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I heaved a sigh. “Then, it’ll only be a few days.”Dear gods, please let it be only a few days.
Nereida leaned back, her eyes still wet. “You promise, too?”
My heart squeezed tight in my chest. “I promise, too.”
She wiped at her face and nodded. “I’ll take care of Arteisma. I’ll be brave.”
“I know you will. You’re fearless already.”
I was afraid Arteisma would be the one taking care of Nereida, though. After brushing back her long pixie bangs, I placed a kiss on her forehead, gave her another hug, then put her down.
“I want to show you something.” I pulled up my baggy sweater sleeve and pointed. “See this?” I ran a finger over her name inked into my arm. She nodded. “I was hoping you would notice them when you learned to read cursive, but I want you to see them now.”
She blinked back at me, probably not understanding what I wanted her to see.
“This is your name.” I traced the letters with my fingertip. “And this is Arteisma’s name. Your names will be on my skin forever because that’s how long I will love you both.”
She smiled even as two tears leaked from her dark eyes and dripped down her face.
“I think I’m ready to go now.”
Well, I wasn’t ready to let them go. But I didn’t have a choice.
The two most precious females in my life scrambled into the truck cab between Dain and Jessy. We waved goodbye and threw hundreds of kisses as the two vehicles slowly lumbered away down the hard-packed snow-covered road.
Brutus stepped up next to Seff. “We’re heading out in about three hours, so if you got anything you need to take care of, now’s the time.” He nodded toward me, tilted his head, and flashed Seff a grin before shoving his hands in his pockets. “In the meantime, Desarae, I’m gonna go lay the law down to that disrespectful little punk brother of yours.” Then, he strolled away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Only three hours remaineduntil mysakanaand I would leave these majestic mountains. Born in this little valley, except for the time I’d spent away with Till, I’d lived here my entire life. Skiers and hikers rarely, if ever, strayed onto what we considered our territory. The next time I left, I didn’t plan to return. Still, the possibility this might be the end of the Red Lodge pack hurt my heart and made tears well up.
So many yurts in the small village stood empty, all personality stripped away from them. Like other small packs, we’d built our colony on a nomad principle—at any time, we could pack up and move on, leaving little to no evidence that we’d been there. We were as far off the grid as we could be.
Other wolves might choose to live here. Maybe not. The winters were long and harsh, but that seclusion gave us the freedom to live as wolves with little human interference.
But I would miss the simplistic beauty of these mountains. I’d miss taking Arteisma and Nereida on long runs through the flower-covered meadows to the Twin Lakes. I’d miss playing with the foxes, chasing the marmots, and annoying the mountain goats.
I sighed as Seff’s body pressed against my back. His rich pine-forest, green-apple scent enveloped me. His heat warmed me like a thick blanket.
“Hey, we’ll see the twins in a couple of days.” He nuzzled my ear with his cold nose and murmured, “So ya know, Jessy and Dain are gonna spoil the hell out of ’em for as long as they can.”
And that made me smile.
He wrapped his arms around me as he brushed teasing kisses up and down my neck, following my tattoo along my jawline. No matter how sad I felt, desire sizzled through my veins and eased the sorrow. By the time he got to my lips, my heart had picked up a crazy drumming beat, and heat had pooled in my breasts and between my legs. The desire he created inside me was like nothing I’d ever felt before.
