Moonlight Run

Twelve

Isa's POV

When I walked into the gym for training the next morning, our group seemed thinner than usual. Pipa wasn’t there yet either. I waved to Nikolai and he excused himself from his conversation and began making his way towards me.

“Where is everyone?” I asked as he approached.

He cleared his throat. “Well, Dimitri has stolen Phoebe away for the day… I think he hopes to smooth things over with her after yesterday. And then the rest of the ladies, I believe, are sleeping in today... as I thought you would be,”

“Why would I be sleeping in…?”

Nikolai hesitated, “Did you not receive word from Victoria?”

I couldn’t possibly think of anything Victoria Kane would need to communicate with me over, so I shook my head no.

“Hm,” he narrowed his eyes. “Most of the younger women of the pack have been excused from training and any other duties today to help Miss Rhodes prepare for the Moonlight Run this evening…”

“Oh. Prepare in what way?”

He shrugged. “Sounded to me like a spa day of sorts. Not exactly my kind of thing.”

I didn’t know what more to say. If Victoria Kane was behind planning the day’s events, I knew I couldn’t take my lack of an invitation personally. It was no doubt her doing, rather than an oversight on Lily’s part.

“I guess I’ll head back to bed too, then.” I said with a frown. “Thanks.”

I was nearly to the door before I felt the hand brush the back of my arm, and Nikolai stepped in front of me. I turned my head curiously. “Something on your mind?”

“Since you’re already here,” he said. “I’ve told the men that have come to train as they like, so most of them are going downstairs to the weight room. But, um, maybe you and I could run out to the house and I could show you the space?”

I hadn’t taken a run since I’d been on patrol duty earlier in the week, and I was itching to wolf out. In general, pack laws require that we stay in human form during daylight hours, lest we be seen by outsiders. Most of the inhabitants of our town were wolves, but on occasion we’d get a passerby or random out-of-towner. It was best to play it safe. When Nikolai suggested a run, I could only guess that he meant the kind on two legs.

So when we stepped out of the gym doors and he pulled off his shirt, I didn’t think much of it. But then Nikolai shoved his shirt into the duffle bag he carried and began to untie the drawstrings of his shorts. I quickly turned my back to him. “Whoa. Um, okay.”

I could hear him laughing behind me, and I suppose I looked like an embarrassed little girl at that moment. I’d always heard that the men in the pack were more relaxed about nudity around each other. "Something wrong?" he asked.

Until we found our mates, the single wolves of the pack were still regularly assigned patrols with same-s*x pack members. While I had gone on more than a few recreational runs with Dimitri during our time as a couple, I was not used to seeing much of anyone other than Pipa and a few of the girls strip off their clothing around me. And even then, we were all considerate enough to turn around when we did.

“I’m sorry,” I quipped, my back still turned to him. “I thought you meant the other kind of run, on two legs.”

He laughed again. “My bad. Just give me a minute.”

I listened to the rustling behind me, unsure of what he was doing at first — but then a moment more I heard the unmistakable sound of joints popping into place, and I knew he had shifted. I turned around and gasped. His striking wolf form stood before me. Having heard that the others called his wolf Red Beard, I expected to see an auburn-colored wolf. But instead, a mostly-blonde wolf stood before me. The underside of his coat was lighter, almost white in some spots. But then around his ears and muzzle, the color almost appeared copper, much like his beard. Suddenly I understood the reference.

“So this is Red Beard, huh?” I extended my hand and he bounded over to me, nuzzling the top of his head against my hand when he sat at my feet. Seated on his haunches, his wolf came to my shoulders. “Alright then, turn around.”

He whimpered, but he did as I asked. I took care to shove my clothes into his duffle, since I hadn’t brought my own. A minute later I could feel the dirt under my padded paws, and I stretched my neck, feeling my bones happily crack.

“You can turn around,” I said over mind link. Mind linking was my favorite thing about being in wolf form. In our human forms, only Alpha Phineas could communicate with each of us. Once we were mated, we could link with our mates in human form, too. But when we were wolves, the walls came tumbling down and we could link with anyone in our pack. It was very convenient.

