Chapter Ten
Briar
He kissed me. Damn, it was better than I imagined, and I’d imagined it plenty of times in the past week.
“That was…” I said, pressing my fingertips to my lips, testing if it was real.
“It really was.”
Tiredness pulled at me, but I wasn’t sleepy. Time with Foster seemed more important.
“I have an idea,” I said. Foster’s eyebrows moved upward. “How long has it been since you let your deer out?”
He chuckled. “How do you know I’m a deer? I never told you.”
I tapped my nose. It was one of my special powers. “I have an excellent nose.”
Foster drew closer. His chest briefly touched mine. “And what does this excellent nose say about me other than I’m a deer?”
Oh, my. From this angle, I could see his heartbeat pulsing in his neck. Slow and easy. He was relaxed. “When you came into the studio the first time, you were stressed. Your anxiety clung to my chest, and I wished you had stayed for the class.”
“I’m always stressed.” He looked down. “Sometimes bits of peace feel so foreign now. It’s unsettling how uncomfortable I am with calm and relaxation. People go on vacations and come here seeking tranquility, but for me…I only try and relax when I don’t think I can take any more tension.”
“I was there once too. So frazzled and burned out that I couldn’t think straight. My chest always tight. My breaths short. My mind never stopped.”
“And what did you do?”
“I breathed. Explored all kinds of things until I found what worked. Practiced. It’s a skill, relaxing, especially for those of us who seem to thrive on chaos and business and having too much on our plates.”
“What else, omega? What else did my scent tell you?”
He took one more step. His hips pressed against mine.
My mouth went completely dry. “A lot, alpha.”
A smile pulled at his full lips. “Fine. Fine. Keep your secrets, Briar. You said something about shifting? I don’t let my deer out often enough. And he’s eager to meet your sweet bear.”
“Sweet?” I scoffed. “My bear might be mighty and fearsome and a terror on paws.”
Shrugging one shoulder, he moved away to grab his phone from the counter, and the loss of his body heat next to mine was immediately felt. Like a cool draft took its place. “You can be all of those things and sweet at the same time.”
“Let’s see, then. You know a place where we can go?”
He started toward the door. “Trust me?”
“Of course.”
We drove out of Oliver Creek and to a patch of land big enough for shifting and running but not so large that anyone would get lost—or hunted.
The place seemed forgotten. Vines grew up the tree trunks, fighting for life and trying to strangle it out of the branches. The moon hung in the clear sky. Not a cloud in sight. No evidence of cars that had been parked or even footsteps.
My stomach jumped as my mind wandered to what would happen next. Shifting meant getting naked.
In front of the alpha my bear was sure belonged to me.
An alpha I really wanted to mate and experience intimately.
“You’re nervous,” Foster stated as we got out of the car.
“I am. It’s…it’s been a while.”
“Since you shifted?” he asked, cocking his head sideways. Some of his tense scent had come back, but it wasn’t as strong as before. Progress.
“No. I shift all the time. When I can. It’s been a while since…”
“Don’t get shy on me, omega. It’s been a while since what?” His voice dipped to a sexy bass that weaved through me, setting fire to my bones.
“Since I’ve been with an alpha. Naked. Shifting. Any of this.”
“I can turn around if you like. While you take off your clothes.”
I snorted. “No. I’m fine.”
We shucked our clothes and left them on the hood of his car. He shifted first after we both got a good look at the other. My face heated. Foster was one magnificent creature even before I saw his deer.
His deer was majestic. I’d never seen a deer shifter in person, but Foster’s was right out of a fairy tale where some elf prince rode a tall, proud steed with countless horns.
When I shifted, Foster, as his animal, walked around me. Assessing. Scanning.
He bowed and nudged my head with his. Approval.
Deep in my chest, an ember began to burn. The beginning of a bond. A shifter bond. Stronger than anything humans could come up with. Stronger than a contract, a marriage, words that lost their meaning after decades or decay.
A shifter bond lasted forever.
We ran for hours, shifting back well past my bedtime. He admitted he was in a better headspace to figure some things out. How he would move forward.
We had a great talk on the way home, and when he dropped me off at my house, he came to the door and kissed me good night.
I wanted to invite him in, but the timing didn’t seem right. Foster was my mate. Our animals solidified that notion. But there were things to work out and some evolving to be done on both our parts.
I had to become even more secure in who I was and how I wanted to live so that this gripping desire and lust didn’t make me choose mating over the life I needed.