"Victor, you've got to stop running away. I'm getting really tired of chasing after you. I think next time I'm transforming. I've catered to your delicate sensibilities long enough."

We took a leisurely walk toward the tree line, where I knew Everett would be waiting with his truck since I mentally phoned him after our encounter with Jazmin.

"I can't help it," he replied with hunched shoulders. "It's just the natural thing for me to do. You stay and fight, while I run." He paused and straightened up with a smarmy smile on his youthful face. "I'm a bit of a track star, if you haven't heard."

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard." I rolled my eyes, but still flashed him a proud smile.

We saw a break in the trees, and sure enough, Everett leaned against his truck with his hands in his jean pockets and his flannel shirt unbuttoned just enough for me to spot his toned chest. My thoughts then flashed back to my conversation with Bungee and Liz. My cheeks flushed and Everett caught the shift in my mood, but only answered with a raise of his eyebrow.

"Hey, Rett," said my brother with his posture back into a submissive slouch, "sorry for making you come out here."

"You're family, Victor. Never apologize for needing help."

My brother slid into the passenger seat while I rose up on my tiptoes to plant a grateful kiss on Everett's cheek. Unfortunately, there was still some residual emotions from my wandering thoughts about our future and I caught the way my mate's posture shifted as these feelings leeched into him. His eyes darkened and we both took a step away to clear the air.

"Um, hope we didn't pull you from anything important at the station."

I walked over to the driver's side and slid into the middle seat sandwiched between Victor and Everett.

"Nope," he answered, following up behind me before starting the engine, "I was thinking about getting lunch when you reached out. At this point I'll just have it at the pack hall before going back to work. Unless you think you might want to stay at the hotel with the other Bodies, Victor. That is an option you have. Though, there's only Irene there right now."

"Irene's great though," I continued while Everett drove across the grass and back to the main road. "But, it's true. Now that you have a better understanding of your role here, you can stay at the hotel and live like a proper Body."

Of course, I didn't want Victor to do that, no matter how much Irene needed the company. Victor was a werewolf, I just knew it. However, Everett had been keen on bringing up the alternative, just as he had been when I first came to Whisper Valley.

"The Bodies stay at a hotel where every sort of paranormal creature goes in and out of, right?"

I felt his body tremble beside me, so I knew what his answer would be. A little part of me did feel bad for Irene, though.

"Yes," said Everett with a sigh, also well aware of how the conversation was going.

"I think I'll pass then, so long as you don't have a problem with me staying at the house."

"Of course not. You're always welcome there. I just thought you might feel more comfortable around someone in a similar situation."

"Well, that does still interest me," he said, watching as we drove past the hotel. "I would like to talk to her too about her experiences."

"That's actually a good idea," I pointed out and Everett nodded his head in agreement. "Considering most of her days are spent hanging out with various mage friends, I'm sure she can make time to see you. She might even be able to chat with you after your meeting with Graham tomorrow morning."

I wanted to add that Irene could then correct any misrepresentations the malicious Archmage may have told him, but I did try to keep my animosity for Graham on the down low in front of Victor. He had enough to worry about.

"Great, I'd like that."

For the remainder of the drive, he told Everett and I about what he did see and like at the commune before bolting. Then, we pulled over at the hall, just in time to catch the tail end of lunch.

Everett gave me a quick kiss goodbye before heading to the station. Then Victor and I helped clean up and prepare for dinner.

As was usual, Victor turned in for the night after dinner, though I think he lingered a bit longer to admire the range of transformations before the pack went off on the nightly run. In fact, I even joined them since Victor seemed more at ease than he had been. It felt safe to leave him alone for an hour and it was getting difficult to ignore the pull of the moon as it curved back toward full.

My shifting was still a messy process, but it was starting to feel more like an incredibly good stretch instead of a lurching contortion. It was like a part of myself had been coiled inside me, a taut spring desperate to release. With the transformation, all that energy is expelled, stretching from the tip of my wet nose to the warm blonde fur at the end of my tail.

