#28

Aurora
After another steamy kiss, Evander had me gather what I'd need from the few clothes left on the dresser for after the hot springs. If they hadn't found anything else before tomorrow, I'd just have to re-wear something that I had. Undergarments were another concern. If I was staying here, I begrudgingly would need this trip to town. I despised shopping of any kind. Well, unless it was a craft store. I ended up having to borrow another shirt from him, as a white t-shirt and a pair of worn cargo pants and socks were all that was left of the pile. I took the purple coat realizing I'd have damp hair and would probably be cold after the springs.

We were walking hand in hand as we approached the Pavillion that had handmade picnic tables beneath it and the standard moss-covered roof. Smells came to me in a more potent manner than usual. The layers of scent caused my mouth to water. My stomach grumbled and Evander tugged me closer, sensing my apprehension as the eyes of strangers watched us curiously, pausing as they ate to take me in. His arm slipped around me, his hand resting on my hip as he guided me towards an older woman who would be about my mother's age if she were still with us. His fingers squeezed my hip letting me know I wasn't alone.

"Aurora, this is Shelly. She's our master of the kitchen and food preservation. Shelly, this is Aurora, my mate." I glanced towards her, eyes not fully reaching hers, giving her a small and awkwardly shy smile. "It's nice to meet you," I choked out my voice, not fully cooperating. She gave me a warm yet almost apologetic look. My discomfort must be written all over my face, my self-consciousness bloomed and I found my body instinctively turning into Evanders. "Pleasure is mine, Luna." She replied, not forcing the conversation further as she reached for a basket handing it to Evander. Something passed between them, their eyes meeting. I surmised they must be doing the mind speak thing. Which I had almost forgotten I could do with Evander, with everything that had happened since I got here. I slipped into his consciousness.' everything alright?' I asked. After his shocked pause, he turned his attention back to me, responding in my mind. 'Yes, love, I have somewhere to take you. Shelly is just concerned. She wants you to feel welcome.' I nodded. Looking up at the older woman properly. "Thank you for your kindness," I said firmly. "Sometime you'll have to show me all you do here." After looking confused back and forth between us, she smiled. "Any time Luna." "Please, it's just Aurora." She smiled with more warmth. "Aurora then, anytime." “Thank you,” I said looking up at Evander to move us along before things got any more awkward.

He thanked Shelly again and ushered me out the side exit of the lean too. As opposed to turning to the pavilion, where gazes followed our every movement. I refused to glance behind me, the searching eyes of his… possibly soon our people following me raising my anxiety. Would I ever get over this absurd notion the entire world was out to get me? The ingrained worry for self-preservation? The fear of taking anyone I cared for with me if I was found and all went awry?

"Love," he interrupted my darkness. I shook my head coming up out of my thoughts, looking up at him. "Remember what I said about you being my life force?" "Mmm hmm," I answered. "They have been waiting and wondering if their Luna would ever come since we came here. Good packs are built with a mated unit. There is a balance to be maintained. If the leaders of the pack are happy, that will trickle down through all the members. They will not worry about tomorrow or their needs or about turmoil in the future. They will trust in their leaders. When their Alpha is at peace, packs tend to prosper. I've seen well established packs fall after an Alpha stubbornly has rejected the goddess's gift. We have already started the process of binding and, once bound, there is no turning back for us. Our life force will be one. It will also be theirs. Their security in the future. This is why some of the rogues out there are lost." He paused looking out into the distance. "Their souls have been ripped in two." I listened, noting the depth he was attempting to explain. Little did he know that this 'bonding' could possibly run much deeper than that. I listened as he continued. "Well, our people know this. They followed me out here on their own free will. I would not have allowed any of them to come if I doubted their loyalty or intentions. Each of them has their own story, just as you and I do.

“Out here," he said. Gesturing to the landscape as we wound through the trees in the forest, "The wild part of us is at peace. When we spend most of our lives sheltered in cities, we run the risk of becoming unhinged. It's a balance our kind has struggled with over the ages as we faded into modern society. Packs like my mothers would struggle to hold the land they have maintained as their territory for centuries due to evolving laws, our secrecy being hindered by encroaching humans. Packs like my fathers melted into the cities and societies with the illusion of being human and struggled to keep the wolf part of them compliant."

"So what do you think would happen if we do bind?" I asked, looking up at him. He looked at me confused. "I'm not entirely sure, but I'm more than willing to find out." Was his response. Did he honestly have no idea? "We're almost there," he said with a hint of excitement.

He pulled me out of the thinning forest and into an open field that presided over a fairly large portion of the side of the mountain. My eyes trailed down at the beautiful view below. The thick forest below us all turned in Autumn’s glory. Nestled closely to the waterway that cuts through the center of the valley, emptying down into the lower elevation beyond our sight. My eyes traveled up the top of snowy peaks catching the gyrfalcon once again soaring on the breeze. The beauty of the humble valley was utterly breathtaking and my mind wondered about the shades of life it took as it traveled through the wheel of seasons throughout the year.

