uncomfortable by our stroll around the city. He kept ahold of me, his tight grip reminding me I wasn’t the only one vulnerable. I smiled at that thought.
I might not have a half human, but that didn’t change the fact that he thought I was, and it didn’t change that he had done something human for me.
The man who would always be more wolf was trying to be human. He looked down at me with his yellow eyes.
“Thank you for today.”
“You’re welcome.”
He was quiet for a moment.
“I would do anything for you.”
Chapter 21 — Time is Slipping Away
The next two months slipped through my fingers like water. Its passing left my hands slippery and unsure. Things had changed dramatically between Hunter and myself. While we never graduated in our relationship from intense make-out sessions to something more intimate, we were rarely without one another. Hunter and I slept together every night. We discovered after our night in the city that it was nearly impossible to be apart.
My calls home decreased, especially after my last phone call with Keith. I couldn’t quite forgive them for allowing that to happen. For not having told me. I understood that they were trying to protect the pack, and I was part of the pack. In their minds they were trying to protect me as well. But I couldn’t forgive that them for making decisions for Griffin and me. I understood his pain – it was my own. And I wished that I could call him. But I knew probably the best thing was to stay separate from him.
We had barely a month left until my promised time was up here. Surprisingly, the time crept up on me. I overheard Jude and Hunter talking about it. I had just begun to see this as home. Hunter and I never really spoke about the day I told him I was his. It still haunted me. The others thought that I had a moment of weakness, that for some reason, it wasn’t genuine, but motivated by something other than my honest feelings. That wasn’t the case, not at all! But I understood why he felt that way. Sometimes, even a werewolf’s sharp senses are deceived, and I wanted to prove to him that I truly did care for him.
I was, after all, falling in love with him. Regardless of our initial difficulties. I fought it at first. But then there was this one morning. Like any other morning since we moved into his cabin. I can’t say there was anything specifically I could point at in that moment and say, this is it! This is the instant it began! Something, however, was completely different. Hunter was in the kitchen, shirtless, wearing sweatpants, even though most wolves ran hotter than humans, he wore them to make me more comfortable. His feet were bare, and he turned to me when I walked in and his face lit up. It was rare for him to give me look like that. Warmness filled me. His smile was the only one I would never need. If I woke up next to him, I would always be happy.
That morning, upon waking up to see his bed-head, and still a little sleepy myself, I felt a warmness growing. He and I took walks through the woods of his childhood. He opened up more, telling me about growing up with Damien. The most at home he had ever felt was when he moved out of Damien’s at the age of 20 and into his cabin. With the help of the pack he had rebuilt the frame of an older structure that had once stood in its place. I told Hunter about my adventures with the boys. He took it better than I thought he would.
I felt we were working up to the hard stuff. Though he told me about what had happened to his parents, he never told me what had brought his wolf so close to the surface. I realized now that it wasn’t that his eyes were just permanently that color, but rather the wolf was so close to the surface and he was always out.
All my fears about Hunter learning about my witch heritage started to fade over time. I was certain now that my powers had been suppressed with the spell the witch had cast on me. Not only that, but by now I truly believed the warlock would never come back. That eased my fears more than anything else. If