Engraven (7 page)

We sat in two Adirondack chairs that were next to each other in the garden. I saw my mom look out from one of the windows in the house, but she made no move to come outside.

“Give me your hands. I don’t want you to be scared about anything I’m about to tell you. It can be overwhelming, I’ve heard. I’ll be with you through the whole thing, obviously. So, you know nothing about the mark?”

I shook my head.

“Sometime after the mating bond sets our hearts in sync, the female chooses a spot on the male in which to place her mark.” I giggled, picturing myself scribbling a smiley face on his shoulder with a permanent marker. “You’re going to have to bite me, Dahlia, draw blood. There are words that need to be said to each other, but I’ll teach you those when the time comes. Maybe I should learn them myself first.”

My smile had downturned into a grimace. My heart was torn in two. I wanted to complete the mating bond—that was my bear side. But under no circumstances did I ever want to hurt the male in front of me. His brown eyes stared me down while I mentally debated both sides.

A girl could lose herself in those puddles of care and concern without even knowing.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

He chuckled and kissed my hands again. “I want you to. There’s actually nothing I want more. I need the mark on me that tells the world that I belong to you and you to me. It’s like wedding rings.”

“And you have to bite me?”

He scooted to the edge of the chair and our knees touched, sending another shiver through me. “Yes. In the same place as your choosing. I’m told it’s a very intimate thing which is why we don’t date or anything. We wait for our mates.”

I’d always been warned away from dating—not given a specific reason, simply to wait for my mate. I’d been asked plenty of times, but always declined. As I looked into the face of my mate—the one that they promised would be the other half of me—I knew why.

There was no one in the world that could compare to him.

“How will I know where?”

“It will come to you. You’ll just know. Trust your bear. She won’t steer you wrong.”

The beast was already planning. She couldn’t make up her mind. Vixen.

“After that is the mating ritual. The Alpha will officiate, much like a human wedding and the last right is—well, the wedding night.” He cleared his throat after that last bit.

“That’s it?”

“Yes. That’s it.”

He let go of my hands and I was grateful. I needed a break from the intensity. My bear mulled everything over in complete joy. If she had her way, we would complete everything, right here, under the light of the moon.

A change of subject was in order.

“You lied to me.”

His forehead furrowed in confusion. “What did I lie about?”

“You said you work and you do security runs. ‘That’s all I do.’” I mocked his voice and did a pathetic job of it.

“That’s all I do, female. I didn’t lie.”

My face reddened as I recalled some of the conversations from the night. There wasn’t one person in the clan who didn’t beam of Tarrow the beta who never let anyone down. Even the Rev guy boasted of Tarrow helping his mate when he was on a run one night and the Alpha told stories of my mate bailing him out more than once.

But to his face, they all treated him like a pest.

It was strange and something I intended to get to the bottom of.

“They all said you cover everyone else’s security duty and you fill in wherever you’re needed. You rarely take a day off. You take care of your mom even though people rag you for not moving out of her home.”

He looked surprised. “They said those things?”

“Yeah. It was pointed out to me by more than one female that I was the luckiest girl to be mated to you.”

He scoffed.

“They weren’t telling me anything I didn’t know—at least about the lucky part.”

“You’re making it very hard for me not to kiss you.”

“What’s stopping you?” He emanated heat. The waves of it causing me to blush over and over again.

“We have an audience—have since we got here.”

I stood and looked toward the one window that I knew held the guilty party—Acacia and the brats. When they saw me stand, they fled from the crime scene leaving the curtain blowing in their wake.

Brats.

“Let’s go somewhere we don’t have an audience.”

His arms wrapped around me from behind and he spoke against my neck. “Best thing I’ve heard all night. Let’s go.”

“I need to run and you do too.”

“There’s not enough swamp for the amount of running I need.”

Hand in hand we strolled into the tree line at the back of our home. The Cypress trees waved with the ending of the fall and the beginning of the winter. In this southern Louisiana weather, people wore shorts one day and coats the next.

Which is why I loved this place so much—it was as unpredictable and wild as I was.

When we’d gotten far enough away from the house, I shook my hair free and kicked my shoes off.

Finally, I was in my element.

