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“Fancy meeting you here,” she teased, arms looping around my neck as I rested my hands on her waist. The proximity never failed to have goosebumps prickling along my skin, her long fingers teasing the hair at the nape of my neck earned her a shiver.
“I thought I would wait for you down here, since you were having such a good time with Reese.”
Her embarrassment from before unfurled immediately, and before she could huff and pull away, I pressed a soft kiss to her lips. She couldn’t help but return it, her lips tilting up at the corners despite her best efforts to feign annoyance.
“What?” I asked. “Would you rather I have interrupted?”
My teasing had her rolling her eyes and wriggling free of my embrace, hands going to her hips. “You could have gone and got us something to eat, or napped, or something!”
She couldn’t keep from giggling, and I smirked.
“Icouldhave, but then I wouldn’t have gotten to walk you home.”
Her groan was theatrical, more for show than actual protest, and in the very next moment, she was linking our fingers and tugging me along.
10
TRY, TRY AGAIN
ARIA
“Okay, that’s it,” I said with a sigh, and Sariel gave me an odd look. “You’re trying again.”
He didn’t look away from the potato he was peeling. “Trying what?”
“Shifting.”
Thatgot his attention. My eyes narrowed when he flinched.
It was a conversation I had let him avoid for too long. Now, he was too anxious to eventhinkabout trying to shift again. I couldn’t shake off the feeling of being responsible for his aversion. Perhaps, I haven’t been supportive enough as a partner.
All of that must have translated over to him through the bond, because the sigh he let out as he put down his knife was heavy.
“Okay,” he said as took a steadying breath. “I need to get past this.”
I nodded in approval despite the fact that I had been absolutely positive he was going to argue more than that. Learning to take a win where one could get them was half the battle in a relationship like ours, though.
The bond was fluttering with a rainbow of feelings before he looked back at me and smiled.
I knew he’d been feeling more conflicted ever since he’d bumped into Tiana and Maisie on his patrol. Even though he was trying to move past it and unpack everything, he couldn’t help the knee-jerk reaction at the thought that he resembled a fallen-blood wolf. They were where he’d aimed all his trauma for years, and even knowing what he knew now, it was hard to unlearn things.
The two of us silenced the conversation when our witchy friend looked at us curiously, negotiating when the best time would be to slip away.
Like clockwork, Zuzanna stepped into the pantry to grab the next set of vegetables in need of chopping, and we scurried out like naughty children, trying to be as quiet as we could while I gently pushed at his back to keep us moving. It wasn’t until the two of us were down the road that laughter got the better of us.
We headed up the hill to the training grounds. Luckily, it was empty today.
Ever since the addition of the fallen wolf kids, training schedules had gotten a bit laxer. The kids were less interested now that they had playmates, and the fallen-blood wolf adults weren’t keen on sending their babies to be trained up as soldiers, which put everyone in a weird position that Auren hadn’t found a way to maneuver yet. Plus, we just didn’t have the time to train between all the patrols and day jobs and vettings of our new arrivals, which worked out wonderfully for my mate and me as we stripped down near the treeline.
My wolf was practically dancing at the thought of getting time to run. I shook off the nerves that always tried to overtake me whenever she was involved. The pep talks I’d gotten from Sariel and his angel had helped immensely in pushing me past my own issues; since I no longer lost control of my wolf in her eagerness to escape, I’d been able to simply coexist with her the last few attempts I’d made.
Shifting came easily to me now, even though I was always thrown into the passenger seat of my own body. My wolfloved any chance to nose at our mate, too, as my tail was wagging before I had even completed the shift.
Sariel smirked, reaching down to give me a pat before rolling his shoulders with a grimace.
He was hesitant. I could tell that it was written all over his face, even with all the fun wolfy instincts sitting at the forefront of my mind. It wasn’t polite of me to stare at him quite as hard as I was, but he didn’t seem to mind, making a show of flexing until I chuffed and turned my back to him.
Honestly, it was surprising to me that my wolf didn’t seem to have a natural disdain for his since she was so fond of his human form. After what had happened last time and his panic, I wouldn’t put it past her to be resentful about it. It might be a whole circus just trying to make the pair get along.
