Irish Mist (2 page)

Ippy emerged from the middle bedroom and almost seemed startled to see them there in the living room as he stopped short and looked at them closely for several long minutes.

“Ippy?” Hannah asked him, her voice coming out hesitant, like she was uncertain.

Caelum frowned. “Want to go for a walk along the beach with me, Ippy?” he asked him.

Ippy perked up a bit at that and Caelum was glad when he nodded after seeming to consider the offer for a good minute or so. Caelum pulled Hannah close and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “You’ll be okay?” It was a simple question, but so much more. Would she be okay here, by herself? But also, this was the first time that the three of them had been together in five years, and he was asking for time alone with Ippy after they’d just arrived. A poly relationship wasn’t going to be a cakewalk, he knew that. But was she ready for it like he was? Like he hoped Ippy was?

She gave him a smile, though it did look a bit stiff, and nodded. “Sure. I can start unpacking. We brought the essentials and a bunch of clothes, but will probably be bringing back a few suitcases when the three of us go back to visit for the holidays. Anyway, you guys have fun.”

“There’s biscuits…er, cookies, in the cupboard,” Caelum told her as he went up to Ippy.

Hannah gave them both a wink and a little wave of her fingers as she disappeared into the same bedroom Ippy had come from. Caelum watched her go before offering Ippy his hand. He wasn’t sure if Ippy would take it, or if he was even upset, and so he was relieved when Ippy put his own hand into his and Caelum turned to lead him out of the house and down the hill toward the sea.

He walked slowly, wondering why Ippy was being so quiet, as their hands swayed between them. Once they got to the beach, a place they’d spent plenty of time on in their dreams, Caelum had to ask. The silence was bothering him too much to simply let it go. “Ippy, what’s wrong? I don’t think I’ve seen you this sad since the night you told me about your parents kicking you out.” he asked as he sat down on the cool sand and pulled Ippy down with him.

Ippy leaned toward him and Caelum put an arm around his shoulders. When he didn’t answer, Caelum tried a different tactic. “Did I do something already? Do you regret coming here?”

Ippy shook his head.
You’re…

“I’m?” Caelum pressed him.

Beautiful.
Ippy rounded his shoulders, hiding himself from Caelum’s view.

Caelum raised his brows and tried to get Ippy to look at him by moving toward him, but Ippy kept turning away. Getting annoyed, Caelum put a hand on Ippy’s shoulder, pulling him back and pushing him into the sand as Caelum got on top of him, pinning him down.

“You think I’m beautiful?” Caelum asked him as he leaned over Ippy, putting a hand on either side of his shoulders in the sand as Ippy stared up at him.

Slowly Ippy nodded.
Yes. You are. I’m out of place.

Ah. So that’s what it was. Caelum smirked and leaned closer, nearly pressing his face against Ippy’s. “Would you believe me if I said I like the way you look, too? That I’m surprised you didn’t show me the real you when we were in the dreams?”

Shrugging, Ippy turned his head to the side as Caelum lay down on top of him, no longer supporting himself with his arms and instead using his hands to run down Ippy’s sides. He felt Ippy shiver under him and Caelum smiled into his neck as he got comfortable against Ippy’s warm chest. He was only a few inches shorter than Caelum, but a good deal lighter if Caelum had to take a guess. Taking a chance, Caelum kissed the side of Ippy’s neck. Ippy pulled away, but Caelum was glad to see him smiling when he lifted his head and looked down at Ippy.

That felt good,
Ippy admitted.

Caelum smiled back at him. “You’re not here just because Hannah wants you with her. I want you here, too. You’re mine, Ippy. If you want to be. We’ve been together plenty in the dreams. Why’s it weird now?”

The smile quietly fled Ippy’s face, but what Caelum was left with wasn’t exactly a frown either. Instead, Ippy’s face was a mask of uncertainty that made Caelum ache for him. In the dreams it was so easy and everything felt completely right. Had he so misjudged what could happen with the two people that mattered most to him?

It took a while, but finally Ippy did answer him.
I don’t really touch people much, just you, Hannah, and sometimes other people in the pack. But I don’t seek it. It’s better since my wolf and I connected a few years ago. Actually a lot of things are better now that he’s here. I can concentrate and I feel better most days. But there’s still so much that I’ve never done, with Hannah or anyone else. And she could just run into your arms and kiss you and I wanted to do that, too, but I have no idea how.

