Brian Campo (briancampo) wrote in birthrightrpg, @ 2020-12-14 14:16:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | brian campo, nesryn rowan |
That Time Nesryn Suffered a Crushing Defeat
Who: Nesryn & Brian
What: Homesickness, Racing, Goofing Off
When: Present, Night
Where: Willow Beach, AZ
Before the SUV pulled out of town in the morning, Brian didn’t tell Nesryn much about where they were going, except to bring a few changes of warm clothes and comfortable hiking boots. Then he popped the hatch to load in their spare clothes next to a couple of rucksacks and a cooler and they were off, driving north on 95, east on 11, and south down 93. The final turn was a right on Willow Beach Road in Arizona, just over an hour away from the trailer in Searchlight. They arrived in time to rent gear and kayak up to Emerald Cove and back, then watch the sunset over the canyon cut by the Colorado River.
Later, when it was pitch black out and the sky was full of visible stars, Brian stretched out on the hood of the car, his back to the windshield, and raised his knees up to get comfortable. The temperature was in the upper forties, so they were wrapped up in clothes, one of those things people assumed they never needed in the desert until December hit and the sun went down, dragging all the radiant heat with it.
“You okay?” Brian asked.
Impromptu travel never bothered her. In fact, she looked forward to an escape from reality once in a while because it gave her time to refocus herself. Thankfully Brian understood what a free spirited person she was. Even a hint of packing clothes sent her mood into the stratosphere.
“I’m great,” Nesryn murmured.
Just like Brian, she was settled with her back against the windshield and her legs curled nearly to her frame and clad in warm clothes. She brought a couple of fleece blankets along for the consideration of preparedness. It was one of these that she tossed easily over her mate and she snuggled in closer to him.
Dark eyes shimmered with the constellations; she had been a big fan of stars since she could remember and there was something so peaceful about being shrouded in that particular blanket with someone you loved dearly. “You?”
“Yeah.” He’d grown up in weather colder than this in Trenton, and sometimes it was so cold in his pack’s part of the mountains that he shifted just to wear the fur coat for a while. But it was true that it didn’t take long to acclimate to someplace else. Brian wouldn’t be caught walking around in shorts and a long-sleeve shirt in it anymore. He took a brown knit beanie out of his hip pocket and tugged it over his head. Long pieces of his hair stuck out of the bottom. He resettled himself and looked at the sprinkle of winter constellations that would move across the sky, like Orion, Canis Major, Perseus, and Gemini. Brian’s shoulder and head came to rest next to Nesryn’s. It was quiet in their neck of the campground, with no other cars or tents within seeing or hearing range. Most of the park emptied out when the sun went down. “Talk to me. Tell me anything you want. It can be about your new shoes, I don’t care.”
She was satisfied with that answer. It was cold in Portland, too. Around this time it would snow and the temperatures would plummet. The trees were always prettier to her when they were blanketed in the fluff. Her mother told her for ages that you couldn’t have a decent Christmas without snowfall. She supposed her mother was wrong about that one.
“I miss home,” she confessed. Nesryn frowned, chewing at her bottom lip. She wasn’t going back, that was not in the cards at all, but her mate needed to know how she was feeling. “It’s really been bringing me down lately.”
Beneath the blanket one of her hands found his and she held it. Her grip could break bones if she needed it to but this time it was gentle.
Brian turned his face to look at her in surprise. His thumb traced a circle on the soft skin of her hand. “I think that’s the first time you ever said that.” Either the part about being homesick or being depressed. It was Nesryn’s nature to want to smile and dance, to try to make everybody happy even if she had to downgrade what she wanted in the process. That fact alone made it a big deal that she left the Rowan pack in the first place. “I like you honest.” Brian kissed her temple and looked up at the sky again so she could keep going. “You thought about calling ‘em?”
Her expression faltered a bit but she smiled again moments after. He wasn’t wrong, she didn’t talk about Portland a lot or her family. She didn’t feel like she’d been dishonest but then again he also had a point.
“Yes, but I’m scared to.” After the incident with Tanner and the way he had been sent home, she wasn’t sure they’d even pick up if she tried. “And I don’t want to call and listen to my mom trying to convince me to come back. I’m not going back, I’m staying here.”
She was adamant about that. Maybe in another year or so she might gather the courage to go back for a visit, but she wanted to feel more solid where she was in her life.
