Just as I was drifting off, I heard the crunch of paws through the fallen leaves heading my way. Too tired to open my eyes and see who it was, I decided to ignore them. Moments later, a warm body snuggled up next to me and the scent of leather hit my nose.
It was Wyatt.
With my defenses completely disarmed for the first time since I met him, I let myself enjoy his presence. His warmth. His scent. The safety I felt with him lying at my back. Even though I’d only known him a short amount of time, I had no doubt that nothing could hurt me with Wyatt there. I inched closer to him and let out a contented sigh as I drifted off to sleep.
Having spent so many full moons as a wolf, it didn’t even faze me anymore when the moon changed places with the sun and the magic that forced my body to shift disappeared. I simply curled into the warmth behind me and fell back asleep.
Hours later, the bright morning sun finally woke me fully and I found myself draped across a very warm, very broad chest. I froze for a moment before mustering up the courage to look up. Slowly, my eyes traveled across golden skin until they met Wyatt’s.
In that instant, everything changed.
It was like an electric current that zipped back and forth between us, growing in strength with every circuit it made. His eyes widened as the heat between our bodies grew until it felt like it would burn us both.
The woods went quiet.
The sun dimmed in the sky.
The ground beneath us disappeared, leaving only the two of us.
The last time this happened I’d looked away, scared of the outcome of such a powerful feeling, but this time I kept my eyes locked with his. I let the energy build and grow and flourish until it connected us in a tangible way. It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before and that frightened me as much as it exhilarated me.
I opened my mouth to speak. I didn’t know what I was going to say, only that the moment required some kind of spoken recognition. But before I had the chance, Wyatt looked away and slithered out from underneath me.
“I gotta go,” was all he said before he stood up and practically ran away.
I sat up and watched him go, memorizing every inch of his golden skin in the early morning sunlight. It should have hurt my feelings that he’d run from something as powerful as what just happened between us, but it didn’t.
I knew he’d be back.
I knew he wouldn’t be able to avoid this for long.
I knew whatever had just transpired between us wasn’t something that could be ignored.
And mostly, I knew I was done running from Wyatt Carter.
Chapter 14
Callie
“Callie! Are you decent?”
I breathed an irritated sigh and grumbled, “Yeah, decently behind schedule.”
“What was that?”
I sighed again. “Yeah, Evey. Come in.”
Moments later, my youngest sister popped her head through my door and looked around the room, blue eyes wide. “Is this a bad time?”
“Yes.”
She stepped inside anyway and closed the door behind her. “I just came to talk for a minute.”
“Well, a minute is all you have. I need to get to the lab.”
She looked around again at the papers, notebooks, and thick texts littering the floor before carefully picking her way through the mess to my bed. “What’s goin’ on with you, Callie?”
“I spent too much time down by French Broad River collecting samples, and then there was an accident on the highway coming home, so by the time I got here–”
“I wasn’t talkin’ about your science stuff.”
I blew a stray lock of hair out of my eyes and planted my hands on my hips. “Then what are you talking about?”
Evey used a manicured finger to point at me. “That is what I’m talkin’ about. The bad attitude you been wearin’ like a mink coat these days.”
I rolled my eyes and turned around to gather papers off my desk. “I don’t know what you’re talking about and I don’t have time to figure it out.” I paused for a moment before adding, “And you know I’d never wear fur.”
“Well, you’re gonna take a minute now or I’m gonna hunt you down later and we can do this then. Either way, we’re havin’ this conversation.”
I let out a deep breath and turned around to face her again. “Okay, who put you up to this?”
Evey looked down at her nails and shrugged. “We voted and I was nominated to come talk to you. You know I’m the personable one of the group.”
She wasn’t wrong. I couldn’t imagine how disastrous this conversation would be if it was Bea or Del in my room making me even later for my lab time. They knew Evey was the cute one and no one could say no to her, so she was often sent to do the dirty jobs. I guess I’d become a dirty job to them.
“Listen, Evey, nothing is going on. I’m just busy.”
“No,” she said, dragging out the word far longer than necessary. “You’ve been busy with your environmental crap for a long time. This bad attitude is a recent development.”
“It’s not crap, Evelyn. It’s the future of our planet. It’s–”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it before, Callie. What I’m getting at is, you’ve been bitin’ the heads off of anyone within a five-foot radius of you for weeks and I want to know what’s goin’ on.”
Truth was, I’d been in a foul mood since the last full moon, and clearly, I wasn’t hiding it as well as I thought I was. The reason for that lay squarely on the shoulders of one wolf.
Wyatt Carter.
I hadn’t seen him since the morning after the full moon, and believe me, I’d been looking. Every pack cookout, every lunch in the lodge, every dinner. I’d scour the crowd looking for a set of brown eyes that felt like home, but he was nowhere to be found.
To make matters worse, now there was something wrong with me. I hadn’t been sleeping, I’d barely been eating, and I was so sluggish I needed a whole carafe of coffee just to make it through the day.
When you combined all that, you got a testy Callie, and it seemed my moodiness had not gone unnoticed.
I looked away again. “Nothing’s going on, Evey.” It was easier to lie to my sister when I didn’t have to look her in the eyes as I did it. “And even if it was, I wouldn’t have time to talk to you about it now. I need to leave for the lab in a couple minutes which means I have to go pry Abey away from his desk to drive me there.”
I heard Evey stand from my bed and cautiously threw a glance her way. When I found her eyes narrowed, I knew I’d made a mistake.
“Callista McCoy I know somethin’ is goin’ on and the more you try to deny it, the more sure I am. You can tell me about it now, or I can figure it out on my own, but either way, I’m gonna find out.”
A small chill ran down my spine at her threat. I had no doubt my sister would eventually find out what was going on, but I hoped it would be a non-issue by then because I had a plan.
If Wyatt was so set on wanting nothing to do with me, then I was just going to have to do the same. I promised myself when I woke up that day that I’d stop thinking about him, stop looking for him, and most importantly, stop pining over him.
Sure, the image of all his golden skin was burned into my brain, but I had so much going on up there, it shouldn’t be too hard to forget. I’d just fill my head with as much knowledge as I could and force thoughts of Wyatt out.