Call of the Wild

Prologue

~*~ Wyatt ~*~

"You know what," Wyatt halted, bracing himself against a tree trunk. The closer he got, the better he could smell the petrichor, that clean, crisp scent that followed Addison everywhere. It'd been so long since he'd been blindsided by that familiar, welcoming smell. He felt his breath coming quicker, more shallow, as he tried and failed to get a grip on his emotions. Willa bumped into his back and cursed. "Maybe, maybe you should just tell her to forget it-"

"No way," Willa said roughly, pushing sweat-slick curls out of her face from all the running she'd done. "You need to get this over with. The longer she goes without seeing you, the angrier she's going to be."

"I'm not ready-I think, I think-" Wyatt broke off. His fingers twitched with uncertainty, anxiety.

"You are, Wyatt!" She stepped in front of him, hands against his shoulders. She shook them once to get him to look at her. He'd forgotten how much he relied on Willa, how much he missed her giving him orders, arguing with him, just being there like she had been their entire lives. "It's been 18 months; are you still...?" She searched his face, a frown tugging down the corners of her mouth.

Wyatt shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe. Probably."

"Good gods, Wyatt, all that time and you're still hung up on her?"

"I thought that it would go away!" Wyatt snapped. "But now that I'm about to see her, I'm nervous and sweating and-fuck." He'd hoped being away for so long would dampen his feelings towards his best friend, but since Willa had ambushed him at the edge of their territory and told him that she'd told Addison he was returning and she'd be waiting for him in Seaglass Cove, those old familiar, aching feelings had been boiling up inside him.

Willa sighed, dropping her hands to her side. "Well, it's best to get it over with. When you're done, we'll be having a welcome home party for you and there's something I need to talk to you about, pack business." She fixed him with a stern look. "Very important, so don't go running off anywhere afterwards, got it?"

"Yeah," Wyatt said. He dragged a hand down his face and tried to get ahold of his breathing. "Yeah, I got it."

"Good, and Wyatt, Addison she-well, she's been having a rough time lately. Just let her process all of this." Willa squeezed his shoulder in a comforting manner before she nodded to herself and took off in the direction of the Den.

On unsteady feet, Wyatt drew closer to the Cove until he was at the mouth and his nerves got the better of him. He picked at the stone and took a deep breath to center himself. Now or never, now or never, now-

"Wyatt!" At her voice, Wyatt looked up. At once, he was bombarded with those feelings he'd been trying to get rid of for years, and if possible, they seemed to be even worse than before, stronger, persistent. Addison stood staring at him, mouth open, eyes wide like she couldn't believe he was actually there. Then, with her mouth trembling, she burst into tears.

It was so sudden and foreign -Addison hardly ever cried, and he'd never once been the cause of it, as far as he remembered- that his heart squeezed and his chest burned with an intensity that had him stumbling backwards, one hand over fumbling at the strings that held his necklace.

Then she was lunging forward and wrapping her arms around his waist, head buried in his chest, shoulders shaking. Wyatt dropped his necklace back under his shirt and enveloped Addison in a tight hug. He laid his chin on the top of her head and made comforting sounds in a desperate attempt to soothe her. He did not like that she was crying and he was the reason for it.