Chapter 15: Billie

Chapter 15: Billie

Why hadn’t Colt warned me about the dragons all over Dalesbloom? If he’d been talking to our packmates or outside at all, he should have known the dragons would prevent me from escaping north. I would have gotten caught—killed, even. The way he stood there offering clothes to me, imploring me to come back after he’d spent all last night helping me devise my plan… it made me sick with anxiety. It was a miracle Gavin found me. I could be safe in Grandbay, but I couldn’t stay there. I couldn’t trust him, David Catrina, or even Colt anymore. I couldn’t trust anyone.

My head spun after the Dalesbloom wolves retreated; it was just me and Gavin. Aislin and the other man, Niko, remained as wolves and loped alongside us while Gavin stayed silent and pulled or pushed my arm to move me in the right direction. I limped through the bushes as quickly as I could while resisting the pain in my leg. My leggings felt too tight, and the black sweater—Colt’s sweater—felt too big. It suffocated me with his smell. Everything was overwhelming, so I was glad no conversation arose while I was trying to wrap my head around what had happened.

A single light shone through the dark forest as a beacon of comfort. The pack house had a distinctly musky smell to it that resembled Gavin, its porch light glistening between the trees as we approached down the driveway, and I found clarity in relief despite the circumstances. Gavin held the door open for me. I walked into the kitchen to see Gavin’s Beta, Gretel, standing beside Muriel, both of them stationed by the window in worried vigil.

Muriel smiled softly at me, but her smile ebbed as she noticed my bloody leg. “Billie. Are you alright?”

“What happened?” asked Gretel.

Gavin shook his head and leaned against the kitchen counter, fingers raking through his hair. “Fucking David. I gave him too much ammunition to use against me.”

“I take it breaking up with Catrina didn’t go over well,” said Gretel.

I hungered for more information about the break-up, but he only stared bitterly into the distance. “And this one decided to rub salt in the wound by running off again, so naturally, David thinks it was all a big scheme,” said Gavin, gesturing tersely at me.

“I didn’t know you broke up,” I defended quietly.

“This one is the girl you caught protecting Muriel,” Gretel realized out loud.

The kitchen door kicked open, revealing Aislin now human and dressed, marching into the kitchen to point a finger at Gavin. “You! You had your Moondream and didn’t tell me and it’s her?”

With Aislin’s finger gliding toward me, everyone then turned their attention to follow, thrusting me again into the spotlight. I shrank down, burying myself in my sweater.

Gavin scowled. “That had nothing to do with anything.”

“How long ago?”

“A little over a week.”

Aislin’s eyebrows rose. “You knew when we intercepted the dragons and you still sent her back to that pack of assholes!” She pushed past me and swung a fist at Gavin’s shoulder, leaving me to watch in horror and awe. “At least you had the decency to dump Cat before kidnapping your mate!” she added while beating him.

With a growl, Gavin shoved her away by the arm and straightened up. “Jesper is not my mate. She’s only here because Cat would kill her if she went back to the manor. Now,” he bared his teeth at everyone in the kitchen, “I don’t want to hear another fucking word about it.”

Aislin folded her arms next to her mother. “But this is huge, Gavin. For everyone.”

“She’s off-limits,” he snapped.

Aislin rolled her eyes, but the glance she sent me promised she would corner me  soon regardless. I looked back down, no trace of my courage to be found; it was stripped away by Catrina’s teeth and Gavin’s constant rejection of me. It was only due to the silence that I chose to contribute, “I won’t get in your way. I’ll be leaving soon.”

Everyone looked at me like they had something to say, but nobody said anything with Gavin there. Gavin snorted and dismissed me with his hand. “See? She isn’t even sticking around.” I didn’t expect a reaction, but still his ambivalence hurt.

Aislin balked. I rubbed my arms, feeling out of place.

“Someone mend her leg,” Gavin instructed. He turned away to pour himself a glass of water, and what little gratitude I’d felt for him—for how he made me feel equal before—was gone. Gavin truly didn’t want me here.

I must have looked crestfallen because Muriel came up and took my hands, smiling with warm reassurance. “I can help your leg. Here, let’s go to the washroom.”