“What do you think it’ll take to change their minds?” Brian was going with the assumption that they were trying to wait her out, and that sooner or later, they’d want Nesryn in their lives enough to bend. It had to be better to have a daughter at a distance than not at all. He also knew he was a strike working against her; he was an east coast, bitten wolf from a disbanded pack. If that wasn’t bad enough, he was a musician.
Brian smiled to himself and covered it with a hand rubbing across his jaw. They ought to be grateful it wasn’t his family they were talking about. The number one thing that could soothe a rift in the extended Campo family was the prospect of a grandkid. Number two was a hospital stay that rendered you helpless to the whims of your mom.
Nesryn considered his question. Her expression flattened for a moment, eyes dropping down in thought. She twisted her mouth a bit, contorting her lips, and then her features evened. “I think my mother would be satisfied that I’m safe and happy. To be honest, she would really like you. It’s daddy that I’m worried about.” On her own, her mother was fine. But when you put both together things could get a bit hairy.
Eventually he would come around but it could take a while. And a lot of convincing. She would leave that part of her mother.
She wanted to bring Brian to meet her family. It was the way they might react to him that made her hesitant. If Tanner coming to collect her was any indication of what lay back across the Portland city limit sign then being home wasn’t worth the trouble. Even for a visit. But she could change her mind.
“Hey…” Brian’s voice was low. He gave her hand a squeeze. “How much of it’s about hooking up with me? Instead of just you not doing what they wanted?” Nesryn made her own choices, but he didn’t want to be the guy who kept someone from reconciling with their family, even if the rift started before he got there. Tanner could kick rocks; it was the parents that hurt, the loss of a well-established pack, and they had custody of her hometown, too. Unless Brian and Nesryn started biting people, taking up strays, or reproducing, their pack of two couldn’t compete with what she was missing.
That squeeze on her hand was grounding. “None of what I’m feeling is because of you,” she replied. She didn’t want him thinking she had regrets or was only using this as a statement. Nesryn hadn’t expected Brian; she fell hard and fast for him and nothing would change that.
It wouldn’t have mattered had she ended up anywhere else in the country, she would’ve felt the same. It was the family she knew that she missed, not the rules of the pack. She had her own pack here with Brian and there wasn’t more she needed.
“I love you. Nothing is going to change that. My family will be there, I’m not going to pick between one or the other. I choose to be here with you.”
It wasn’t exactly what he was getting at -- Brian was trying to gauge how much the new wolf in Nesryn’s life fanned the flames of her parents’ frustration -- but it didn’t matter. The end result was the same. They were in Oregon, Nesryn was in Nevada, and they weren’t talking, at least for now. Things were bound to change, sooner or later. “Okay.” He blew out a breath and looked for Orion’s belt, then down and to the left, closer to the horizon, where Sirius glowed a brilliant blue-white within the larger of Orion’s two hunting dogs. “What do you want to do? Do you want to try to see her, or let it ride?”
Some of their frustration was due to the new wolf. Tanner had met Brian, unfortunately, and she knew the born wolf well enough to understand that he would blow the story out of proportion when he got back to Portland to her family. Especially to her father. Tanner typically cared only about himself, and anything he could say to put himself in a better light was sure to have been stated.
“I want to, but not right now. I need to talk to her first and feel them out. It sucks that I can’t bring you home to meet them, I want to, but I don’t feel like it’s safe right now.” Or, rather, a good idea. Things needed to ride for now.
“Let’s give it until after the first of the year. I’ll reach out and talk to Mom. After that it’ll be up to us to decide what we want, you and I, and we can go from there.” While it was her family, it was their decision. Brian was not only her mate, she saw him as her alpha and also as her equal, and she would treat him as such.
Brian shook his head so she would see it didn’t matter if she needed two years, or three. “I got all the time in the world.” He reached across and lightly scratched through the hair behind her ear. “Maybe I can get Angela out here.” He didn’t go into a lot of detail, but Brian wasn’t sure if any members of his old pack might be keeping an eye on the Campo house, looking for him, so he kept his distance. “Or we can do a Facetime call and you can count how many times she embarrasses me.” He gave Nesryn a crooked smile and sat up on the hood with a groan.
“Come here.” He patted the spot between his knees, making a hollow sound on the car.
Her grin appeared at mention of Angela. She knew that Angie was Brian’s sister. “I’d like to meet her. Having a sister sounds like a dream.” For a long time Nesryn had thought about what having siblings would be like, though recently she found that she was okay with being an only child so no one else had to endure what her parents decided they wanted for her life.