Tarrow

I come alive a little bit more every time she does something with her hair. I don’t even think she realizes she’s doing it.

She flipped her shoes off, I expected to go ahead and shift and then she stopped cold.

I was staring.

It couldn’t be helped.

“Sorry. Shit. Sorry.”

I turned around and expected to have to coerce her into running with me. No sooner than the words formed in my mouth, my cells rippled with her shift. The other side of me curled under the tidal wave of it. We were both defenseless against the churning—the call for us to follow her into the night.

I’d wanted to shift first. I needed to shift first. There was nothing I wanted more than for her to have her eyes on my body—choosing the place to mark me—make me whole.

My game needed to be upped.

Stripping down, I called to my animal and let him loose. With one jolt he pushed my humanity aside and took over—being held captive too long had irritated him beyond a simple shift.

The transition took seconds and pained me to no end. I hadn’t felt pain from a shift in years, but the bastard was gunning to get out and it was my fault for not letting him sooner.

He needed his mate.

He craved the feel of her against him.

To hear her steps alongside his.

And the bear always gets his way.

With a fury, I ran to catch up to her. She darted in and out of the trees, leaving a purposeful path behind her. She wanted me to follow. She wanted me as much as my bear wanted her.

I was helpless against the chase. It drove the instincts of my bear into a frenzy that couldn’t be stopped.

~~

“I have to work tomorrow. I’d better go.”

It would be a miracle if I sounded any more pathetic.

We’d recuperated from the run and sat next to each other on the porch, my mate and the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen leaning against my shoulder.

She sighed. “I didn’t know it could be like that.”

I chuckled. “I don’t think anyone does. It’s one of those ‘have to try it’ things.”

“Well, I have to say, it’s certainly better than running alone.”

She laid her head on my shoulder. “Oh, this is yours.” Her fingers grabbed the edges of the sweatshirt and began to tug it off of her.

“No, keep it. It makes me happy, you wearing my stuff.”

I felt the lilt of her cheek as my words made her smile. “It smells like you.”

My bear rumbled in my chest, fully content with her loving my smell and it being all over her.

“How about you come over for dinner here tomorrow night? Get to know my family better?”

“Of course. If that’s what you want.”

“I do.”

“Then I’ll be here. What time?”

“Seven. Yeah, seven.” Time was not on my girl’s side.

Though both of us needed to leave, neither made a move to go. She was tired and I knew it. I felt her sleepiness settling into my chest.

“You need to sleep. You’ve had a lot going on. I bet you didn’t sleep much last week. I know I didn’t. You can call or text me if you need me.”

She raised up at that statement.

“And you?”

“What about me?”

“You can call me too, you know. Unless males don’t do that?” She really was clueless. It was my job to fix that issue.

“If you give me permission, I will call you as well. I don’t want to interrupt anything.”

“I have no job and no more school. You’re not going to interrupt anything except me slacking off. My parents said I didn’t have to find a job until after the official graduation. But I need to. I know they can hardly support me as it is.”

“I have money saved up, Dahlia. I can carry you as long as you need. That way you can find the job you want instead of the job you have to take to pay the bills.”

Squinting, she caught me in her glare, and it wasn’t one I wanted to be caught in.

First date and I’d pissed my mate off something serious.

“I’m sorry. What did I say?”

“I don’t need anyone to carry me. I walk fine on my own—always have.”

“I…” didn’t get to finish my sentence before she’d stormed off toward her house and completed our conversation with a slammed door.

~~

“You look like hell.” The Alpha was poignant if nothing else.

“Thank you. You look breathtaking as well, Alpha.”

“Always the smartass. What crawled up your snout?”

I sighed and hoped that was enough of an answer for him. The last thing I needed was more razzing from the clan.

“Mate trouble, already? That blows. Fix that shit and quick. The more she stews, the more she brews.”

I didn’t even know what that meant.

Every male turned to the Alpha in disbelief. That was the closest he’d ever come to saying something negative about the Coeur.

I decided to go ahead and tell them. I’d put up with the jokes if they’d tell me how to fix the bullshit I’d gotten myself into.

