Page 116 of Ice King

Three minutes.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

Dear God, I was going to lose my voice. Instead of taking a break, I picked up the volume, really trying to get into the moment and the feel of the man singing the chorus.

Less than two minutes later, she threw open the door, storming onto the porch. “Enough!”

I had my head tilted back, my body in a perfect singing position when I ceased making the sound. Damn if she didn’t look even more beautiful. “You don’t like my rendition?”

She stood with her arms folded. “We don’t have anything to talk about.”

“I think we do and I need you to come with me.”

“I’m not interested.”

I walked closer. While she stood her ground, the sweet glare everything I’d come to know and love, I sensed she wasn’t budging. “You’ll want to see and hear this.”

“No.”

Hmmm… Well, there was only one thing left for me to do. With one easy movement, I tossed her over my shoulder and headed to my truck.

Maybe there was such a thing as taking what I wanted.

* * *

“This is beautiful.”

I stood behind her, my hands in my pockets and my thoughts shifting from twelve years ago to now. “It used to be my favorite place. When I was a kid, I crawled all over the rocks. This part of the forest was the one place I could go that felt truly like my special location that no one else knew about. When you have three siblings, things can get a little crowded.”

“I bet you were an amazing kid.” Georgia appeared serene, but I sensed she was worried about me.

“Just average.”

“Nothing about you is average, Ford.”

It had been a long time since I’d wanted anyone to care.

I moved closer to the edge, peering down at the raging river below. “I never took anyone here. Even my guy friends. I didn’t deem them worthy.” At least some memories weren’t painful. I sensed she was watching me closely. “One day everything changed.”

I’d forgotten how much I’d enjoyed having a woman as a friend. Women knew instinctively when to listen and were much more observant. With Georgia, she was completely intent on giving me space as well as support as I needed it.

“Her name was Marianne. She was my first and only other love. Sure, we were both too young at sixteen, but we certainly thought we knew what we wanted. This became our special location. We’d race here after school to spend some time together. Before you ask, our families don’t get along. They never have. Call it wolf hierarchy.”

She inched a little closer, ensuring I knew she was right there and she was listening.

“We kept our relationship a secret from everyone, including her brother who was my best friend at the time. One day there was a storm approaching, but I wanted to see her. I all but demanded she meet me. She hated storms, but I had some news that I had to tell her in person and not over the phone. So we met here. As crazy as it sounds, the reason I insisted on meeting right then was because I was accepted into a junior hockey league, one of the best. I thought I was something, and she was the first person I wanted to tell. Even before my parents.”

I allowed myself a moment not only to reflect on that horrible day but also on my feelings for Georgia. Just studying her beautiful, pensive face meant more than she could know, affirmation that the way I felt wasn’t a false reality.

“I was so excited, I wanted us both to shift and run through the forest. Together. I used to shift every so often, enjoying the freedom. She didn’t want to and of course, I pushed her. I know you might find this difficult, but there are a lot of shifter families who forbid their kids to embrace their wolves unless absolutely necessary. They’re trying so hard to be completely human or as they like to say, normal, that embracing their heritage is a dirty concept.”

“But she shifted for you.”

“She did,” I said, feeling the weight of that day all over again. “For me. The boy she said she loved.”

“What happened?”