“Yeah.” He shrugged, a blush tinting his neck as he rubbed at it. “I like to draw if I have free time.”
“Wow. That’s great.” He was really talented, and I had no idea. The dolphin looked like it was coming right out of the waves, and the spray looked real enough to dampen my hand if I touched the paper. The pair of seahorses that danced together were as mischievous as faeries as they wove amongst the coral home they shared. “Do you just do ocean drawings, or do you do other things too?”
“Other things as well. I just thought these suited the room. I change them out occasionally. I had a starfish and a tiger shark up a few months ago. It gives me a chance to work on different projects and improve them.” He tilted his head to study them. “I’m sure I’ll be changing these out soon as well.”
“Really?” I shook my head as I studied the sketches again. “I don’t see how you can get bored with these. It’s like they’re alive.”
A flash of light drew my attention across the room. “It’s gorgeous. I feel like I’m right on the ocean,” I breathed, approaching the mural.
“My mother made it,” he told me, coming to stand beside me. “When I was just a pup. She loved the ocean. My father used to tease her for it, said wolves were for the forest, not the ocean, but you couldn’t keep her away from it. The ocean, lakes, rivers—that’s what she was drawn to. She’d take me and we’d gather sea glass, shells, stones… it was our time together.” He walked to his bedside table and picked up a framed photo to show me. The woman in it was young, probably in her early twenties, with laughing golden eyes and dark hair. The toddler on her hip was clearly Ari, his blue eyes as bright then as they were now, though the carefree smile was something I had never seen replicated on his face.
“She’s beautiful,” I murmured. “I haven’t really heard you talk about her.”
“It’s still hard to,” he replied, setting the picture down gently. “It’s easier in some ways, the details of it, the facts. But it’s harder in some ways too.”
I froze, processing what he was saying. “Ari…” I reached for him and wrapped my hands tightly around his waist so I could press my face against his chest. “I thought she was with one of the different packs. You keep talking about the different roles we can take on, the different locations we can go to. I didn’t realize…” My heart broke for him, tears burning my eyes as I hugged him firmly against me. I let him tug me to the sofa and settle me onto his lap without releasing my hold on him.
His lips brushed my head. “We have a lot in common, you and I, Penny. My mother and I were out collecting our shells and another pack crossed into our territory. My mother was both trusting and prideful. She thought other wolves wouldn’t dare cross into our territory, that they would abide by the treaties. If they did, she was alpha female of our pack, she thought she could handle it. She didn’t count on the fact that they had no desire to fight honorably.” His voice was steady, but his hands tightened on me, holding me against him as I cried, thinking of the poor little boy who had witnessed his mother’s death.
I couldn’t find words, I could only do what I could to comfort him with my touch as I stroked my hands across his back and arms.
“She fought like a wolf possessed, injuring all of them badly enough that they would eventually bleed out. She saved my life, but she didn’t save her own. There was no mental link, no way for me to call anyone to us. I was little and slow, and by the time I was able to get back to the pack house and bring her help, my mother was gone. Unlike you, she got a chance to tell me she loved me one last time.”
“Goddess, Ari,” I sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s one of the reasons I wanted to protect you when you got here. To keep you away from everyone.” He wiped the tears from my cheeks. “I remembered the comments, even as a pup. The whispers that tear you apart. I was their future alpha, a pup too young to have done