“She graduates in January—doesn’t have a job—has six sisters. She was talking about getting a job and I told her that I had enough money saved up to carry her until she could get a job she wanted instead of just taking the first opportunity no matter how shitty it was. I thought it was the right thing to do.”

“But it was your idea.” Rev barked, mouth full of something.

“It was.”

“That’s the problem. If it’s not their idea, they think you’re being a pig.” Rev would know all there was to know about being a pig. I’d heard Martha refer to him as a pig more times than I could count.

“I guess I have to call and apologize, though I don’t know what for other than she’s pissed at me and I’m supposed to go to her house tonight for dinner with her family.”

The entire table fell into a hush.

“Get her happy again before you’re in front of her father.”

Rev’s words of wisdom were clipped and to the core.

“Okay.”

I found my own tree once the Alpha had made his way to his tree to call the Coeur and made a call of my own. Fear gurgled inside me.

“Hello?”

“It’s Tarrow.”

“Yeah. Hi.” She sounded upbeat and it freaked me out more than consoled me.

“You’re okay?” And by okay, I meant not mad at me anymore.

“I’m used to taking care of myself.”

“I understand. I just want to help you.”

A moment of silence closed the gap the dispute had left between us. I didn’t know that anything had been resolved, but at least we were speaking.

“I have to go. We are cleaning the house like the Pope is coming to dinner. I’ve been snapped at by my sisters more times during this phone call than I ever have.”

“Don’t do anything on account of me. There’s no one to impress. Trust me.”

“Can’t be helped. See you later?”

She asked the question as if I would say no.

“Of course. Goodbye, love.”

“Um…bye.”

Dahlia

After seeing the pristine condition of Tarrow’s home, mine just didn’t chalk up to his standards. We weren’t dirty people, per se, but given the artistic nature of the people in our home, mess was just a given.

Plus, there was me. I was a mess all on my own.

Hurricane Dahlia.

“It’s fine, Dahlia. The wonderful thing about having a mate is that they love you no matter what.”

I popped my fists onto my hips and gave her a look. “Oh, so I can lay around and stop showering and he’ll still love me?”

My attitude about the whole thing confused her.

“Well, yes, but that would be nearly impossible considering our metabolism and activity levels. Your bear would never let you lay around. I’m sure the showering would pose an issue, but he’d never say a thing about it. I can almost guarantee that.”

I didn’t want that. I didn’t want a mate who just stood around and didn’t speak the truth because of his blind love for me. I wanted to be honest and if I needed to get my shit in order, then he would tell me to gut up and handle it—while holding his hand, of course.

Just like I would do for him.

“Mom, just because you can get away with murder doesn’t mean you have to go out and chop someone to pieces.”

She got my drift.

“In that case, I suggest you start vacuuming. I don’t think we’ve vacuumed the living room in months.”

“I’ll do it. Dahlia will just break something She’s extra flaily today.”

The next few hours were spent much the same, tidying up and dusting. There was enough dust in our house to kill someone.

It left me an hour to get dressed, which in my time was a little over five minutes.

“I’m going to get dressed!” I shouted above the racket.

“Hurry up! He’ll be here soon and early judging by the other night.”

That’s what I needed to hear.

Just my luck, at fifteen minutes until seven with my hair still sopping wet and bouncing around, looking for a dress in my underwear, Tarrow shows up. I could hear his car pull up in the driveway.

It sent the best thrill through me.

I flitted through the closet, desperate to find something to look halfway decent when a throat was cleared behind me.

“There’s nothing in there. Trust me.”

“I have to wear something I can’t just go down there naked.”

“I’m sure he would like that, but I’m confident he will like this more. You can thank me later. Get your ass in gear ‘O Mated One.’”

Acacia, bless her pea picking heart, threw a baby blue maxi dress onto the bed along with some sandals. I put it on as fast as I could and when I emerged from the bathroom, she was there waiting with hair products and a wicked grin.

“Do your damage.”

“Again, you’ll thank me later.”

In ten minutes flat, the girl had me looking better than I had in ages. She’d braided the sides of my hair and then tangled it all up into some kind of side bun that made me look like I’d actually tried for once.

My sister was amazing.

And if I didn’t know it before, I knew for sure when I came down and Tarrow’s heart, along with mine, thrummed like a rabbit’s, furious in its speed.

