Long Lost Read online

  “Awesome. Double havoc,” I said.

  “I don’t need a psychic or intuition to know,” Ellis said, entering stealthily. He held a glass of wine and it made cold nerves run through my body. I rarely had seen him look so upset and I had never seen him drink so early in a day. Though, with his wolf metabolism, he’d have to drink several bottles for it to affect him.

  “To know what?” I asked. But in my gut was a knot of turmoil that felt as solid as hot lead.

  “They don’t want the baby born. They don’t want me to have you, but they certainly don’t want our child born.”

  “They’d have to have their own seers—” Samuel started.

  “Or they just have common sense,” Ellis shrugged. “A baby from me and Ruby would be unprecedented. No human has carried a wolf offspring to term. And if she does, and if she changes, it is a whole new ballgame for all of us.”

  My mouth went dry, my toes went numb. I sat my ass on the stool to keep myself grounded. Didn’t want to fall down and break my ass.

  If Ellis was part of prophecy, then was I? Was our baby?

  Samuel looked controlled and concerned. Most likely, he was more concerned than he was letting on but didn’t want to upset me. “But the girl…” He sighed, cutting himself off.

  “What about that girl?” I asked. But there was a rush of images and emotions. Intent, planning, darkness. “Oh,” I said.

  “Oh?” Ellis waited and Samuel did too. I felt very on trial for some reason, but that was just me.

  “They killed Madeline’s sister to create an uproar. Then they attacked her to provoke concern. They wanted us to call Tyler and Peabody to the pack and to bring the girl. They wanted an opening, an upheaval. But they would have to know—”

  “I’m sure they have their own…” He tossed a nod toward Samuel. “Someone who could foresee it coming. And I think maybe one of the wolves in Town is on their side.”

  “But how would they know—”

  “Ruby, honey, anyone paying attention could smell that baby on you a few days before you figured it out. They just have enough sense to not announce to a mother she’s pregnant. That’s something you let the mother do. The announcing.”

  “Oh,” I said again.

  “What can we do?” Samuel kept his voice low.

  “Kill them all,” Ellis said.

  I blanched. “That’s not like you.”

  “You’re my wife. That’s my son.”

  I nodded. “But you’re still who you are.”

  “There’s safety in numbers,” Tyler said from the doorway and we all turned.

  “Always,” Ellis said.

  “And that warehouse across the street is huge,” Tyler said.

  He looked calmer, more relaxed. Not so angry. I flashed to Iris, the pretty red headed wolf who didn’t think my undead friend smelled. Who seemed quite smitten. Who kept looking at him…

  I felt a stab of jealousy and was ashamed. I wanted Ty happy. I wanted him to not feel anger toward me but friendship again. I shook my head, chalking my jealousy up to hormones. Ellis and Tyler and I had had a three-way one time. A final go round for me and Tyler before I became—for it was my want and my destiny—Ellis’s.

  “I like the idea,” Ellis said.

  That startled me.

  “You do?” I fingered the hem of my shirt realizing my jeans were too tight around the middle. I reached underneath my warm wool knit top and popped the button. Sighing audibly, I said, “Sorry. I couldn’t breathe.”

  Tyler was eyeing my belly—yesterday just a swell, today almost a definitive bump—but today he helda small flicker of kindness in his eyes.

  Was Iris his long lost?

  “We can all be under one roof. Watching out for each other. At least until the baby comes.” He looked at Ellis when he said it.

  “Hunh.” I felt lightheaded with the prospect.

  Iris came in and stood very close to Tyler, that jealousy flared again and I caught Ellis’s amused look and blushed. Hey, Tyler had been my friend forever and ever. Even barring the lover thing. A little jealousy was normal.

  Right?

  “That place has like six bedrooms. Madeline, Tyler, Peabody, the O’Dells, you and Ellis and me.”

  “You?” I asked.

  “More eyes. More safety. I work down in the warehouse anyway. Extra nose, extre eyes, extra protection. I figure it makes sense.”

