Chapter Nine
Lewis
“I-I am not sure.” The bold omega had asked me to shift with him, and while I wanted that more than almost anything, “I haven’t been able to take my fur since I got so sick.”
“Can you hear him?” Wilder laid a palm on my chest. “Is he in there?”
“Yes and yes.” Although, I was having a hard time breathing with the omega touching me. “But by the time you showed up with your soup, I was not able to raise him at all. I sensed his presence but feared he was also sick.”
“Not now?”
“No, he’s quite active in there.” And noisy. “He likes you.”
“That’s so nice. My wolf really wants to meet him. So, want to give it a try? If you can’t it’s okay. I’m sure it will just be a matter of time and healing. I have a tincture that might help.”
“I’m game to attempt a shift. If I can’t, you are very welcome to let your wolf have the run of the property. Just give the hives a berth since they aren’t used to you.”
He shook his head. “Thank you, but I only want to do it together. We are on a date, right?”
“You know, omega, you really are outspoken and I like it. Yes, we’re on a date, and I suppose that means we should stay together for the duration. I just didn’t want your wolf to suffer if my bear and I can’t get it together.”
“I’ve been called mouthy,” he said. “As well as a lot of synonyms of that word. I hope I’m not too much.”
“You’re just right.” I gathered our picnic things. “If we leave these here, real animals will move in on them. There’s a bench on my back porch where we can leave our clothes.” Even the walk was a pleasure with him at my side. I climbed the steps and opened the screen door to set the basket inside.
He followed me and pulled his shirt over his head.
“Perfect.” The sunset had long passed, and darkness moved in to take its place.
Not a cloud to block the golden moon rising into the sky.
The omega’s skin glowed in its light as I broke the courtesy rules of shifting to take in every inch exposed.
He was lean and toned and very different from the bears I’d seen more of.
And then, before I could look my fill, he was shifting, changing, fur sprouting as he dropped to all fours.
Paws, a snout…a plumed tail unlike any wolf I had encountered.
His ears stood up straight, eyes a golden amber that drew me in.
All wolf, yet still my mate. I didn’t know how it worked, had never experienced the shift of someone I had this connection with, but it didn’t seem at all strange.
Just perfectly right. I’d planned to shift right away, if I could do it at all, but instead fell to my knees before him and buried my face in his fur.
It was thick and double layered, not as soft as I’d imagined yet somehow lush.
And his scent was exactly the same. When we met, I’d been so congested that I hadn’t been able to really take it in, but as we’d sat under the trees with their various-sized and colored fruits, it had been a touch point.
If I closed my eyes, his scent of ripe wheat and sunshine drew my face right toward him.
After I’d had a chance to familiarize myself with him, the wolf bumped me with his nose, and I got the idea.
“I’ll try.” I stood and took a few steps away from him, undressing while his beast took in my body—it was only fair. Leaving my clothes on the bench, I descended to the yard. “My bear doesn’t fit well under the porch roof,” I explained.
The wolf also left the porch and sat down a few feet away from where I stopped.
Far enough, I wasn’t too worried about blundering into him if my shift went sideways.
Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect. I’d never had trouble shifting since my first time until this virus or whatever it was had laid me low.
Squeezing my eyes closed tight, I sought him within me. Want to come out and greet the wolf?
For a breathless moment, nothing happened.
He didn’t move or respond. Nothing changed in my body, and then, instead of the steady way I was used to taking my fur, the bear took me.
Instantaneous shift, violent and fast, and painful.
The underfur and longer guard hairs spiked through my skin.
Bones broke and reformed, ears changed. My head grew larger and eyes reshaped.
Claws, fangs…everything bigger and different. Why? I asked.
My bear growled. Because everything is different with our mate here.
Is it going to be like this every time?
No. Only until you complete the mating and marking.
I’d never heard of anything like this. Was it my bear trying to twist my arm to do something I’d have done anyway?
Or was this some kind of secret that happened in our line?
With my fathers dead, no one I knew could tell me.
And I supposed nothing could be done about it.
Except maybe avoid shifting. And with the way our animals behaved together, that was not an option.
The minute my bear was fully in, the two bumped noses, sniffed each other, and tore off across the yard and into the fields.
Their joy was contagious, and for the moment, I pushed aside any worries about where this might be going and what would happen if the wolf did not agree that we were mates.
He let us lead, showing off the farm with all of its beauty.
The stream that wound its way through, the low hill giving a view of the surrounding countryside.
All the flower beds and trees and other features that made me so happy to live here.
After the tour, we returned home and shifted again.
Wilder was friendly and excited, but I couldn’t read whether he wanted me the way I wanted him or not.
And while the shift seemed to have gotten rid of most of the remaining ailment, I was still tired out from the energy expenditure and confused about what was going on with the mating thing.
I wanted to ask him, but this omega had not held back on anything else. If he wanted me, wouldn’t he say?
Torn and tired, I was gruff and awful and ended up saying goodbye and spending the night lying alone on my bed, brooding.
Fun.