If this dress didn’t get me kissed, I was done for.

“You get more beautiful every time I see you.”

The entire room of women gasped at his unabashed declaration, including me. My eyes widened. I hadn’t read many books, but the ones I had involved boys who were hot and cold, snow and fire. They were either dry humping the girl in the story or ignoring her very existence.

This man was like nothing I’d ever knew was possible.

“Breathe, Dahlia,” he said with a chuckle. Every female eye was trained on him. Even Acacia was blushing and the compliment wasn’t directed at her.

“I’m breathing.”

He laughed again and rocked back on his heels. “You are now. Thank you.”

“You’re thanking me for breathing?”

Tarrow looked down at the floor and shrugged. “Keeps me alive now.”

“I’m gonna vomit if they talk like that over dinner.” Briar stuck her finger down her throat and motioned with her hands that throwing up was impending.

My mom ruffled her hair and by the top of her head, turned her around toward the kitchen. “Why don’t you and Juniper set the table? Daisy seems to be soaking all this in. We’ll give her the night off.”

The three littlest girls were responsible for setting the table every night. I broke my gaze free of Tarrow to look at Daisy, who was dancing from tiptoe to tiptoe, her eyes and heart set on my mate. The good thing about being the first one was that I had five more sisters to say ‘I told you so’ to.

Or so I hoped.

“Tarrow, have a seat, son. I didn’t get to talk to you much the other day. I can ask you all the questions that Clint forgot to.”

I expected Tarrow to bolt at the thought, but instead, he sat down on the couch, on the end, but was quickly reprimanded for such a thing.

“Sit by me, Tarrow,” Acacia cooed. She grabbed his hand and made him scoot to the middle of the couch. The rest of the girls surrounded him in an instant. They acted like they’d never seen a male before.

I didn’t blame them. I was just another fawner. 

“I guess I’ll just sit over here.” The aggravation in my voice couldn’t be contained.

“Oh, I forgot the flowers. I brought flowers and something else. Just one second. Dahlia, would you mind giving me a hand? It’ll just take a second.”

Mom nodded, giving her silent permission. He opened the door like he’d lived at my house all of his life and allowed me to pass in front of him. I didn’t miss the deep inhale he took as I passed, as though he was filling up some empty tank of me.

“I heard that.” I couldn’t resist picking on him.

“Good. I wasn’t trying to hide it.” His arm encircled my waist as we walked toward the car.

“Is there anything in the car or were you just trying to get me alone?”

“Both. My mom sent like three pans of food and I did bring flowers. I may or may not have forgotten them in the car on purpose.”

He smiled then, but not like the one or two I’d seen before. There was something boyish and mysterious about this one. It was a smile he didn’t share with just anyone. He saved them up like coins and then cashed them in at just the right moment.

“I can get two of them and the flowers if you can get the rest. Or would you rather make two trips?”

His hand was on the door handle, waiting for my answer.

“Two trips might be a little obvious, don’t you think? Anyway, if you want me alone, all you have to do is ask.”

Redness splattered my cheeks. I’d never said or thought such a thing about a male.

“Hey,” he put his hand on my cheek. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed or shy about. I probably want to kiss you twice as much as you want to kiss me—at least.”

I pressed against his hand, loving the feel of his calloused skin on my soft cheek. “I doubt that.” His eyes were on my lips and if I didn’t break this spell, I would be getting my first real kiss in front of my parents’ house where I was sure someone was spying on us. Someone was always spying on me. There was no such thing as privacy in a family that large. “Let’s go in. I’m sure they are missing us by now.”

“Not such a good impression on the in-laws, huh?”

This boy had a real hang-up with shouldering the world.

“It’s not you. Why do you do that?”

He shrugged and I could feel the depths that needed to be explored at a later time on the subject.

~~

It wasn’t until this dinner that I realized how utterly incapable my father was of giving someone the stink eye. He was the sweetest man I’d ever known. There were only a handful of times that I’d heard him raise his voice to my mother or anyone else.

He was a pacifist by nature, not by choice.

So to see him attempt to intimidate Tarrow was laughable at best. Acacia was barely containing her shit.

