Page 59 of Adored By the Wolf

“Dad? Why would he follow me?” I always did what he asked, which was to let him know when I’d be back, and I always came back.

“He got worried one day and followed you out here. He said he didn’t do anything but watch you run around in wolf form and then saunter into this cave and not come out for a while. When he peeked in, he saw you reading and left you alone.”

I didn’t know what to say except, “When was this?”

“About ten years ago, when we were teenagers.”

“And he told the rest of the family?”

“Not at first. He tasked Luc to follow you from time to time to make sure you were okay. But Dredge and Sandy had to cover at one point, and then Brandon did it once. So, eventually, we all knew.”

“And no one ever said a word,” I whispered, awed that my secret place hadn’t been so secret all this time.

“It’s your private space. We respect that,” Bruno said simply. “We just got worried because you’d go off for hours, sometimes the entire day, and we didn’t know how you were doing.”

“Okay, well, if everyone knows already—”

“I can let them know you’d love some help,” Bruno finished for me with a smile.

“Sure . . .” But I wasn’t sure how to feel about it all. For one, my secret place wasn’t so secret anymore. On the other hand, it was really nice to know my family cared about me so deeply.

It was then that I heard a bunch of voices outside. I ventured out of the cave to look and, sure enough, everyone was there, including Mom and Dad. “Were you all already here?” I asked them.

“Of course,” Dredge said. “We were waiting for Bruno to give the go-ahead before showing our faces. We didn’t want to overstep your boundary; we can all smell the markings you made quite clearly.”

I laughed. “Glad to hear that even you guys can respect boundaries.”

“Son, we’re here to help,” Dad said. “We love you. Always have, always will. Now, how can we help? I hear your mate is coming tomorrow.”

“Bruno knows what I want to do outside. The rest of you can help me inside.”

Luc clapped his hands. “Then let’s get to work.”

Between the eight of us, we were done well before the sun went down.

Millie

I wantedto dress up for Jacob today, and I actually had some nice dresses I could have worn because Lira had left in such a rush that she had left a bunch of her clothes here. But Jacob had made a point of telling me to not dress up, that jeans and a nice top would suffice. This went against everything I had thought a date was supposed to be, but he had insisted. So, I had put on some fleece-lined stretchy pants, a long sweater top, and some gray snow boots. My favorite knitted winter hat finished the ensemble, and I ventured out to head over to Sugarville.

An hour later, I parked my car in front of the apartment complex and saw Jacob at the entrance, waiting for me.

“You look beautiful,” he said.

“Thanks. You look quite good yourself.” And he sure did. He’d cut his hair and shaved his face, making me want to run my hand across his smooth cheeks. “What’s the surprise for tonight?”

“Not telling you, but it’s deep in the woods. I have a snowmobile ready to take us there.” He pointed to the side of the building, and sure enough, there was a snowmobile waiting there for us.

He held out his hand, and I placed mine in his, letting him lead me to the snowmobile. This was another new thing for me to try. I climbed up behind him and was conscious of his hard muscles in front of me as I wrapped my arms around his midsection. He placed one hand on mine and held it there for a bit, as if acclimatizing to the contact. I hadn’t noticed my head moving in response until I felt my cheek rub against the back of his fleece shirt. The warmth radiating off his body was divine, and I snuggled even closer into his back.

“You ready?” he said, and his voice had dropped an octave.

“Yes.”

With that response, we were off, flying through the trees with not a care in the world. I had no idea how long the drive took, but it was too short as far as I was concerned; I could have stayed hugging Jacob for much longer.

But we were here, and the sun was slowly setting. We stayed seated for a moment longer, just looking around, and I was mesmerized by the peace that exuded from this space. Everything was covered in white, and off to the right I could see a cave.

I got off the snowmobile and took another moment to soak in the whole place. It wasn’t until a few heartbeats later that I realized I knew this place. The shock of it made me gasp, and Jacob had his arm around me in an instant. I turned toward him. “This is the place from my dream,” I whispered.