Free Running Free by K Webster

anything I don’t want to do. He may be a cheating ass, but he’s a good guy deep down.
    “Something’s different, Frankie. Is it him?”
    I nod and tears well in my eyes. Luca has never seen me so vulnerable. With him, it’s always been naughty fucking and sexy banter. Never real conversations or real feelings.
    “Did he hurt you?” His voice is tight and the rage ripples from him. All I’d have to do is nod my head, and he’d haul ass over there and rip his throat out.
    “No, God no,” I promise.
    A tear slides out and in a tender move, uncharacteristic for Luca, he frowns and swipes it away. “Then what? Tell me.”
    “I think I imprinted on him.”
    His grey eyes harden and he swallows. Dipping down, he presses his forehead against mine. “I’m a fucking asshole. A stupid fucking asshole. I had you and now I never will again.”
    Not exactly what I was expecting to come from his lips.
    “It just happened. I had no control over it. What do I do, Luca? He’s a human!” This time a sob escapes me.
    What have I done?
    He’s about to say something in response to my emotional outburst but then quickly shoves past me. My proverbial hackles rise because I sense it too. Someone is here. Just like he’d thought. Luca tilts his head to the side and listens but remains firmly in front of me. I’m not one to cower behind someone but his overwhelming need to protect me trickles through my veins and assaults me. I can feel it with my very essence — his desire to keep me safe.
    The warmth.
    The surge of peace.
    Like a brother would protect his little sister.
    The concept is almost laughable considering how many times we’ve had sex. However, as floorboards within the house creak and groan, I know there’s nothing funny at Luca’s desire to keep me safe. It ripples and pulsates from him, saturating my soul.
    “Stay here,” he whispers and starts toward the back of the house.
    Footsteps thunder until the backdoor to the house slams shut and the both of us jump. Before I can even process the fact that someone was indeed in the house, Luca has stripped naked, shifted and is mid stride toward the backdoor. I run after him only to see he’s already made it to the edge of the woods with his hackles raised and a fierce growl in his throat.
    “What is it?” I hiss after him.
    In his wolf form, he’s massive and threatening. I know though that he’d never hurt me. He trots toward me and instinctively, I reach my fingers out and stroke his pelt as he passes. Once back inside, he sniffs around for a bit before shifting back into his human form.
    Before, I’d have been drooling over his round ass, but not today. He saunters back over to the clothes he strung through the house and begins dressing. Finally, once dressed, he regards me.
    “Someone was here. I picked up his scent. A fucking bear,” he snarls.
    Bear.
    Those kids were gutted.
    What if they were after Suzie?
    “Someone is trying to hurt me, I think,” I groan, mostly to myself. “If anything happens to Suzie… ”
    He pulls me to him and hugs me tight.
    “I know.” He sighs. “I could sense it which is why I made a beeline over here. But then, you looking all sexy and shit, distracted me for a minute. But that won’t ever distract me again.”
    There’s finality to his words. And I believe him. Whatever past we had before is disintegrating. As I draw strength from his embrace, something new forms between us. His protectiveness over me is ever present but the sexual tension that always ebbed and flowed between us is completely gone. The embrace is comforting. Soothing. Familial.
    “We’ll patrol the house. Nobody is touching either one of you, or Otis for that matter.”
    His words infiltrate my soul and I believe them with every part of my being. Something is happening — something I can’t quite put my finger on.
    My body quakes and my flesh prickles with awareness. Luca will protect me. And so will they.
    Pete. Winston. Bob. Shawn. Elliot.