Seven #4
“Oh, look at you,” Cole breathed. My eyes popped open, and I stared at him, hearing the awe in his voice and seeing the smile that lit his face.
I was not prepared for him to walk forward, right up close, not a drop of fear in him, and sink his hands into my fur.
No other human or shifter had ever put their hands on me in my true form.
Only an elf and a siren had. “Not a wolf at all. Not human either, just—God, you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. ”
There were gasps from the others as Ondine released them, letting them see me as I truly was and feel the bestial, feral energy rolling off of me. They were all shivering, even the alpha, so it was easy to see my effect on them.
“What are you?” Cole asked me.
“I am one of the Cù-sìth.” I answered in his head, and I wasn’t surprised when he heard me and nodded, not at all freaked out by the newest revelation of telepathy. “I was made for the singular purpose of punishment.”
“That can’t be. That’s not you at all,” he said out loud before leaning in and pressing his face into my fur. “You’re kind and good, and off topic, you smell fuckin’ incredible.”
He sounded almost drugged.
I chuckled low and saw him shiver at the sound.
“It’s been so hard, because I don’t know what I’m supposed to do or be as a wolf,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around my neck and leaning his weight against me.
“I’m not sure what my place is. But as a man, I have to care for my brother, and oh, Mere, I can feel the bond with you right here in my chest. Once you—and forgive me if this isn’t right, it’s the word I know—shifted and became your true form…
Holy fuck, there was no mistake. I felt it like a fist to my heart. You’re mine.”
I had been so on edge, so distracted, so unsettled for months, and I’d had no idea what was happening.
I’d felt almost haunted, but now, suddenly, everything slid into place, like a key fitting into a lock, and it made sense.
All of it, every part, had been the coming of my mate.
And now calm washed over me, a feeling of certainty, of rightness settling in my chest. This man, unlike any who had come before, was mine, and for once there was peace, like a calm sea after a storm.
“Ever since I first saw you, I felt like I needed to be closer to you, with you, and like I told you before, when I left after we argued, I must’ve stopped ten times on the way down your long-ass driveway, knowing I was supposed to turn around and go back and beg forgiveness.”
“It was the same for me.”
“But I didn’t do it. I tried so hard to put you out of my mind, and then everything happened with Evan, and I was so scared that I’d failed to protect him, failed to save him, and he was dying—”
“He’s fine now,” I murmured to him in his mind.
“Yes. Because of you. And I was in his room, and then I saw you and… I knew you were there for him. Of course you were. And when I look at you, I know we’re supposed to be together.
But even after everything, after you saved Evan, I still second-guessed myself because all of it seemed so crazy.
I don’t even know you, but I knew we shouldn’t be parted. Not ever.”
I loved the rambling, loved him speaking from his heart. It soothed my soul.
“Even packing everything up to bring it over here, I thought, why am I doing this? He doesn’t want me and my brother with him forever. That’s nuts.”
I chuckled, and he smiled in return.
“But now…because of this, because of your change, because you trusted me to see, I can feel it. This, us—I know with absolute certainty that you belong to me.”
Yes, I did.
“Do you feel it too?”
“I do.”
“Could we go inside? I really want to go inside. I want to bring all my things into your home and close the door and be safe with you.”
With me.
“And lie down next to you.”
“Yes.”
“And Mere, you have to let me put my mark on your skin and make you mine. I have to claim my mate.”
With a deep inhale, I was human again, and the second I changed, Cole clutched me tight, because in my everyday form, he was bigger than me. When he laughed, I stepped back to look at him.
“Man, I wish I could go from me to my wolf and not have to take my clothes off. That is some epic shit right there.”
I squinted at him.
“What? It is. If you had to strip naked every time you made the change, fold your clothes, and put them on top of your shoes, you’d be jealous too.”
Ondine nodded, stepping around us to take my arm. “I’ve met many shifters in my life, and they all have similar complaints.”
Cole gestured at her. “See? She gets it. Even though, just like you, bird to goddess and back is a neat trick too.”
She smiled at him. “Thank you, Cole.” She pinched my bicep, so I turned and looked at her. “Did you hear that? He said goddess. Not mermaid like I was some insect he stepped on.”
“Who said you were an insect?” he asked her.
“Never mind,” I grumbled at him. “Let’s go get everything from the car.” I glanced at the others, who honestly looked like they’d seen not just a ghost, but an entire army of them. “I didn’t mean to scare you,” I told them. “That was never my intention.”
They were going to speak, but Ondine cleared her throat and everyone went silent. I understood. I had changed so they could see my true form. She had wielded her power over them, and they were scared.
“Years ago,” she began, her voice soft, the dulcet tones utterly bewitching, “Merritt first lived on the coast, where he found me, in fact, and in time befriended a family that lived outside of the town. The wife was a healer and an herbalist, and because of that, the townspeople, of course, called her a witch.”
Everyone was staring at her, rapt.
“As expected, one hot summer evening, a mob formed, and they came for this woman and her daughter, and they were going to do something awful to the husband and son, brand them or—I don’t recall, but all of it promised to be a horror.”
“Why are you telling—”
She shushed me, patting my arm to quiet me, then continued.
“So when they showed up, Merritt had no choice but to shed his humanity and become the creature he truly is.” Heavy sigh from her.
“And of course, all the men died. He let the women and children flee—I know, they brought their children, just awful—but once he looked around, he realized that the family, his friends, those he had protected, were now terrified of him.”
“I’m sorry.” Cole slipped his hand over my shoulder.