“Wow,” he said as he turned around.

It was a good thing wolves couldn’t blush, or I was sure I would be. I was quite fond of my wolf form. As a human, I was smaller than most of my peers. As a wolf, I could keep up with the best of them. I always admired my coloring, too. My coat was thick, covered in shades of dark brown and golden brown alike.

“Hm,” he said. “You strangely make me crave ice cream.”

“Ice cream?” I laughed.

“Yes, chocolate with caramel swirls comes to mind.” He admitted. “And that’s not all I’m craving.”

I was surprised by his comment, and then he whimpered again. When he put his face down in his paws, I realized he hadn’t meant to say that. That was the challenge of the mindlink— keeping your thoughts to yourself took a bit of mastery.

“We’ll just pretend you didn’t say that.” I reassured him.

He stood upright after a moment and said “Yeah, let’s go then.” He took the duffle bag in his mouth, and started ahead of me. I followed closely behind as we cut through the woods to the village.

When we came to the main road, we waited by the roadside to cross when a car honked from down the lane. It began to pull over, and I recognized the car immediately to be Dimitri’s. I ducked behind a nearby tree, hoping he hadn’t seen me.

“Hey,” he called out to Nikolai’s wolf. “What are you doing out here?”

I heard the sounds of bones cracking again and Nikolai spoke. “I'm headed to the duplex to get some work done on the new space. Are you just now heading out?”

“Yeah,” Dimitri said. “I’m picking Phoebe up and we’re gonna go have a cup of coffee and talk about what happened last night. I’m still not sure how it’s going to go, but we’ll see.” He paused. “I thought I saw someone with you when I was coming up. Are you alone?”

“Prospective tenant,” Nikolai nodded over his shoulder towards the woods. “I was taking her to see the space. I think she’s just being shy.”

“She?” Dimitri chuckled. “Well she’s welcome to come out and say hello.”

Nikolai forced a laugh. “We’ll save that for another time.”

Dimitri slapped the side of his car and I heard him say, “Alright then, I’ll leave you to it.”

“Let me know how everything goes with Phoebe,” Nikolai said.

After he had safely driven off, I emerged from behind the tree. When I realized Nikolai was still naked I closed my eyes — but not before I got a glimpse of his backside. Apparently, you can just develop muscles in any old place.

I waited for the familiar cracking sound to pass, and then opened my eyes again.

“It’s just down this road,” he said, motioning down the street where it forked off into two. “On the left side.”

I knew the right side led towards the area of the village where Jonesy’s bar was located. But, to my memory, I hadn’t been down the left side. We followed the road for about ten minutes more, running within the woods that ran alongside the street, until we came to a gravel drive.

He turned and motioned me to follow him down the drive, and after about 50 yards the house came into sight. I stopped short, taken by surprise.

On the property was an old farmhouse, white with black shutters. There was a wraparound porch that framed most of the first floor. Off to the right of the house, the gravel drive came to an end in front of a red metal garage. The familiar black coupe that I’d often see him drive around was parked in front of the left side of the garage.

“You’ll get one of the garage stalls,” he said over the mindlink. “Right now I’ve got a lot of building materials in there since I’m still in fixer upper mode, but I’ll make sure to have a side cleared out for you at move-in.”

I replied, “Don’t worry about it, really. I don’t even own a car.”

“Really? Guess I never realized that.” He made his way up onto the porch, the duffle bag still in his jaws. “Um, I have to change back now so I can unlock the door. Did you want to turn around?”

“Thanks for the heads up,” I said. I turned and looked back down the tree-lined driveway towards the road until I heard his voice call out to me. I glanced over my shoulder to find him peering from around the front door.

“I’m going to leave the duffle out here for you. I’ll step inside and let you shift back then.”

I nodded and he shut the door behind him. After I was on the porch I looked around to make sure there was no one around. It did seem to be pretty remote out here. Once I shifted back, I threw my clothes on again and knocked on the door.

He greeted me in just his joggers. I tried to contain my gulp. “All good?”

