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As if her words had been a detonator, his eyes flew open and his body arched off the bed as if invisible paddles had just jolted him back to life. He screamed and Maya winced as his body began to convulse. She tried to reach for him but he was thrashing so hard it was difficult to get a grip on him. Finally she crawled back on top of him, ignoring the heat of his skin, and pressed her hands to his wrists, holding him to the bed as she sat on his thighs.
“M-Maya…” Her name came out a choked sob and tears made her sight go blurry.
“I’m here.” she told him softly. “I’m here. Just hold on to me. Hold onto the sound of my voice.”
She had only the vaguest of ides what was happening inside his body. Zoey was the only human she knew who had been turned and all she had ever told Maya was that it felt like dying. She’d said it was like being burned alive, skinned from the inside out, ripped to shreds and then when you thought you were nothing more than ash and embers, a wolf breathed in the fire and was birthed into the world. She knew Zander had spoken to Zoey about it as well and hoped he’d been better prepared for the actual change because just the sight of him in so much pain and anguish nearly destroyed her and she wanted to take it back, take it all back, just to have him with her again with the pleasure of before washing over them.
She didn’t know how long it lasted. How long he screamed and cried. She didn’t know if it was minutes or hours. It felt like a lifetime. A lifetime of holding the man she loved down while he begged for her to make it stop. A lifetime of praying that she hadn’t accidentally done something wrong and killed her fated mate. It felt like she had been waiting an eternity when she felt all of the magic that had exploded between them get sucked back up into a vacuum so quickly that it made her dizzy and lightheaded and then she felt it.
Zander gasped, his eyes flying open and instead of the lovely green that she adored, they glowed gold with his newborn wolf. He lay panting, blinking, his eyes, his new wolf eyes, darting all over as if he was trying to figure out where he was. She smiled down at him, slowly releasing her tight grip on him and brushing her hair back off her face.
“Hi.” she whispered.
Zander blinked again and suddenly his eyes were green again, “Holy shit.”
Maya collapsed atop him, “You’re back. Oh god, you’re back.”
“I’m back but I’m not alone.” Zander wrapped his arms around her, still shaking slightly. “I can feel him. Inside me. I can feel the wolf.”
“What’s it like?” Maya asked, curious since she had never known a day without her own.
“It’s really fucking weird.” Zander admitted and she laughed with him. Once he settled again he sighed, “I can feel him just under my skin. He’s trying to orient himself, figure out what’s going on. He’s like… a baby?”
“Kind of.” Maya nodded. “He’s new. He’ll have to get used to us the same way you have to get used to sharing your body with him.”
“He’s pressing against my skin. Looking for a way out.” Zander tilted his head, staring at the ceiling but she knew he wasn’t seeing anything but the wolf. “He wants to meet his mate.”
“I said hi before he disappeared back inside you.”
Zander squeezed her, “That’s not what he means and I think you know that.”
“I’m not shifting for him tonight.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’ve put your body through a lot already. You almost died. You only healed because of the bond. Now you’ve accepted a wolf inside of you. Learning to let him out and then how to get back out yourself, having the strength to withstand the change and the mating on their end is too much for one night, Zander.” She leaned up so she could look down at him, “Tomorrow is the full moon. We’ll turn together then. We’ll seal the bond and then we’ll have the rest of our lives together. Okay?”
His green gaze studied her face for a long time before he finally nodded, “Okay. You’re the expert here. If you think we need to wait, we wait.”
“Thank you.” Maya leaned down and pressed a brief kiss to his lips before pulling back, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go get cleaned up. I’m a little messy after all of that.”
Zander groaned, “Let me.”
“No way.” She pushed him back down when he tried to sit up. “Stay here and rest. I’ll bring back a damp cloth and clean you up after I shower.”
“Or I could join you in the shower.” His smile was wicked but only half-hearted.
“Rest.” She slid off the bed, glancing back over her shoulder, “I’ll be back before you know it.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” She smiled as she turned and left the room.
He did need to take a shower too but now wasn’t the time. She could clean him up enough to feel okay about pulling the covers back over him. She’d have to do laundry tomorrow. She quickly went through the process of wrapping her hair and then taking a quick shower, rinsing the sweat and semen from her body and shaving too since she’d barely left the bed long enough to brush her teeth since Zander had been hurt. She pulled a loose fitting t-shirt and a pair of boy-cut underwear on and smiled when she went back into the bedroom and found Zander solidly asleep and snoring.
She had known he would be. He needed the rest. Even if he wanted to act like nothing about all of this phased him she knew his mind and his body had been through an overhaul tonight. He needed to sleep and put himself back together and in the meantime, she got the pleasure of taking care of her mate, something she had a feeling he wouldn’t let her do if he was awake.
Carefully, she gently cleaned him both of blood and other fluids. She tenderly traced the half moon circle on his shoulder that had already healed. The white scar would last a lifetime, proof of their bond. She shivered at the sight of it on his pale, freckled skin. Anyone who saw that would know that he was claimed, that he had a mate, and as she looked at it now she only wished that she had put it somewhere far more visible so nobody ever dared get too close to her man.
