#.. daniel abrams

When the text came through it wasn’t from an unknown number, just one that Talia hadn’t seen pop up on her phone for awhile. DANIEL (SAT PHONE). She hadn’t gotten a text or call from Daniel since that day, weeks back, when she told him to pack his bag and leave. (How many lives had she lived since then?) She knew, though, what to expect from this specific number, and when she opened the text message, all that greeted her was a string of two numbers. Longitude and latitude.

They had played this game more than a few times before. One of them out in the woods, either for their own hike or on the job, and they would text the other their coordinates to invite them along. It had started as a sort of banter, hide-and-seek game but quickly became a way just to ask the other to join them. It was easier, for Talia at least, to send a string over coordinates to Daniel, rather than admit that she’d wanted to hang out with him. Especially as it became clearer and clearer that they weren’t just friends, however they might both protest.

Talia vaguely recognized the area, at least overall. Obviously in Maine, in Wicked’s Rest, somewhere in the Pines, just past the State Park and into the mountains, she was pretty sure. It was easy enough to find on a map, but she would know it better once she was walking through it. The natural world has always made more sense to her in mud and trees and leaves than in the atlas. So she double-checked her bandages, loaded up on some more painkillers, and got her gear together. 

It wasn’t too far of a hike, but ever since that faceoff with Daiyu and the stab to her gut, Talia hadn’t been much for hiking. She went slow, stopping more than once and by the time she recognized where she was headed, there was sweat dabbing her face and down her back. But Daniel had given her the coordinates for the spot where they had first camped together, where he cooked them steaks and she brought ice cream and whiskey. Where they climbed a tree together to look at the sunset and they both took turns peeking at each other in the golden lighting instead.

As she approached, she heard Tree’s wild, hound bark rise up and Talia couldn’t help the smile that climbed her face. She had missed the puppy. Just as she had missed Daniel. And fuck, but she had missed Daniel during the new moons, and the recovery following full moons, and after long days at work spent listening to Gene whistle cheerily, and while wandering around Mossthorn Bog with Constance. And most of all, when Daiyu’s knife had sunk into her belly. Talia’s first thought had been wanting her father, but once the fog of pain cleared, she had wanted Daniel. Even though he was another ranger with a collection of silver weapons, she had wanted him there to tend to her wounds and pet back her hair and tell her it would be okay.

She spent several minutes with the puppy, scratching through her rusty coat and murmuring soft affections to her, accepting the kisses and excited whines. “I know, baby,” she soothed, getting back to her feet. “But I gotta go see your daddy.” Talia shed her excess gear and left it at the foot of the big sycamore, right next to where Daniel’s supplies were laid. When she peered up the trunk of the tree, she could just make out the shadow of his shape – right where they had sat together before. Talia’s heart flipped. Once again, it was slow-going. She had to ensure she didn’t stretch too far and rip open any stitches, but she was a strong climber anyway. When she made it up to the branch, she saw Daniel had left just enough space for her to sit. She took the branch at a straddle, so she could brace her back against the trunk and take a breath.

And then, there he was. Talia looked up at Daniel, finally, the sunsetting over his face and lighting up his blue eyes. The tousle in his hair and the jacket he was wearing, so similar to the one she was currently wearing. Probably because the one Talia had on had been left behind by Daniel. She had pulled on a lot of his left-behind clothes since he had cleared out of her cabin. She pulled the cuffs of the sleeves over her hands then, tucking into herself. Nervous, now that she was here with him.

“Hey,” was all she could manage, voice soft, light. The complete opposite of how she had spoken to him that last time, brutally demanding he leave. Her eyes wavered but didn’t leave his face, watching, waiting. Hoping.

—

Fresh air—cold and biting into his skin, weaving its way into his bones to shake a chill through his body. But fresh. For the first time in the last month, Daniel left Eve’s home to breathe in the air of the deep woods. He wandered around the Deersprings neighborhood, but he never ventured too far away in case he had some sort of emergency. He was grateful that Eve offered him a place to stay after his incident with the berserker and the ball-tailed cat, but his heart ached to be back in the wilderness—to smell the aroma of pine trees, to hear the crunch of snow under his boots, to listen to the songs of winter birds. Although hunters healed fast, that speedy hunter healing felt like torture as his injuries trapped him indoors, left only to lay around in the guest bed, staring up at the ceiling and questioning his sanity. At the first opportunity to explore the woods on his own, of course Daniel took it. 

