Chapter Five

Dakota

Despite Terrick and Scott's objections, I sat on the porch to give them some time alone inside their home. Terrick's mood was low, and I knew enough about Alphas to know they didn't always want some stranger hanging around to witness that. I wasn't a stranger to Scott, but I was to Terrick. I came to help, but maybe to him I was just someone else he had to deal with and share his mate with.

Liam's voice played through the trees. I bit my lip and prayed he wasn't coming to say that Terrick's carrier hadn't moved on after all.

"He's probably just going for a walk to check on everyone," my wolf chimed into my thoughts. "Stop stressing out so much. We're not here to stress out. We're here to keep our friend from stressing out."

The wind ruffled through my hair, and I closed my eyes, considering shifting and going for a run. I breathed in, taking in all the scents the breeze carried in from the woods. My fingers gripped the arms of the rocking chair, and I breathed in again. This time, my wolf sat up inside his inner sanctum and sniffed too. My eyes shifted to his. I drew in one more long breath before deciding anything. There was a new scent on the breeze, metallic and warm. A scent that demanded my attention at all costs.

"ALPHA!" I flinched as my wolf howled inside my brain.

The word echoed around my skull, and I tightened my grip on the rocking chair. Was I hallucinating? Was I making all this up to appease myself about coming to Heartville at a bad time for Terrick? Was the change of scenery playing with my mind?

No.

No, it wasn't.

There on the breeze so close to Liam's laughter was the scent of the most familiar stranger I'd ever smelled. My wolf stood up, tapping his front paws and then going low into a play bow. I wasn't budging up from the chair. What if I went in the wrong direction and missed him? What if somehow despite my wolf, I ended up lost in the forest? What if I did that and something ate me before I ever met him?

"You worry too much. We'd be the scariest thing in the woods" my wolf said, his tail lifted high and wagging.

"Fucking Laurni!" Someone close by swore under his breath.

"What?" Liam's voice followed a second later.

"Fucking Laurni!" The man swore again.

The swearing man was the most likely carrier of the scent that made my knuckles turn white from gripping the chair arms too tightly.

"What's going on? Do you see someone? A dead someone?" Liam asked, but the owner of the voice didn't answer.

A blur passed on the street and doubled back through Scott's yard before landing square in front of me on the porch. He was tall. I didn't need to stand up to know he'd probably tower over me. He had dark hair and brown eyes. His skin was pale in the light of the setting sun. For a long moment neither of us said anything. Liam waited at the foot of the steps as if he didn't dare approach the vampire looming over me. From a distance that's what he must've looked like. There I sat gripping the chair like a man about to be eaten alive by a vampire.

I met his gaze and let out a long, slow breath. My wolf's tail wagged faster and I tried to free my hands from the chair arms. Only my brain wouldn't accept the message. The man reached out to touch my face and I leaned into his warm palm.

"Quit accosting Dakota," Terrick said, opening the door. "I thought you were going to settle in before you showed your face around here, Cardian."

Cardian. Cardian? Terrick's brother was the one stroking my cheek and driving my wolf crazy? The one I'd spend the rest of my life with?

"Hey, little brother," Cardian said without looking away from me. "A man cannot accost someone who chose him lifetimes before."

"Quit your emo poetry and stop touching him!" Terrick said.

Cardian laugh, low and melodical. The sound wrapped around me and my fingers finally relaxed. I reached out for his free hand and our fingers entwined as if they'd never been separate.

"I think they're true-mate responding, Terrick," Liam called from the bottom of the steps.

"What?" Terrick asked.

"It's true, baby brother," Cardian nodded, but still didn't look away.

"What's going on, guys?" Scott yelled from the bedroom. "I don't like being out of the loop."

I opened my mouth to say I should check on him, but no words came out.

"Ummm… Terrick, can I go inside and talk to Scott? Especially, if you're going to stay out here talking to your brother and Dakota."

"Of course," Terrick nodded and moved out of the way.

I tugged Cardian's hand until he stepped forward, his feet on either side of mine. I pulled away from his hand to nuzzle against his belly, raking my scent on his t-shirt and stealing some of his onto my skin. He sighed and his free hand moved to run through my hair. I wrapped my arm around him and nuzzled more. His scent was everything I didn't know my nose was missing out on.

"For the love of the old elves! Don't let him suck your dick on the porch!" Terrick sighed.

"Baby brother, don't be so fucking crude. By now, I thought you'd know better than anyone, that shifters nuzzle."

I let go of Cardian and sat back properly in the rocking chair, trying not to blush as hard as I was.

"Do you want us to leave?" I asked Terrick.

"No," his voice was softer than when he spoke to his brother. "You're here to help. Just keep it clean on the porch. I don't want to be the house people don't let their kids walk by, okay?"

"Sorry, Terrick," I said.

"I'll leave the door unlocked, you two can come inside whenever you're ready. Did Scott or someone show you where your room is? I put your bag in there already," Terrick said.

"Thanks, Terrick. I know where it is," I said and almost apologized for true-responding to the brother he didn't even want to visit, but stopped short. Life didn't last long enough to apologize for something that made me happy.