Wolfsong (67 page)

“I can,” I admitted. “Do this without you. I just don’t want to.”

He chuckled, and it was a nice sound to hear. “Good.”

“Hey, Joe?”

“Yeah?”

“What do I look like?”

“You look like you.”

“As a wolf.”

“You look like you,” he repeated. “I would have known you anywhere. And I will.”

The sky was starting to lighten.

Birds were beginning to call out.

I was overwhelmed by the sheer
everything
of it.

He said, “You’re big, Ox. Bigger than I’ve ever seen before. Bigger than me. Than my father. But it makes sense, you know? Because that’s how you’ve always been to me. Bigger than anything else. The day I saw you, I knew things would never be the same. You’re all- encompassing. You dwarf everything else. When I see you, Ox,
all
I see is you.”

He said, “Your eyes are red, like mine. But your wolf is black, Ox. Black like the dark. All of you. Not a single variation. Your tail is long, and your paws are big. Your teeth are sharp. But I can still see you in the wolf. I can see you there, in the eyes. I know you, Ox. I would know you anywhere.”

He said, “You didn’t shift because of the moon, but because you had to. Because your wolf knew it had to find me. So I could prove to you that I could bring you back. Once upon time, there was a lonely boy, a broken boy who didn’t know if he could shift, and it took one person to show him how. And now I’ve done it for you because
that’s what we do for each other
. That’s what pack is. That’s what this all means.”

He said, “You’re mine, Ox,”

He said, “I’m yours.”

He said, “And I can’t wait to show you how I’m made for you just as much as you were made for me.”

I reached and cupped his face. He leaned into my touch. There was never anyone such as him before. From that little boy on the road, to the teenager with red eyes, to the hardened man who stood before me at the house at the end of the lane and said the
same words
he’d said to me all those years before. There was never one like him. And he was
mine
.

I pulled him down to me.

The kiss was warm and wet. His lips worked over mine, my hands holding him close, and I thought that even though the monster had been brought to an end, this was only the beginning. I didn’t think I could let him go. Not anymore. Not again. We weren’t fixed. There was a chance we never would be. My daddy had told me once that people were gonna give me shit all my life. The monster had told Joe that his family didn’t want him anymore. We’d have to live with that, those things that were whispered in our ears. Maybe we’d never be free of those shadows. Not completely.

But we’d still fight like hell.

And maybe that’s all that mattered.

THE SUN
had started to rise when the rest of our pack found us, wolves and humans both. I could hear them coming through the trees the moment they stepped into the forest. I had felt them wake up shortly before that.

I knew when they got to us that Rico, Tanner, and Chris would probably shriek at my nakedness, accusing me of trying to use my position as Alpha to make a harem. They would be all wind and bluster, but I would see the relief in their eyes as they saw no gaping wounds in me.

Gordo would roll his eyes fondly at them before handing me a pair of sweats. He would lean down and whisper in my ear that I was never allowed to scare him like that again, and I could sure as shit bet we’d have words later over my actions. He would cup the back of my neck and he’d press our foreheads together and we would
breathe
.

Jessie would look a little unsure, maybe a little teary-eyed as she watched me. She’d be the first to yell, to tell me how stupid the choices I made were and just who the fuck did I think I was, did I have a fucking
death wish
?

Robbie would be a wolf, and he’d rub up against me, trying to get his scent on me, hating the stench of blood that still clung to my skin. He’d tell me later it smelled like death, that
I
smelled like death, and he couldn’t deal with that. He couldn’t lose me. I was his
Alpha
, goddammit, and I needed to take better care of myself, because he didn’t know what he’d do with himself if I was gone.

Carter and Kelly would also be wolves, and they would yip and prance around Joe and me, backsides wiggling as they pressed themselves against us, trying to act aloof, but their eyes would be just a little too wide, the whines in their throats a little too panicked to fool anyone. Eventually, they would collapse on either side of us, curling into their Alphas and closing their eyes, finally breathing steadily.

Elizabeth and Mark would bring up the rear, both of them in human form. They’d watch the others descend on us, Mark with the secret smile on his face, Elizabeth closing her eyes and letting the sounds of
pack pack pack
wash over her. They’d join us after the others had started to settle down, Elizabeth next to her sons, and Mark sitting next to Gordo, both of them avoiding each other’s gazes, but their hands in the grass next to each other, pinkies touching, and there would be a sense of
right
, of being
complete
, finally, finally,
finally
.

We had lived.

We had loved.

We had lost. Oh god, had we lost.

But we would be here now. Together. And maybe this wasn’t over. Maybe there were still other things to come. Robert Livingstone. Alpha Hughes. All the monsters still out there in the world.

That was fine. That was okay.

Because we were the goddamn Bennett pack.

And our song would always be heard.

epilogue

HE SAID,
“You ready?”

He towered above me, a look of such reverence on his face.

My skin was sweat-slicked, heated. I felt flushed and overwarm.

I almost couldn’t find the words, but I managed to say, “Yeah. Yeah, Joe.”

He leaned down to kiss me as he pressed slowly in. I gasped as he fucked into me, and he swallowed it down, tongue against mine. My dick was trapped between us, dragging against his stomach.

He sank down as far as he could go, his hips pressed against my ass, my legs up over his shoulders. We breathed each other in, eyes open, noses brushing together.

He said, “Oh
fuck
,” against me as his hips stuttered.

And he waited, holding himself in place, like he couldn’t move, like he didn’t
want
to move.

I said, “It’s okay, Joe. Please. It’s okay and I need—oh god, I fucking
need
—”

He said, “Yeah, Ox. I’ll give you what you need. I’ll fuck you, okay? Just let me fuck you and—”

And he pulled away, then pushed back in. The bed creaked below us and he did it again and again, and we were both snarling at each other, my claws digging into his back, not caring if they pierced flesh.

He rolled his hips into me as he sat up, pushing my legs back against my chest until I was almost folded in half, just so he could look down and see his dick in me. He slowed, eyes wide as he watched me come apart beneath him. We’d been at this for hours, and I was too worked up to make this last much longer. For all his inexperience, he was a fast learner, doing things to me that caused my eyes to roll back into my head and my mouth to go slack.

But this wasn’t about fucking or just getting off.

This was about more.

So much more.

I could feel it building in the base of my spine. I didn’t try and stop the shift as it rolled through me.

Joe was the same above me, half-shifted and crying out as I clenched around him.

He said, “Ox, it’s almost time.”

I said, “Yes, okay, yes. Please, yes.”

Because we’d been building to this. This moment.

Ever since the day he’d handed me a box that held a little stone wolf inside and promised himself to me.

I snarled, “
Do it
.”

His eyes flashed red.

His fangs descended.

I came messily between us, tilting my head back, exposing my throat.

He whispered my name, said my name, shouted my name as he came in me.

And then he bit. Right in the space between my neck and shoulder.

There was pain, bright and glassy.

Then it faded, replaced with something different.

Something so much larger.

My eyes snapped open as I gasped.

Because it was
more
than I ever thought it could be.

It was
everything
.

His teeth slipped from my skin.

I could feel the blood oozing.

He was panting as he pulled back, lips as red as his eyes.

He said, “Oh my god.”

He said, “Ox.”

He said, “Ox, can you feel it? This is—I can’t believe we—after all this time we—”

He said, “Ox.”

He said, “Mate.”

The wolf snarled, “
Mine
.”

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