Page 68 of HaL

I take a step closer.

She notices and looks up.

For a moment, neither of us says anything.

“You are still you,” I tell her, though I am not sure whether I’m trying to reassure her or myself. Her fingers brush cautiously through the fur along her forearm. She watches it move, fascinated and frightened at the same time.

“I can feel it,” she whispers.

“Feel what?”

“Everything.”

She closes her eyes.

I watch the fur along her shoulders shift with her breathing. There is something almost instinctive about the way she moves now, as though her body understands these changes long before her mind does.

Then she suddenly stiffens, and we both gasp. Between her beautiful, now fur-covered breasts is a glowing rune.

“HaL…?”

I swallow.

“The mate mark.”

She looks at me through the reflection, questions in her gray eyes.

“I never dreamed ... I didn’t even think to discuss it.” Her fingers hover over the glowing symbol. “Somehow, who I am and what we are to each other has…”

Her eyes drop back to the rune.

“Well, there it is.”

I kneel beside her.

“Think about your human form. Picture yourself exactly as you were before. See if you can switch between them.” She gives me a skeptical look.

“You make that sound easy.”

“Just picture yourself as you were, Roja.”

I gesture toward her reflection.

“Let’s see what happens.”

She closes her eyes.

For what feels like forever, nothing changes. Then I see it, the fur begins to disappear. Slowly at first, then faster, until in the blink of an eye, she is standing there in her human form. Except she does not shiver. She does not even seem uncomfortable. Her eyes pop open.

“I’m still not cold.”

I barely have time to respond before she spins around and throws herself into my arms.

“Hot damn! I am a snowman/woman! Whatever!!!”

I laugh despite myself.

“Roja—”