“Do you plan on working construction all of your life?”

The question was pointed in the snobby direction which didn’t sit with me well. Money or riches wasn’t a value that was high on my priority list. We’d always just gotten by. I’d never known anything else and certainly didn’t want to be mated to someone who was chasing down money.

“I’m sure I will always be involved in that industry in some way. I’ve recently been looking into going back to school for business management, but that would be in the clan’s business. It gives me the flexibility to handle my duties to the clan and make a decent paycheck.”

Dad cleared his throat after that statement from Tarrow. The girls and I were just watching the exchange like we had money on it.

“Duties to the clan? What would those be?”

“Clint!” My mom did that clearing her throat, sort of reprimanding thing to my dad once in a while.

“What Vidalia? It sounds like the boy has a full plate with the clan.” His tone was less than joyful when he said the word clan. “I’m just making sure he’ll have time for a mate. I’m assessing the priorities here.”

Tarrow put down his fork and took a long draw of the water from his glass. He ticked his eyes over to me but they showed no fear. This boy didn’t cower.

I kind of loved that.

When he finally put the glass down, the words flowed out of his mouth with complete confidence.

“Sir, my first priority will always be Dahlia’s happiness—not even the clan comes before that. That includes any family we may one day have. That being said, as a member of the clan, it’s my responsibility to be a contributing part of it. That includes security and being the best Beta I can. And in securing the clan, I secure my mate as well.”

My dad didn’t flinch.

I sure as hell did. If wasn’t surrounded by my parents and sisters, I might’ve crawled over the table, grabbed him by that button-down’s collar and kissed the hell out of him.

“And if she doesn’t want to be in the clan? If it’s her decision to be rogue? What will your choice be then?”

“It’s my understanding that rogue and independent are two very different things. But in either case, where she goes, I will go. There’s no choice to make.”

“Sounds like a verbatim speech from a brochure.”

“Well, we do take classes on history and things, but my opinion is my own.”

Though he showed no evidence of it, Tarrow’s unease about the conversation tasted bitter on my tongue. I swallowed against the sensation, not caring at all for his discomfort at the hand of the people I loved the most.

“You know I was once in the Lafourche clan.”

A ripple of nervousness passed through him. The first I’d felt of the night.

“I didn’t know that, Sir. I’m assuming that was under Matthias.”

My dad’s eyebrow jumped. “It was.”

“That was a dark time for our clan.”

No one at the table was eating anymore. We were all on edge. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Tarrow was supposed to be nervous, but not for the reasons he was now. And I was supposed to be giggly and girly, instead of afraid that this was the first rip in the long tear between Tarrow and my family.

“Matthias was formidable in his reign of terror. He was a disgrace to our species.”

“As I said, Sir. That was a horrible time for our clan.”

Dad laughed, but there was no joke. “See? He won’t even say how horrible one of his clansmen is, no matter how many lives were lost and ruined by that man. I’m sure your Alpha is perfect now, correct?”

“No, Sir. He’s not perfect. No one if perfect. But he’s trying to make the clan better for all of us.”

“I’m finished here.” Dad threw his napkin on the chair and stomped from the room.

“I’d better go. Thank you Mrs. Branch for the hospitality. The meal was excellent.”

My mom looked like she might cry. “You’re welcome here anytime, Tarrow.”

“I doubt that, ma’am, but I appreciate it.” Then he looked at me with the saddest eyes. The moment was sludge in my chest and mud in my mouth-heavy and laden with regret. “I’ll see you later, Dahlia.” And as he walked out the door, I heard him whisper, “Maybe”.

I couldn’t help the anger that swelled in me. I didn’t understand how one minute my father could speak of mates and grandchildren and then in the face of my future, defy it and turn his opinion on its axis.

It wasn’t like my father, regardless of his opinion of clans.

I barely heard my mother beg me not to do what I was about to do.

“Dad!” I yelled through the house and outside until I found him out by the chairs I’d sat in with Tarrow the night before.

“Not right now, Dahlia.”

I checked the driveway, hoping against hope that Tarrow was there, waiting for me to jump into his car and get away.

Never in my life had I wanted to get away from home like I did in that moment.