanting to feel every part of me against every part of her. Wren moved her hand up farther, and then hesitated. She looked at me for permission to continue.
Oh shit.
“Ahem.”
We leapt apart, my legs letting go as she moved a good three feet away. I sat up on the bed. Dr. Maru stood by the door, arms crossed over her chest, a smile playing on her face.
“I realize you two are intent to enjoy each other’s company, but there are things we need to talk about, Ms. Donovan.”
“Really? Like what?”
“I’m certain you noticed your lack of wounds,” she replied. “And there might be a few other side effects of your healing that we need to discuss.”
I glanced to Wren, who’d moved up beside me and rested her hand lightly on my shoulder. “It’s okay,” she said softly. “Hikaru knows what she’s doing.”
I nodded and sighed. A wave of exhaustion rolled over me and I closed my eyes for a moment. The image of the bed back in the cabin floated in my mind, enticingly soft and comfortable. A second later, Wren was on the bed in the cabin with me, our limbs entangled, our lips pressed together. I shivered.
“Okay.” I moved my hand up to pat Wren’s. “But only if Wren stays with me.”
Dr. Maru smiled. “I wouldn’t even consider otherwise.” She came to the side of the bed with a small clipboard in her hands. “Okay, so, this is what you need to know.” And she talked. I listened. And listened. And listened.
“Wait, so you’re telling me that I could have been turned into a vampire?” I demanded, a little creeped out at this point.
“That was a possibility, but we both decided that it was worth the risk,” Wren said.
I looked back and forth between them, feeling my temper rising again at the idea of people making decisions for me. I calmed myself with a few deep breaths. They saved my life.
“Is the blood why I could hear you in my head?”
Dr. Maru nodded. “That will fade in time—as long as you don’t need more of my blood. I don’t recommend it either.”
“Because then you could turn me.”
“Precisely.”
I looked to Wren. “Can you turn people?”
She stared at me for a long moment before she turned to Dr. Maru.
“It’s possible, but not widely done.”
“Why not?”
Dr. Maru shrugged. “No idea. You’d have to ask the wolves.”
I turned to Wren. “Don’t look at me,” she said. “Hikaru knows more about all this than I do.”
I shook my head. This was just too damned much. I winced as pain shot through my forehead, and for a second, I thought I was about to have a panic attack.
Easy, Natalie.
I glared at Dr. Maru. “Out loud, please.”
She had the decency to look sheepish. “Sorry.”
“So, when can I get out of here?”
“I want to keep you for another hour or so, just to make sure my blood won’t have any lasting effects.”
I sighed, turning to Wren. “Are you sticking around?”
She gave me a smile and took my hand, bestowing a kiss on my knuckles. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Natalie
I settled down in a cushy loveseat with my mind weighed down by everything I’d learned today. Werewolves. Vampires. Ghouls. A whole world and society of people that no one thought existed. And beautiful Wren, whom I was falling for far too quickly, was a part of that world. And now she was letting me stay at her house until the cabin was repaired.
“Water?” Wren asked, standing over me with a worried look. “Coffee? Something stronger?”
“There are days when I wish I drank alcohol.”
“No time like the present.”
I gave her a sly look. “Are you trying to get me drunk, Ms. Carne?”
Her hand slid across my shoulder, and I shivered. “I don’t think I need to go quite that far. I mean, you’re already in my house, aren’t you?”
“Touché.” I watched her move through the open concept ground floor to the kitchen on the far side. Not unlike the kitchen in the cabin, it was spacious with dark wood cupboards and an island with a couple of stools tucked under the lip. It all looked slightly more worn than Rory’s cabin, but not run-down. Comfortably lived in, I’d call it. The loveseat sat adjacent to a longer couch in the living area and faced a rustic-looking gas fireplace with a television mounted on the wall above.
I was staring at a framed painting of a wolf in a dark forest, when I heard the icemaker on the refrigerator start clunking. “Damn it.” Wren cursed before she came back to the couch, bearing two glasses of what looked like water, one with ice and the other without. She shrugged. “Fridge ran out of ice.”
I smiled and took the glass with the ice. The only good water was ice water, in my opinion, and it was like sipping from a damned glacier lake as it slid down my throat. I may have inadvertently made a suggestive noise at the pleasant feeling, and that earned me a cocky smile from my potential date.