Tree ran ahead of him, and he followed her path through the snow. He hummed to himself as he hiked and caught up with his puppy—she was so much larger since he first found her in the woods. “Hey, girl,” he said, leaning down to pet her as she wagged her tail in excitement. He hated that she had been trapped indoors with him, mostly walking around Eve’s neighborhood. Her tail wagged enthusiastically now that she was back in the woods, and she hopped through the snow. He found a stick and threw it for her, and she chased after it, grabbing it and violently shaking her head with the stick in her mouth. Pieces of it broke off from her tight grip and erratic headbanging. Daniel couldn’t stifle his laugh at watching his stupid dog play with a stick. “Here,” he hollered out, tossing another stick for her to chase after. 

Between the walking and stick throwing, Daniel paid little attention to exactly where he wandered through the woods. He knew his way around and felt unworried about getting lost. If anything, he could retrace his and Tree’s steps. He rested his hands on his hips as he looked around a wide open clearing, surrounded by tall trees reaching up towards the sky. His lungs filled with the chilly air as he took in a deep breath. 

A sycamore caught his eye. A familiar sycamore. His chest ached and he bit down on his tongue as he tilted his head upwards, taking in the full majestic height of the tree. Snow clung to some of the branches and glistened under the sunlight. Talia instantly came to mind as he thought about how he brought her to this very spot, for a camping trip that seemed like ages ago but was only a mere six months. Though so much in his life changed in such a brief amount of time. His gaze stayed on the tree. Tree entertained herself as she jumped and rolled around on the snow, running over to bark at him every now and then before finding a stick for entertainment. 

Something came over Daniel, and he couldn’t stop himself from swinging off his backpack and grabbing his satellite phone. He tapped through the menu options, finding Talia’s contact in the list of a very limited number of people. Her name was right below his mother’s. He hovered over his mother’s name for a moment, debating yet again if he should reach out to her for the first time in over five years. He clicked down and selected Talia’s name. He clicked the option to send only his coordinates without a message, and he pressed send. 

Daniel held his breath for a moment as he watched the satellite phone try to send the message. He stayed still, unmoving as the phone searched for the signal. The clearing was the best spot for this, and the blue sky above him didn’t have any clouds to block his message. A couple times, as he waited, he clicked over to the “cancel message” option as he thought about how stupid of an idea this might be. But three minutes passed and the message sent. He couldn’t take it back now. 

Now he had to wait. Wait to see if Talia would come find him, just as she always did after he first joked about her coming to find him during their failed fishing trip (although that wasn’t really that much of a failure, as it finally led them into each other’s arms). He loved their version of hide-and-seek, and he hoped that maybe she missed it just as much as he did—that maybe she missed him just as much as he missed her. He stared at the message on his sat phone, concerned that she might not show up at all. He’d give her a few hours. He had nowhere to be and really didn’t want to go back to Deersprings just yet.

He sat underneath their sycamore for a while, reading one of his books and throwing sticks for Tree. A few times she stopped her playing to curl up next to him and take a quick power nap before running around again. She needed this just as much as he did. After a while of sitting, Daniel looked up at the sycamore’s branches reaching out above him, tempting him to climb. “Don’t go far,” he instructed Tree. He reached up for the first branch, and the familiar bark dug into his rough hands. The first lift caused him to groan as the muscles in his body reacted to being used like this for the first time in weeks. But he pushed through, climbing slowly and carefully up into the tree until he reached the same branch that he and Talia sat on months ago. 

He sat there staring out into the landscape before him. He didn’t know how long he waited until a familiar ache eased its way into his spine and a heat spread through his back. He had never been one to tell specific types of shifters apart, though he felt differences between shifters and beasts, but this feeling was all-too familiar, like the one that resided in his body whenever he was with Talia. Almost as though his senses could tell her apart from other shifters and beasts. An excited bark from Tree confirmed what he already knew. 

He waited. Patiently. His mind raced through every possibility as he listened to Talia cooing over Tree and Tree barking at seeing her friend. He rolled his eyes as he heard her refer to him as Tree’s daddy. He didn’t think she knew about his heightened hearing—it wasn’t like the topic of his ranger abilities ever came up during the months they knew each other. He watched as Talia carefully climbed up the tree and took a spot next to him. 

“Hey, Talia,” he greeted back, feeling almost breathless at the sight of her. Her soft eyes, her long dark tresses, her voice—sweet and smooth like honey. “Nice jacket,” he smirked, immediately recognizing his jacket’s torn pocket on the right chest and the faded spots from years of use. Seeing her for the first time in so long, wearing his jacket that he left at her cabin, brought a warmth into his body that the freezing air could never bite through. 

Daniel kept his gaze on her, unwavering, even as his heart thumped louder and faster. He wanted to say so much to her, to talk with her after everything that happened in her cabin, to apologize again, to tell her so much about what had happened since they last spoke. 

“I’m glad you found me,” he said after a few moments. “I missed you.” 