“I bet she’s a real treasure,” Nesryn added.
At that hollow, metallic sound of beckoning, she shifted to slip between Brian’s legs and leaned back against him. He was warm and she found so much comfort in his presence.
“One man’s treasure... is another man’s annoying little sister.” Brian wrapped his arms and legs around Nesryn and squeezed her tight. “Mmm. I don’t wanna talk about Angie,” he muttered. He kissed the side of Nesryn’s neck and rested his teeth on her skin in a playful bite. “You smell good.” He took her left hand in his and stretched it long at their side, like the neck of a guitar. With his right, he found a resting spot on the side of her stomach. When his fingers started to strum, he made sure she couldn’t get out of his leg jail.
Nesryn laughed softly at the remark. Either way they worked it, Brian was fortunate to have a sister. But she left it alone and savored the contact Brian offered. Nothing else in the world mattered right then except for him and that brought her a sense of peace.
His lips left a spot of heat on her neck. She tipped her head to the side to expose the skin. Her hair was getting longer, she needed to cut it.
Arm stretched easily with his guidance. “Thanks,” she murmured, grinning. “I switched soaps.” Maybe it made a difference. Maybe it didn’t.
She wouldn’t have wanted freedom from that prison even if it had been offered. Sitting together like this was as close to heaven as they could get.
“It’s not your soap,” he laughed, nuzzling her hair. Every person had a scent and he fell for hers before he met her. Soap, shampoo, perfume, all that was icing on his favorite cake. Brian’s fingers tried to coax a tickle out of her hip bone, but he didn’t mess with her for long because he didn’t want her to wriggle out of the spot. Nesryn was strong and she had sharp elbows, a fact he figured out whenever he got any ideas about messing around with her. He turned his head to her outstretched wrist. “You still want to get a tattoo?”
She extended her arm a bit more. “I do.” It was something she’d been thinking on for a while, at least since Brian had etched a symbol into the bar at Lucky’s for them. Tattoos were something she liked.
Regardless of her scent being a defining point, ink had a better and easier way to identify.
Nesryn looked over her shoulder at Brian, through the strands of her hair. Her smile was much brighter now, nearly a challenge to the twinkling spots in the sky.
“Alright,” he said, leaning back to take in that killer smile. Damn, she was pretty. “Like what?” He brought her wrist up to his mouth and kissed the place where her pulse beat. Brian’s short winter beard scratched at her arm. “Nah, don’t tell me. It should be a competition and whoever wins gets to pick. That way, I don’t have anything to worry about.” He tucked his grin into the palm of Nesryn’s hand.
“So you’re telling me you don’t want your name inked on my skin?” She teased, taking on a feigned look of seriousness. She liked the aspect of competition; it was a constant in their relationship in a way, that teasing one-up, that kept things light and interesting.
“What exactly are the rules of this competition?” Now her smile was back. She could still feel the scratchiness from the graze of his beard on her skin and her fingers brushed across the line of his mouth, jaw, with adoration.
“Nuh-uh. There’s too many Brians in the world.” He turned his face into the stroke of her fingers. She could do him a lot of damage with those fingers. All she had to do was this, or not even make contact at all. Nesryn could do that ‘come here’ hook and he was done for. That was the kind of contest he didn’t mind losing. His cold right hand sneaked under her clothes and settled on her stomach. Brian kept his voice low, like he was trying to sweet-talk her back into bed. “Maybe just my face. But two of them. One looking straight-on, the other in profile, and it’s my school picture. We could have a race. Unless that’s getting old and you want to try something new. I’m all ears.”
“That sounds intricate and expensive,” she murmured, biting at her lip to conceal the amusement creeping across the split of her mouth. She kept her voice low, her fingers caressing the stubble and skin of his face gently. “I’m always ready for a race.”
Whether it was competing for something fun, a common goal, or a race to see who could make it to the bedroom first in an effort to claim all of the blankets, she was always ready.
Plus the wolf loved to run. It was born for it.
“We can scale it back to a stick figure with good hair,” he offered. “Okay.” Brian wrapped his arms back around her and pointed high in the canyon, to a peak of sharp rock off in the distance, one which would require cutting through narrow paths of dirt and rock, some scrambling, and a bit of winding around to reach. There were multiple ways to get there, but it was dark and there was no telling what was in between. “You see that high point?” He kissed the back of her ear. “Whoever makes it there and back first wins. Starting…now.”