She joined me on the loveseat and took a sip of her own glass. I stared at those lips as they pursed and she took another slow sip, her eyes locked on mine. Then the incredibly stupid image of her lapping up the water like a wolf flitted through my mind and I choked. She caught my glass before I could throw it all over her as I coughed and tried to catch my breath.
“Are you okay?” she asked. She set both glasses on the coffee table in front of us. “Did you swallow a piece of ice or something?”
I shook my head, still coughing and trying not to look like someone who didn’t deserve to be here with her.
“No—” I coughed again. “No—No.” I coughed one more time, my throat raw and aching. “It went down the wrong pipe.”
Classy, Natalie, real classy.
She wrapped an arm around my shoulders as the coughing slowly subsided, her hand gently kneading my upper back and neck as I sank into her touch. She was warm, warmer than I would have thought. Her body radiated a heat that made it like touching a warm blanket after a cold day of standing in the snow.
But no matter how much I wanted to stay within that warmth, I didn’t think I could. Was I ready for this? Wren had been honest with me, and I knew that at some level I couldn’t just throw that trust aside. But being a werewolf was kind of cool. Being me…well, that seemed to be too much for people. People like my parents. Like Misty. I didn’t want to go through that again. I wanted someone who wanted me for who I was.
And that brought up another thought. I was supposed to be here to get over my breakup with Misty, not jump into a whole new relationship within a few days of being here. Never mind that doing something with Wren seemed like a dangerous proposition. That world that she came from, I didn’t know if I could be a part of it. Or if I wanted to be.
All I really knew, could really say, was there was something about Wren that made me want her so damned badly. And somehow that made me even more scared. The deeper I got in with her, the worse it would hurt when she decided she didn’t want me anymore.
I stirred against her and pulled away. She let me go without argument. Definitely another point in her favor.
“You said you have a guest room?” I was unable to look her in the eyes as I said it. She took a long moment to answer.
“Yeah, it’s upstairs beside the master bedroom.” She moved herself to the other side of the small couch, reaching for her glass again. “Are you tired?”
“Exhausted.”
“All right.” I followed as she stood, grabbing my glass as she led me toward the stairs. I caught the barest glimpse of her face before she turned away. She was hurt. I wished I could explain to her why it had to be this way, but would she listen? Or would she kick me out if she knew the truth?
She pointed to a door off the kitchen. “There’s a small bathroom there.” She pointed to another door beside the stairs that led to the second floor. “And the basement stairs there. I mostly just use it for storage, nothing interesting.”
I nodded, acting like I got a tour of beautiful women’s homes all the time. She led me upstairs, pointing out the master bedroom and the room where I would sleep. “And this is the master bathroom.” She pushed open a door and I almost choked on my gasp.
“How do you ever leave this place?” I asked, staring at the gorgeous Jacuzzi bathtub that took up most of the room. A door on the far side looked like it opened onto the master bedroom, with two sinks and mirrors across from the tub. A standing shower stall stood in the far corner, blocked by a small partition. “Seriously? I would live in that damned thing.”
She grinned at me for a brief second before it faded, then gestured back at the guest room. “The bed should be made and ready to go—I usually keep it cleaned up in case someone needs to crash for the night.” She stepped back as I entered and flipped on the light. The bedroom was plain but cozy, with a comfy blanket atop a queen-sized bed. A small vanity dresser sat against one wall and a desk was pushed into the corner by the window that jutted out from the house, with a small, cushioned seat that a bookworm like me could fall in love with.
I looked back at Wren. “Your home is amazing,” I said.
She gave another brief smile. “Thank you.” She looked around her, lovingly touching the wall beside her. I watched her hand and imagined it running up my stomach to my chest. “It’s the first place I ever had that felt like a real home.”
I ached to reach out and wipe the sadness out of her eyes. “Wren.”
“Don’t,” she said quickly. “I get it Natalie, I do. What happened today was inexcusable. You got hurt, badly, and I never wanted that to happen to you. You must be terrified to be with someone like me.” She took a deep breath. “I thought we both felt something at Hikaru’s, but I understand if you are having second thoughts.”
I shook my head. “Wren, please! We do have something. I swear we do. It’s just…” My throat closed up with anxiety and I couldn’t get the words out, no matter how hard I tried. I fumbled my way through a few weird noises before I gave up and turned away from the door.
There was silence for a long time before I managed to get myself under control. “Wren, I’m sorry.” I looked back for a reply, but the doorway was empty.