–

All Talia said back was a shaky, “Hi,” but it felt like the force of a waterfall was rushing over her head. The release of all she had been feeling for so long was that much, and, just like the ice-cold waters of Montana falls, it took her breath for a second. It hadn’t even been a question, when his coordinates came through. Of course she was going to meet him. Even with the betrayal, that final fight, Talia had missed him so much –enough that just saying hello put a fritz in her system– that their reunion was inevitable, no matter how impossible it may have seemed.

He called attention to the fact that she was wearing his jacket and she managed a smile, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “Some idiot left it at my house.” Most of the things he had left were returned, through Wyatt, but Talia had held on to some for this express purpose. If only he knew how often she had been wearing his clothes, recently. It had already been common, when they were together: mixed up shirts, and socks, and bandanas. But since he had left, she had been reaching for his clothes more and more, just hoping to catch a trace of his scent lingering. It was only in the last few weeks that she realized his scent had begun to wear off of them, and had panicked with that realization.

Daniel’s heart sped up and she could hear it. And he knew that about her now. Or, he had always known that about her, but it was out in the open. She knew that he knew what she was. She knew what he was. She knew that he killed things like her and he knew that she killed things like him. They were supposed to hate each other, were born to hate each other.

But not him. She couldn’t hate Daniel. She had fucking tried for the past two months to hate him. Even if she would never be able to kill him, like she did with other hunters, she had tried to just muster the same ire that came when she thought of Daiyu (Don’t think of Daiyu and that clusterfuck now, though…) “I’m glad you asked me to find you.” That brought a smile that was genuine if soft to her face. Hesitant but hopeful, like the two of them sitting in that tree together. “I missed you too. I…really missed you.”

God, more and more every day. Talia missed him when she woke to an empty bed and a cabin that didn’t smell like coffee and breakfast. She missed him when she came home from work and he wasn’t already standing at the stove, preparing dinner, but heading for the door so he could give her a kiss hello. She missed him in the silent evenings, when she should have been curled up next to him, reading, or talking through their days, or laughing as Tree played on the floor between them. She missed him, badly, on the new moons and the mornings after the full moons, when he had pretended to believe her lies about flus and bad menstrual cycles and held her and pet her hair back and made her tea and soup and asked what she needed, gave it to her. She missed all of the ways he had filled up the space in her home and her life and she wanted him back. “Mostly, though, I missed Tree,” she teased. 

There wasn’t all that much space between them but Talia reached across it and took his hand in hers. Just held it, feeling the chill from the still-winter air around them and the rough, dug-in callouses. She loved his hands, had from the beginning, told him often. “I’m sorry.” A breeze picked up through the branches and it almost, almost tasted like spring. “For…what I said, when we fought. Or maybe just how I said it.” Was there a world where she had told Daniel she just needed a time-out and then they got back together, later the next day? Hashed it all out civilly and got back together with little more than a wrinkle? Talia wasn’t sure. Further, she wasn’t sure it mattered. 

“Obviously we needed to talk about that shit and…maybe there’s still some stuff there we need to talk about.” But did they? He was a hunter, a ranger, who killed werewolves. She was a werewolf, specifically one who hunted hunters to kill. His sister had been torn to pieces by a shifter. Her sister had been disposed of by hunters. Nothing they said to each other could change any of that.

Maybe, though… Maybe they could still…

“Where… Where have you been staying?” Daniel wasn’t exactly homeless, but in the dead of winter, that camper of his provided little shelter. That’s why he had started staying at the cabin in the first place (was it, though?). Had he found someone else to stay with? She had seen him talking to a few people online that seemed like it could be more than friendly – Kelly, or Regan, or Diana, or Xóchitl. 

—

Daniel couldn’t help but grin wider as she said hi to him again. She seemed flustered and nervous about seeing him for the first time since their fight, and he couldn’t blame her as his own nerves made it hard for him to think of what all he wanted to say—besides just telling her that he loved and missed her. 

He chuckled at her comment. “Okay, but I ain’t a total idiot,” he said. “I noticed real quick that Wyatt didn’t bring me all my clothes. Realized a few things was missing.” A couple of his flannels that he wore a lot never made it back to him, and even some of his old, worn metal t-shirts never reappeared in his belongings. Seeing Talia wearing his jacket led his imagination to wander—wondering if she often wore his clothing around her cabin while they were apart. He sometimes wished he had more of her things during their separation. He had run off with some of her bandanas but not much else. Every time he used the binoculars that she gifted him, it was a way to feel some sort of connection to her. “The jacket looks good on you.” 

