Nights Out (Parrish&Darius #1)

Epilogue

Three years later

I was driving back home. It was late but since Parrish was visiting his parents and wasn't coming home until tomorrow night, I decided to take the scenic route home. No matter how much I loved my life here in the city with Parrish, the woods were something I could never leave behind. The piece of mind the trees give couldn't compare to anything.

Except sleeping with Parrish.

Except sleeping with Parrish.

I looked at my ring finger, finding it weird that it was empty. Parrish took his and mine to get polished last week. He said he wanted them clean and shiny before the wedding but I'm pretty sure he was planning something else. I wasn't not a fan of the idea of running around without my ring when we were close to getting married but Parrish insisted and I reluctantly gave him the ring.

I felt silly with how much I cared about some stupid ring that I was totally going to get back anyway.

It is not a stupid ring, it's the ring my mate gave me.

Yes, but still, it wasn't like he was going to give it to someone else.

It was half past eleven. I was driving slowly and with my windows down. The cold wind felt great on my face. It had been a while since I got a whiff of the forest air, it was so calming, almost therapeutic. By the second time I missed my turn I saw something weird on the side of the road. At first I thought it was a baby deer waiting for its mom to come back but on the second drive I noticed it had stood up and walked a couple steps on two feet.

Oh my fucking Selene, is that a child?

I almost crapped my pants when I realized there was a small child out and alone in the middle of the woods. It was a toddler, couldn't have been older than three, he looked so small. I couldn't exactly tell what he was yet but he smelled faintly like an alpha. He was walking barefooted and had nothing but a loose shirt that was clearly not his size to cover his small body from the cold air of the night.

I slammed the breaks and got out of the car as fast as I could to approach the kid. My glasses fogged when they hit the cold air of the night bluntly.

His ears flickered towards me and the first thing he did when he saw me getting closer was growl at me like a wild animal. I was taken aback to hear such a small child make such a big noise, kids that age barely know how to hiss. I hesitated and stopped walking towards him seeing as he was probably scared. He started smelling like pure ammonia. I knew nothing about this kid but I recognized that smell.

The smell of fear. He wasn't just scared, he was terrified but I wasn't sure of what.

Maybe he's scared of the big alpha wolf approaching him from behind.

"Hey there buddy, are you- are you lost? Where's your mommy? Do you know where your mommy is? How about your dad?" I lowered myself to the ground, trying to seem less intimidating but I doubted that anything I did would make a six foot alpha wolf look less intimidating to a toddler.

His growling got louder and he took a quick step back.

He's gonna make a run for it.

"No, no, wait. I just want to help you." I lifted my hand slowly towards him but that made him panic. He sprinted off into the woods before I could even react. "Shit!" Not knowing what else to do I ran after him.

He was a toddler, he had little legs and short steps. Why was he so fast? I was on him in a second though, but I didn't want to grab him and scare him even more. I strode behind him and took notice of his round fluffy bear ears.