  “It does make sense,” Ellis said. “But as for the O’Dells, they’re old and with Mrs O’Dell wheelchair bound, I’d rather get them out. I’ll call a friend who has an aunt who lives up in the mountains. Away from Town. The aunt lives with six or seven strapping nephews who won’t let a hair on their heads get touched. Better than we can do here in all the chaos.”

  I nodded, grateful to him for looking out for the closest thing I had to parents. “Thank you,” I whispered.

  “What about us?” Bertie snorted. “What are we? Chopped liver?”

  “Are we chopped liver?” Samuel laughed heartily and tugged her in for a kiss.

  Funny, I would never have placed them together when I first met them. But now that I watched them, they were perfect together.

  “Oh!” Iris held up another finger. “Roberta and Samuel.”

  “How does an apartment have six bedrooms?” I blurted for lack of a better thing to say.

  “It’s huge. Remember? The whole size of the warehouse below.”

  “What kind of books do you sell anyway?” I asked Iris.

  She grinned. “Mostly books on wildlife. Nature…wolves.”

  “Duh,” I said and laughed.

  “So it’s settled! We will all move in over there until we have either figured out the breach or the baby is born. And now, you can all go and sit and be merry in our living room while I give my wife her gift.”

  “Oooooh, gift,” I breathed. “I’d almost forgotten it was Christmas.”

  He kissed my forehead as they all started to file out. “Don’t forget , Ruby. It’s our first Christmas.”

  “I have a gift for you, too!”

  “You’d better.”

  The way he looked at me made me shiver with excitement and anticipation. “It’s not that,” I whispered. “But now that’s on the list too.”

  “Meet me back here in five, Little Bird.”

  We fled the room like we were on fire. The gathered group eating, drinking and bullshitting in our living room barely risked a glance. New snow had started to fall and someone, Peabody was my guess, had built a fire. They were sharing stories and paying us very little mind as Christmas carols played on the light FM radio station. Which worked great for me.

  I dashed to the tree and grabbed my gift for Ellis, while he, sneaky as ever, passed into the sun room where we kept a smaller artificial tree and plucked two small packages from the branches, nestled in among the ornaments.

  I rushed back into the kitchen, not wanting him to see that I had spotted him getting my gifts. But my mind raced. They were smaller gifts. Things that could settle on artificial tree limbs and not bend or break them. What were they! What?

  “All you have to do is open them and you’ll see,” he said from the kitchen doorway. He grinned when I rolled my eyes. Then he slid the bolt that kept the door from swinging in either direction. Usually used to keep someone from getting clocked by the kitchen door when the kitchen was in use, today—our first Christmas—it served to give us some privacy.

  I held my hand out and Ellis seemed to weigh the gifts. They were wrapped identically, but he wasn’t fooling me at all. He knew which was which, he simply could not decide what he wanted to give me first.

  All the while my stomach tumbled and rolled with excitement and nerves. Me or the baby? Who knew.

  “Here you are, Ruby. Merry Christmas. I love you.”

  I tore the silvery blue paper open like a maniac and Ellis laughed at me, his low chuckle as sensual as warm chocolate or a crackling fire. “I love you, too,” I breathed as I popped the lid
on the small black box. Inside something was folded in on itself. Something delicate. I saw leather and feathers and beading. I saw all of that as I tugged a tiny black loop of leather that Ellis pointed to and the thing unfurled.

  Somehow it was both hearty and dainty. “Oh, Ellis,” I said and meant it. I recognized them from around Town. I had seen them hanging everywhere as many of the shifters in town had Native American roots of some kind. Ellis Bach included.

  “So you know what it is?”

  “Of course. You told me when we moved here. A dream catcher.”

  He smiled. Pleased with me. Which pleased me that I slowed down and listened to him talk. Really listened. I had never done that before Ellis. I had heard, often listened on the fly. But when Ellis spoke to me, I tended to draw all of what he told me into myself and study it.

  “Bad dreams get tangled in the web and never make it to your sleeping head,” he said, brushing my hair back out of my face. “You can always sleep secure knowing that I’m with you, Ruby. I will die before I let anything happen to you. Do you understand?”