Brian flung the blanket off to the side, letting in a rush of cold air, and scrambled out from behind Nesryn. His beanie flew off when his shirt went over his head and landed somewhere on the ground.
She gasped at the sudden movement. Blanket went flying, Nesryn leapt off of the hood of the car already working out of her clothes. She landed in a crouch and began to sprint, all the while peeling away layer after layer. A trail of garments and her shoes would be left in the wake of the wolf who padded through the underbrush heading for the peak in the distance.
It felt good to run. The wind in her fur, the smells and sounds of the night in this place intrigued on the border of distraction. Nesryn wanted to follow the scents and see where they led but she stayed focused, darting across the path that would lead to victory.
“Damnit!” he laughed. Brian would never understand how she got her clothes and shoes off faster than him, every time. The pain of shapeshifting was sharp but over quick, adrenaline getting him past any momentary hesitation over breaking-and-mending bones and shifting joints. The wolf tore after Nesryn, making up the distance with dirt flying under paws. He had his mind set on a different course, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t take a friendly swipe at his mate on the way by. He crashed into her side, rolling them both through the coarse vegetation, before kicking off and heading up the backside of the hill. Small rocks tumbled down the side of the canyon as the wolf made its ascent. Lizards and other critters started and skittered out of the way.
A soft sound of surprise and amusement left the maw of the wolf as she tumbled and rolled. Brown fur met dirt and underbrush. With a keening noise similar to a playful challenge, the wolf was up and sprinting on long legs and large paws.
With the swish of her tail she managed to stay true to the course ahead; leaping over a rabbit burrow a creature on two legs may not have seen outright, slipping through a tangle of tumbleweed, sliding around a cactus waving.
Nesryn climbed a rock and ascended the peak. She nearly set a paw on a spider bypassing it at the last minute.
Brian’s wolf came up the other side of it, paws negotiating the uneven surface, only slowing long enough to nudge the other wolf on his way down the side where Nesryn had come from. Hind legs kicked up a small cloud of debris, an unspoken ‘eat my dust’ as he headed back down the summit. The clear sky lit the path pretty well, but he could also follow her scent and know exactly which route she had taken to get up the ridge at that speed. It was a challenge negotiating his human mind’s demands to go faster with the wolf’s itch to roam and explore, but right now what mattered was not ending up with a full-color tattoo of a maltipoo.
The car came into sight. The scent of their human life grew stronger as Brian leapt over pieces of clothes that were going to be challenging to find in the dark, especially since he grabbed a piece of Nesryn’s with his canines as he crashed by. He shifted mid-air and crash-landed on the bumper of his car.
Nesryn hightailed it down from the spot, kicking up her own cloud of dust. She padded down the cliff side after Brian, catching the smell of the night. Moving faster, Nesryn kept at him as they rushed, in a playful manner.
Along the way, same as Brian, she skirted around the discarded clothing and gathered it up. Nesryn ended up with a sneaker dangling from her maw by the laces and her jeans over her back where it met the neck.
And then she changed back into her human form. Nesryn laughed, beginning to search for the rest of her clothes, putting a piece on as they were discovered. “Oh man, it’s so cold out here,” she murmured, giggling.
“Oh! So— so you’re not going to acknowledge that I just beat you?” Brian stood there naked, pointing at the hood of the SUV, a look of disbelief on his face. “That’s dirty, Ness.” In his left hand, a pair of women’s underwear dangled from his fingers. He slowly lifted it up for her to see and fired it like a slingshot into the shadows behind him.
“Nope,” Nesryn giggled. She bit at her lip to keep from laughing more, tugging her shirt over her head and then down onto her frame. And then her jaw dropped in surprise as she gasped. “That’s terrible, Brian Campo. Panties are not cheap.” But she was laughing again, making her way to where she suspected those lacy underthings had landed.
On the way she picked up one of his shoes and threw it into the darkness. “Whoops. Sorry about that.”
Not the shoes!
“No!” He ran up behind her, scooped her up around the waist and steered her back towards the car. “Not until you admit I won.” It was freezing, he was completely sans clothes and she was bare from the waist down. It was going to be a really uncomfortable wait if she refused to concede. He flexed his biceps to keep her from breaking loose. “It’s easy, it goes like this. I, Nesryn Rowan, acknowledge my crushing, humiliating defeat.”
