Chapter 26 Dylan

Chapter 26 Dylan

I was in my townhouse’s study, sketching. I huffed a laugh as I rubbed out the pencil lines for the fourth time. This was definitely not my skillset. It seemed absurd that I was drawing when my mate was so much better at it, but I was determined to add a final decoration to the design in front of me that I planned to surprise Cherry with.

Finally, I’d successfully added the two cherries, her signature mark to the sign. Then to the frieze, I would have the craftsmen work into the plasterwork of the building: the one I’d already bought to house Cherry’s design studio and clothing store in Seattle. After receiving the call from Cherry yesterday that she’d come back with me, the idea had sparked. In the early hours of this morning, I’d fallen asleep with my mate in my arms, blissfully content in the knowledge that we’d never be apart again. Yet, the thought of what Cherry was giving up had muddied my contentment. I’d witnessed first-hand the success and joy she’d found in central Berlin in her studio and store, and I was determined that securing my joy wouldn’t cost her hers. So, early this morning, I purchased this building in central Seattle.

I’d been in touch with an interior designer by noon and sent them photos and details of the layout of Cherry’s Berlin store. I’d had the designer model the same details onto the centrally located building in Seattle. The only thing I’d modified was the scale, allowing for the store, the client fitting room, and the design studio to be more spacious.

Cherry was due back shortly from her Saturday at the store. So, Fern and I locked up my townhouse and popped back over to the apartment. Once through the door, I put on a pot of coffee to brew, knowing Cherry would be beat from her overtime. No doubt it would have been a particularly taxing day, given that she’d have broken the news to her sales assistants and Maisy that she was relocating to Seattle.

As soon as Fern caught the scent of coffee, she asked, “Can I have a coffee catch up with my teddies?”

With an indulgent smile, I made her some chocolate milk to put in her teapot. She’d taken to mimicking me and Bert, who liked to have a pot of joe on our daily catch-up calls about pack business.

I’d once heard someone say that imitation was the highest form of flattery. And I felt that truth whenever I watched Fern pretending to hold a work meeting with her teddies, imitating Bert and me. Worry had tugged at me initially over how Fern would take the news about everything that was soon about to change in our lives. But I’d felt Nuu-Chah’s guiding light and knew that Fern was meant to be part of the Starsmoon Pack. Besides, she’d have a lot more children to play with when she was back in Lord Hills. As part of the pack, she’d have tea parties with other children, not just teddies.

Moreover, she’d soon be outside in the great outdoors, running through the fields and woodlands of Lord Hills. Sureness gripped me. Fern was part of the Alpha line of Starsmoon and would quickly find her place in the pack. It was her destiny.

With the quiet backdrop of Fern’s tones issuing from her bedroom, I sat down in the living room, holding the rolled-up plans for Cherry’s Seattle store. I hadn’t been able to resist bringing over the drawings, excited to show them to my mate as soon as possible.

As the key sounded in the lock, I hastily stood up, feeling nervous. I was uncertain why. Then doubts skittered across my mind. What if Cherry seemed subdued when I showed her the plans? If she was hesitant, did it mean she was backtracking on the decision she’d made yesterday? I realized I was worried about how things had gone at the store today. Perhaps Cherry would have rethought things.

Fern’s footsteps sounded as she ran out into the hallway to hug her mom as usual on her return. Our daughter’s footfalls soon took her back to her teddy tea party while Cherry joined me in the living room. She cocked her head and zeroed in on the rolled-up paper in my hands.

“I have a surprise for you,” I explained, my voice surer than I felt.

Again, that sense of doubt zipped through me. What if Cherry’s going to the store today had got her thinking about all she was giving up?

Before I could talk myself out of it, I pulled Cherry down onto the floor, where I kneeled down. Holding one end of the paper, I unrolled the parchment across the floor.

At this level, the many large pot plants in the room seemed bigger, their fronds and stems reaching out to us.

“I had an interior designer sketch out plans for a new store in Seattle,” I explained, “and a studio, of course,” I pointed at the upper level.

My foot was in my mouth as I watched her gaze drink in the plan.

With a tender smile, she turned towards me and planted a kiss on my mouth.

“Dylan, you really are the best mate a woman could ask for, you know that?” Her gaze swept the plans once more, and I noticed the tears misting her gaze. “I love them.” Her beautiful silver gaze was like moonlight on water. She turned to me again. “I love you.”

With Cherry’s eyes focused on me with such a heart-achingly tender expression, I wondered what on earth I’d ever been worried about. I had my mate’s love unequivocally. As surely as Nuu-Chah himself existed, Cherry was meant to be at my side, and she knew that too.

The many houseplants reaching out towards us reminded me of the fields and woods of Lord Hills, and I said, “I can’t wait to be back home with you and look up at the night sky and Nuu-Chah, and all the blessings that the future will bring.”

