Big Red and the Little Wolf

Chapter 19

Echo Pov

I laid back on the flannel blanket Kodi had brought for our picnic and closed my eyes. My hands rested on my now full belly. The image of the waterfall pressed against the back of my eyelids as the sound of the rushing water still played in the background.

“So tell me,” I began. “What exactly is it with you and that red hoodie?”

I turned my head to where he still sat, peaking one eye open so I could see him gesture to his hoodie by pulling at the fabric.

“You mean this old thing?”

I nodded. “I can’t say that I’ve ever seen you not wearing it.” I quieted the voice coming from the mate bond that tempted me with the image of him taking it off for me. “There has to be a significance if it brought on your nickname.”

“Ahhh, ‘Red.’”

“Yes. Everyone calls you that.”

“You don’t.”

I rolled over onto my stomach and began to pick at the grass surrounding the edge of the blanket. It gave my hands something to do as my question turned his attention to me. “Should I start?”

“No.” I turned my head slightly to meet his intent gaze. Falling in love with those amber eyes was the furthest thing from a challenge. “I like the way you say my name.”

I turned my focus back to the grass to hide the blush that crept to my cheeks. “Then,” I began slowly, “Kodi it is.”

“The red hoodie goes back to my parents as well,” he explained. He moved forward, positioning himself on his forearms so that we were mere inches away from each other. Even if he couldn’t explain it, he experienced the feeling of needing to be closer to me. As if the mate bond were a physical tether, drawing us to be together. “My dad would wear it all the time. At first, I wore it because it still smelled like him.”

“That’s really sweet for you to hold onto something so important of his.”

“I’m not sure how I would have coped if there had been nothing left of theirs for me to save.” He let out a soft chuckle. “When they passed, the hoodie was too big for me to wear, but I slept with it every night. My uncle had to pry it from my hands when it had gone too long without being washed. I was so scared it would feel like I lost him all over again if it didn’t smell like him. Eventually I found that, even long after his scent faded, it still brought me comfort.”

“Thank you for sharing that with me.” It amazed how open he was able to be with me on just our first date. He must have come a long way to healing from his parents’ deaths if he was willing to tell me about how much they had meant to him and how that tragedy had affected him as a young boy. “I can see now the hoodie is much more than just a questionable fashion choice.”

He shook his head as if he couldn’t fight his smile at my attempt to lighten the air between us. He rolled onto his side, gesturing to the length of his torso where the hoodie covered. “This right here is the epitome of high end fashion.”

“Oh really?”

I reached forward to touch the bottom of his hoodie, where the threads began unraveling from signs of a tear. I pinched the fabric between my fingers. The tear was about the length of half of my index finger— the same as the torn piece of fabric I had found in the pack’s woods.

From finding the fabric of a ruthless hunter to going on a date with the sweet bartender, I could hardly comprehend how Kodi could be both. Seeing the tear was just a reminder of how I needed to be careful. I couldn't imagine my mate doing anything to hurt me, but there would be no way to be certain until he found out the truth about me.

“Okay,” Kodi put his hands up in surrender. “It’s a little worn, but you should have seen it in its prime. The ladies love a man in red.”

“Do they now?”

Kodi leaned forward a little so that our faces were a breath apart. “How else would I have convinced such a beautiful girl to go out with me?”

“I think you’re giving that hoodie entirely too much credit.”

“Am I?”

I gave a slight nod. “Its wearer is quite charming by himself.”

The corners of his mouth lifted. For a moment, all of the sounds of the forest quieted. The rustling of leaves could not have seemed higher from us and even the rushing of the waterfall was like a distant memory. Kodi’s eyes flickered down to my lips before meeting my gaze once again.

Before my mind truly processed what was about to happen, my eyelids dropped down and we leaned down the slightest bit to close the gap between us.

When our lips met, I realized how different it felt from the way I expected my first kiss to be with my mate. I had once imagined an overwhelming passion that would consume me like a fire. I expected to be craving more as though there would never be enough. Instead, Kodi kissed me in a delicate manner that left me feeling like everything was right in the world. The mate bond aligned with the mere touch of our lips, and we were exactly where we needed to be.

As Kodi’s tongue gently parted my lips, his hand slid around to the small of my back and pulled me against him on the blanket. Fitting into his side made me realize that a mate bond was not volatile and all consuming. It calmed the wolf inside me, assuring me that with my mate’s arms around me, I would always have a place where I belonged.