11. Zeke

Chapter eleven

Zeke

S o what did I know? I knew that the love potion had apparently been to get me on board with becoming someone's fated mate. I knew The Magic Shop owner was somehow involved with or at least very aware of the lycan population around him. I knew Sacha was really fucking wonderful.

But this couldn't possibly be that easy. Boom, you're my mate, let's move in together, yay! That felt like I'd be taking advantage of Sacha's instincts, something he had zero control over. I had the control here. At the end of the week, I could absolutely fly away home and not look back. I'd miss him and mourn that wolfy cock, but I wasn't feeling the effects of being bound to him. I wasn't—

No, goddamnit it, I did like him. A lot. He was sweet and smart and trying very hard to help his family in every way he could. A family that just might be a pack, come to think of it. But all of his qualities combined with how amazing we were in bed…

I was thinking myself in circles while trying to find a pinecone. It was harder than it seemed since they got squishy and gross if they were on the ground long enough. I was sure absolutely none of us would bring Fabian anything less than perfection, so the hunt was ongoing. They'd probably have to send out Search and Rescue for at least one of us for being too afraid to come back empty-handed.

Come to think of it, I was so far off the path I'd been following that I couldn't even see it anymore. That was bad. I'd been going up the hill, hadn't I? Yes, because I'd thought higher would be drier. Latching onto that logic, I carefully made my way down through fallen leaves, looking for the packed dirt trail that zigzagged up the hill. If nothing else, I'd blaze my own path to the bottom and figure out where I was when I could see buildings again.

"Well, well. Hello there."

I flinched at the sound of a man's voice and immediately slipped on the leaves, going into a squat. I crumpled the scavenger hunt list in one fist and grabbed the sapling beside me with my other hand to keep from falling over backward.

The owner of the voice stepped into view in front of me and held out his hand. He was about my age and rugged in a backwoods sort of way with flannel and denim covering a thickly-muscled body. Lumberjacks and mountain men came to mind as I stared up into his big brown eyes. I took his hand and let him pull me up.

"Sorry about that," he said with a grin. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's alright." I brushed off my hands and the seat of my pants. "I wasn't expecting to find other people up here."

And now I didn't want to confess to be doing a scavenger hunt like a twelve-year-old, so I stuffed the list in my pocket.

"I'm Rand." He held out his hand again.

I shook it. "Zeke."

But he didn't let go of my hand and leaned in. "Zeke, you smell like sex and wolf."

I tugged my hand away from him and bumped into the tree behind me. My first instinct was to deny everything he'd just said. But then I realized that if he could scent that, he had to be someone who knew about Sacha and his people. Maybe Rand was one of them, too.

I nodded. "Do you know Sacha?"

"Who?"

Well, that was less okay. And when Rand laced our fingers together and leaned into me, literally pressing me back against the tree and caging me in with his body, I realized he wasn't interpreting the scents on me as meaning I was off-limits.

"Been a long time," Rand purred, "since I've had a nice piece of ass. What do you say—"

I shook his fingers free of mine. "No. Fuck, no," I insisted as I pushed at his shoulders. I'd have had an easier time moving the sapling behind me.

Suddenly, a mass of black fur slammed into Rand. I was spun around and lost my footing completely, crashing sideways into the forest floor. Before I could turn and see them, I heard the sounds of an angry dog growling and a pissed off cat yowling. A cat?

Yep, there was my great big wolf-man tearing into an equally sized… Cougar-man? They moved so fast as they tore into each other that I couldn't hardly track who was doing what. Their noises seemed to echo off the hills, and had me breaking out in a cold sweat as I scrambled to get out of their way. I yelped when someone's blood splattered across my jeans.

As quickly as it had started, the fight ended. Rand suddenly shifted into an actual cougar and bolted up the hill and out of sight. Sacha stood there in his wolf-man form with blood dripping from his claws, panting and watching Rand flee. I could see the cuts on Sacha's neck and sides, but I hesitated to approach him yet. What if he was still in some kind of animal instinct mode and didn't know it was me?

But then he whined piteously and shifted into his wolf form before then shifting into his human one. The blood was gone, no cuts on his clothes that had reappeared, but he braced himself on a tree and groaned. I rushed to his side.

"Are you okay?" I asked as I moved his clothes aside to look. "Tell me how I can help you."

"I'm okay." But he sounded out of breath and exhausted.

I remembered how he'd said shifting for long enough could feel like he'd run a marathon, so I tucked myself under his arm and braced him up. "Come on, let's go back to the resort." I took a step, but he held me back.

"It's this way," he chuckled weakly as he pointed in the opposite direction. "I knew you were lost."

His way didn't look any different than my way. "So you were coming to save me from myself before you realized you had to save me from some horny cat-man thing?"

Sacha actually growled. "I'll kill him for touching you."

I believed him and, lordy, the things that did to me. Becoming aroused was so not the thing to do in this moment, but Sacha must've noticed because he laughed again and turned into my arms to nuzzle against my cheek.

"You're amazing," he whispered. "You didn't panic. You didn't run."

"I wasn't going to just leave you while you were fighting."

Sacha pressed his thigh between my legs. "And now you're getting hard for me."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, shut up. Let's just get to…wherever it is that you go when you need to recover from kicking wild kitty ass."

He snorted and leaned back enough to look me in the eyes. "I do need to talk to my mother about this since that guy wasn't—"

"Rand."

"—supposed— What?"

"He said his name was Rand." I shrugged. "It might be helpful information."

"Okay, sure. Rand and anyone else like him shouldn't be anywhere near here since these are our pack lands." He winced and curled over like maybe his stomach hurt. "Hold on a sec."

