verb ‘like’ didn’t describe how wonderful it was to have him so close to me.
Maybe, over a lifetime, it’d get tiring, but it surprised me how much I loved it now.
After so many years of being alone, of dealing with the pitfalls and surges of life by myself, to have him here? To know he was going through this with me, loving it and getting to know me at the same time?
Heaven.
Truly.
I figured that we’d been here at least five days by this point. Or, however time was measured in this place.
I hoped that when I returned to the regular place where Eli and Ethan were waiting on me, that barely a minute had passed, because I didn’t want them to be worrying about me. I didn’t want their concern. All while I loved the time this was giving me with Austin, my most vulnerable of mates.
He wasn’t like Eli, so sure in his position, and he was utterly unlike Ethan, so confident in his strength, so controlled at all times.
He wasn’t lesser, like he feared. He was just different. And I wanted the chance to explore those differences and come to love him for who he was.
What he was.
So, after five days of being naked, of being with him, of us learning each other, I’d admit I was turning into a glutton, wanting more and more.
This place made me feel like we were Adam and Eve or something, amid the trees, a pool here to drink from and bathe in, with anything we required just a wish away.
I’d admit to shifting only to go to the bathroom, because it felt less gross to do that in my wolfskin, but it was nice to dive-bomb into the water afterward, getting to know my other half as well through play.
This entire situation was a ‘getting to know you’ period. For both me and my she-wolf, and me and Austin.
The Mother, I decided, really knew her shit.
I hummed at the thought, then rolled into a standing position that let me take in the majesty of my current location. The place was perfect. Sheer verdant paradise.
The grass beneath my feet was like velvet. There were no bugs in it either. No fleas to make my skin crawl, or fire ants to sting me. The blades were gentle, soft against my flesh to the point where it almost tickled, and I even felt bad for standing on it and maybe crumpling the fronds. But the scent that came when I did more than made up for the guilt.
It was fresh and clean, rich with a vibrancy that was like the best perfume in the world. The second morning, I’d rolled in it before I’d dived into the pool, and I’d scented of it all day.
Yum.
The trees here weren’t losing their leaves like they had back home. They were heavy with them, but they came in a thousand different shades. Not just greens, but a shade of blue that was close to green on the color palette. They had rich red veins that made them look like blood, and some were amber, some had metallic tints, and freckles of color here and there.
I had to admit, just staring at this place made me want to bring out my pen and pad, but Kali Sara, I hadn’t drawn in a long time because of the fibromyalgia.
Just getting out of bed in the morning had taken most of my energy, and then doing what I had to survive? There’d been nothing left over for fun stuff like drawing. Cooking and baking were tasks I’d had to force myself to undertake, simply because I couldn’t afford to waste food, but drawing? Nope. That had definitely fallen on the unimportant list of things to do on a daily basis.
It was on the tip of my tongue to wish for a pad and pen from the totem who seemed quite willing to grant me any and every wish I wanted, because the sight of the pool up ahead was a breathtaking one. It belonged in a National Geographic magazine, that was for sure. With the gold streaked, rusty-colored rocks behind it, the gentle roar—paradox, I knew—from the falls, then the way the water cascaded and rippled as still met flowing…
Truly, the sight was magnificent.
But I didn’t make my wish. Instead, I decided to use the bathroom, then think about finding Austin, and then maybe I’d wish for the drawing materials. In that order. It felt wrong to sully this place,