I nodded. “Yeah, thanks.”

“So this is my half,” he said. “But mine needs more work than yours, so don’t worry. I promise yours doesn’t look like a total construction zone.

I was in what I could only guess was a living area. There was a wall to my right that looked to be newly drywalled but not quite sanded and painted yet. A hall tree sat a few feet away, which had some clothes and shoes strewn about it. It was the only piece of furniture in the room. There was a fireplace on the other side of the room between two windows. It was framed in old red brick.

“Like that?” he asked. “The previous owners had tiled over the brick. I just got her resurfaced. I’m all about bringing out the character of this space.”

I nodded, impressed. I could tell he'd been putting a lot of work into it. “It looks great.”

He motioned to the wall to the right of me. “See that wall there? That’s one of the new walls I put up to divide the downstairs. There’s a set of stairs on the other side that I kept on your half of the house. You have the two bedrooms and an upstairs bathroom, and then the original kitchen and a room I converted to a living area.”

“Is there a second set of stairs for you?” I asked.

Nikolai shook his head. “No, I’ve got this half of the main floor, which is a living room and then back there,” he pointed to the other side of the space, where the archway opened to another area, “is the formal dining room of the house. I just converted it to an eat-in kitchen. There was a decently-sized laundry room / mud-room sort of space that led to the back porch, but I’ve since insulated that and made it my new home office.”

“No bathroom or bedroom?” I laughed.

“It’s an old house and for whatever reason they didn’t do a first floor bathroom. I've got a shower and toilet downstairs… still need a sink vanity though. The basement stairs are off the former dining room through here,” I followed him to the rear of the house, and I could see the large room he’d begun to turn into a kitchen. The cabinets were in and there was a fridge, but there wasn’t a countertop yet or any other appliances, save for a microwave plugged in on the floor. On the rear left side of the room were two single door frames beside one another. Both had been made into archways with the removal of their doors, but you could still see that a door was meant to be in front of each.

“I'm going to get the wall in between those doorways checked out, and if it’s not load bearing I’ll knock it down and make it one single archway. It’ll really open up the stairs into the lower level,” he said proudly.

I smiled at him. “You really like this stuff, don’t you?”

“Honestly?” He grinned back at me. “Yeah, I’d like to think that’s what I’d be doing if I didn’t have a pack to run.”

“What,” I said with a smirk, “You don’t think Phineas would approve if you used that MBA to start a construction company? It’s still a business, you know.”

Nikolai gave a breathy laugh. “Yeah, right. I don’t know… I might buy a property here and there, fix ‘em up and resell, sure. But I’ll have to see how busy I end up once I settle into the new position…”

After I peeked in at his office, I began to descend into the basement. He stopped me, "Hey, wait—”

“Oh,” I stopped. “Sorry, I should have asked.”

He looked nervous. “I’m just a total bachelor, you know. Clothes on the floor, a case of beer next to the bed. It’s probably not the best representation of my character.”

I gave him a thumbs up, coming back up the stairs.

“You wanna go see your half?”

“Yeah, sure.”

He was explaining that after he removed the former back door that led into his now-office, he decided to repurpose the door, by using it to create the new second-entry for the apartment. When we were back on the porch, we walked around the right side. Towards the middle of the right side of the house was the door. He unlocked it and motioned for me to step inside ahead of him.

The living room space was considerably smaller than the other half of the house, but it would do. I admired the character of the stairs that ran against the far side, and could see the drywall had at least been finished and painted on this side. The entire space seemed to have a fresh coat of an eggshell color paint. The floors looked a bit rough. I could see carpet tack and nails all around the perimeter. Some bits of carpet foam remained, but I could tell that the hardwoods underneath were going to be beautiful.

“I just tore the carpet up yesterday,” he said. “I’ve got guys coming in Monday to start refinishing the hard woods. No fireplace in this living room, unfortunately.”

