Part Forty-One

I stood on the porch as Damon hugged me and picked up my duffel bag. Snow had started to fall and it looked beautiful. Tree tops covered in snow always reminded me of Christmas and I smiled as I remembered the taser Connor bought for Finley one year and she tested it out on Damon.

“Take care of yourself,” Damon said as he let me go.

“You too Dad,” I said as we turned towards the door as Sierra joined us.

“How far is Greenville from here?” Sierra asked me.

“About four hours,” I said.

“So we’ll get there late?” she asked.

“No, we won’t be driving,” I said with a smile.

“Sierra, you’re always welcome in Enforcer territory, keep this one on his toes,” Damon said as she smiled and they hugged.

“I’m just a phone call away, I’ll come kick his ass,” Jett said as he hugged her next.

“Antarctica Jett,” I said and he glared at me.

“If we’re not driving how are we getting there?” she asked me as I took her bag.

“Through the portal,” I said and I remembered that she didn’t remember traveling through portals, “you’ve done it before.”

We said goodbye to everyone and I opened the portal as Sierra watched in amazement. The head cook had packed a basket of food for us but it was still early enough for us to go stock up on the essentials. I called out to Kane and he came bounding out of the trees and through the portal.

“The house is this way,” I said as Sierra stood frozen looking around at the forest surrounding her.

She followed me through the trees and around the side of the house as I unlocked the front door and switched the lights on. I left the door open to get some fresh air into the place and Kane flopped down on the sofa.

“I stayed here?” she asked me.

“Yes, you’re welcome to look around but we’ll be leaving shortly for town,” I said.

“Why?”

“We need to stock up on some essentials, I feel a storm coming and we don’t want to be caught here without enough food,” I said.

“Let’s go then, I can look around later,” she said as I left our bags in the living room and grabbed the keys to my truck.

“Kane, we’ll be back later,” I said as he ignored me and stretched out on the couch.

Sierra and I drove to Greenville and I kept quiet as she took her surroundings in. It felt almost normal doing this, driving to town to buy groceries with her and I had an urge to grab her hand and hold onto it tightly.

“It’s really beautiful here,” she said.

“I chose it because of the seclusion, I don’t see myself living in a city,” I said.

“Not with Kane,” she said and I laughed.

“Definitely not with Kane,” I replied.

I parked the truck in the parking lot and we climbed out and headed for the supermarket. I looked across the street at the liquor store and realized that since Sierra had come into my life I hadn’t had the urge to drink myself into oblivion every night.

I grabbed a trolley and Sierra followed close by as we entered the store. I decided to buy enough food for two weeks so that we wouldn’t have to come into town again and we could just spend our time together.

“I can see you’ve been single for a long time,” she said and I looked into the trolley.

“Yeah, you might want to take over,” I said as she laughed and started adding things.

We filled the trolley with food and snacks, vegetables and fruit, meat and anything else we could think of. We were standing in another aisle when a sudden thought hit me and I cleared my throat again to broach the subject.

“The feminine stuff is in the next aisle, if you, you know, need anything there,” I said and she laughed as I looked everywhere but at her.

“Griffin, are you blushing at the thought of buying tampons?” she asked me and I laughed.

“Actually I have, but… never mind,” I said as she laughed at me.

“Don’t worry, I don’t need anything,” she said and then turned around, “on second thoughts though I’m sure you don’t have any bubble bath.”

I followed her into the aisle and she stood there with two boxes of tampons in her hands and looked at me with a mischievous smile and I could see Jett doing the exact same thing.

“Which one do you need, Griffin?” she asked me loudly as I turned around and walked out of the aisle.

“Wait Griffin!” she yelled and I turned back towards her, “I actually do need to ask you something.”

“What?” I asked her when I reached her in the middle of the aisle again.

“This is going to sound weird, but I actually don’t remember when I last…” she said.

“Oh!” I said and looked around at the people surrounding us.

“I don’t know either, uhm, not the three weeks you spent at my house, I don’t know about afterwards, you stayed at the Council building during your trial,” I said.

She simply nodded and put one of the boxes in the trolley and added bubble bath. We continued down the aisle and she stopped in front of the toilet paper. She looked back at me but I shook my head, we had enough of that.