Caelum’s expression softened as understanding came over him. “What would you like to do? If you could, I mean.”

Ippy raised his eyebrows.
Anything I want?

Caelum didn’t hesitate as he nodded. Whatever Ippy wanted, he’d likely imagined it and wanted it as well. “Anything.”

A smile slowly came over Ippy’s face and Caelum shared it.
I want a kiss,
he slowly admitted.

It was an easy request to grant. More than easy, actually. Caelum leaned closer and put one forearm above Ippy’s head for balance and used the other hand to cup his cheek. Soft stubble brushed over his palm as Caelum lowered his mouth to Ippy’s. At first it was just the barest brushing of their lips. Caelum’s were chapped from the sea, he knew, and wished he’d thought of using some lip balm before they’d arrived. But Ippy didn’t seem to mind all that much. Caelum lifted his head, wondering if Ippy had done enough and wanted some space now, but Ippy followed him up, so Caelum gave him what he was clearly seeking as he slowly opened his mouth, letting Ippy kiss him.

Ippy’s arms came around his back and rested on Caelum’s shoulders, holding him close. He appreciated the contact, but there was no way that he was going to leave Ippy right now. Ippy’s tongue slipped between his lips and Caelum moved his hand from his cheek to the tangle of dark brown curls that was Ippy’s hair. He loved that wild batch of hair on top of Ippy’s head, always had, and trailed his fingers through the soft ends now.

Though he would have loved to keep kissing Ippy, his need for air sadly won out and Caelum pulled away first. When he looked down at Ippy there was a soft glow around him, likely invisible to humans, but completely clear to someone like him. And probably to Hannah, too, since she could see so much more than either of them.

“You’re glowing,” he whispered, his voice likely too soft to hear over the sound of the waves crashing over the beach behind them.

Ippy nodded and when his gaze focused on Caelum, he saw Ippy’s pupils dilate until the bright blue of his irises nearly outshone everything else.
It’s my wolf coming awake. He wants to run.

“Do you want to?” Caelum asked him eagerly as his heart sped up. He’d only been out of the sea a short time, but shifting and getting to see Ippy as his wolf was too tempting of a prize to give up on so soon. He hadn’t seen the wolf at all in his dreams. He’d asked, repeatedly, and shifted for Ippy so that he could see his seal. But he had yet to see the wolf that shared his soul with Ippy.

Though he looked a bit uncertain, Ippy did eventually nod.
Are we safe here?

Caelum smiled. “Absolutely. Do you need some help?”

Just need some room so if you could get off me…
Ippy said pointedly.

Blushing, Caelum rolled onto his side on the beach. His shift would come easily enough, he didn’t worry about that. But he’d never seen a werewolf shift before and wanted to pay attention as he got to his knees next to Ippy on the sand. Ippy quietly rose to his feet and started shucking off his clothing as kept his back to Caelum.

It’s weird undressing in front of you,
Ippy said, his voice sounding tentative as his shirt came off after his shoes and socks were gone.

Caelum hadn’t thought of that. “I can turn around if you want.”

Do you want to?

“No.” Caelum figured he probably should, but no, he didn’t want to look away. And if Ippy wouldn’t make him, he’d stay right where he was and enjoy the view.

He thought he’d get a look, but Ippy proved him wrong because as soon as his shorts dropped to the sand at Ippy’s feet Caelum saw him crouch down and a swirl of mist and light closed around him. He’d expected something bigger, something bloodier and painful when a werewolf shifted. At least that’s what he’d always seen happen in the movies. But from one of his rapid heartbeats to the next, Ippy was there, and then he was a wolf. Caelum went to him, eager to put his hands into dark brown fur that looked coarse, but he found was actually soft when he touched Ippy’s shoulder. A large ear flicked back at him and then Ippy turned his head and looked up at Caelum with large, bright blue eyes that nearly stole his breath, just as they had the first time he’d caught Ippy’s gaze.

He ran his fingers along the thick fur of Ippy’s shoulder. “Can you still hear me?” he asked the wolf. He knew what Ippy had told him in his dreams, that he retained everything and every thought. But Caelum also knew that it hadn’t always been that way for him and that stress was a trigger for Ippy. Certainly he’d had plenty of stress over the past few hours, what with being in a plane full of people and all, so Caelum was naturally careful.

