Alpha's Solace (Black Moon Saga Book 1)

The Cabin in the Woods - Part 1

Early the next morning, Adam arrives at the Logans’ house to pick up Kylie. She makes her way down the hall to the living room and greets him with a kiss, relishing in the way his skin on hers always makes her feel warm and tingly.

“I dreamt about Kieran again last night,” she tells him excitedly. “I think I just miss him is all. He was such a good companion and always listened to my problems and made me feel better, like in my dream last night. Except in my dreams he talks back, which is something I have wished for before. I’m definitely not sad about these dreams, even if it is a strange thing to dream about.”

Adam chuckles, wondering if Kieran had the same dream again.

I did. We had a good talk, but if she’s not telling then neither am I, he teases.

Before Adam can respond, Betsy appears from down the hall, Kylie’s luggage in tow, and tells him, “She is all packed up, though I did try and fail to convince her to take more clothes and things since you didn’t give a specific return date.”

Over mind-link she adds, I don’t know how to tell her she can’t come back, so we’ll hold onto her things for now and you can figure out how to convince her to stay. We’ll bring the rest later.

“That’s fine,” Adam responds to both conversations, and Betsy nods as she hands him Kylie’s luggage handle. “We’ll make do, I’m sure. Are we taking the cat as well?”

“Yes, please!” Betsy exclaims as Kylie answers, “No, I don’t think so.”

“Wait, why?” Kylie asks, confused. “If she can’t handle the wildlife here in town, how will she react out in the woods? I don’t want to, but I’m considering re-homing her. I don’t like how unhappy she seems to be here. Could you just keep her for me until we get back so I can decide what to do with her?”

“Alright,” Betsy concedes, sighing. “I suppose she can stay in your room since that seems to be the only place she likes.”

And I can get a head start on finding a new place for her online, she thinks, glad Kylie mentioned that because she is eager to be rid of the feline, even if she would never admit aloud that she doesn’t want it here for fear of upsetting her daughter.

Adam pulls Kylie to his side and ushers her outside to his car, towing her luggage behind them. As she gets into the front passenger seat and fastens her seatbelt, he loads her luggage in the trunk beside his own and then joins her up front.

He turns to her and smiles warmly, reaching across to take her hand.

“Ready?” he asks.

She nods and smiles back at him.

“Well, I hope you said all your good-byes, because you’re mine for the next while,” he declares, smirking as he adds, “It will be a long while if I have anything to say about it.”

Kylie can’t help but giggle at the slyness in his tone and the suggestive eyebrow waggle he added at the end. Just being in his presence always makes her feel a bit giddy, especially when he’s being silly and playful like this.

“Yep, all yours,” she confirms cheerfully. “I can’t wait to see the place after all these years.”

He doesn’t even get a chance to fully respond before she interrupts, surprising him by demanding, “What’s the hold up? Get driving already!”

He chuckles and obliges, wasting no time starting the car and getting them on the road.

As he drives, she can’t help allowing her mind to drift back to the last time that she traveled this route, remembering the hours that it took her to walk when she was a little girl. By contrast, it doesn’t take long at all for Adam to get them out of town, even with his speed slowing a bit as the paths narrow. The Wallace cabin is located in a more remote area along the outskirts of Spirit Moon territory, where the gravel roads give way to one-lane dirt paths.

Nearing the clearing where the old cabin still stands, Adam slows the vehicle even more, knowing that Kylie will want to take it all in carefully.

She drinks in the sight of her childhood home, relishing in the comfort of how it seems mostly how she remembers it. The front yard looks neat and freshly trimmed, just how Papa likes it, and someone has recently tended to the flower beds under the front windows that were her Mama’s pride and joy in the summer months. Her parents would be happy to see that the place hasn’t fallen apart and become overgrown in their absence, and Kylie gives silent thanks to whoever has been looking out for it.

But then it hits her that there are trees in the front yard she barely recognizes, three of them to be exact. The same number and type as the saplings she planted with Papa long ago, except with twenty years of growth that she missed out on witnessing. She can’t help feeling a little emotional at how perfectly they mark the time that has passed, time that she has spent apart from her home and her parents.

And yet, there the cabin still stands, welcoming her with open arms and reminding her of her happy, humble beginnings. She can’t wait to go inside.

“It still looks so warm and inviting after all these years,” she declares breathlessly, admiring all the little details of the outside of her old home through the passenger side window.

Adam maintains the slow pace of their approach, not wanting to rush her, and notices with a side glance the way her face is alight with childlike wonder. He can feel her excitement, never gladder that he decided to keep this place for her than he is now.

“Do you want me to keep going and do another pass by so you can see it again?” he asks as they near the driveway.

She turns and smiles at him, appreciating his thoughtfulness. “No, I’m ready to go in and see the inside. Thanks, though.”

He turns into the driveway and parks the car, hurrying out of his seat to rush around to Kylie’s side so he can help her. She laughs as he insists on lifting her out of the car and carrying her to the door.

“Haven’t you ever heard the expression, ‘Use it or lose it’? If you don’t let me walk myself around sometimes, my muscles will get weak and my joints will just get stiffer,” she scolds him for his overprotectiveness.

“That’s a fair point, but haven’t you ever heard of a man carrying his woman over the threshold? Let me have my fun,” he teases, setting her down briefly so that he can unlock and open the door.

Before she can start into the house without him, he scoops her back up into his arms. She giggles at his stubbornness and playfully beats his chest in protest but allows him to carry her through the doorway and into the family room, where he sets her gently down on the couch.