Daniel already assumed that she missed him just as much as he did her—his jacket wrapped around her body proved that in his mind—but hearing her confirm it brought him so much relief. A heavy weight lifted off his shoulders as she said she really missed him. He never imagined that he would miss her as much as he did. His days and nights were spent thinking about Talia, longing to reach out to her, to ask her how she was. He had always kept track of the moon phases, but with each full moon and new moon, he wanted to be there for her, to let her know she was safe with him—to let her know she was cared for by him. He almost wondered what would have happened if he had reached out to her sooner than today. Would they have reconciled faster? (Was this even a reconciliation? Were they possibly going to get back together? Fuck, he really hoped they were. He struggled falling asleep without her next to him, and he had fallen back to his old ways of not sleeping.)

“Tree missed you too.” He glanced down at the dog who was now sitting at the bottom of the tree, as if she was on guard duty. “I heard you call me her daddy,” Daniel teased. Maybe this could be one way of breaking more of the ice around the whole ranger situation. At some point Talia would probably need to know all about him. He knew she killed hunters, but he wasn’t sure how much she knew about the different types of hunters and all the abilities they came with. Daniel knew a lot about shifters, especially werewolves (and berserkers), from years of learning everything he could about them for hunting. But how much did her pack know and teach about hunters? Did she have any idea that some rangers had hearing that was probably just like her own? He wanted to ask her all this and more, but he didn’t think right then was the best time for it. “I was always serious whenever I told you that I got excellent hearing.” 

She took his hand in hers, and he wanted to pour out every thought in his head. Tell her how much he missed playing with her hands. How much he missed feeling them against his body. How much he missed taking her hands and pressing kisses against them. The touch, the familiar connection between them, convinced him to move just a bit closer to her. Even though he sat facing her, all he saw was a large gap between them and he longed to be as close as possible to her (within reason as he didn’t want to cross any boundary with her). 

“No, no, I’m sorry,” Daniel responded. He blamed himself for all of it. He didn’t believe she needed to apologize to him for anything. He was the one who knew all along what they both were, yet he continued playing with her feelings. Even before their fight, he stressed about what he was doing with her. After their fight, he thought that maybe he should have told her sooner (but if he told her sooner, would they have ever been able to come back together?). “I’m sorry. I said things I shouldn’t have. And I’m sorry that I hid that from you. I shouldn’t … I’m sorry.” 

He nodded his head in agreement. “I guess we probably do,” he said. At some point, the two of them really would need to talk about the whole ranger and werewolf situation. He wasn’t sure how to go about it, especially knowing that they were both raised to kill each other. Yet here they were, sitting in a tree, holding hands, and gazing into each other’s eyes. Daniel wasn’t sure how much he should share with her about himself—about his moral code, his mother, Maya, his father, his paternal family, or the weird distance he had from his maternal (read: ranger) family? Did any of that even matter to her? But it was all still part of him and who he was, and he wanted her to know these things about him. He wanted to know all about her too.

“Um, my camper, sometimes. Usually staying with different friends, but jumping from place to place.” He shrugged. He wasn’t sure how open he could be with Talia right then—he thought that he could maybe be honest enough with her, now that she knew he was a hunter. “These last few weeks though, I’ve been at the same place. Staying with … someone important to me.” He realized that maybe that implied a different type of relationship. “She’s the little sister of one of my best friends. Well, I guess, someone who was my best friend. He’s … no longer alive …, but she’s like a little sister to me.” 

He reached out to her and pushed back a few strands of her hair behind her ear. “I miss staying with you though. Your cabin is cozy and warm. Out in the woods too.” 

—

Talia pawed at the back of her neck, a sheepish look over her face. She had wondered if Daniel might notice, figured he would, but hoped he would assume she had just…done something therapeutic with the clothes. Girls in movies were always burning their exes’ possessions, or throwing them in a river or something (not that Talia would ever do that latter). Had he assumed that she kept them just to have some piece of him with her? Was she that obvious? “Thanks. You can…have it back, if you want.” She hoped he wouldn’t want it back. Or, more accurately, she hoped it wouldn’t matter if he did. Hoped that they climb down from that tree to go back to her cabin together, to mix their clothes up again. She hoped she wouldn’t have to bury her nose into the collar of some left-behind jacket just to catch the lingering remnants of his scent.

“You are her daddy.” But then his explanation of his hearing hung in the air between them, caught between the ice crystals of their misting breaths. A hunter’s enhanced senses wasn’t news to Talia. Neither was their strength, or their speed, or their healing. She had been told that other abilities could vary from ranger to ranger, so that they had become a sort of bogeyman: some could see in the dark, some had armor-strong skin. Her Uncle Titus had sworn he met one that could change her scent to smell like prey. Talia did want to know where Daniel fell in the mix and… And it was strange that no part of her thought of using it as intel. 