“What does Kane eat?” she asked me suddenly.

“He hunts, sometimes he prefers to eat his meat raw other times he eats what I cook,” I said.

“For some reason I didn’t see him eating cat food,” she said and I laughed at that thought.

“Don’t let him hear you say that, although I do threaten him with it,” I said as she smiled.

“Do you need anything?” she asked me.

“Like what?” I asked.

“I don’t know, aftershave, roll-on, big boy panties,” she said and I stopped walking as she laughed.

“Yeah, you and Jett can’t be friends anymore,” I said and continued to the checkout counter.

We emptied the trolley and I paid for our purchases. Sierra waited in the truck with the heater on as I loaded everything into the back. The cab was warm by the time I climbed in and Sierra turned towards me.

“You seem friendlier here than in the clowder,” she said.

“There I’m the future Alpha, an Enforcer, a guardian, here I’m just me,” I said and she smiled.

“I might get to like the Greenville you,” she said and I smiled as I drove back to the house.

I refused to let her help me carry the bags out and I noticed with a smile that she started unpacking the ones I had left in the kitchen. She opened multiple cupboards searching where to put everything and I locked the front door when I was done.

“I’ll finish up here, why don’t you go relax or crack open the seal on your bubble bath while I get dinner sorted out,” I said.

“Where am I sleeping?” she asked me.

“There are three bedrooms upstairs, mine’s at the end of the hall, you can sleep wherever you want to,” I said and she stared at me. “I didn’t mean…”

She laughed at me again and turned to leave the kitchen as I mentally slapped myself against the head and Kane laughed at me. I heard the water upstairs and started preparing dinner. I put the wine in the fridge to chill and then took my own duffel upstairs to unpack.

Sierra had chosen the room where she had slept the first time, the one across from mine and her scent overwhelmed me as I heard her singing in the bathroom. I closed my door softly and took a quick shower before dressing in sweatpants and a t-shirt.

Sierra joined me downstairs ten minutes later just as I finished setting the table and she looked at the third plate but said nothing. It might seem odd that Kane ate from a plate, but he wasn’t a pet and he wasn’t just a regular jaguar.

“I was a bit wary when you said you were cooking but this is really good,” Sierra said halfway through dinner.

“Yeah I saw that, how do you think I survived all this time on my own?” I said.

“Take-out?” she said questioningly as Kane licked his plate clean and left the kitchen.

“How long have you been living here on your own?” she asked me.

“Eight years,” I said.

“You’ve been alone for eight years?” she asked me.

“Is it so hard to believe?” I asked.

“Well yes, I mean you’re not bad looking, you can be funny when you try, somehow I just didn’t see you as the single type,” she said.

“You think I’m good looking?” I asked her.

“I didn’t say that,” she said, giving me a pointed look as I smiled.

“You kind of did, I was alone by choice, I didn’t see the point of getting involved with anyone until you showed up half-drowned and changed my world,” I said as she looked down again.

“Thank you for all of those things, even the ones I can’t remember,” she said.

“You’re welcome and to be honest one of the first things I said to you was that I didn’t like people, but you stayed and when you left, the house was empty and I missed having you here,” I said.

“I’m back now or rather I’m here now but don’t think you’re getting into my pants that easily,” she said and stood up as she cleared the kitchen table.

“It only took me getting shot for that to happen,” I said and she laughed again as she turned around.

“Why don’t you go find us something to watch while I clean the kitchen,” she said after looking at me for a long time.

“You don’t have to do that,” I said, also standing up.

“No, you cooked, I’ll clean the kitchen,” she said and literally pushed me out of the kitchen.

I joined Kane in the living room and searched through the channels. I settled on the news and listened as they reported a possible blizzard in our area. I didn’t mind the winter, the cold didn’t bother me as much as it did humans and I looked at Sierra as she joined me half an hour later.

“There’s a possible blizzard heading our way,” I said as I stood up.

“You did say you felt a storm coming,” she said.

“Which is why everything works on gas here, even if the power cuts off we still have hot water and we can still cook,” I said.

“If we can eat and shower, I’m good,” she said as I headed outside to get more firewood.