14. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

N atalie

We forage for food, eating the last of my homemade bread, slathered with butter as the morning slides into afternoon and another band of snow pummels the cottage along with howling snow. At first, I'd been afraid and resentful that Fury and I would be alone in the cabin for even a few hours. Now I hope it's the blizzard of the century.

The haze of wandering hands and stolen kisses is broken only by Shaddai's occasional demands for attention. It's the most content I've felt in… well, maybe ever.

Fury and I putter around the cabin, working in comfortable tandem to tidy up. Every so often he pauses to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, trail his fingers down my spine, or nuzzle the crook of my neck just to breathe me in. Each casual touch, each easy intimacy, sets my nerve endings alight, warmth blooming in my chest.

How is it possible to feel so utterly at home with someone I've known only a handful of days? Especially someone so different from me, literally from another world?

After reading all afternoon, we settle onto the rug by the fire with our humble meal of leftover stew. Our thighs and shoulders brush as we lean against the foot of the bed, mugs of tea cradled in our hands, and I'm struck by how right this feels. How… inevitable, almost.

Shaddai snuffles at my feet, begging shamelessly for scraps. I sneak him a morsel of pre-chewed rabbit when Fury isn't looking, delighting in the pup's enthusiasm as I note it doesn't gross me out at all.

"Bleeding heart," Fury grumbles, but there's no heat in it. If anything, his eyes gleam with poorly concealed amusement and something softer, fonder. "At this rate, he's going to get fat."

"Hush, you," I bump him with my elbow, hiding a smile. "He's a growing boy. Aren't you, sweet thing?" This last bit I coo at Shaddai, who yips happily and tries to climb into my lap, almost making me dump my tea.

Fondness eases the hard lines of Fury's face as he watches us, a faraway look in his silver eyes. He seems lost in thought, memories perhaps, of a different time and place.

Setting my mug aside, I reach out to lay a hand on his knee, bringing his attention back to me. "Hey. Where'd you go just now?"

He blinks, focusing on me with an intensity that steals my breath. Slowly, carefully, he covers my hand with his much larger one, rough calluses scraping over my knuckles as he sheathes his claws.

"Just… thinking. About home. My life before… all this." He waves his free hand vaguely, encompassing the cabin, the planet, the very Rift in space and time itself.

My heart clenches at the old pain in his voice, the wistfulness threaded through each word. Gently, I lace our fingers together, giving his hand a squeeze.

"Tell me more about it?" I ask softly, hopefully. "About your world, your family. I want to know everything. "

For a long moment, he just stares at our joined hands, jaw working as if chewing over each memory before speaking it aloud. I stay quiet, giving him time, letting him set the pace.

Finally, he clears his throat, meeting my gaze squarely. "It was… different there. Simpler in some ways, harsher in others. We lived by the old ways—honoring the Goddess, the cycles of nature. Everything had a purpose, a place."

His voice roughens, thickens with emotion barely held in check. "My pack, my family… we were close. Had to be to survive. My parents were strong, fair leaders. My sister and I ran wild through the forests, the fields. The wolf pack in the area accepted us. It was rare for them to do that. We were honored by their trust. We hunted together, fought together, curled up together under the stars."

I can practically see it, this wild, untamed world that shaped and honed him. The freedom of it, the bone-deep belonging. My eyes sting with empathetic tears.

"You must miss them terribly," I murmur, thumb stroking over his scarred knuckles. "Your pack."

"Every damn day." The words are a raw scrape, flayed open and bleeding. "The not-knowing is the worst. If they're safe, if they still wait for me. If they've given me up for lost. Although it's been twenty-six years. They'd be fools not to have put my memory to rest long ago."

He trails off, eyes falling shut as if the very thought is too much to bear. I want to gather him up, fold him into me, anchor him somehow. Instead, I lift his hand, pressing my lips to his palm in mute offering.

Silver eyes snap open, boring into mine with startling intensity. His fingers, claws sheathed, flex against my cheek, large and warm.

"They would have liked you," he says abruptly, a small but genuine smile tugging at his mouth. "My sister, Ta'Ryn was always fascinated by other cultures, other ways. She would have talked your ear off, asking a million questions. "

A surprised laugh bubbles up my throat, bright and unreserved. This tiny glimpse of his true self, the male he was before pain and distrust carved him into something hard and closed off… it's a gift beyond measure.

"Yeah? I'd have liked that, I think. Comparing notes, learning about each other's worlds. Maybe even gotten her help keeping you in line, hmm?"

He snorts, tugging me closer until I'm practically in his lap. "Doubtful. She was an even bigger troublemaker than me, if you can believe it."

We while away the evening like that, wrapped up in each other, trading stories of childhood hijinks and misadventures. He tells me of chasing falling stars through moon-drenched fields, of the mournful beauty of pack-song rising to greet the dawn.

In turn, I camouflage some of the truth of my past, while sharing openly about it in other ways. I tell him about being raised mostly by my mother because my dad was gone a lot for work. Rather than delve into specifics, I share that he was a scientist, not that he was a biomedical scientist, and certainly not that he worked as a civilian for the military.

I tell him how close I was to my mom and how I idolized my dad. However, I don't mention that the idolizing stopped the day he casually mentioned his involvement in the project where he was in charge of experimenting on all species of Others after they dropped to Earth.

As the hours slip by, I realize he's letting me in, lowering his guard inch by hard-fought inch. Trusting me with pieces of himself long kept hidden, protected.

It's impossible not to grow closer. With every word he utters, I fall harder for this proud, wounded wolven with his dry wit and hidden hurts.

He's not what I expected when I dreamed of love as a girl. I certainly never imagined falling for someone who isn't wholly human. And although, just like in the movies, there's a sweeping soundtrack and cartoonish fluttering hearts and stars in my eyes, there's even more.

There's something deeper, more elemental. Rooted in shared pain and cautious joy, and the knowledge that life is too short and precious to waste on pretenses.

It terrifies me, this vast unnamed thing swelling beneath my breastbone. Because I'm keenly aware of the secrets still hovering between us, sharp-edged and waiting to slice us to ribbons if I'm not careful.

I should tell him my dreadful secret. Need to tell him, before this goes any further and we're both left shattered.

But curled into his powerful body, his heartbeat steady beneath my cheek… I let myself be weak. For just a little longer.

What's the harm in a few more hours of pretending this is all we are? Two lonely souls finding solace in each other, the rest of the world be damned?

Closing my eyes, I breathe him in, pine and spice and the indefinable wildness of him. Maybe it's selfish, clinging to this moment with all I have.

But his broad hand smooths over my hair, lips brushing my temple with a tenderness that breaks me even as it puts me back together.

I know I'd make the same choice a hundred times over.

Just a little longer like this, wrapped up in the haven we've carved out together amidst all the uncertainty.

Just a little longer to bask in this fragile, fledgling thing blossoming between us, shielding it from the cruelties of the world beyond this cabin.

Just a little longer to be simply Tally and Fury—not damaged, not pawns on different sides of a chessboard. Just us.

Surely the universe will grant us that much, after everything it's put us through to get here. Won't it ?

But even as I try to convince myself that I have time to wallow in this bliss before I reveal the havoc my secret will unleash, a heavy weight settles in my gut.

Time is not on our side. It never is.