American Honey

Oliver

I watched as Lya slept soundly, reaching out to brush a strand of hair away from her face. I was about to drift off myself when my phone vibrated against the nightstand, jolting me from my thoughts. I reached over and grabbed it before the sound could wake her. I groaned, noticing it was an incoming call, and not one I felt like I could refuse. I got up from the bed, quietly making my way out of her room.

“Hey man,” I said, keeping my voice low and closing the door as quietly as possible. Lya wasn’t historically a light sleeper, but I tiptoed to my office anyway. “Make it quick.”

“Am I interrupting something?” my brother chuckled.

“No,” I sighed. “Lya just has night terrors.”

Thom cleared his throat. “Right. Mate bonds are the cure for all maladies.” I could hear the sorrow in his voice. I knew he was happy with his life now, but I imagined the pain of the loss of your fated never quite went away. “Trevor called. Heard things aren’t shaping up too well.”

“On which front?” I scoffed.

“Fair point.”

I scrubbed my hand over my face, trying to focus. “It sounds like it’s going to be exactly like twelve years ago, and with how connected Trevor is to that, I am fucking furious with him for getting us into this mess.”

“I don’t think you can blame him for this, actually,” Thom said slowly. “I don’t think they want anything to do with the pack; just your girl. Trevor was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“What makes you think that?” I snapped. Trevor was the one who set out to replay this whole game of cat and mouse with the hunters, and I wanted - needed - to place blame on someone.

“Think about it, Ollie,” he chided. “We are naturally drawn to our mates, however far they are. It makes sense that she’d be migrating in a direction closer to you, and that guy followed her here.”

I sat back against the overstuffed chair, pondering his comment. It made sense, and deep down I already knew that. It just hurt that my mate would be the subject of a hunt across the country. “Why her, though? There are tons of other wolves out there for them to choose from.”

Thom barked out a dry laugh. “The Wulver clan is small. Those ones are hard to come by, and they are very, very good at not being found. That meeting in Maine ten years ago, Ollie. It was about her. Packs caught wind of how her dad was hiding her, and they wanted to step in. Just as the pack in Maine was about to make a move, her father did what Wulvers do best and disappeared with her. To be honest, I’m surprised it took hunters this long to find her.”

“Wait, you knew the Wulver pack was still around?” I asked, puzzled that he had that information and I didn’t.

Thom grunted in confirmation. “This is a conversation for another time. I’ll be back in a couple days. Make sure my room is ready for me, will ya?”

Thom ended the call, leaving me to sit alone in my dark office, lost in thought. And like it was yesterday, I was taken back to a stormy, pebbly beach on the midcoast of Maine.

It wasn’t a trip I had been invited on, but I insisted on going. I was newly eighteen, and was taking every opportunity to get out of the pack in hopes of finding my mate. I had this gut feeling that I just knew she’d be there.

The agreement was that I could tag along, but I wasn’t allowed in any of the meetings. Those were exclusively for the alphas and lunas. As my older brother was the alpha to be of the Snow Moon Pack, he was allowed to join. But me? I may have been of alpha blood, but due to birth order, I was a nobody. That was exactly how, on an overcast late May morning, I found myself sitting on a stoney beach behind a restaurant that was technically still closed for the off season, throwing rocks into the Atlantic Ocean while the rest of my family sat inside discussing an issue I wasn’t allowed to be privy to.

I looked down the beach and spotted a figure walking towards me. The grayness of the day made her long, auburn hair stand out, the wind causing it to swirl around her in an almost mystical way. I didn’t think she had noticed my presence as she made her way closer to me. The girl seemed lost in thought, smiling to herself and humming a tune I didn’t recognize.

Another gust of wind from behind the girl pushed the heady scent of the lilac bushes nearby and pine forest coming almost up to the waterline toward me, along with the unmistakable scent of wolf. As she got closer, it was clear she carried the overwhelming smell with her. I wondered if maybe she had recently gone for a run in the woods, and the smell just clung to her. I wondered if someone had devised how to turn that smell into a perfume or a candle, and where could I buy it. It caused Adair to stir, insistent on us getting closer.