  I nodded, remembering the feral sound of the men in this house taking care of the intruder wolf. I shivered a little. For the dead wolf more than for the ones who killed him.

  He touched the leather. “From Buff, a local artisan, he tans leather. We don’t waste anything here. If we use it, we use it all.”

  I smiled. I loved that about Town. They were shifters, they were meat eaters, but all of their kills were used, nothing was wasted if a deer was hunted and bagged. It was all used somehow to honor the animal and the life energy it gave. It humbled me to see those practices in action, as opposed to simply being preached about.

  “The webbing is copper wire, the feathers from the pheasants in the woods. And of course we have a few feathers on here for you since you are my little bird.” He kissed my forehead and I felt my eyes well with tears. Ellis tilted my face back and looked in my eyes. “Are you upset? Do you not like it?”

  “I love it,” I whispered. “It’s…” A hitch rose up my voice.

  “It’s what?”

  “The baby,” I sobbed. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry! I can’t seem to control my mood swings.”

  “Of course not, Ruby.” He laughed into my hair and said softly, “Would you like to open the other?”

  “Yes!” I sobbed again.

  God, how fucking embarrassing was this?

  But then I was laughing so hard more tears came. “I promise my hormones will calm down,” laughed.

  “I know. It’s fine. I wouldn’t have you any other way than honest.”

  I opened the other box he handed me and let him pluck the dream catcher with its delicate web and gorgeous feathers from my hand. Inside was tissue paper, white flecked with silver sparkly bits. I smiled and pushed it back.

  “Oh shit,” I said.

  “White gold,” Ellis said. “I know you like silver, but silver can be iffy for us. Not always, but quite often, we have a natural allergy to it.”

  “Oh, Ellis.”

  I pulled the small ring from the box and held it up. A thin band of white gold set with sizeable diamonds. Each about the size of the head of a small screw. On the very end was a small white gold feather set on the band with a jump ring. It dangled and swayed where it was anchored through the metal. I shook the ring and the feather danced.

  “Do you like it, Little Bird?”

  “I do.” More fucking tears. How many tears did the human head hold anyway?

  Ellis didn’t seem to mind. He wiped them away and took my left hand in his hands. “May I?”

  I could only nod in fear that I would start blubbering. I handed him the ring and he slid it along the trembling ring finger of my left hand. The space had been naked because we’d yet to buy each other rings, though we’d been married for weeks.

  “I love you, Ruby Bach. I love you, Little Bird. Thank you for being my wife. Thank you for carrying our baby.” He smiled and I cried and for a moment he held me and the tiny feather tickled at my finger.

  “I love you too, Ellis. And now,” I sniffled, “it’s your turn.”

  I handed him the sizeable package and he hefted it in his hands. “Heavy,” he said, cocking an eyebrow.

  “Yep.”

  He pulled back the red and white paper and I watched, holding my breath, feeling completely freaked out for some reason.

  Ellis pulled open the cardboard box and took out the actual popcorn I had used to buffer the gift. When Ellis laughed at the popcorn, I said, “Built in snack.”

  “It’s a…”

  I snorted.

  He hefted the bronze statue of a water nymph and grinned at me. “It’s a—”

  “It’s a water nymph! To protect you.”

  “As it protected you?”

  I snorted again. It was an inside joke. I had tried to protect myself from Ellis—though I hadn’t been sure it was Ellis—with a similar statue and had ended up knocking myself out. I wanted this gift to grace our home for humor and protection.

  He pulled me into the circle of his arms and kissed me deeply. “Thank you, Ruby. I love it.”

  “Then check her wrist.”

  “What?”

  “Check her wrist.”

  He studied the statue and found that I had had the same mindset. I had slipped a wedding ring over the statue’s slender wrist. It was a perfect fit and I’d felt very clever hiding it in plain sight.

  “Oh, Ruby.”

  It was a single white gold band—great minds and all that—with words etched along the metal. I love you. Forever and ever. Amen.