She smiled tenderly, then took my hand. “I’ve missed Seattle. I can’t wait to take you and Fern to the Chihuly Exhibition.” Her expression sobered. “It was my mom’s favorite before she passed away. “I hope it’s somewhere Fern can grow to love too.”

“It will be,” I promised her, kissing her hand. “It all will be.”

Not having yet shared our plans about returning to Seattle with Fern, we forced ourselves to stop whispering and rolled away the floor plans when our daughter traipsed into the living room. After takeout and a movie, it was my turn to read Fern a story before tucking her in and turning out the light.

I came back to the living room to find Cherry reclining on the sofa, her petite body hardly spanning the length of the three-seater sofa. A fearsome protectiveness stole over me as I took in her delicate, slender form, and with the need dominating me, I lumbered towards her, bundling her into my arms.

The beast within me rumbled as Cherry draped her arm around my neck and burrowed into my chest contentedly. As I carried her into our bedroom, my mate nuzzled my neck, working a slow trail of kisses across my skin until she nibbled and sucked my earlobe. With difficulty, I tamed the growl in my throat, softly nudging our bedroom door shut. I laid my mate on our bed, then eagerly stripped my shirt off, already dreaming of sheathing myself inside her hot pussy.

But Cherry was quicker and undressed before me. She reached for my pants before I could get to them, unbuckling them and pushing them and my boxers down, freeing my cock. Then Cherry’s silken lips were around it. She worked my cock back and forth, sucking me and taking all of me into her mouth until I groaned. My hands wrapped through her hair as she worked my shaft, and I had to hold back. The next moment, she pulled me down onto the bed, forcing me to lie back, and straddled me. I wanted, needed to be buried in my mate’s pussy.

The thought of her hot wetness that I already scented had me thrusting in want. I growled, “Cherry, I need your pussy.”

She positioned my cock between her legs, then eased herself down so teasingly slowly that I felt as if I’d cum too soon. But with restraint, I rocked my hips, enjoying the tantalizing sensation of being so close to the edge, then backing away again. I drank down each of Cherry’s whimpers and moans as I kneaded her hips, working her back and forth on my shaft.

It wasn’t until she was whispering, “Dylan, more, please,” that I finally obliged, bringing her all the way onto my cock and riding her hard. When I felt her body stiffen and the walls of her pussy contract around me, I finally allowed myself to let go, too, gasping and holding my mate as I found my bliss.

At first light, Cherry woke and brought a pot of coffee back to bed. We sipped our coffees, waiting for Fern to rise and come see us like she did every morning.

“I’m nervous, Dylan,” Cherry confided, burrowing into the covers. The room felt chilly in the fall morning, and I thought fondly of my small, cozy house in Lord Hills that would be so much easier to heat than this spacious apartment.

“What if she doesn’t want to move?” Cherry fretted.

I took a swig of joe and said, “She’ll understand love. Think of how well she accepted me. She knew I was her dad early on. Fern’s clever. And besides, she has a deep-rooted connection to Nuu-Chah. She belongs to the Alpha line of Starsmoon. I trust she’ll understand everything.”

Cherry soon made us a second pot of coffee. I reckoned it was her agitation making her potter as she needed something to do as she waited for Fern to wake.

Finally, our little one poked her head around the door at seven o’clock. “Mom? Dad?”

My heart thrilled as Fern called me dad. I didn’t think I’d ever take her calling me it for granted.

As Fern clambered into bed, in between Cherry and me, I took the lead. “Remember the heirloom I gave you for your birthday, Fern?”

My daughter nodded, looking up at me as she snuggled under the blankets. “The wolf and crescent moon symbolizing the Moon God, Nuu-Chah.”

I beamed at her, casting a proud look Cherry’s way. “You’re such a clever girl, my little banshee.”

Fern grinned at my nickname for her, but my heart hammered against my chest as I realized it was time to tell her about her preternatural heritage.

We’d shared with her mine and Cherry’s family’s belief in the Moon God. Cherry and I had thought it was a nice way of introducing her to her shifter god. After all, Native Americans had once believed in the same god.

“Well, Nuu-Chah has told me it’s time for us to return to Starsmoon Pack, where your mom and I come from. We’re all going to fly back to Seattle in a few days, and you’ll get to meet your grandparents. We’re going to move there and be part of a big family. You see, we’re not banshees, Fern, but we are shifters. We have wolf forms given to us by Nuu-Chah that you’ll have one day when you’re older, too.”

Fern’s dark eyes, so like mine, skittered to Cherry. My heart twinged for the nervousness I saw marking my mate’s face.

“Is Bert a wolf too? Will he live with us at Starsmoon?” Fern asked.

The tension ebbed from Cherry’s face, and she smiled. “He is, and he will.”

My daughter’s eyes found me again. “I want to go be part of the Starsmoon Pack with you, daddy.”

I hugged her, my joy soaring that I’d been right in how much Fern intuitively knew and felt.