At least the aura around Muriel was kind. I nodded and followed her, glad to be in her company rather than anyone else’s, but caught the look Gavin gave us as we left the kitchen.As ifhe didn’t trust me to be alone with the unicorn.

In the washroom, I removed my leggings and sat on the edge of the bathtub. The cold shell sent a shiver through my skin. Muriel grabbed a ratty cloth, soaked it in hot water, and began dabbing blood from the gory lacerations on my ankle and thigh. “Who did this to you?” she asked softly.

“My sister, Catrina.” I held my breath, trying not to whimper from the pain.

“She doesn’t seem thrilled about your fated bond with Gavin.”

I almost laughed. “I have no right having anything to do with Gavin. I’m just a mistake; it should have been Cat.”

“Don’t invalidate yourself, Billie. You didn’t deserve this,” said Muriel, wiping down my leg.

With a sigh, I couldn’t help but believe I was  unreasonable in all this. Maybe I should have waited until things calmed down with Grandbay, Dalesbloom and the dragons before running away. But… I didn’t think I’d have been able to stop it. Sometimes the compulsions to transform were so strong that I didn’t even feel in control of my body.

There was a knock on the bathroom door. “Yes?” replied Muriel.

The door opened, revealing Gavin leering aloofly at both of us. “How bad is it?”

“It doesn’t feel good, does it?” Muriel glanced up, pitying me. “I can fix it, but she’ll have to rest for a few days.”

“That’s fine,” said Gavin.

My skin prickled as I felt exposed in front of Gavin. He stayed in the washroom despite my discomfort, or maybe just not noticing, and watched as Muriel finished cleaning my leg of blood. Then she pressed her fingers around the fringes of my wounds and closed her eyes, and I waited, confused, until warmth sunk into my skin and through my leg. With a gasp, I watched as the flesh mended itself, clotting blood and rebuilding my damaged muscle as the skin sealed over with shiny pink new growth. My wounds stung acutely but the pain dulled underneath the healing buzz.

Gavin leaned closer. “Was that magic?”

Muriel inspected the wounds, wiping her hands on a clean cloth. “I can’t use it when there’s too much blood. Fresh blood causes a rather adverse reaction in unicorns; but if I can clean it first, I can repair injuries nearly to perfection.”

I flinched when he reached out to touch the healed gouges, expecting pain. But I only felt the warmth of his fingers.

“So erm,” I mumbled, “can I transform like this?”

Muriel looked up at me. “No. Your body needs to heal the rest of it. It’s better you stay put for a few days.”

A few days trapped in Grandbay… It could be just as bad as being trapped in Hexen Manor. I swallowed, watching Gavin still running his fingers along the new skin on my calf. Unnerved, I pulled my leg away, and he withdrew, grumbling. I didn’t know why he was transfixed on me, but if he wanted to inspect a freshly healed wound, he could get Muriel to heal one of his own.

After Gavin left us, Muriel bandaged my leg and took me into the bedroom where she’d been sleeping. The bed was neatly made and the walls smelled crisp and clean; the absence of her scent made it seem like the room had never been slept in before. I crawled under the covers and melted into the comfortable mattress. Muriel sat on the edge, amused.

“Thanks for fixing my leg,” I said to her.

She smiled. “It’s the least I can do. Get some sleep, okay? I heard Gavin’s going to move us out of here tomorrow.”

“To where?”

“I don’t know yet,” said Muriel.

“Will we stay together?”

Her face softened and her narrow, silky hands wrapped around mine. “I would like that.”

Strange, the sense of belonging I felt with her. The matronly warmth she exuded soothed my worries. “Me too.”

Muriel sat with me until I drifted away. I last remembered her weight on the edge of the bed before waking to darkness and loneliness a few hours later. Restless dreams assailed me through the night.

Something scraped at the window, jostling me out of sleep early in the morning. I winced into the sunlight and pulled my arms out of the blanket, stretching as the body in front of the window came into focus. Gavin turned the handle cranking the window open, letting in a warm, sweet breeze.

We realized I was awake at the same time and stared at each other before Gavin rubbed the back of his neck. “Sleep okay?”

What did he care? He wanted me gone. I sighed and looked away.

“Oh, did I wake you up?” he grunted.

“I slept fine,” I muttered.

