Chapter 2
BUCKLE
I suck in a breath of fresh air. Home sweet home.
Pax and Aaron were right. I needed to take a trip back home.
I got time from my boss at the garage and went home for an entire month.
An entire month where I didn’t think about Fated mates or being lonely or anything.
I simply helped mama around the house and played with my nibblings.
Made Christmas magical. And got therapy.
No one asked why I was around for so long, but after a month, I knew it was time to return to the life I built in Michigan.
Don’t get me wrong, a single month pouring out my heart and soul to a therapist didn’t heal me. Didn’t fix all my problems, but it helped a fuck ton. New year, new me. That’s the plan, anyway.
The pull of something is still here, and it always pulls me towards the forest of the property. There’re all kinds of shifters that live on the Rising family estate, but as far as I know, they’re all taken.
I shake off the long drive as I unlock the door to my trailer.
It’s a doublewide that I’m still proud of a decade later.
While it’s not filled with kids yet, it will be.
There are three bedrooms and enough space for at least half a dozen kids, if you ask me.
Mama had nine kids in three sets of triplets and we all survived in a single wide.
Nothing’s changed in my house. There’s a hint of Pax since he watered my plants, but other than that, it’s all the same.
That needs to change. I need to embrace the new me and purge what doesn’t work in my life anymore.
I’ve never stifled myself. Everyone always gets the real Buckle, but my house doesn’t say much about me.
But before I do anything, I need to let my chipmunk out. He’s running around in my head from the long drive. I dump my bag of laundry right at the door and start stripping. I can start the laundry later, when I’m more calm. But now I need to play.
The air’s cold on my naked skin, and I shiver.
It’s January and I’ve never had to deal with so much cold in my life.
Virginia doesn’t get as cold as it does here.
I love it, but also hate dressing in layers.
My chipmunk doesn’t care as long as he gets to play.
The snow’s melted for now, but the weather guy said we’ll probably get more over night.
In Michigan, everyone’s so used to snow we just deal with it.
Not like in Virginia, where one snowflake causes a citywide shutdown. At least it used to.
I close the door behind me, but don’t lock it.
Dropping to my knees makes the shift so much less painful since I’m not scaling from a six-foot something human to a tiny little creature.
I shrink and it’s always like every part of me is stuffed into a much too tiny tuxedo until I’m fully integrated into my chipmunk form.
I shake my tail and wiggle my nose. Snow is definitely in the air. I don’t care and dash across my porch and down the steps. My chipmunk can run around to his heart’s content, I’d never deny him expression of what he needs.
I run and run and circle and run. Up a tree, down a tree. Up. Down. Up. Down. Up. Down. There’s a squirrel! I run towards them, wanting to play, but get distracted. Up. Down. Up. Down. Up. Down. Run. Run. Run—
I squeak when talons wrap around my tiny body. There’s an electric shock and the winged menace screams out as my chipmunk chants. Mate. Mate. Mate. Mate. Mate.
Impossible.
My tiny body flails when the hawk releases me and flies away. What do I do? Shift? Don’t shift? I plummet towards the ground when the squirrel shifts and catches me.
Electricity shoots through my body again, and I flop back in the hand of my rescuer. Their bright brown eyes search me over, but I can’t keep my eyes open.
“I’ve waited for so long,” they whisper just as I lose consciousness.