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She wrapped her arms around Hannah and watched as he pulled off his clothes behind a tree, hanging them from a branch until he shifted. Her eyes widened, and Hannah giggled when he tossed the clothes at her for safekeeping.
“This is gonna be fun,” Hannah said, looking back at her. “My dad used to do this.”
She was about to ask what when he took hold of the sled rope and pulled them. They flew forward, and Nora screamed.
Hannah giggled loudly, cheering as he took off down the mountain in bear form. He could hear Nora cursing under her breath, which only made him chuckle. He took them down the mountain and then back up another. When they got to a large opening in the forest, he slowed to a stop.
He looked back and found Hannah smiling. She looked at Nora, who looked amazed. “This is the large open meadow. It’s covered in snow right now, but when it blooms, it smells wonderful.”
He remembered bringing Hannah here. Her parents loved the fragrance of the flowers, and he figured it would be a fond memory. That and he thought Nora would like it.
Nora smiled at Hannah. “It sounds wonderful. Maybe we can come back when it blooms.”
He hoped her words were true. Hannah would likely be healed by then, and he didn’t know what the future held. He just hoped maybe she would be part of it.
Hannah carefully stepped around a little bit to stretch her legs, but he was right next to her if she needed a hand. Hannah had been working hard and was finally walking better.
After a while, Nora and Hannah packed onto the sled, and he pulled them back. When they arrived at the house, Nora helped Hannah inside while he went to grab something to wear. His clothes from earlier were wet from the romp in the snow.
After changing, he found the two girls in the living room. Hannah was fast asleep while a movie played. Nora gave him a wave, placing a finger over her lips. “She’s a little tired. I figured we should let her sleep before we start lunch.”
He sat next to her, his finger grazing hers for a moment, and it sent sparks up his spine. She blushed at the contact.
“Good call. She did walk a lot. She pushed herself.”
“It’s good for her,” she said, giving him a proud smile. She patted his hand, which sent another spark through his body. “She is healing.”
He swallowed, knowing her words were true. He looked down at Hannah and then up at the movie. He relaxed on the couch, tired from all the running.
“Why don’t you take a nap?” Nora whispered.
He wasn’t going to, but it was warm, and he figured why not. So, he allowed himself to slip into sleep.
SEVENTEEN
NORA
Nora had tidied things up and tried to read a book earlier that day while Hudson had indulged in a nap with Hannah.
Her reading was going out the window as her mind kept running back to Hudson.
She was trying not to have feelings for him and be realistic about the whole situation, but it was proving harder than she thought.
Nora wasn’t hoping too much for anything, but everything he had told her compared to how he was acting was confusing. She couldn’t get a good read on just what he might have felt for her, if anything. As a result, she was keeping her mind attentive to every detail, wanting to dissect them to come up with the correct solution on how to manage her growing feelings.
She set her book on her lap, giving up since she had read the same line four times. She looked at the sleeping duo on the couch and let her mind loose.
Hudson was a polar bear. A shifter.
It was all new to Nora, but she found that it didn’t detour her.
But that wasn’t the issue at hand either.
Hudson had told her that Hannah’s father had left the clan to marry a human. That it was frowned upon by the shifters to mate with a human and not your own kind. So, to Nora, that meant that the alpha, Hudson, had to obey that rule more than anyone, right?
And with that being the case, that meant there was no future between her and him. That begged her to question why he was being so … flirtatious with her.
Was it just to pass the time?
