Rebecca Royce - Summer’s Wolf

“Don’t forget the best part, Summer.” Ashlee’s voice held a hard edge and her eyes turned wolf. “I also made my baby sister acknowledge a part of herself she’d rather forget ever existed. My baby sister who always wanted to be so ‘normal,’ so ‘typical,’ because she was so happy living life with her head six feet under the sand.”

“What was wrong with normal, Ash? At least with normal, everyone lives, people don’t get gutted, wolves don’t eat at their flesh, destroy their bodies.”

Ashlee’s eyes turned back to her human shade, and she crossed her arms over chest as she started to shake. Summer turned away from Ashlee.

“Don’t turn around. If you have something to say, please do so.” Summer snorted at Ashlee’s formal tone. She must have picked the phraseology up from Tristan. Fine, if she wanted her to talk, she would give her an earful.

She opened her mouth to tell Ashlee what it had smelled like, how their Dad had gripped their mother’s fur, his head turned towards her as if she was the last thing he had seen in this world, the blood on the walls, the furniture, the way Claudius had smiled—but she never completed her sentence. Guilt gnawed at her stomach.

Why was she hurting Ashlee?

She looked at her sister. Ashlee had changed so much in three years it was hard to recognize her. Oh, she still had the same strawberry blonde hair, her eyes still shone green. Even after two children, she still had a figure to die for—flat stomach and no fat. But, everything else about Ashlee was different. Her outlook on life, her response to crises—it was like being with a stranger.

Summer cleared her throat. “I have to get out of here.”

“Where will you go?” Ashlee’s voice sounded hysterical. “I’m your sister. We just lost our parents. We’re family. We need to be together.”

“Family?” In spite of herself, Summer heard the bitter tone in her own voice. “Is that why I wasn’t invited to your wedding? Why you didn’t come down, not once, to introduce your children to me?”

Ashlee’s cheeks flushed. “I wanted to come but Tristan didn’t think it was safe for me or the children to leave here.”

Summer nodded, flooded by guilt again. “He’s right. Claudius has threatened that your children will be the first to die if Tristan doesn’t turn the pack over to Kendrick. Our parents were an example of how he could get to anyone, be anywhere. None of us are safe.”

Ashlee made a little shriek in her throat and gripped the headboard next to her. “He knows about the kids?”

“Evidently.”

“I didn’t invite you to the wedding because you weren’t speaking with Mom and Dad and I thought it would be awkward. We only had the wedding for Dad’s sake. It was literally only Mom and Dad and the pack here.” Ashlee delivered her answer and plopped down on the bed.

“Well, I wouldn’t want anything to be awkward for you, the good daughter.” Summer turned on her heel. She didn’t even have any shoes.

Her heart rate sped up and sweat broke out on her arms. She needed to get out of Ashlee’s guestroom, out of their entire apartment.

“Summer, are you okay?”

At the sound of Tristan’s voice, Summer spun around. He stood in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest.

Alpha.

Yes, Summer knew he was her alpha, the supreme leader of their pack.

Show him respect.

“Hello Tristan,” Summer concentrated on keeping her voice calm. “My Alpha. It’s lovely to see you again.”

“It’s good to see you too.” Tristan crossed into the room. “I can smell your fear. What are you afraid of?” Tall and dark, he dwarfed her sister and made Summer look like a child next to him. His eyes were permanently in their wolf state, a side effect since he’d taken over the Alpha position.

Don’t lie either. He’ll smell it.

“You, Ashlee, Claudius, me … I don’t know, you name it, I’m afraid of it right now.” Summer stammered. “I have to go. I can’t stay here.”

“You don’t have anywhere to go. Stay here.” Ashlee had risen off the bed and crossed to her. She placed a hand on Summer’s arm.

Summer shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. I can’t.”

She couldn’t stand it any longer. She was surrounded by Ashlee’s scent here. Ashlee and Tristan and the babies. She’d been shut out of all their lives because she hadn’t wanted to be a wolf-shifter. Hadn’t been ready to throw herself into a river full of madness with no life preserver. There was no way she could open those doors now.

“I have to go.”

Summer turned and ran out of the room toward what she hoped was the front door of Tristan and Ashlee’s suite of rooms. Her bare feet hit the wooden floor in front of her. She had no idea where she was going.

“Where will you be?” Ashlee’s voice called after her into the hall.

“Maybe I’ll swim back to the mainland. We’re wolves right? We like the water.”

A tap on his door stilled his fingers from the guitar strings. Cullen frowned. People never visited him. He stood from his seat on the floor, placed his guitar gently on the couch, and crossed the room to the entrance. He sniffed the air. The aroma of peaches and baby oil assailed his nose. Summer. As the delicious odor made the hair on his arms stand up, he tried not to groan.

She didn’t speak, just looked up at him. Dark smudges stained the skin beneath her eyes, her teeth chattered. He pulled her into the cabin, as he made note of the fact that she was barefoot and wore only the shorts and tee-shirt Gabriel had inappropriately packed for her.

“What are you doing out here? You don’t have a coat or shoes.” He shut the door behind her and loosened his grip on her arm.

Her teeth rattled and she crossed her arms over her chest. “I couldn’t stay with Ashlee. I’ll leave in the morning, find somewhere else to live off of this rock you call an island, but do you think I could sleep on your floor tonight?”

His mind whirled. He found it almost impossible to concentrate on what she said when she stood in front of him so obviously freezing. Goosebumps covered her skin and her nipples were hard and visible through her thin tee-shirt. He forced his gaze from the tantalizing view and made himself focus on the fact she was cold. He crossed to the couch and picked up a wool blanket. He wrapped her up in it, nearly coming out of his skin when his fingers brushed the flesh of her arm.

She stared up in his eyes and he shivered, but not from the cold. Having her there, in his cabin, made him feel mashed up inside. Her scent permeated the room, filling his head until he couldn’t breathe properly. He had the strangest urge to pick her up and rub her against the curtains, the bed, and the rug, so he could find her scent whenever he wanted to.

“So, is it okay, or not?” She continued to stare at him. He realized she’d asked him a question and he hadn’t answered it. She’d come to his home, through the freezing cold, wearing almost nothing, completely barefoot. Why did Ashlee let her leave this way?

“No, it’s not okay.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh, then I’ll go.” She tried to turn but his arms held her steady, wrapped in the blanket.

“What are you talking about? Go where?” When another shiver wracked her slight body, electricity traveled up his arms.

“I asked you if I could stay tonight and you just said no.”

“I’m sorry, Summer.” It felt like a prayer, the way her name passed over his lips. “I seem to be having a conversation all by myself, in my own mind, and you can’t hear it. Of course you can stay. Here,” Cullen picked her up in his arms. He felt very gallant, not a sensation he was used to. It actually made him grin for a moment before he stopped himself. Summer didn’t need to see him beaming like an idiot. He placed her down on the couch and tucked the blanket in around her.