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I couldn’t stop myself from smiling as he started scrubbing my scalp.
twenty-one
EZRA
I expectedto wake up with a headache, considering the strength of that oil he’d put in our bathtub, but instead woke up feeling incredibly relaxed.
It didn’t hurt that there was a gorgeous werewolf holding me in his arms, stroking my bare back, either.
Or that he rolled me over and made love to me with his mouth.
Or that he dragged me back to the bathtub and snuggled with me in the deliciously-hot water before he finally let me leave the borrowed den.
I was thoroughly calm when we finally rejoined the mated pack.
The men spent the day gathering and loading the supplies our pack needed onto a sled of some kind for Ivaylo to pull. I offered to help, but was shooed away by literally every man and woman in the pack, plus Ivaylo.
So instead, I spent the day learning how to cook a chocolatey dessert that shifter men were known to love. It may have been the best thing I’d ever tasted—way better than the candy bar I’d dragged through the portal with me all those weeks ago.
The women let me know that baking was how they made things more equal between them and their mates. The men would make dinner, and the women would make dessert.
It summarized the relationship a shifter couple shared, they told me. The man typically took care of his woman’s needs, and the woman brought him the joy and pleasure he lacked without her. Same-gender mated couples determined their own dynamics, and everyone respected their right to make their own decisions, but the male/female couples had their own version of traditional gender roles.
I doubted those roles would hold up in Ivaylo’s pack when more human women started pairing up with the wolves, but we would have to wait and see.
The day passed quickly,and I couldn’t help but feel a heady hit of pride when Ivaylo came to find me. He tried the dessert we’d made, and gave me a heart-stopping grin that made me feel like maybe I would make it as a shifter after all.
We stayed up late with some of Ivaylo’s old friends in the pack, talking and laughing as we shared stories. A few of them played instruments that reminded me of guitars as we sat around a small fire. I had never enjoyed myself so much with anyone except my grandparents, and found myself yearning for more of it.
Would our pack be like that after Serae brought more Earth women to Evare?
Would we find that casual comfort?
Would our pack feel like home?
Damn, I hoped so.
I was socomfortable snuggled up with Ivaylo that I drifted off to sleep at some point during the night. He carried me back to our borrowed den, and I fell back asleep immediately when he pulled my back to his chest, engulfing me in his warm, strong body.
An intense itchwoke me from sleep a few hours after Ivaylo tucked us in. I bit my cheek to stop myself from scratching my arms and legs, fighting the urge to shove myself out of bed and run until my body gave out.
The itch was too much.
It was just too damn much.
I couldn’t wait any longer; I had to run.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered harshly to Ivaylo, as I climbed over him.
“What?” I loved his sleepy voice, but I couldn’t pay it the attention it deserved.
I was already rushing toward the den’s exit.
“I’m sorry,” I called out, desperation clawing at my throat.
My bare feet met the hard, cold stone of the Peaks a moment later, and then I was running.
The itch grew stronger, and I pushed harder, running faster. Trees flew past me at a speed they certainly never had on Earth, and the fierce tingle of magic rolled over my skin.
