AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sorry. Can never resist surprising you,” he said.
He carried me to the bathroom, where we enjoyed a luxurious soak in peach and vanilla-scented water. He pampered me with a slow rub of my tense shoulders and neck as we chatted about the usual nothings we always did—Noah’s homework, how our work was going, the wish for a vacation.
“I’m still sour about having to cancel our honeymoon,” Cole griped quietly behind me.
“France isn’t going anywhere,” I said lazily. “We’ll go there soon. We just have a lot to do before we can get more time to ourselves.”
“When are we not going to have things to do?” Cole asked, squeezing me back against his chest. “I’m starting to regret starting a pack.”
“You don’t mean that. Not really,” I pointed out. “It’s stressful now, sure, but when things are running smoothly, like Vic’s place, you’re going to be glad for it, right?”
“Are we ever going to get there, though?” he asked, sounding a little put out. “It feels like we’re always going to be a bunch of chickens running around with our heads chopped off.”
“We will get there, Cole. I promise.” I said with certainty, turning to look up at him. “Of course we will. You have to have patience, Cole. We’ve been at this for what, three or four months? Your grandfather has decades on us.”
“Fuck me. If it’s going to take decades, I’ll quit now,” he groaned.
I heaved a sigh and turned around, straddling his hips. The water sloshed around us, and he gave me a morose look as his hands smoothed up my back.
I wrapped my arms around the back of his neck. “Cole. My beautiful, wonderful, sexy, powerful husband—”
“You forgot charming,” he said.
“Charming,” I amended.
“And funny,” he interjected again.
“That’s to be debated,” I said. “This is a great example of you not reading the room when a joke has run its course.”
“Very rude,” he chided me with a grin.
“Can I finish my thought now?”
“Go on,” he said, smiling.
Relieved to see him smiling again, I drew my arms back and rested my hands on his chest. “My beautiful, wonderful, sexy, powerful, charming, hilarious husband,” I started again. “We don’t know how long it’s going to take for this to pan out. I really don’t think it’ll take a decade for things to calm down, but it will take more than a few months, and it’s going to be harder when things are actively challenging. We have a looming pack war, trauma, displaced shifters new to the way we do things, even some people who can no longer shift. It’s only natural that things are thrown off.”
He sighed and nodded. “That reminds me,” he said. “I talked to the doctor about all of that today.”
“About what?”
“The people who can’t shift,” he said. “He thinks we can correct by essentially doing an alternative shifter serum treatment.”
“So…like Travis just went through?” I asked. “That won’t hurt something?”
“Well, that’s the other thing,” he said. “They don’t know—the people going through it will essentially be taking the risk, acting as guinea pigs in a clinical trial. They’ll have to sign waivers. Things like that.”
“I see,” I said. “Well, maybe the timing is perfect, then. I can go through the transition with our members who were most hurt by the Lanyon Clover incident. We can all support each other through it. It seems like a no-brainer, don’t you think?”
He nodded. “I just...I mean, I wouldn’t blame people if they didn’t feel comfortable taking the risk. It’s a horrible choice to have to make, either resigning yourself to be changed forever or face unknown consequences from an untested genetic therapy. I don’t know how I’m going to break the news to people. I don’t know how to be the bearer of that bad news.”
“Then don’t be,” I told him, lifting my hand to cup his face. “I’ll do it.”
“Marley, you don’t have to put yourself in that position.”
“I know I don’t have to,” I said. “But like you said, you already have so much on your plate, and I am your partner in this. I’ve been through a lot, and I’ve gotten a lot tougher. I can handle it.”
“But—”
