Centuries of Sin : Book IV

17

Sawyer went up to bed when he got back, despite the fact he wasn't tired. 

He still felt bad about the conversation he'd had with Elizabeth, and he wasn't sure whether she was going to forget about it or let it get to her. 

In the end he decided it would be better to get out incase she was paying attention to what he was thinking, and he ended up going out to the forest. 

He didn't transform - he wasn't in the mood, and he ended up at the same tree he had been to with Selene earlier. 

He sat down with his back against it and stared at one of the trees in front of him. 

There were a lot of things he wanted to say to Elizabeth, but he didn't think it was a good idea. 

He had been hoping to catch his sister alone, because no matter what he had told Elizabeth, he did want to know whether his sister had done something permanent to her and he wasn't convinced that she hadn't. 

She would only pry if he asked her directly though, and he really didn't want to listen to a lecture about being irresponsible from her now she had a child she hadn't planned on. 

He had been sincere when he said he would talk to Elizabeth if she still felt the same when things were different, but he wished he hadn't seemed so dismissive because that wasn't how he felt. 

She seemed to understand his reasoning, but she hadn't spoken to him on the drive home and he knew she tended to stay mad for longer than necessary. 

He regretted telling his sister he didn't want to fetch Elizabeth and Klara now that he was stuck with his thoughts like this, and he decided that he would make an effort to help Francesca feel less isolated in the morning because the comment she had made about having no real friends made him feel bad. 

She adored her daughter, and she wanted to celebrate, but she had no one to share her happiness with outside of him and Jonas. 

People who didn't know her well probably wouldn't have realized how proud she was, but he could see it in her eyes and he wondered if she would allow the rest of the pack to arrange something when they all knew, or if she would be too cautions or unwilling to show them she wasn't as cold as they thought. 

He sighed when he smelled Elizabeth - he had a feeling she was going to be in a bad mood, and he was surprised when he saw that she was out as a wolf. 

She transformed back when she was close to him, and climbed on top of him without explaining why she was there. 

He rested his hands on her lower back softly, and she pressed her hands to the tree above his shoulders and kissed him. 

He moved his hips instinctively and slipped his hands around to her hips to hold her against him. 

She still hadn't said anything, but it made her gasp and he took the opportunity to question her. 

"Is this why you came out here?" 

"Is that OK?"

"I was asking, not criticizing."

She moved her hands and shifted her hips a little so she could undo his belt. 

"I came out here because I thought you were avoiding me, but this reminds me of how things were when we were on our own and I didn't think you'd mind me reminding you, too. Why are you out here?"

Her hands were still resting on his belt buckle as she waited for him to tell her.

"I think I was avoiding you… but at the same time, I wasn't. I don't really know why I came out here, Elizabeth."

"Are you mad at me?" 

"No. Why would I be?"

 She played with his belt absentmindedly, but she was apparently not going to undo it anymore.

“Because we have to share our home with a stranger and I ignored you for the entire drive home earlier?”

“I’m not upset with you. A lot has happened in a very short space of time - I know I don’t deal well with stress, I just want to avoid making any stupid mistakes for once. I think it would be a good idea to speak to my sister; if she did something irreversible we can move on.”

“Do you think she’d be honest about it if she did?”

He exhaled in a way that seemed like it was supposed to be a laugh, but he didn’t find it funny.

“I have never played this card before but you’re an only child - you don’t understand what it’s like to grow up with a twin. It doesn’t matter how different we are; we know each other, and she can’t hide things from me. Particularly not when she’s exhausted and emotional. No matter what she says I will know the answer.”

“And if it’s not?”

“You know what I want, and you know one reason why I don’t think it’s a good idea, but it’s not the only thing. I’m never going to agree to anything that could put you in danger - we’re here because we were in danger before, there’s no guarantee this place will be safe forever, we’re not actually members of this pack and even if we were it’s polite to ask for permission in a pack like this one; they might not be OK with it.”

Elizabeth moved again; this time she sat on Sawyer’s lap, and he sighed because he really hadn’t wanted a serious conversation with her when he had come out to clear his head a little.

“Most of those things weren’t unresolvable, and some of them might not even be an issue. Why would they have an issue with us settling down here when Selene knows what it means to you?”

“I may not handle pressure well, but I do know what I’m supposed to consider and this is a lot more complicated than you realize. When I spoke to Selene earlier I could see that she’s serious about making sure this pack survives - our kid would be related to Saga, and to any of Klara’s future children. If Linnea calms down and stays here her children would be related to Saga because of Jonas, and the only other woman the right age here is Linnea’s cousin on her mother’s side which means their kids would be related. If you write that down it’s a huge tangled mess of people who are related to other people. If Linnea stays, and has a child, the options for a mate would be our child or Robin - but if she had a son, and we had a son, that would complicate things even more. In this kind of situation it’s important to think about the future so the pack is doing more than delaying the inevitable.”

“Was that a test? Because it felt like a math problem you’re expecting me to solve and aside from the fact it's not about that, the answer isn't hard. They need new people here; people won’t move here if they don’t think there’s any point. If they see this place isn’t stagnating they will see the value in moving here or allowing their children to…”

“…to be used as leverage?" Sawyer interrupted Elizabeth sternly and she regretted trying to reason with him where pack dynamics were concerned. "Do you think my sister is going to allow anybody to decide who her daughter is paired off with? Would you be willing to do that? We are also completely ignoring the fact this has seemingly come out of nowhere. I'm interested to know what made you change your mind so suddenly."

"It wasn't one thing," she sighed, hoping he didn't think she was over compensating, "and it wasn't sudden. I know I'm the one that started this conversation, but I don't think this is the right time to get this far into things that are probably irrelevant anyway. It's for the best if I leave before I say the wrong thing."