Gavin leaned his butt on the edge of the bed where Muriel sat. Muscles bulged from his crossed arms in front of his grey tank top, his black sweats adorned in stray wolf hairs and fuzz, and his dark hair in tired disarray in a way that was awfully attractive. I pulled my legs away from him. “I got questions for you,” he said.

“Okay.”

“When was the last time you saw your mom?”

He came right out the gate with the hard hitters. I gawked at Gavin before finding my voice. “Um… fifteen years ago, I guess.”

“What happened then?”

“My… My parents were killed.”

Gavin’s brow furrowed. “Aren’t your parents David and Rebecca?”

“No…?” Although I didn’t expect him to know all the details, I thought Catrina at least told him that much. “My parents were killed,” I repeated. “The Hexens adopted me. I’m not related to them by blood.”

The revelation had Gavin looking elsewhere. “I was told you were David’s daughter.”

“I guess he calls me that.”

“That’s what Catrina said. She never said anything about you being adopted.”

“I would’ve thought she’d go out of her way to let people know we weren’t related,” I said glumly. “Why does it matter?”

“Just doesn’t make sense why they treat you so differently. What killed your parents?”

The subject came so easily to him, I felt weak for how it depressed me. “Other shifters. That’s what David said.”

“Dragons?”

“He never specified.”

I’d never had the courage to ask more about that night. David always turned it around on me, making me feel guilty for having survived, so I didn’t bring it up.

Gavin pondered it for long enough that I wondered what he was thinking about. His big hand came down on my uninjured leg, startling me, which made him pull his hand back. “Show me your leg,” he said.

Why? Why did he care? I hesitated before pulling the covers down and rolling up my pant leg.

Gavin leaned across the bed to get a better look. The mattress dipped beneath him and gravity pulled me closer to where his bodyweight pressed around me until my bare ankle was touching his chest and he didn’t notice or care. He gently touched the fresh scarring on my leg, curious about it. “I felt it too,” said Gavin. “The pain… The warmth when she healed you.”

His voice fell to a volume reserved only for me. Once more lulled by the allure of his rare kindness, I looked up at him and whispered, “Can you feel it now?”

Gavin rolled up his pant leg and hoisted his calf beside me, entangling us on the bed. He stopped touching my calf and turned his to me. “See for yourself.”

Gingerly, I trailed my fingers through his dense leg hair, surprised by the tingling it mirrored back onto me. Ever since my Moondream, I’ve been feeling phantom pressures, itches, and pains. I had no idea the fated bond could be so potent even before marking, then felt embarrassed at what Gavin must have endured because of me.

“Weird, isn’t it?” He adjusted on the bed so he laid more comfortably on his hip beside me. His attention went to my uninjured leg, falling silent with the distraction of running his palm up my narrow calf and over my knee, bracing his hand on my thigh. “I feel all this.”

His exploratory strokes made me anxious. I had always feared Gavin and what he could do to me, so his gentleness surprised me, but soon I found his touch exciting enough to want more.

He bent closer to me, brushing his nose against my knee. When his dark hazel eyes flicked up at me, my stomach squirmed and he snickered. I could only reason that he was doing this as an experiment. Testing the limits of our bond just to experience it, knowing he’d never actually mark me. As he slipped his hand inside my sweats and squeezed under my thigh, the touch overwhelmed me, flushing me with nervous heat. “Gavin…”

He growled and arched his shoulders, his neck bent to kiss the inside of my thigh. His other hand crept toward my waist. I was on fire with excitement—I wanted him to slow down and know why, but I didn’t want him to stop. Our fated bond made it irresistible, and I sensed quickly that he wouldn’t resist going as far as he wanted. My breaths were short, shaking, his fingers curling around my waistband.

Elsewhere in the house, a door opened and shut loudly. “Gav!” called Aislin, “The coast is clear. Let’s get moving!”

Gavin reeled back. Frowning down at me, he struggled for words while shielding his groin. The erection in his sweats was hard to hide. “Fuck. Urgh,” he grumbled.

I didn’t know what to say—I couldn’t muster anything before he left the bedroom. I laid back down feeling dizzy and hot, but most of all, feeling ravenous for those touches I’d never experienced before.