His Unidentified & Untouchable Mate

Aftercare

Zahraa POV

My history remained spread over the table, awards, incidents, test results, etc. My college acceptance letter and high school diploma were scanned in and printed off as well. I felt naked, splayed across my table for Jacob to dissect – and he did take his time, carefully inspecting each letter as if the answer would be contained within in some code only he would understand.

“This can’t be it,” he decided, finally. “Maybe this is all he’s got scanned in, and there are more documents at the pack house. There’s just no way.”

I settled a hand on his knee, squeezing. “I’m sorry, Jacob, but it probably is.” I’d been a fool to allow myself to get excited about this, to feel like maybe I was the only one that would understand the code.

Reality was a b***h. There was no code, only a file that painted a half-ass picture of a life with too much activity.

His expression was hard to describe – something like mourning, almost. Then came the dreaded pity. “I’m sorry, Zahraa.”

I stood, shuffling the papers together roughly and tossing the file back on the table. For a moment, I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there, my emotions a swirling and violent storm.

Then: “Let’s go for a run.”

Jacob’s eyebrows raised in surprise, but a somewhat pleased smile quickly replaced the shock. “You run?”

I didn’t mean a light jog, of course, but an actual run – shifted. Something about becoming an animal, free spirited, the wind in your fur, was healing. And I desperately needed healing now. “Yep,” I replied. “To the grounds?”

“Sure.”

We slipped shoes back on and walked downstairs. Jacob had golf carted himself over, thankfully, so we slid into the seat and went to the grounds.

One sour point about having a pack of wolves in the middle of the big city was the lack of land for running. Wolves liked to cut loose often, feel the earth beneath their paws, embrace nature, run.

So, back when LA was just becoming LA, the alpha of the time – singular, as the pack’s population hadn’t yet blown up – purchased a large plot of land. 125 acres of ‘orchard.’ And sure – there were apples planted there, about five trees deep around the perimeter. There was also very high hedges and a high fence keeping the rabble out, since this ‘orchard’ was on the edge of the territory, and a constant rotating patrol of gammas.

To be let in, I usually had to flash a pack ID. I didn’t come often because I knew I’d be put under intense scrutiny. The gammas had a tendency to leave position just enough to catch a glimpse of the white and gold blur I could become.

With Jacob, things were so much easier. They saw him, nodded respectfully and opened the gate.

“Wanna race?” he asked, suddenly and unexpectedly. We hadn’t talked the entire way here, probably processing in our own ways.

I couldn’t help the smile that lit my face. “Sure,” I replied, before becoming a mere poof of gold dust, my atoms rearranging themselves into that of a leopard in an instant.

Jacob pulled his shirt off over his head, and I gawked at his chiseled chest only a moment before turning around and stretching out my newly elongated back. I heard him chuckle and cursed in my head. “We’ll run around the perimeter,” he announced, “First one back here wins.”

I heard the cracking and popping noises that always accompanied a shift, and then he appeared, aligning himself with me.

In unison, we crouched low. He dipped his head, and we shot off like rockets in the night. Of course, Jacob sped far ahead of me very quickly. I lacked the supernatural speed of a werewolf, so the race was lost long before it began.

But it was fun, having someone to run with.

Jacob lapped me before I could make it two-thirds of the way there, and pounced around like a housecat might, when it wanted to play. I swatted at him lightly, pawing at his shoulder.

The quick lancing pain that shot through us both was a quick reminder of our situation.

Jacob and I recovered. I shook my head, then my shoulders, shaking it out of my body. I couldn’t apologize in this form, so I merely lowered my head.

Jacob whined, then ran a few laps around me, bolting off towards the center of the grounds.

I followed, even if the magic of the night was suddenly tainted.

We arrived at a place I’d never seen before. There was a gazebo set up with chairs, and scattered picnic tables all around. Wildflowers were in full bloom around the bank of a pond, that seemed made for swimming. There was a pier, a diving board, and even a slide that tossed the rider out towards the middle of the water.

He shifted back, and I averted my eyes once more. When the awful crackling shift was over, I saw him extend a hand from my peripherals. “Care for a swim?”

I shifted, keeping my eyes down, my hands picking at the hem of my shirt. “I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”

Jacob laughed, and it sounded almost carefree. “Zahraa Snow, with so many incident reports in her file, has never skinny dipped?”

Not with a man, no. With my friends, of course. It was when Alanis and Tanis started getting handsy under the water that we realized they were a couple – back before they felt comfortable enough to confess it to us.

When I couldn’t think of a reply fast enough, his grin faltered. “I mean, you don’t have to. Really. If you’re uncomfortable-”

“A swim sounds nice,” I quickly interjected. I looked at him a little too suddenly, only remembering he was fully nude after the fact. His body rivaled sculptures from ancient Greece, and I tried not to think of what it might feel like to let my hands roam all over him. After clearing my throat, I added, “though I think I’ll keep my underwear on.”

He smiled. “Of course.”

I turned my back to strip down to my underwear, thanking the goddess I had decided to wear a matching set tonight. When I turned around, the hardness in Jacob’s stare (and somewhere else, quite a bit lower) made me blush.

“Zahraa, you’re…”

Before he could finish that thought, I ran past him, down the pier, and launched myself into the water.

I was expecting cold, but the water that enveloped me was warm for about a foot, and cooler underneath. My feet, which hit the soft, muddy ground beneath, were perhaps a bit cold. But perhaps that would help us feel a little less… well. Hot.

Jacob laughed again, and I swore it was music to my ears. He followed my lead, launching himself off the pier and cannonballing into the water next to me, creating a splash that soaked my hair (whoops).

There was a magical quality to a pond this late. The stars twinkled brightly overhead, the moon casting a soft glow over the space that felt, somehow, almost sacred.

Jacob floated, apparently not too shy about showing off what hung beneath his legs. “So, Zahraa. How did you go from Zahraa Last Name Unknown to Zahraa Snow?”

I thought about it for a moment. I was so young and frightened back then, it was hard to think of the events that led up to it.

“They didn’t offer me a last name until it was clear that I’d be with you all for a while,” I replied after careful consideration. “They asked me to pick and, well. It was winter. And I’ve always thought the snow was a little captivating, you know? Spellbinding. Magical.”

Jacob hummed in response. “It is beautiful, isn’t it?”

“It’s my favorite time of the year,” I admitted. “When everything is cold enough to excuse you staying indoors all day. The crunch of fresh snow under your feet, icicles hanging from roofs, and goddess, Ingrid’s mom makes the best hot chocolate.”

I glanced over at him to see him smiling affectionately. “I can’t wait to see the snow with you, then.”

It was something so small – a soft promise. An assurance that he wasn’t going to simply blink out of existence, and forget me at any moment.

I dived under the water, desperate for an excuse to make my lungs burn. To mask the rapid thumping of my heart, and the raging of my hormones. When I came back up, I was feeling freer. Lighter.

“I’ll ask Rowan tomorrow,” I announced, boldly enough that Jacob jolted, his feet sinking. I forced a smile – something I hadn’t done since we’d opened that damned file. “There’s got to be something, right?”

Jacob looked a little conflicted, but ultimately nodded. “Sure.”

I set my eyes in what I hoped to be a look of unfettered determination. “I won’t give up.”

Whatever reservation he’d been holding onto, he released. There, under the moonlight, I thought he was too handsome to mind much when he corrected me.

“We won’t give up.”