Ippy dipped his head and pushed against Caelum’s bare shoulder.
I’m here. Still me. How was my shift? Did it look okay?

Caelum didn’t know what Ippy was getting at or how it should have looked and so he simply nodded. “Mist and light normal?”

Yes.
He walked off, heading toward the surf, and Caelum moved quickly to catch up to him. As a seal he was fairly useless on land, but once he had his shorts off and was running toward the water, he knew that he’d soon be diving through the waves. His skin, a precious thing to a selkie like him, was kept in his room. He didn’t need it on him to shift, not anymore. But he did need it close by. The cold water hit him as he leaned forward and let himself fall. He didn’t move for a long second as the waves washed over him, pushing him toward the beach before pulling him back, and in that moment he felt welcomed by the sea as he always had before. He belonged to the salt water, with the sky above him and the land little more than a place he went to rest when he needed sleep.

He supposed some things would be changing about that soon. Hannah wasn’t an ocean spirit and neither was Ippy. But he’d never be able to leave the sea and he knew that they’d always live near it. He called on his old magic, carried through the generations in his blood and fuelled by the sea, as he started to shift. He closed his eyes and welcomed the change over his body as his arms shortened and his legs fused together. Seal skin covered his body, not his own, but a mirror of it that he called on for short swims, and he was off swimming through the waves and welcoming the cold water that chilled him.

The water moved near him, pushed aside by something big, and he popped his head up to see a dark brown wolf swimming along beside him. If Caelum could have smiled right then, he would have been grinning as he ducked and swam over to Ippy.
Hey,
Caelum said as he rubbed up against Ippy’s side.

Hi. I’ve never seen you shift before,
Ippy replied. They moved to the shallower water where Ippy could stand without having to swim, but where Caelum could still move around in the surf.

I doubt that it’s as pretty as yours,
Caelum quickly said as he dove through the water. He came up often, making sure that Ippy was all right where he’d left him.

Ippy as the wolf was watching him, his ears pricked forward as he sat down at the edge of the surf.
I couldn’t see much since you were hidden by the waves. But I did see some.

There was something Ippy wasn’t saying, something Caelum caught instantly. He’d seen bits of Caelum naked. He didn’t mind that Ippy had looked and wouldn’t tease him about it. After all, he’d been trying to catch a peek as well. He was still a bit curious about what Ippy thought, though. It might have been vain, but he really did want to know. And he thought that was pretty normal. He stopped swimming along the beach and came up to Ippy again.
Did you mind?
he asked Ippy as he floated on his back in the surf.

Ippy shook his head.
You said that you dated another guy, right? When you first came back?

Caelum hadn’t thought about him in years and couldn’t imagine why Ippy would want to bring him up now.
Yes.

Ippy turned his head away, focusing on something that Caelum couldn’t see off in the distance.
How far did you go with him?

Caelum instantly understood.
We kissed and held hands. That’s it.
Though he hadn’t been swimming long he shifted back, eager to be in his skin again as he spoke to Ippy about something that was obviously an important topic to him. Coming back to his human self wasn’t as easy, or as much fun, as going to the seal. But soon enough he came out of the water and reached for his shorts on the sand next to him with human fingers and got dressed.

He gave Ippy some privacy by turning around until Ippy laid a hand on his shoulder, letting him know it was okay to look again. He’d only put his shorts back on too, leaving his socks, shoes and shirt further up the beach. Caelum pulled him back down onto the sand. It was wet where he sat, but he didn’t mind too much as he stuck out his legs and smiled when the sea lapped against his legs up to his calves.

Ippy sat down next to him, and Caelum instantly took his hand as Ippy made a face, probably at the feeling of the wet sand beneath his butt. “Were you worried?” Caelum asked him as he tilted his head back and let the sun shine down on him.

Ippy nodded and put his head back, too.

Caelum watched him close his eyes and he moved closer to Ippy, barely leaving a few inches between them.

Why didn’t you?
Ippy asked him.

Caelum knew he could lie, he could say that he hadn’t seen that many attractive guys around or that no one caught his fancy. But those were lies, and he’d known for a long time how much Ippy didn’t like lies. Even the smallest ones. And so Caelum went for the truth. “I was holding out for you.”