Wouldn’t this be the perfect source? A hunter, a ranger, who was in love with her (was he? Had he really been? Was he still? Could he possibly?) Talia could learn all she ever wanted to know about hunters, straight from the horse’s mouth. And she didn’t care. All she wanted to know was just about Daniel himself, the way she had always wanted to know everything she could about him. “I…know some things,” she said, stilted. “Like the healing and the speed and strength and all. Is there other stuff you can do?”

She fussed a little closer to him as he apologized – thankful that he had. Talia meant her apology and she had known she had, but she had also expected one from Daniel, too. He was right – he shouldn’t have hidden that he was a hunter, that he knew what she was, from her. But he had. And here they were, now. Her fingers traced along the ridges of his hand, neither of them were wearing gloves and their hands were both red and chapped in the cold. It was worth it, to be able to feel his bare skin against hers. “Not right now, though.” She didn’t want to hash out all that they needed to discuss at that moment. Not when she hadn’t seen him in so long. Not when he was looking at her with those sweet eyes and the crisp winter sunlight falling like stained glass over his face. She had questions, just as she was sure he did. But she didn’t care about any of them in that moment. Maybe because it felt like they didn’t matter – or like the answers to them didn’t matter.

She hadn’t had any of the answers the first night without him, and still her body had shook and cried and longed for his – just like so many of the nights after that first one, just like the night before. Just like this morning when she woke up alone. She hadn’t had any of the answers when Daniel’s text had come through and Talia hadn’t been able to leap up and out of the cabin fast enough. She wanted him, no matter what the explanations would be. That much was clear.

Maneuvering carefully, Talia let her legs hang over the branch so she could settle her side against Daniel’s. Her body wanted to sink into his, the way she always had so easily, but she still couldn’t be sure he would be receptive. He had texted her, brought her out here. But… But. So she didn’t settle her head against his shoulder and close her eyes and listen to his heartbeat, like she wanted to. Just pressed their legs together and looked out at the sunset with him, as he told her about staying with different friends. 

He was right to rush to explain further, as Talia’s throat constricted at someone important to me. (She had wondered about the possibility of him moving on entirely. That he might have found someone else, someone less complicated, someone who wasn’t a werewolf, who didn’t kill hunters. He should have done that. That’s what she thought when she saw him talking to Xóchitl online – a nice simple human for him.) Not that she was calmed by the notion that he was staying with someone like a sister to him. Like the sister a shifter had killed. (Was his best friend killed by a shifter too?) Was she a hunter in Wicked’s Rest? God, what if it was someone Talia knew? But she wouldn’t devolve into that paranoia, not right then. 

She thumbed over his knuckles, nodding along. Nosing into his hand when he brushed at her hair. “Come back.” It was strained, and quiet but she had said it and there was no going back. “Maybe it was stupid, you moving in the way you did. Maybe we should have taken it…slower or whatever. And maybe we should hash everything out before just going back to how things were but–” Her bottom lip caught against the heel of his hand and suddenly Talia’s heart was louder than anything in the forest around them. “But I want you back, with me. Please.” That was the most honest she had ever been with him, maybe –more honest even than telling him about her killing hunters– telling him that she wanted him with her. 

“We… We will talk. We have to, I know. We will. But we can do it at home.”

—

“You keep it,” Daniel replied, glancing down at the jacket on her. “I like it on you.” Even if he never found himself at her cabin again, he thought she should at least keep some of his clothing, if she wanted—it seemed like she wanted that. As far as he was concerned, the jacket was hers now. 

He held his breath for a moment as he debated just how much to tell her about his abilities right then. He wanted to tell her everything even as his hunter mindset screamed at him to keep it secret. He shouldn’t give away anything about what he could do which she could later use against him. He even kept most of his abilities hidden from other hunters as they did not need to know any of that about him either. “Yeah, there’s … other stuff,” Daniel said carefully. If any type of relationship (platonic or romantic) were to exist between them, he knew that it needed to be on a level playing field. He shouldn’t continue holding all the information about the two of them with her knowing little about him. 

“Um, like you said, the fast healing and the strength. Maybe not speed, but more like precision and fast reflexes. My senses tell me when there’s a shapeshifter or beast around me. The hearing thing,” he tapped his ear, “is probably about equal to yours.” He paused for a moment as it hit him just how much his body was designed to hunt werewolves—to hunt Talia. “Um, I can sort of see in the dark. Not as good as some hunters. That’s kind of a new thing for me, and it’s still developing more. Um, tougher skin.” Daniel tapped his fingers against the bark as he thought through how to phrase the next part. She knew he killed werewolves like her, but he felt a pit in his stomach. “And, I know you ain’t stupid, but the … the bite mark,” he pressed his right hand against his left shoulder, “um, from a werewolf.” She didn’t need to know the story about that werewolf biting into his shoulder on a waxing gibbous and the stress of worrying if he would die or transform on the full moon. “Ain’t never turned, so guess I’m immune. Not the most useful thing since I ain’t wanting to get bit by a werewolf more than the one time.” Well, except for when Talia used to bite him and leave him covered in marks and bruises. But those bites from a werewolf were under completely different circumstances. 

