AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Did we talk about children? Did we discuss the future?”
“We said that we would like to have kids if it was possible, but that we’d be okay if we couldn’t. We’re both middle aged, and you were concerned about your fertility. We’d only been together for a few months when you got pregnant, so having kids was more of a hypothetical that we both wanted.”
“How did I find out?”
“I don’t know, but Clay picked up on the morning sickness and confronted you.”
“Right. He told me how he drove to Greenacre to make you take responsibility. Clay can be rather convincing, but you were so overjoyed when you found out, mystified but overjoyed, that he refrained and changed course. I’m sure that when I told him, I also told him that I’d taken you for a mate and that I hadn’t told you yet, but he can be kind of…well, he does what he wants.” She traced her finger over Kier’s knuckles. “That’s another reason I want to do half time at my parents’ house. It’s to keep an eye on my family until this guy is caught.”
The silence around them wasn’t the fractured, nightmarish darkness that she’d known in her head before she’d opened her eyes in the clinic. It wasn’t the stressed darkness of sleepless nights filled with worry. At the moment, she knew only peace.
And then…cold.
A shiver that ran bone deep, even though she was with Kier.
A sudden tiredness that pulled her under. A change in everything, her perception, her reality. Her bones. She sucked in a breath, and it went in wrong and came out wrong. Her eyes were wide and wild, but Kier was there. She understood the words and heard his voice clearly, even though it sounded like it came from a universe away. The ground trembled, or it seemed to, but she knew those tremors were just coming from deep inside herself. She tried to open her eyes again, but there was only darkness. Darkness and a bright light that was shining from inside herself. Gold streaked across an internal midnight sky.
Her head ached. There was buzzing. A swarm of hornets trapped in her skull. In her chest. In her bones. Her heart was beating too fast. It hurt, it was going so wild. She tried to breathe, but she choked and then coughed and breathed in too hard. It was like being underwater. She choked again.
“It’s okay, Tay. Let it happen. I’m right here. Your body knows.” Kier’s voice, from the darkness. “It’ll take you through it. You’ve done this so many times before. Trust me. I’ve got you. I won’t let anything happen. Trust your bear. She’s here to take care of you. I’ll run with you. We’ll run together. Don’t fight it. Just let go.”
She wanted to do what he was telling her to do. She wanted to trust him. She’d let down her guard and let him in. She’d clung to her family because they were all that she had left, but then she’d found that she had a whole clan and she had Kier and his clan too. She thought her life was over, and that’s when she’d discovered she had so much to be thankful for. That it was really just starting. She hadn’t done any of that alone.
She wasn’t alone now.
Kier was there. Her bear was there with her. She’d been there all the time, waiting for this moment. Waiting until they both felt safe enough to make this shift happen.
Instead of clamping down and going to war with herself, she did her best to relax.
The cold feeling left first. It was like a numb limb going back to normal. Everything started to tingle. That tingle turned into a rocket of white-hot pain that flew up her spine. She gasped, arching into it, but still not fighting it. Some pain was okay. Some pain was necessary. She’d learned to embrace this. Learned to live with it. As an experienced shifter, she’d probably grown so used to it she barely noticed it. It was only because it was so new to her all over again.
Her body bowed in half as the pain sawed through her, the white heat tearing at her joints, her bones, her tissues, and all her cells. Her brain. It was there, but so was Kier’s voice. She realized he’d been speaking gently to her the entire time.
“Just surrender. I’m here. We’ll do this together.”
She did what he asked her to do and the human parts of her shut down, but the animal parts took over. The pain was gone, and so was her human form.
Chapter 12
Kier
He’d never run so hard in his life. His lungs worked, breath raw and cold, fiery and overheated.
The smell of his mate. Just ahead of him. Running.
She stood on her hind legs and growled, the sound loud and fierce in the night. He stood up too, but didn’t roar back. Instead, he shook himself, then bounded after her.
She cleared the forest at an astonishing speed. He was larger than her, but he could barely keep up. She ran with the joy of not having run like this in months. She ran with the newfound joy of freedom. She let out another roar and this time, he responded.
She didn’t stop when she reached the creek.
It was hardly ever cold enough for the water to freeze. The stream was always running, always moving. Gentle splashes, not more than a few feet wide.
She bounded through it. Silver droplets of water sprayed up everywhere, coating her thick, dark fur. She plunged her face into the deepest part and snorted out water. Did it again. Another roar. One huge paw slapped at the surface, and then she dove under. The creek wasn’t deep enough for all of her, but she dove and rolled, surfacing to take a massive breath, puffs of breath steaming out into the night.
He stood on the shore, absorbed in her joy, his own breath so hot that it was a white fog as well. When he couldn’t take it anymore, he bounded in after her.
She met him in a raw embrace, knocking him back, plunging him into the icy water. It went through the fur that protected him and he gasped. Sucked in water. Choked. Came up for air, releasing the moisture in a cough. She plunged him down again, but this time he was ready. He wrestled her, thrusting her up out of the creek and onto the damp bed. She chuffed at him and charged. They wrestled, locking arms around each other, biting and snapping, growling and snarling, but they knew each other’s limits and it was half dance, half play fight, and all joy.