She takes in the sight of the large room, the nostalgia of this familiar place stirring up so many fond memories from her early childhood. She recalls how her parents used to cuddle with her on this very couch at night before bed, and how Jonah used to be small enough to fit inside the tiny bassinet that is still where she left it. Seeing a few of her books still stacked on the ottoman near the fireplace, she remembers how she and Mama used to sit there and read to each other.

Then she gets up from the couch and moves into the kitchen. The main area of the house has an open floor plan, so she could see the kitchen from the couch, but she wants to get a closer look at the clock Mama modified to help her take care of Jonah by herself. She studies it for a few moments, noting how those modifications remain despite all the evidence of the place being cleaned regularly. No one seems to have thought to open it up and wipe the face clean, and she’s grateful for that. Those marks are an important part of her history.

Running her fingers over the countertops, she remembers the time Papa showed her how to knead bread dough by hand. She thinks of how Mama loved to stand at the window over the sink and look out across the road into the trees of the forest. Kylie once snuck into the pantry to get the stepladder so she could use it to climb up tall enough to see out the window, trying to figure out what Mama always looked at when she stood there. But to her, it just looked like a bunch of trees.

Sensing Adam approaching from behind to wrap his arms around her, she smiles and leans into his embrace, relishing the warmth and comfort of him being so near. He’s been holding back and letting her reminisce without his interference, but he can’t take the distance anymore, not with so many thoughts and emotions dancing across her features. He needs to touch her and get a sense of what is going on in her head.

He watches as a gentle smile spreads across her face and a faraway look overtakes her gaze, but is unsure whether she is happy or sad to see her childhood home. Moments like these make him wish he were brave enough to mark and mate with her so their bond could be complete, and he could experience everything along with her.

“I was six years old the last time I was in this house,” she says finally, breaking the silence. “That was twenty years ago. So much has changed in my life since then, but this place is exactly the same. And everywhere I look, there are memories. For all this time I haven’t known if my parents were alive or dead, but here they feel so alive.”

She turns her body around to look Adam directly in the eyes, and he returns her gaze with an intensity that takes her breath away for a moment. Reaching up to touch his bearded face, she continues, “Thank you so much for bringing me here, and for keeping this place like this for me. I knew I wanted to come here as soon as you mentioned it, but I didn’t realize how much I needed to until this moment.”

He smiles softly down at her but does not respond right away. Instead, he tightens his hold on her, gently and with care not to hurt her tender body. Then he places a kiss on the top of her head before burying his face in her hair to inhale her scent.

Every mated male he has ever known has always described their mate’s scent as something sweet, fruity, or otherwise completely feminine and divine in its own way, but Kylie smells like something else entirely. She smells of the forest and of the earth after a warm summer rain. She smells like sunshine itself, or like the freshwater spring the town draws its water from. He can’t pinpoint it exactly, but it is the most pleasant and comforting smell he has ever known. She smells like home and of everything he loves.

“Kylie, I am so grateful for this moment too. I would do anything to make you happy. I’m just glad I had the foresight to think this house might still be important to you. We can stay here as long as you like, and honestly, I would love it if you would tell me some of the history of this place. I’d love to hear some of those memories.”

She grins into his chest before pulling away from him slightly.

“I would love that too,” she tells him, looking around again and trying to decide what she should share with him first. Her eyes linger on the fireplace in the family room and an idea occurs to her.

“Actually, how would you like to experience some of them?” she wonders.

“I’m game. What did you have in mind?”

She breaks away from their embrace, causing Kieran to whimper in Adam’s mind. He tries to ignore his wolf as well as he can, knowing Kylie wouldn’t understand his clinginess. He just wants to keep his mate close to him until he can claim her, but since that isn’t going to happen, he will have to learn to live with allowing her some personal space every now and then.

She points to the fireplace and explains, “Mama and I used to collect a bunch of blankets and pillows and put them on the floor over there. Papa would build us a warm fire, and we would have a sleepover. Usually, we did it in the winter when it got cold in the bedrooms at night, but I think it still gets chilly enough at night right now that we could do it tonight, if you want to.”

“I do want to. It sounds like a lot of fun. I do wonder, though, doesn’t this place have a furnace for heat?”

“Sure does,” she confirms, laughing. “It might be out in the woods, but it’s not an old-timey, backwoods, off-the-grid sort of place. It has heat, but it would still get kind of cold sometimes. And yes, the family fun was a big part of it. Papa called it the ‘Kylie Sandwich’ because of how I would snuggle up between them all night.”

Adam chuckles at that, appreciating what good parents David and Olivia seem to have been, regardless of whether there was a blood relation.

“So, what do we call it when it’s just you and me?” he asks.

“Uh …” she struggles to think of a term, and then realizes there is an obvious choice for her big, hairy man. “I think we should call it the ‘Snuggle Bear’ because of all your fur, and you’re big and warm to snuggle with.”

Adam laughs, but Kieran snarls, No way is she getting away with calling me a bear.

She’s calling me a bear, and she can call me whatever she wants, Adam retorts.

“Maybe we don’t need to call it anything,” he compromises aloud. “I’m not sure how I feel about being the bear in that scenario.”

“Papa basically called me lunchmeat. You’ll live,” she teases him, smiling playfully as she reaches up to stroke his beard affectionately.

Finding herself exhausted after her mini tour around the house, she returns to the couch. Whether from all the walking or from the weight of the emotions that being back here and remembering her childhood have stirred up, a minute to rest is next on her agenda. Adam comes and joins her, flopping down beside her and pulling her close so they can snuggle.