The simple touch of Talia’s hand against his confirmed just how much Daniel had missed the feeling of her skin against his. He spent most nights since their breakup wishing for her touch again, wishing for her hand in his. He meant every word of his apology, as short of one as it was, but he knew he couldn’t just say I’m sorry over and over again, or else it may lose its meaning. But he meant it—every day and night, his mind was consumed by how he lied to her and how she deserved to hear him apologize to her. “Yeah, we can discuss it all later,” he agreed. He looked up from their hands and to her eyes again. “I mean it, too. I’m sorry.” How she could ever forgive him was beyond him. But he’d much rather discuss things with her at another time, after they had time to be around each other again. Ever since he moved to Wicked’s Rest, they saw each other multiple times a week (although many of those early encounters were just short chats in the state park, but he still counted them in his head), and then it turned into spending multiple hours together and suddenly he was sleeping at her place almost every night. A few days apart were enough to drive him mad, but an entire two months made him miss her presence even more than he ever thought possible. All he wanted was to exist by her side for a while before diving into the difficult conversations. 

Talia moved in closer to him, and while her leg pressed against his was comforting, he longed for so much more. He missed how they fell into each other with their bodies connected. He thought maybe this was how it was though, neither of them wanting to cross the other’s boundary but testing it with little steps. He carefully moved his arm around her waist, tucking her in a little closer against him while his hand rested on her hip. 

Come back. Talia pressed her face into his hand and he felt the fleeting touch of her lip on his palm. He tried to not react rashly. He wanted to look calm and neutral as he thought through her words, but all that happened was the loud beating of his heart and the sudden water pooling at the bottom of his eyes. He rubbed his thumb across her cheek and tilted her head towards him. “I’ll come back,” he said softly. “I don’t care if we’re being stupid by rushing into things again because … because I miss you. I’ve missed you so fucking much.” 

Daniel pulled her closer to him and planted a kiss on the side of her head. He rested his head against hers for a moment as he breathed her into his body. Oh, it was so incredibly stupid of him to move into the cabin of a werewolf who hunted hunters, just as it was incredibly stupid to tell that same werewolf about his hunting abilities. She could harm him now—she knew his strengths and could use those against him. He was so, so incredibly stupid for falling in love with her too, and all he wanted right then was to tell her how much he still loved her. How none of that changed after he left that night. No matter how hard he tried to wash her out of his system, she stuck around in everything he did. And he tried—he tried so hard to erase her from his mind and body. When Kelly appeared in that parking lot, he thought for a moment that sex with an old hookup would get Talia off his mind, but instead all he did was compare Kelly to her. Even flirting and messing around with Diana made him only think about Talia. Random flirting and hooking up led to him comparing everyone to her, no matter how hard he tried not to think about her. 

With his thumb still rubbing along her cheek, he nodded his head in agreement. “We’ll talk at home.” Daniel would talk about whatever she wanted wherever and whenever she wanted. Wherever Talia was, that’s where he found his home now. Right there, in their tree with her by his side was home. In a crappy diner with sticky tables and greasy food was his home as long as she was there, grinning at him from the opposite side of the booth as she plucked a cheese fry from the basket and played footsie with him under the table. On a rock in the middle of the creek as they basked in the sunlight as water swept across their skin. Inside his truck parked off the side of a road while he pressed her into the seat cushions and planted kisses along her neck. On her couch with her fast asleep on top of him and his arms wrapped around her while he listened to her breathe. Anywhere with her was home to him, and if she wanted to go to her cabin to discuss whatever they were doing, he would follow her there. 

The words let’s go lingered on his tongue as he gazed at her. He ran his hand down under her chin and tilted her head up towards him. The last time they sat here together, they were only friends. Perhaps two friends with unknown crushes, but still just friends. Yet Daniel hadn’t been able to stop stealing glances at her as the sunlight lit up her face—as her skin and smile glowed with the setting sun. Maybe the thought of kissing her had popped into his head a couple times that day, but he would never have acted on it then. They hadn’t sat here since, and as he watched the shadows and sunlight dance across her face, he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss against her lips. Daniel pulled away and rubbed his thumb against her chin as he forced himself to hold back even more thoughts and feelings that threatened to pour out of him.

“Let’s go,” Daniel whispered. “Ladies first.” 

