Tubthumping

Oliver

Lya was teetering on a moss covered rock, out in the middle of the river that ran behind the packhouse. I watched mesmerized as she giggled at fireflies blinking around her. I couldn’t tell if the heady scent of lilac was her or the bushes around us, now in full bloom.

This wasn’t the same girl who had initially arrived at the packhouse, nervous and scared of everything. I still hadn’t figured out why, but after only a few weeks of being here, it was like a switch had been flipped and a beautiful, loving personality emerged. It wasn’t even a subtle evolution.

“When’s your birthday again?” I asked.

She looked over at me, her eyes nearly glowing as the last remnants of the sunset reflected against them. “June 21. I’ll be twenty five.”

She was a solstice baby, of course she’d be special. Born with the light within and prosperity at her fingertips.

Lya made her way back to the riverbank, snagging her can of beer from the water’s edge. “Are you making plans for it or something?”

“Maybe I am,” I laughed. I reached out for her, but she took a step back.

My eyes were transfixed as Lya reached to the hem of her sundress, pulling it over her head to reveal every inch of fair, sunkissed skin. She smiled coyly at me before dashing off further downstream to a swimming hole Rose and Anna had shown her a while ago. I didn’t think twice, quickly trailing after her and shedding clothes as I went. I dove in after her, snatching her by the waist and pulling her to me. She planted her lips on mine, and I couldn’t help but let my hands wander.

We floated along for a while. Lya watched the moon replace the sun while I watched her. I’d give anything for this moment to never end. I was running into more and more moments I wanted to last forever with this girl, and I hoped that would never change.

Lya finally broke the comfortable silence. “Hey, Oliver?”

“Yes, love?” I murmured.

“I love it here.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Let me know what you think of the place once you’ve been here for a few years.”

Lya bit down on her lip, the dark cloud that always threatened to rain on her resurfacing. I knew something had been weighing on her, but I also knew if I pushed, I’d be less likely to find out what it was. “I will, I promise.”

We planned a trip up to Norridge for her birthday. There was a waterfall with a swimming hole she would love up there, and it’d be easy to convince her friends to tag along. The sun came too soon, alerting us to the fact that we had fallen asleep as a tangled mess of flesh and sweat on the riverbank.

I had started counting down the days to when I could whisk her away and pretend responsibility didn’t exist for just a little bit, and here we were. June 21. Lya’s birthday.
Instead of sitting by a waterfall with homebrew, I was at that same riverbank with a bottle of Woodford I had every intention of finishing off before the night was through. The silence cast a thick, suffocating blanket on me but did nothing to drown out the sound of her tinkling laughter echoing in my mind.

I didn’t even pay any heed to the person who came and sat beside me. So many people were trying to ensure I had someone around, but I really just wanted to be alone with my best memories.

“I’d really like to be alone,” I huffed before taking another pull from the bottle. I was only halfway through, but the night was still young.

A hand caressed my arm. If it weren’t for the lack of sparks, I could almost imagine it was her.

“Really?” a voice I didn’t want to hear cooed. “You don’t want something to take your mind off of it?”

I gritted my teeth, but refused to move. I didn’t trust myself, especially when I could already feel claws surfacing and gripping into the dirt. I hadn’t shifted since the night Lya was taken, and I couldn’t let my first shift in over a week be out of anger. “You aren’t who I want touching me.”

The hand traveled further up, running along my neck. A sick feeling twisted in my gut when it grazed over my mate’s mark, and this was decidedly not my mate.

“You would really rather string along that rogue?”

A growl slipped between my lips, but that apparently wasn’t enough warning to keep the intruder from turning my head and plastering their lips on mine.

That was when I lost it.

Before I could even think to hold him back, Adair was on top of Lucy with his mouth around her throat. At the very least, he had his wits about him enough to not kill her.

'Touch me again and you won’t have a pack.

Adair backed off of her slowly, watching as she sat up and rubbed her throat. She looked up with horror stricken eyes, but I felt no shame at all.

'Go.'


Lucy didn’t need any more encouragement. She was on her feet and running back to the packhouse before Adair could growl at her again.

I let out a breath, expelling the rest of Lucy’s scent from my lungs, and tried to pull Adair back. But, now that he was in control, he wasn’t about to let go. He leaned his head back to the solstice moon and let out a howl. One that sang the ballad of heartbreak. The pack called back, validating their Alpha’s suffering.

We ran for hours. Part of me questioned why I had held off on shifting, but every time we neared the border and Adair tried to push me over, off in pursuit of his mate, I was reminded. When I finally collapsed back on the riverbank, next to my bottle of liquor, I felt absolutely spent. The emotions of the past several days were overwhelming, and the way the wolf forced me to bring them to the forefront of my mind was painful. I grabbed the bottle and stumbled back to the packhouse.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Some alpha I was.

Cody and Brandon met me at the door, one grabbing each of my arms and guiding me over to the kitchen island.

“How the fuck are you going to march into battle if you’re doing shit like this,” he grumbled.

I winced at the truth behind his words. “Sorry.”

He exchanged the Woodford for a glass of water and sat down beside me. “You’re lucky we have a few more days yet,” he chuckled. “The parties we sent out have been successful for the most part. Lya’s idea of utilizing social media to figure out who to track made things so much easier.”

“Any casualties?” I slurred.

Cody wasn’t quite the animal I was - he poured himself a glass. “Just a few, but we surprised them.”

“And just a few days until we head over?”

“Yep,” he confirmed. “And you’ll have explaining to do.”

I grabbed the bottle back from him. “What?”

“You remember how I said you can feel when your mate cheats on you?” I nodded, my mind instantly going to Lucy. “Well Lya nearly wolfed out when she felt it. It’s a good thing our Jenko is her guard,” he chuckled.

I squeezed my eyes shut and scrubbed my hand across my face. “I almost killed Lucy.”

“Shoulda gone public with being mated,” Brandon scoffed. “Might’ve been better for her if you did take her out. We are going to have one angry she-wolf on our hands when she gets out.”

“Yeah,” I chuckled. I studied the condensation on the water glass intently, trying to pull myself together and maintain a straight face.

Brandon nudged me in the ribs. “You think she’s going to be silent and deadly scary angry or everyone knows Hurricane Lya is on its way angry?”

“Goddess, we have a better bet of surviving Hurricane Lya,” I grinned.

We dissolved into fits of laughter, loud enough that it lured Thom out of his room.

“What the hell are you guys doing?” he muttered, glancing between us. “We just got Kai to sleep.”

I offered the bottle to Thom. “You look like you need a drink.”

“Fatherhood will do that,” he chuckled. “But seriously, if you wake Maggie or Kai up, I’m going to kill you. Maybe before Lya gets the chance.”

“So bets,” Cody said. “What version of angry Lya are we pulling out of Hunterville?”

“Well that depends,” a new voice piped up. “What happened to piss her off so bad?”

I turned to look at Trevor. “Lucy kissed me and I did her the disservice of letting her live so Lya can have her.”

Trevor let out a low whistle and snagged the Woodford from Thom. “Fires of hell froze over. We are all fucked.”

“When do we go pick her up?” Thom asked. “I’ll make sure our bags are packed and we’re moved out.”

We tried to keep our laughter lower this time, but weren’t very successful.

By the end of the night - or start of the morning, rather - the bottle of Woodford was gone.