“Of course you’d keep that for yourself,” I teased. He led me to the kitchen at the back of the space. This one had the original kitchen cabinets and appliances. He said he’d be having the cabinets sanded and painted later in the week. There was a closet in the kitchen with a stacking washer and dryer inside. “Since I scrapped the old laundry room for my office, that's the first thing I put in over here. So those machines are brand new. The kitchen appliances could use an update, but I’ll have to wait on those for a bit.”

“It all looks great. No worries.” I looked out the window over the sink to the backyard. “So where’s your laundry then?”

“There are hookups in the basement,” Nikolai said. “I just haven’t bought myself a set yet, so I’ve been coming over here to wash my clothes. Obviously, I’m not going to do that once you’re here. I’ll take them to the packhouse.”

I shrugged. “You can still do your laundry here if it’s easier for you.”

He eyed me doubtfully. “I don’t want to invade your space, Isa.”

“I wouldn’t have this space without you. It’s really not a big deal.”

I returned to the living room and made my way up the stairs. The second floor was still carpeted. There was a linen closet at the top of the steps across the hall from one door. And down the hall were two more rooms across from one another.

“Two bedrooms, you said?” I opened the first door, the one to my right. It was a decently sized bathroom. There was a clawfoot tub in the corner.

“I got that at an auction,” Nikolai began. “It still needs a fresh coat of epoxy and the plumbing fixtures, but I think it’s going to be beautiful when it’s done.”

I didn’t realize I’d been holding my breath until I exhaled dramatically. “Wow, yeah. That’s a bubblebath dream waiting to happen.”

He laughed, and went to the next room on the right. “This room is the same size as the other, but it has a smaller closet since it’s up against the bathroom. That one,” he pointed to the second door on the left, “has a nice walk-in closet. I still need to install the shelving in it though. But I'd suggest using that one for your master.”

I peeked in the first room quickly, but made my way to the closet he spoke of and laughed. “Jesus, this could be a whole third bedroom.”

“It was when I bought it. The linen closet at the top of the stairs? That was the door to this room, and this room’s closet was smaller. But I thought about it, and these old houses really tend to lack storage space. So I sacrificed the third bedroom.”

“It was a good call,” I agreed.

“So… you think you could be happy here?” His eyes locked with mine, and there was a sense of excitement in them, like I might break his heart if I said no.

“I think I could be,” I said, closing the closet door.

He grinned like a kid in a candy store at my reply and fist-pumped the air. I laughed.

“Sorry, I just hadn’t shown anyone what I’d been doing over here yet…” He admitted as we headed back downstairs. “I think I was scared it was gonna flop.”

“Definitely not a flop.” I laughed. “I am, however, very jealous that you get the fireplace.”

He approached the front door and turned back to me before he opened it. “I allowed myself one moment of selfishness, and I have no regrets. Sorry.”

“You might regret it when I’m over there all winter because I’m cold. These old farm houses don’t heat well, you know.” I poked him playfully.

“Mmm, no,” Nikolai let go of the door handle and took a step towards me, closing the space between us. His eyes fell on my lips before he brought them back up to meet my gaze, and then his face drew nearer as he said softly, “I think I'd be happy to keep you warm.”

He nudged a strand of my hair behind my ear, and I felt myself leaning forward. My forearms found themselves propped against his bare chest, and I turned my face up towards him. And then all of a sudden he stepped back, regaining his composure.

I felt my whole body go beet red with embarrassment and nervously looked away as I dropped my arms back to my sides, terrified to make eye contact with him again. He cleared his throat.

“Um, do you wanna run back to the compound or do you need a ride?”

“Ride,” I nodded, not wanting to relive the awkwardness of giving each other privacy to shift. “If that’s okay...”

“Yeah, I’ll totally ride you there.” His eyes went wide and he quickly recovered. “Drive you there, I mean. I will drive you there.”

There was an awkward silence between us as I nodded slowly.

“Alright, well, I’m just gonna throw a shirt back on and wait for you in the car.”

And just like that, he stepped out of the apartment, letting the screen door close abruptly behind him. I cringed as I heard him start the car up and smacked myself upon the forehead.

‘Good job, Isa. Way to read the freakin' room.’