—

Listening carefully, Talia took in all that Daniel had to tell her about his hunter abilities. It was surreal, in a way, to be sitting so close to a hunter, the thing she had hated for so long, as he listed out all the information she would need to destroy him, while trusting that she wouldn’t. Even stranger to realize that he was right to trust her. Tough skin, but not tough enough to ward off the rash that had come from the goggie. She remembered being impressed at how quickly he had healed, though – a benefit of him being a hunter she now knew. It was lucky Talia had those gloves when they found the creature, if his tougher skin had still suffered. But– No. It wasn’t luck. He had given her his gloves, she remembered. Even knowing what the bristles could do, even knowing that his skin likely wouldn’t be tough enough… 

No, she wasn’t stupid and yes, she had noticed the bite mark. There were plenty of members in her pack who weren’t born wolves – all of them sported similar scars to the one that capped Daniel’s shoulder. Something warred horribly in her chest with that knowledge. On the one hand, being a werewolf was to be considered an honor. Talia had never turned anyone because of that, because they would have to prove themself worthy of it. But that age-old belief came up against the strange unfurling of the idea that they would never be the same. There was no world where Daniel did prove himself worthy, as if he would even want that, and she would turn him so they could be mates as wolves, too. Which was a fucking stupid thought to even have, even for someone as hopelessly romantic as Talia. 

“That’s good,” was all she could think to say in response to his apparent werewolf immunity. And it was. It was safer for Daniel, anyway. Some people didn’t even survive the first transformation after being bitten. And if he was… Was he? He must be. He was a hunter. Of course he was still hunting. A cold weight sunk heavy straight through Talia’s spine. He was still killing shifters. Werewolves, even. Daniel was still a hunter, a ranger, just like she was still a werewolf who killed hunters. And if he was going to be out hunting werewolves (killing her innocent kin), then it would be safer if he couldn’t be turned into one.

(Wasn’t that exactly the conversation they were avoiding having right then? What it would mean to be a ranger who kills shifters and a shifter who kills hunters and to be together.)

And he was a hunter who was still hunting but he wanted to come back. And she was going to let him. Of course she was; the relief that hit her chest was far more powerful than the moment warranted. But she had fucking missed him. And hadn’t expected to ever see him again, if she was being honest. Maybe, in her darkest dreams, had thought they would meet face-to-face, in the woods, some day: her caught unawares and him carrying a gun loaded with silver bullets. But he didn’t want to hunt her. He wanted to come back home with her, because he had missed her too. Her eyes closed as he kissed her head and she kept close. So close. Close enough to feel his heart beating against her, close enough to smell the distinctly Daniel scent of him. And her body remembered being this close to his, it knew it could trust him and relax, it knew it could let him hold her. 

She turned easily, already looking for a kiss when he leaned in for one. It was almost laughably chaste, considering how they had been kissing when things ended. But it was the exact kiss that Talia needed from him. Sweet and soft and speaking so much reassurance through it. She let out a quiet noise when he pulled back, but didn’t do anything more than rest her head against his.

Once they were back on the ground (Talia hoping Daniel hadn’t noticed her wincing through the climb down), Tree lost her mind, cantoring around both of their feet and yipping happily. After a quick pat to the puppy’s head, Talia folded herself into Daniel’s chest. Meeting in the tree had been special, of course. But she was glad to finally get the chance to fold completely into his arms and feel him hold her. Her nose tucked deep into the well of his neck, scenting there obviously. It was so much better than wearing his shirt to bed, or his jacket for the hike. This was the smell of their mornings in bed together, all the times she sunk her face into the crease of his thigh, him using his shampoo to wash her hair. His scent had become her safety in the few short months they had been together, and he had come to mean home for her.

Maybe she should wait, until they were back at home, after they had hashed out the logistics of hunter and shifter, of ranger and werewolf, of Daniel and Talia. She could curl her body close into his, then, and tell him that she loved him. She could explain that she had wanted to say it back immediately, that morning. That she had almost texted him later that day but hadn’t wanted the first time she said it to be a text. That there were so many days in the weeks leading up to him saying it that it had almost slipped out of her. (And she could explain how that maybe contributed to their fight. Daniel’s revelation was the main cause, of course, but the pressure cooker that was their relationship at that point had been dialed up a few degrees, with all the denial they were both treading through.) And all the rest of it would happen but in that moment…

With her face still tucked into his throat, she told him quietly, “I love you. I should have said it, when you did but– It’s still true. I love you.”

—

Talia climbed more slowly and carefully than when they first climbed a tree together, and Daniel couldn’t help but watch her as he followed down after her. He took his own time too, of course, but he knew why he moved more at a slower pace. He needed to know what happened to her, but like most other topics, he guessed that could wait a little longer. He was bound to find out at some point. He knew that much, now. 