Unlike my brother, I was not a runner. Walking was nice every once in awhile, but in general any sort of physical activity was not high on my todo list. But as a wolf, the feel of the earth beneath my paws, the wind whipping through my fur, the sounds of the wild filling my ears, all of it scratched an itch I just couldn't reach as a human.

Part of me wondered, if that itch had always been there, waiting for me to discover the secret to relief. Perhaps, had I known how to undo the coil earlier in life, I wouldn't have had a reason to be called to Whisper Valley in the first place.

Of course, I'm not sure my life would have actually been better if I hadn't ended up in the valley with my handsome mate, wonderful friends, and a sense of purpose.

But now that I had found those things, what was next?

After the run, Everett and I returned to our room, where silence set in and our thoughts grew louder.

"So," he said, sitting down beside me on the mattress, "are you going to tell me what was on your mind when I picked you guys up at the forest?"

"Oh," I said with a yawn, "right, we saw Jazmin."

"Well, that wasn't what I was expecting."

"What were you expecting?" I cocked my head and tried to see if I could read anything in the mental link between us, but whatever it was, he snatched away too quickly.

"Happy to discuss that after you update me on Jazmin. I can't believe your luck, running into her like that."

"Victor, does seem to draw luck to him, whether it's good or bad is to be decided." I sighed before turning to Everett with a smile on my face. "I think she's almost ready. She was there testing the amulet's efficacy."

He hummed in response, nodding his head as I continued.

"She said she'd reach out to me through her mental projection like she did before. I'm going to have to start meditating in the library, I seem to get good reception in there. Hopefully once someone trains her properly, it won't be so hard, but... Why don't you look excited?"

"Hm?" He looked up at me since his eyes had focused on the floor boards, lost in thought.

"She's still here," I said, taking his hands in mine. "I didn't know if we'd ever hear from her again and now I know she's here. Not only that, but she told me herself that she'll reach out. This is big!"

"I know." However, his eyes didn't seem to reflect his stiff smile. "It's just..."

"Everett."

"No, let me finish. I just want to make sure you remember what I've told you before. If Jazmin reaches out, if she agrees to be trained, and if she can share her witness of Clementine's murder, it still might not be enough. Graham can easily claim that it's an illusion. The best way to work with Jazmin is to have Kyra bite her so she can confirm the truth of Jazmin's story."

"She will never allow herself to be bitten."

His only retort was a sigh.

"Don't give up!"

"I'm not," he said with a smile and a raise of his hands in surrender. "I just want to manage your expectations. That being said, both as the sheriff and your mate, I will never give up on making sure justice gets served. I'm just saying it may take awhile."

This time it was my turn to sigh.

"I feel like," he began, placing his big hand on my knee, "this brings me to what I thought you were going to say."

I glanced at him with a raised brow while he thought over his words.

"I mean, I may be wrong, but I felt a hint of longing on your thoughts when you came out of the woods." His words curve with mischievousness and he leaned over so his next words were hot against my ear. "At first I thought you were just looking forward to spending some quiet time alone with me today."

I shivered and recalled how just seeing my mates bare chest was enough to get me riled up. But I also spent all of my post-pubescent life in a state of celibacy—at least until I arrived to Whisper Valley. I just didn't think that would ever happen for me and ignorance kept me from really exploring things on my own. So he really couldn't blame me that having access to a tall, muscular, handsome man gets me worked up more quickly than it probably should.

He chuckled and I wondered how much of my embarrassment he sensed through our connection.

"However," he continued, no longer right against my ear, but facing me with a gentle smile, "I also picked up the barest taste of uncertainty. Now I would like to think you know how I feel about you and how I would have told your brother to walk home while I dragged you into the woods so I could take you against a tree if that's what you wanted."

He paused to savor the way his words rattled me in the most delightful way possible.

"Is that something you'd actually do if I asked for it? A romp in the woods during your lunch break?"

"Hell I'd do it not during a break so long as I wasn't actively arresting someone or having a meeting with Kyra. I mean, a meeting with anyone else, no problem. Kyra, though..." He shuddered and I couldn't help but chuckle. I wouldn't want to cancel a meeting with the stoic vampire queen either.

