AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lamented the joy that I knew was just out of my grasp.
“Oh, Jillian, I missed you. It was like gasping for my next breath. But I didn’t want to smother you. You’ve got a lot going on. I felt like I was adding to your stress.”
I shook my head so hard, I nearly gave myself a headache.
No, I need you. Please don’t stay away.
Creek cocked his head sideways. “I won’t, from now on. I feel it, our bond growing by the second. I’m done for, Jillian. No more staying away. I swear it. I have to be near you.”
We spent the rest of the afternoon just talking about random things. He liked music, anything without words, which I found funny. I scribbled down answers and questions, and he answered without hesitation, laying it all on the line.
He pulled me into his lap as we sat there in the grass, the sun finally giving up on the day. The time had passed like a flash. “You’ve told Shane about us, right? If I arrive at your cabin, he’s not going to come out swinging, right?”
He chuckled as I erased my previous answer about my favorite food.
He knows. Swinging is not really his style anyway.
Creek chuckled, jostling us both. I lay against his chest, and his chin rested on top of my head. “That’s true. He’s a zen one. I think I know a way to be near you without invading.”
Any way you can be near me sounds great.
“I have one more question and then I’d like to walk you home.”
I nodded and patted his chest, trying to get him to go ahead.
“Can I kiss you, mate of mine?” The question and him calling me mate shot through my head and curled around my spine. There were no nervous butterflies in my belly or giddiness in my bones like I had with the others.
Being in Creek’s hold was my safe haven. It was different with him, this love. It was steady and solid. I knew there was nothing I could ever do to shake this string between us.
Instead of answering, I tipped my chin up and kissed him first. He gripped my hips and turned me so that I faced him. Warm hands moved from my hips to my back as he splayed them out between my shoulder blades, pressing me against him as our mouths explored each other for the first time.
No panic. No rush.
Just a constant, undeviating connection that anchored me to him, sealed us together right there in that moment. A bond that could never be broken.
And we hadn’t even mated yet.
My wolf rested in the promise of that day.
Chapter Seven
I used the chat function on the Zoom screen to talk with Wendy and Christi. Communication had become my watchword because while I once thought something magical would happen and I’d be able to speak aloud again, I had begun to recognize the unlikelihood of such a thing. And, as my various methods of “speaking” to others, of conveying the thoughts trapped inside me broadened, I felt better.
Just better.
For years, everything had been bottled up, like soda under pressure just waiting for the cap to be removed, and I’d assumed that the opening would mean traditional words, feeling as if I’d never have the ability to truly share my ideas and thoughts and emotions with anyone. But my mates were stripping away that loneliness. Each of them in his own way.
“Hi, Jillian,” Christi said. “Ready to try text to voice?”
And this was the next level.Ready.
It wouldn’t sound like me before, not that I had a clue how I would actually sound if I could talk, but when I tried out the system, it was pretty robotic. Still… “Let’s do this.” I cringed a little. “What do you think?”
Wendy bit her lip. “It’s okay, but honestly? It feels less like you than the typing.”
“Do you agree, Christi?” I wasn’t in disagreement, but I kind of felt like people wanted to hear words. As if my writing was less-than. And I’d been less-than a long time.
“I…” She went silent for a minute. “I want whatever you want. I can’t imagine what it would be like to not be able to speak. Some people think I talk too much.”