  “May I?”

  I took his hand and slid the ring onto his tanned finger. “Ellis Bach. I fell ass-backward into loving you. And I’ve loved you in two lifetimes. And if it came about, I’d love you in another.” I looked up into those crazy blue eyes and said, “And I cannot wait to have our son.”

  I took his face in my hands and pulled his lips to mine. I kissed him even though I was crying again—silly me I said, “Now Ellis…”

  “Yes?”

  “Now, I need for us to have that other gift.”

  “What gift would that be?” But he was smirking at me. Smart ass.

  “The naked gift,” I said and tugged at his belt.

  Chapter 14

  “Hurry, Ellis. They’re—”

  “I’m not worried about them, Ruby,” Ellis growled.

  Grabbing me by my hips, he tugged my jeans until they were around my ankles. I kicked them free. I was going commando as I so often did. Often enough that Ellis teased me about it. He’d ask me if it was a bare down there day just to make me blush.

  “But—”

  “They’re in our house, Ruby. If they interrupt, I’ll kill them. Half of them can smell, hear or sense not to interrupt,” he chuckled as he hiked me up and plopped my ass on the antique sideboard we used as extra counterspace.

  “Oh, gosh, don’t remind me,” I squealed, but there was such a rush of fluid between my legs. From hormones, from wanting him so bad, from the fact that Ellis knew how to touch me in just the right way. How to touch me just so. So that I was gushing and squirming and so desperate for him that drawing breath was hard.

  “They can hear us,” he said, his lips against my ear. And then his fingers, thick and warm, thrust into me and he nudged my G-spot.

  And orgasm slid toward me—so close, so fucking close—at the words and the touch. He knew that though it mortified me, it also turned me on to no end. Someone hearing us. Knowing. Sensing our fucking and our lust.

  “Some of them can probably smell us,” he said and nipped my earlobe. His cock nudged my opening, parting me, delving in. I slid my hips closer to the edge to take him in. To get him buried in me so that I could feel him filling me, holding me with his capable hands.

  Ellis started to thrust, deep but controlled thrusts that drove my bottom back a bit on the rust-colored wood.

  “I hope not,” I breathed.

  �
��Liar,” he whispered playfully, his hands palming my ass as he drove deep and fast.

  I gasped, bit my tongue, let my head roll back as his teeth found my neck and I shivered.

  “You love it, you dirty little girl,” he said and I could hear the smile in his voice.

  Ellis paused to lower his head, his hair tickling my chest, his stubble rasping at my skin. He sucked and nibbled and licked my nipples, filling me with his erection all the while but not moving. Not doing anything but torturing my tender breasts. They felt so hot and swollen and full from pregnancy and he seemed to know this. So he toed the line of pleasure and pain without stepping over it, making me crazy to the point of tightening my cunt muscles to try and force him to move. Or to try and come. I’d take either one at this point.

  “Cheater,” he sighed.

  Ellis clamped his hands down on top of mine where they rested beside my hips on the sideboard. He pinned me that way, legs spread, hand flat, unable to hold on or tug or grasp at him. I hooked my legs around his waist and leaned back just enough, just enough to get more friction.

  “Fuck, you are beautiful, Little Bird. When you lean back like that I can see your breasts, the muscles in your arms and your neck. I can see the swell of belly that is making you blush but is so gorgeous because it means we’ll be a family soon.”

  “Hush,” I said, because the sweet honey tones of his voice always pushed me over the edge and I didn’t want to come just yet.

  “And the way you’re so hot around me, Ruby. So tight and so hot and so wet and so fucking beautiful.”

  He raised one hand to snake a finger from between my breasts down to the top of my mound. And I came. I bit my lips and swallowed it down but my whole body shook with the force of it.

  “Good girl,” he said. Ellis grabbed my ass and hiked me forward just a bit more. He tilted me back a little, resting my heels on the edge of the surface so I was wide open to him. So he could pull his head back a touch and watch his cock slamming into me.

  “Jesus,” he whispered, eyes locked on where our bodies met-melded-became one.