My magic reached out, and I allowed the peace of the hum of nature to wash over me. I could feel Evander nudge gently into my mind as he came up behind me after discarding the basket and bag, his big hands sliding over my hips and wrapping around me as he enjoyed the vibrations of the world around us with me. I took a deep breath inhaling the scents around, not only could I feel and hear the scurry and movement of the surrounding inhabitants, I could smell them. The musk of a distant bear and the dampness coming off muskrats busy in the marsh below, and a pungent smell that sent me spiraling back to myself, bringing him with me.

Gagging and choking on the noxious stench. “What was that?” I exclaimed. His deep laugh caught me off guard as he still held me close, and I took in his cleansing scent of pine and earth. “That is a skunk, and I think he's mad.” Evander choked out through his laughter at my expense. “It's horrible!” I shrieked out, covering my nose with my hands hidden within the extra lengths of the oversized arms. He pulled me around to face him, his head cocked very like a confused dog to the side. “What were you doing?” he asked with curiosity. “It's what I do. I feel out all the energy all the life and sometimes the death, the elements, the plants the animals If I want to I can manipulate it. But what I wield can sometimes be aggressive, so control is crucial. However, it's ever-changing as The Mother herself is. The whole smelling thing is new, or was that you?” I asked looking at him. “I've never had the ability to smell like that.” He raised a brow at me. “I was simply a bystander of your moment. I just wanted to get to know what you were experiencing. You seemed completely relaxed and tranquil. I didn’t manipulate anything.” He answered. “It's happened before, in the woods, when you got hurt,” I said. “That was strange, as everything seems a little backward with us. Normally mates can’t mind speaking unless they are in the same pack before they are bound to each other.” “It's not just the talking Evander. When you were following me, my senses would sharpen. I wanted to smell the air.” I admitted as strange as it was. “The elders may know something, but it is odd. It’s like how adolescents first start experiencing the animal as it begins to awaken.”

“But I'm not a wolf,” I said simply. He knelt beside the backpack and began pulling out a quilt and I helped him lay it out, using the backpack and the basket to weigh it down. We ended up sitting with me between his legs, my back to his front as we enjoyed the homemade crusty, bread, cheese, and some spicy mustard sauce that I could probably put on anything and it would taste amazing. We sipped some kind of honey and herb-infused water that satisfied my thirst better than anything I had ever drunk before. It was odd. Maybe the fresh air makes everything taste better? “What?” Evander asked breaking the spell as I chewed. We had been contemplating in companionable silence as we ate, enjoying our surroundings. I swear he could feel my moods shift. There was nothing to be kept from him. “I’m sure Shelly is an amazing cook, but everything tastes a bit ‘extra,’ like there are more flavors in between flavors.” I looked up at him over my shoulder. He placed his mason jar down. His face screwed up a bit before he looked at me with a little grin.

“How about we experiment?” he said with a smirk. “How? I asked, intrigued. “Well, you eat and I taste as you do.” he said. He handed me a piece of cheese pulling me close and resting his chin on my shoulder. I eyed him before closing my eyes and taking a bite. As I chewed, I felt him enter my consciousness, and with my eyes closed, I focused on each element of the taste, how the saltiness melted into an almost nutty flavor morphing into an almost pungent aroma. It was so strong. Could a taste really hit your nose like that? “Hmm,” he hummed next to my cheek. “Try this.” He said moving his hand towards my mouth, presenting me with a plump berry. I glanced back at his mischievous eyes before allowing my lips to lean forward and painfully gently take the berry from his fingers. I leaned back into him as the burst of the war of sweetness and tartness invaded my tastebuds. ”mmm” I moaned out too wrapped up in this new sense to realize what I had done at first. Until at my back, I felt something had grown very firm and quite prominent. My cheeks flushed with a blush.

He had stilled before running his beard up and down my neck and I felt my body elicit sensations that were hard-wired down to my core. I took a sharp breath. “Hmm.” his lips hummed over my neck as my heart thundered and soft kisses ran up to the back of my ear. Where he gently nipped the lobe with his teeth. My traitorous body succumbed to his sweet advance with my now-damp panties. Great! I thought. My will has slackened as my body lay limply against him. His nostrils flared. His hand moved from my hip up under my sweater stopping just under my breast, as my instinct screamed at his halt. A guttural growl rumbled from the deep recesses of his chest. My lust-hazed eyes startled meeting his. A fierce promise lay within the dark navy pools of the wolf’s eyes. A vow of lustful sin, of possession, an innate desire to dominate my body and soul with unbridled passion. Could I allow him such trust and freedom? Fuck it! I don't think I even had the will to fight it anymore.

Locked in the stare his eyes faded back to the crystal blue I was accustomed to, but the man's eyes held a similar oath. But he spoke to my heart and soul not just my body. I needed them both. I desired them both.

I had been told the man and the wolf were one, but I hadn’t quite understood it until this moment. They were kindred spirits of the same mind sharing the same soul. The wolf was the man’s instinct and primordial side, while the man withheld logic and the ingenuity of the wolf. If I was with the wolf, I was with the man, and just how could I do that without becoming one of them? Or was I predetermined? “Am I already one of you?” I asked, disturbing our trance. He blinked and shook the lust out of his thoughts.”No, Love, but I think your soul’s wolf has already been chosen.”