They stood there, together, with Tree hopping around them and begging for their attention, but Daniel only focused his gaze on Talia. His eyes followed her movements as she patted the excited puppy. And then she was in his arms, her chest pressed against his, her arms wrapped him, her face pressed into his neck. He closed his eyes as he held her as tightly as possible. He never wanted to let go of her. Never again. Tears pooled behind his closed eyelids, and he squeezed them shut even tighter, not wanting to let one escape. His lungs ached with each breath he drew as he squeezed her tighter in his arms. Loss and grief dug into his flesh and gnawed at his bones for the last two months, and now? Now with her in his arms again? Now he could almost breathe fully again. 

He buried his face in her hair, taking in deep breaths. All he could think about was how he never once stopped loving her throughout their time apart. How he spent his nights wishing for her body close to him again. How he fell back into his old habits of not sleeping at night—how she now haunted his dreams. Talia consumed his senses when he slept, from the taste of her lips in a slow kiss to the sound of her laughter when he said a stupid joke to the scent of her shampoo and body wash as she stood close to him. For years, he hated falling asleep due to his nightmares, but after Talia, he had to deal with the haunting memories of her joy in his sleep. Had to deal with the ache in his body when he woke up and knew that he would never see her crinkle her eyes and grin widely at him as she laughed at his jokes. How he would never hear her call him an idiot and shove his shoulder again. 

But somehow, for some reason unknown to him, she loved him. And she loved him the same night when he said it. 

Thoughts overwhelmed Daniel as she said I love you, and he wasn’t sure how he wanted to respond as all these ideas raced through his mind. He wanted to kiss her hard, he wanted to kiss her gently, he wanted to pin her against the tree and give her every inch of his love, and he wanted … wanted … 

He pulled back just slightly, his arms still wrapped around her, and he looked at her, catching her eye. He needed to see her, needed to see the look on her face after saying those words to him. He still recalled the look on her face when he first said those three words, the moment right before she pressed her lips against his and said nothing in response. Daniel lifted his hand up and combed it through her hair before resting it against her neck. God, he almost wanted to cry. She never told him that she loved him before their breakup, and as he stepped out of her cabin that final time, his body turned numb from the loss of her. He sought out ways to feel something in his body—getting into bar fights to convince someone to take him out back and beat him until he crumpled to the ground. All so he could feel something in his body. Sex with strangers and people he knew gave him some feeling again, but that dull ache stayed in his chest. No amount of sex and beatings healed the loss of Talia. 

But now she told him that she loved him, and that dull ache eased its way out of him. 

He ran his thumb across her chin as a smile etched its way across his face. “I love you too, Talia,” he finally said after a few moments. “I never stopped.” 

He leaned in to kiss her again, but this time harder because he needed to taste her again. He couldn’t keep living off the memories of her mouth. If it wasn’t for the cold air and snow on the ground, he knew he would take this kiss farther, fuck her on the ground again. The idea of taking things slowly drove him crazy, but he knew he had to wait just a bit longer until he could kiss every inch of her body again. He could wait until they returned to her home. (Daniel couldn’t deny how thrilled he was at the prospect of living with her again. That’s all he wanted. That’s all he thought about since he left. He needed to share his space with her again, to have her existing by his side. It didn’t matter to him if she killed hunters. He could … deal with that later. Probably. Or not. He wasn’t sure yet, but all he needed was Talia.)

—

It felt…right. Incredibly so to be bound up in Daniel’s arms and held close. For the first time since he had left, Talia felt that familiar safety and warmth that only he could bring. The support of her friends, like Emilio and Wyatt and others, had been brilliant and nothing short of necessary. But it was different, with Daniel. And wasn’t that the whole point? No matter what she had tried to tell herself, convince herself, really – it was different with Daniel. Everything felt different, when she was with him. She felt different, with him. And now she knew that he felt the same. Now she knew it was because she loved him, and he loved her back.

How many times had she thought about that night, the last night, when he had told her he loved her? Their warm breath mingling, legs tangled under the blankets, and his sleepy confession. While they had been apart, Talia had fantasized and lived in a world, just for a moment, where she didn’t hesitate. Where Daniel murmured that he loved her and she sighed and smiled and kissed him and told him she loved him back. It had to happen the way it did, though. She knew that now. Talia had to rebuff him and he had to tell her his truth and she had to tell him her truth. They had to separate and take that time apart. Only through that could they maybe rebuild into something stronger, together.

Only through that, could they be standing here now, with Daniel telling her that he loved her, still. That he hadn’t stopped. Talia fed up into his kiss, fingers tangled at the back of his hair to keep him close, to keep their kiss deep. God. She loved him. Not only could she say it now, but she could believe it. She didn’t have to deny it to herself the way she had been through the months. She pulled away slowly, the kiss lingering, and she kept close after. Their noses still brushing, her lashes practically kissing his. “Thank you. For… I don’t know. For loving me, maybe. For still loving me, throughout.”