“In summer, yes.” David reached for his third taco.
“What about as far as anyone seeing us swimming out there as wolves?” Sheri asked.
“We own most of the property around here. We have No Trespassing signs all over,” he said. “We haven’t had any trouble so far.” He held up his latest taco. “I think you used the same ingredients I always do but somehow yours taste better than anything I’ve ever made.”
“Some say the food tastes better if someone else makes it.” Elizabeth took another bite.
“I don’t know. I always love my own cooking,” Sheri said.
David and Elizabeth laughed. After they finished, David cleared the dishes before Elizabeth could help. “I’ll get the dishes if you ladies want to unpack a bit. Half the drawers in the dresser are yours, Elizabeth, and the same thing with the closet. I have a ton of hangers in there for you too.”
Elizabeth smiled. “I will take you up on that.”
“Sorry your bags are such a mess,” Sheri said, as they walked back down the hall. “I packed in a hurry.”
“I’m glad you did it so I didn’t have to go out shopping right away.” She stopped and gave Sheri a spontaneous hug. “Thank you for everything,” she whispered.
Sheri squeezed her in return and whispered back, “Guess I was right about the pajamas, eh?”
Elizabeth laughed as they headed to their respective rooms, ignoring the blush that raced up her cheeks. Apparently Sheri had heard them after all.
Sheri somehow finished before Elizabeth did and came to help her hang some clothes. David joined them.
“Hey, I’ve been meaning to show you the garden,” he said. “You can landscape the rest of the place however you want. Or we can do it together. I can do all the hard labor. Or we can hire professional landscapers to do it. Everyone in the pack would love to help out too. They’ve been giving me a hard time about it because I’ve cleared the weeds out of the flower beds every year but never planted anything.” He shrugged. “I wanted it to be your space to do as you pleased.”
Elizabeth gave him a big hug. “I love you and thanks.”
“I’ll help too,” Sheri said, not one to be left out of things.
Elizabeth smiled. “When we have time, we need to go plant shopping. But I’ll have to see what works down here. It’d be different than Yellowknife.” She pressed her lips together, then added, “I can plant roses in memory of Grandma.” Tears unexpectedly stung her eyes, and David, then Sheri, both wrapped her up in a hug.
After a moment, he said, “Let’s go have a look,” and led them out to the empty garden plots. “Good dirt too,” he said, toeing the ground as if he needed her to know how much work he’d put into the garden. Her garden.
She pulled him close and gave him a quick kiss. “They’re perfect. I love them.”
He’d raised part of the beds so she could actually sit on the stone seating and work without stooping or bending. Owen had recommended that because sometimes he had to weed Candice’s flower beds and he wanted it to be a less backbreaking task for the both of them.
“Okay. Are you ready to run as wolves?” David asked.
“Oh, yes, absolutely.” Sheri raced back to the house.
David chuckled. “She seems enthusiastic.”
“Yeah, we have to check out the new territory for sure. I can’t wait either.” Elizabeth stepped back into David’s arms, loving the feeling of leaning in to him, looking out together over the land where they would make their life, feeling the press of his big body against her back. Feeling safe. “Thank you so much for the beautiful gardens. I can’t wait to get started on them. When I needed some consolation, particularly when Grandma was asleep and after we had our Skype chats, or when I was waiting for the days to pass until the next Skype session, I would work on the garden—in good weather, of course.”
“I’m so glad you love them. I can’t wait to help you with turning it into a showcase garden.” He rested his chin on top of her head, and she felt, rather than heard, his deep sigh of contentment.
Sheri woofed and raced out the door while David and Elizabeth turned and smiled at each other, then went inside to strip out of their clothes. She felt the heat filling her body, every muscle stretching until she was a blur of forms from human to wolf, so quickly that they were both wolves in the blink of an eye. Wearing their wolf fur coats, they raced each other down the hall.
David went out the wolf door first to lead the way, but it was a hot summer’s day, and the first thing Sheri did was veer off toward the lake, splash in, swim out a little way, and woof at them. David and Elizabeth woofed back, then raced out to meet her. After cooling off, they paddled back to shore, shook off, getting each other wet, shook off again, then raced into the woods, David taking the lead.
***
David needed to show them the way so Elizabeth and Sheri could eventually take a run or walk on their own without getting lost.
Elizabeth was thrilled to finally be there, running through the woods David had talked about so often, by his side like she’d always imagined. He was a beautiful Arctic wolf, his fur all fluffed out as if he was preening for her attention, but he didn’t need to. She’d had the hots for him from the day she’d first met him. For the oddest reason, she felt like they’d never really been apart. As if the connection they shared had never had to survive any distance at all.
He was the kind of guy who was sensitive, a fighter when he needed to be, aggressively protective but only when he thought she was being threatened. He’d wanted her in a sexual way, once they had resolved things with her pack, and he was conscious of the issues that wolves faced—such as no consummated relations until they were sure they wanted to mate for life.
She hadn’t wanted to mate him back then—not when he wasn’t sure what it meant to be a lupus garou. But from their first Skype call, he had totally charmed her. Her grandmother too, of course. And Elizabeth had the sense, even then when things were so new between them, that he would learn to embrace his inner wolf.
She glanced around at the pristine woods and lake. Just beautiful. A red-tailed hawk flew high above, its wings stretched against the blue, blue sky. The scent of pine filled her senses and she breathed it in, looking out over the lake and listening to the breeze-stirred water lapping at the rocky shore.
They ran for about three miles, exploring, walking, trotting, running, and then returned the way they had come. They’d smelled foxes, a bear, and numerous birds and squirrels and chipmunks. And lots of wolves. Elizabeth knew Faith and Cameron’s scents. And Gavin’s and Owen’s too. And of course David’s. She recognized Amelia’s and Slade’s scents also. But she didn’t know Candice’s, suspecting it was one of the other females she’d smelled in the woods. There were two other males and a female she couldn’t place. David had told her that Faith and Cameron had triplets, two boys and a girl—Corey the troublemaker, a girl, Angie, and the youngest triplet Nick. So she figured that was who the other scents belonged to.