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I managed a weak smile. “Like the sound of that.”
“How did it feel?” he asked tentatively, his vulnerability more evident now.
“Strange, beautiful.” I frowned. “Saw something.”
He brushed the hair from my face, tenderness reflected in his eyes. “What did you see?”
“Paths. Two paths. One. Bunny. Candy apple. Sad. Lonely behind rainbows.” I sighed. “Other path. Dark. Scary. But I followed and saw a wolf. A raven. They turned into me and you and we laughed. Happy.” I took a deep breath, happy to regain some balance upon the exhale. “Saw something else.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s weird.”
“Weirder than a bunny and a candy apple?”
“Don’t want things to get weird between us.”
His hand lowered to my abdomen. “I’ve been inside you. So goddamn deep. I’ve felt and tasted almost every part of you. My blood runs through your veins as yours does mine. Savannah… You can tell me anything.”
“Pregnant. Me. Painting outside. You were happy.”
He swallowed hard. “Were you?”
Dreamily—it might have been the loss of blood—I smiled, “Yeah. And it all felt so real. Looked real. Weird, eh?”
“No. Not weird. It’s not uncommon to have a vision of the future during the claiming.”
“Future?”
My eyes widened. He jumped straight in, understanding my panic. “It isn’t a bad thing, sweetheart. Me and you, creating life. And it doesn’t have to happen now. It’s a vision of the future.” He stroked my cheek. “We haven’t known each other long, but we’ve slept together, bared all in such a short space of time. That changes things. We don’t need months and years to determine the next step. That’s a process. And love, relationships, they’re not supposed to make sense.”
“Say that if you have a daughter,” I slurred.
He laughed. “You can remind me of my wisdom when she’s dating.” He frowned. “I see what you mean. I’ll build a tower in the woods with no door. When she turns thirty, she can move in there, and we’ll keep her hair short so no sneaky shits can climb up and take advantage.”
The laughter bubbled out of me, and I fell. “Tell me.”
“Tell you what, baby?”
“About you. Your past. More.”
He smiled, but there was hurt reflected there.
Checking the water, he turned off the faucet and lifted me, placing me carefully into the water. It was hot enough to soothe but not burn my skin. It warmed, helping to bring me around.
I sighed in contentment. Donovan made me comfortable by placing a folded towel beneath my neck. After that, he took a sponge, and lathered it up with soap, gently tending to me. “There’s not much to tell,” he began. “Before the Gideon drama, I roamed the land, sometimes staying with a wolf pack. But I always felt the need to move on. My mother died when I was five, I think. I had a photo of her once, but that’s long gone. As far as I’m aware, she died of heartbreak not long after my father perished. He died while hunting. Fell off a cliff or something. I’m not sure.” His eyes remained focused on my skin as he softly stroked the sponge around my body. “I ended up in the care of their friends, but I didn’t fit in. My mother’s pack was small and archaic. I felt stifled by their traditions so I broke out on my own. I met Victor while traveling.”
Victor. A man called Victor worked for Gideon.
“Works for Gideon?” I asked.
“Yes.” He put the sponge in the water, squeezing it until the water turned soapy. He lathered it once more and lifted my leg. “We were as close as brothers, each of us trying to find our place in the world. I don’t know what happened to Victor before I met him, but he’d had it rough. I could tell that much.”
“You miss him.”
“What?” His eyes snatched to mine, pain, and anger settling there. “No. I don’t miss him. Not after all he’s done.”
“You can still miss him.”