"Anyway," he said, returning to his initial concerns, "my point is, I have a feeling you weren't uncertain about whether I would gladly take you to bed and pleasure you for hours. But it did feel like it had something to do with us. So what was it? Was it really just Jazmin on your mind this morning?"

It was my turn to look away and chew on my thoughts. There was one other thing at the center of my thoughts that I was uneasy about sharing. However, I didn't want to keep things from Everett. We'd done enough of that already.

"I...I saw Liz and Bungee at the commune. They hung out with me outside since inside has gotten a bit too much for me."

"Yeah," he agreed with a cringe, "Kyra generally visits the commune if we're ever needed. It's not a great smell for her either, but not nearly as bad as it is for us."

"Well, while we were chatting, they mentioned their plans for the future. Like getting married and having a baby—I didn't even know zombies could have babies."

"It's been awhile since a zombie has had one around here, but yeah, they are capable."

Silence stretched between us and Everett was the one that nudged me back on track.

"So were you thinking about perhaps our plans for the future?"

"Maybe." I looked away, but a gentle hand touched my cheek and pulled me back.

"Why are you afraid to talk about that with me?"

"I don't want to influence you. You know what if what I want in the future isn't what you want."

"Well," he said with a chuckle as his thumb ran back and forth over my cheekbone, "it's much too late to worry about influencing me. You've been doing that since the moment I met you. However, if it makes you feel any better, the only future I want is one where you're in it."

"That's it? Can you really say that's all that your heart longs for?" Despite his hand still cradling my face, my head drops. "You're making me feel selfish for wanting to define what our future looks like."

"Hey." His free hand hooked my waist and dragged me onto his lap. He held me close, petting my hair and placing a kiss on my forehead. "I feel like we've talked about want and need before haven't we?"

"More than once," I grumbled, while also leaning into his chest and savoring his scent.

"Anyway, let me reword myself. I need you in my future, but I would say that I do want to possibly have a few pups with us as well."

I sucked in a breath, my body vibrating with the thought of being round with his child.

"What about marriage? Do you do anything like that as werewolves?"

"Depends on the pack. So long as a pair of mates present themselves to me so we can register it in the ledger, then that's enough. Other packs are more ritualistic. You've, uh, seen some of the more archaic practices some packs have."

I didn't need him to elaborate. There was still a lingering ember of anger over what happened between him and Clare, but I'd grown to understand neither of them truly wanted to do that and found themselves in an impossible situation that could've led to a pack war.

"There are plenty among us though that like to do some sort of formal presentation to the pack. Usually it's a commitment to each other under a full moon. We believe that's when the moon goddess is closest to us, plus...well, our primal instincts are closer to the surface then and we tend to be more fertile. So pups generally follow afterward."

We're quiet for some time, me with my cheek pressed against his shoulder while his warm hand ran circles over my back. He didn't push me to do or say anything. We simply sat there in the cool of night as the future stood both too far away and too close to us.

"I'm not sure I'm ready yet, but I think someday, I might want to."

"What? The ritual or the pups thing?"

"Both."

I felt his hand pause and there's a wave of something like relief and excitement coming through our connection, which meant he also probably felt the apprehension still coiling inside of me.

"Well, we'll only do what you're comfortable with and I wouldn't want to do anything right now anyway. Not with everything going on with Graham."

I nodded, unable to voice a response.

"I would like to point out though," he said in a devious growl that turned my face up to his toothy smirk, "we can still have fun without making a pup."

I returned his smile and expressed my agreement by catching his lips and straddling his lap.

In that moment, practicing how to make pups was more than fine with me.

***

Del starts to look ahead at what the future holds for her and Everett. What do you think will become of them once Graham has been dealt with? Or will he continue to be an obstacle in their way?

Next chapter should be the end of Act 1! I should have all the ground work for this story laid out by the end of the next chapter and the intensity will begin to ramp up from there ^_^