In the blink of an eye, Sacha was in his wolf form. I took a step back for whatever he needed to do, but all he did was shake himself like a dog. A moment later, and he was standing again beside me as a man.

"What was that for?" I asked him.

"We heal ourselves every time we shift, especially into our full animal form."

"Are you okay now?" I wanted to inspect every inch of him, but held myself back.

Sacha nodded, still looking rundown and exhausted.

I couldn't resist asking him, "How do you do that and keep your clothes?"

"Why don't I burst out of them like in certain movies?" He smirked at me. "Everything I'm wearing is a natural element, like cotton, metal, or rubber, so it can shift with me."

I thought about that for a second. Obviously, it was convenient and cost-effective so they didn't destroy clothes on a regular basis or anything. But I was also confused. "What would be an unnatural element that wouldn't shift with you?"

He shrugged. "I really don't know. I've always dressed like this, so it's never come up."

"What if you had a knee replacement or something like that?"

"Aren't those metal?"

"And ceramic maybe?"

Before I could comment on that, he winced again and said, "Babe, I really need to sit down for a while."

"Oh! Yeah, of course." I ducked under his arm and started walking us in the direction he'd indicated earlier. "How about you get in the pool when we get back? That'll take the pressure off of your joints. And I can get you something to eat with lots of carbs and protein to help your muscles recover."

"I usually just sleep."

"But that's terrible for recovering from a marathon! Of course you can rest, but you need to give your body back the fuel it just burned, too."

Sacha slipped, and I grabbed the waist of his jeans to keep him on his feet. For a second, I considered getting him on my back or in a fireman's carry, but that seemed ill advised while going down a leaf-strewn hill. I kept hold of his jeans instead.

"Are you a marathon runner?" he asked.

"Oh, uh, no. My ex was a runner. He'd do a marathon every now and then for charity." Would there ever come a time when Anthony wouldn't be relevant? I was glad I knew about these things for Sacha's sake, but hated why I knew any of it.

"Well, his loss is my gain," Sacha said before he kissed my cheek. "Most of the time, we spend a couple days after the full moon recovering from being forced to stay shifted all night. Some sleep during the shift, but it doesn't seem to help at all. Now you've got me wondering if we should be eating and working out or something beforehand like it really is about to be race day. And then the same afterward."

"I'm guessing right now is similar since you just expended so much energy in the fight?"

"Yeah," he said with a groan. "Very yeah."

"Then let's experiment and see if the post-care part helps."

"I'm game."

We found the last big curve of the path that led us down into a garden behind the resort, where I'd first started my scavenger hunt. I remembered how he'd said he couldn't have people knowing about us, so I made to disentangle us, but Sacha stopped me and caught my hand. I didn't comment and just held on. If something had changed for him, then I wasn't going to ruin the moment by reminding him of how he was meant to hide.

The pool was our first stop. Sacha said something to the attendant in the pool house beside the outdoor pool, and they got him a pair of swim trunks to change into. While he did that, I went to the restaurant to see about getting something for him to eat.

As I looked around at the people working in the resort, I had to wonder how many of them were lycans. Like, was the entire pack in the business? I supposed that made sense, to have everyone working at the same place where it would seem normal for a big group of people to be together all the time.

"Table for one?" the hostess asked me.

"No, actually, can I get something to go?"

"Of course." She handed me a single-sheet menu.

Looking over the options, I thought maybe the chicken parmesan might be good for Sacha. Lots of pasta and a big chicken breast covered the carbs and protein that memory said was important. I placed my order and stood near the windows waiting for it.

I could see Sacha come out of the pool house and walk over to the pool like an old man whose arthritis was acting up. He went down the steps so slowly, but then lay on his back and let the water hold him up. Hopefully, that would help him feel better. I had to wonder if Rand had prepped for his walk in the woods, or was he out there moaning and hobbling around, too? I'd have to remember to ask Sacha why Rand might have been out there if he wasn't supposed to be.

Armed with plastic silverware and a container of chicken parm in a bag, I went out to the pool. The lifeguard stopped me.

"There's no food allowed around the pool," he said, "but you can eat over there on the patio."

Taking a chance that it might help, I pointed at Sacha. "This is actually for him."

"Oh. Okay." He gestured for me to go ahead.

I went in and set everything down on the edge of the pool, figuring it would be best if he didn't get out to eat. I sat on a lounge chair and waited for Sacha to open his eyes. Would he scent my return? The wind shifted and, sure enough, he looked at me. I smiled and waved him over.

I opened everything for him while he braced himself on the edge of the pool. There was no one else out there, which I figured was a good thing.

"Chicken parm?" he asked incredulously.

"Carbs and protein." I handed him the fork and knife. "Eat up."

He was a little slow to start, but I could tell when his hunger kicked in because he started shoving swirled forkfuls of pasta into his mouth. He stopped cutting the chicken, too, and just stabbed it to bite chunks off. Covering my mouth to keep from laughing, I watched him devour the food and felt all kinds of pleased that I'd been right. Maybe the tall tales about werewolves eating everything in sight were because they didn't properly prepare for their shifts.

Suddenly, the tarot reading The Magic Shop owner had given me came to mind. He'd said something about secrets being revealed and how I'd have a role to play in the future. He'd said I would calm the beast. Holy shit, he'd been right! That man definitely knew what was going on around here.

But now I wondered if my role was what I'd just done for Sacha. How I'd given him important information that he could share with the rest of his pack to make their lives a little easier. Did that mean my part was done? As Sacha smiled up at me, looking satisfied and rosy-cheeked again, I realized I didn't want to be finished. I wanted to see what else I could do.

I wanted to stay.