She very nearly tripped over the driftwood log I sat on, only noticing me when she looked up, shocked out of whatever thoughts were consuming her. I stood up to help her up, but she was rebalanced quickly. She looked up at me, bright amber eyes exuding her innocence. She was young, and I just wanted to wrap her up and protect her from all the dangers of our world. My wolf preened under her gaze, and I could tell he was reaching out trying to sense hers.

“Hi!” the girl chirped. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you.”

I smiled down at her, catching myself trying to make constellations out of the freckles that smattered her face. She was a child, and as such, too good for this dark world.

“There’s a better view over there,” she said, motioning further down the beach. “You can walk with me, if you’d like.”

I nodded, stuffing my hands in my pockets as I followed her. She was too young, I wouldn’t dare reach out to feel the electricity I knew would be there. Adair didn’t push, which made me think maybe my assessment was wrong. But her scent, the overwhelming desire to stay by her side, this need to keep her safe - it had to be. She was a child, and maybe Adair recognized that. No mate bond could surface for years yet.

“Are you part of the Strawberry Moon pack?” I stumbled over my feet just as much as I stumbled over my words. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her, even if hers were only for the ocean before us.

“What?” she giggled. “I mean, the strawberry moon isn’t until June, and my birthday is in June. How did you know?”

I shook my head, brushing off the question I had asked. Clearly, she wasn’t a member of the local pack. Maybe her parents just hadn’t familiarized her with the packs in this area yet. Strawberry Moon was the only one, but it was prominent across the nation. The secluded location and unique landscape surrounding it made it a place our kind flocked to.

“Rogue, then?” She didn’t smell like a rogue.

She furrowed her eyebrows. The frown lines didn’t suit her angelic face. “My mom always says I should do better at following rules, I guess.” I sat down on the outcropping of rocks she had led us to, careful to keep some distance. “This is my favorite place,” she sighed. “I’m moving this weekend, though.”

“Oh?” My heart panged at the thought of not knowing where she would be. “Where to?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Some place down south. Dad said it wasn’t working out around here, and he got a job somewhere else.”

We sat in silence for a while. She stared out to the ocean, and with the way she looked at it, I prayed she would be able to see it wherever she ended up. I had so many questions, and no idea what to ask at the same time.

“How old are you?” I finally settled on. It seemed better than asking how long I had to wait to find her again.

“Fourteen!” she announced. “My birthday is in a month, though. I’ve heard a big change is supposed to happen when I turn fifteen.”

If innocence and slyness could team together, that was the look she shot at me. I chuckled, certain her wolf had told her that was when she would first shift.

Three years and one month. In three years and one month, I would hunt her down. Adair growled in approval, and that was all the confirmation I needed that my suspicions were correct, even if he had stayed mostly silent.

She stood up, turning back down the beach, without so much as a goodbye.

“Hey, wait!” I called after her. “What’s your name?”

The girl turned, flashing me a devious smile. “I’m Lya. I’ll see you someday, Oliver.”

“Lya,” I sighed, committing the name to memory as I watched her walk away.

Three years and one month later, I was still in the throes of mourning my parents deaths just a year previously, tangled up in the sheets with a she-wolf who had lost her mate in the same battle I lost my father. I felt it - I felt her wolf reach out, searching for her mate. I felt the pang of betrayal as her wolf pulled away, refusing to let her human feel that pain. Adair had done his best to shield the memory of her from me, but the infiltrating presence brought it all back. My eyes snapped open, pulling away from the woman, as I let Adair try and follow that link, trying to grasp for a name long since forgotten in the corners of my mind. But she was gone.

The door pushed open, the dim light of the hallway leaking into the room and pulling me from my memories.

“Ollie?” a familiar voice croaked.

“Lya,” I breathed, striding over to her. I reached out, pulling my mate to me, and crushed my lips down on hers.