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She gave Donner a wan smile. “I’m fine. I just needed to get away.”
“If you want to run even farther, just say the word.” It was said in a teasing manner, although the light in his eyes was serious. “I’ve got friends all over. I can get us on a boat and we can take a few days off.”
“Like you’d abandon Meridia.” She treaded water, although her limbs were already feeling sluggish and heavy.
He moved closer and lifted a hand, easily staying afloat even as he touched her cheek. “You’re family, honey. You know that.”
“Thanks, Donner. But I just want to go home and sleep. For a month.”
Worry lines bracketed his mouth. “Okay. But you’re going to let me get you a lift back.”
“No.” She made a face at him. “If anybody sees us, some idiot might try to approach a natural orca like that—”
“Not that kind of lift.” He winked and nodded at something past her shoulder.
She felt the rocking of the water then and looked over her shoulder.
A familiar smiling face grinned down at her.
“Chassy.”
“Come on, honey.” The woman held out a hand and hauled Zee up into the sleekly built boat. She passed Zee a shirt and Zee pulled it on with a weary smile of thanks.
Behind them, the water lapped and splashed, displaced as Donner shifted to his orca form. He slapped the water with his tail, once, twice.
As the spray hit them both, Chassy called out. “You asshole!”
Zee was surprised to find she could laugh and she turned to wave at the large creature, knowing he’d done it for just that reason.
“Don’t encourage him,” Chassy said, but there was amusement in her voice.
––––––––
ZEE’S SMILE WAS LONGgone by the time Chassy let her climb out of the boat on a private dock just a short block from her apartment. The dock behind the Mermaid’s Tale was too public and while she was covered from neck to knee in a t-shirt that her nose told her belonged to Donner, she didn’t feel like parading down the wooden planks with the bar’s patrons able to see her half-naked.
Her head was almost quiet as she drew near to her place and she thought maybe, just maybe, she could sleep without twisting awake in the middle of the night, taunted by the hungry desires of her own body, or by dreams of things she’d never have.
Of course, her exhausted state of mind meant her barriers were lowered, weaker... and it was easier for him to slip inside her barriers.
At first, she thought that was why she scented him on the breeze—the familiar, wild scent of pine trees, cold mountain air, woodsmoke... and oddly, the summer sun shining down hot on the grass, combined with the musky scent that was purely his.
Nikolai...
Her skin went tight as she dragged in a breath of air, the olfactory memory so strong, she imagined she could—
Her eyes went wide.
Coming to a stop, not even half a dozen yards from the narrow passageway that led to her apartment over the bar, Zee went tense.
Wolf. Prime.
Her own wolf stirred in awareness.
It was different from how she’d reacted earlier to that watchful, wary presence she’d picked up on—that unfamiliar presence.
This presence though...
Her heart shuddered and the longing that lived inside her swelled and stretched.
A shadow stirred in the darkness ahead. Tall and broad-shouldered, a stubborn jaw. In the coming twilight, the lights from her building cast him in sharp relief.
Her shuddering heart shattered, the pain of a thousand of lonely nights and empty days all combining to one moment of agony that eclipsed everything she’d ever known.
Adrenaline exploded through her and the exhaustion was nothing but a memory as she shifted. Even as a wolf, she was a slimly built thing and Donner’s shirt cloaked her like a shroud, tangling her up the excess folds. Panicked, she clawed and bit and tore her way free and took off.
Her last clear memory before her wolf took over was of Niko staring at her, his lips parted as they formed her name.