Nesryn shrieked and then giggled, lifting her legs up as if she were trying to scrunch into a ball. Mostly it was to stave off the cold. “Brian!” She laughed. “Okay, okay, you win! It’s so cold!”
She wriggled in his grip though not with much attempt at all to break his hold on her. Turning to look over her shoulder, Nesryn offered him one of those looks and then set her feet down on the ground. She shook her hips and waited for him to let go so they could both get dressed.
She was killing him. “You keep moving like that, you’re not going anywhere,” Brian growled in her ear. He swatted her ass cheek and let go so Nesryn could find her precious undergarments. He wandered over to the SUV and reached through the window to grab his cell phone. The flashlight came in handy for looking around for socks. The clothing was in a ball under his arm when he wandered back to the hood of the car and dropped the boots. The first thing he put on was his beanie.
“Moving like what?” She offered. Her tone lacked innocence though, keen to exactly what he was getting at. Maybe they didn’t need clothes to stay warm, or maybe they did. With another laugh she pulled from him and went to look for her clothes. The panties were clinging to a bit of underbrush which refused to part with them at first. Thankfully it relented.
Nesryn pulled into the lacy things and she danced back to Brian, brushing against him. “You know, I really like that beanie.”
“Yeah?” Brian had adjusted it on his head, pretending that it wasn’t cold outside. Mind over matter. At least his ears were warm. He watched his girl standing there, making just enough body contact to wake him up. He loved goofing off with her, talking to her, trying to make her smile, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t have a hard time keeping his hands to himself. Ness was 5’3” of curves in her bare feet, and when she wiggled around, her hips and thighs distracted him. Ever since she moved in with him, it felt like the house was full of visual landmines, and he was just trying to be the guy who could catch sight of his mate toweling off after a shower and not throw her over his shoulder. But he also needed her to know how bad he had it for her, because part of hanging onto her was making sure Nesryn knew he was still pursuing her.
“How much?” He picked up a pair of boxer briefs and shook them.
“Oh yeah,” she offered back.
It was undoubtedly cold. She would’ve guessed near freezing though she was no good at temperature without her phone in hand to tell her. Regardless they both needed warmth and quickly. A tee shirt and panties was just not enough to stave off the chill.
“Enough to let you keep it. You look like you could use it,” she murmured, then laughed a bit. And then she shivered visibly from the cool weather tickling her skin.
She loved this man endlessly. There was nobody else in the world for her and there never would be. Maybe that was a large claim - maybe his stake in it was different but she didn’t feel as if it was.
Nesryn pivoted on the balls of her bare feet, lifted herself up onto her toes and threw her arms around Brian. She pressed a series of soft kisses against his mouth and then retreated so they both could do the smart thing and finish getting dressed.
The kisses threw him off his game. Brian had his pants on and was halfway into his shirt when he replayed Nesryn’s words in his head and came up with a different meaning. “Hey… what was that supposed to mean?!” He threw a look down at the zipper of his jeans and made quick work of pulling his shirt over his head and righting the skewed beanie. “I’m gonna go back to changing behind a boulder,” he said, in a balancing act as he pulled on his socks and boots. The jacket hadn’t retained any warmth from when he took it off, but he had high hopes it would regulate his body temperature soon, especially now.
He grabbed her fleece blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders.
“Nothing,” she offered, biting back a laugh. Her expression betrayed her though. Nesryn scooped up her jeans and jumped into them, hoisting them up from both sides and trying not to pull the belt loops too firmly lest they snap off from her strength.
Finally she eased into her coat, and then her socks and shoes. It was warmer with clothes on, for sure.
And then her jaw dropped. “No fair! You can’t have the beanie and the blanket.” Nesryn tugged gently at the edge of the fleece blanket, doing her best to get it to creep away from Brian.
Brian opened it to let her into the cocoon. “I’ll share. I’ll even let you help me pick the tattoo, because I’m a good sport.” And also because it was warmer with Nesryn in there with him, and because he didn’t want to sleep on the couch when they got home. Once he got used to sleeping with a person next to him in the bed, a narrow couch wouldn’t cut it. Brian inched closer to envelop her in the cape-like warmth of the blanket. “I love you, Ness.”
As the flap of the blanket opened, Nesryn grinned and slipped into the warmth. She even spared Brian the cold from her fingers, setting them instead on his shirt as her arms wound around him. Her head rested against his chest. “That’s so nice of you.” A giggle left her. She squeezed Brian gently.
“I love you too, Brian.”