Chapter 24 #2
“I love getting you all hot and bothered, and you kissing me told me exactly what I needed to know,” he said. He smiled widely, dimples and all.
I let out a small laugh and then shoved him.
His smile dropped. “Do you want me to come see you while I’m shifted?”
“What?” I asked.
“To get used to it, when we go back home, you might see more shifted. You don’t have to, I just wanted to offer,” he said.
“I guess… we can try,” I said.
“Okay… I gotta go,” he said, then leaned over and kissed my cheek.
He grabbed his bag that was sitting on the chair, threw it on his back, and ran toward the woods. The sun had already dropped below the tree line, and it wouldn’t be long before it was completely gone.
Quinn explained that once the sun dropped past the horizon, they would shift involuntarily, though not always all at once.
Some could fight it a few minutes longer than others, which is why Daxyn shifted, and he hadn’t yet that night.
Most of them chose to shift before it forced them to shift.
He said it was more painful for a forced transition than doing it on their own.
I went inside and made Lucy a bottle. She’d gotten so wiggly and big that it had gotten hard to hold her and make a bottle at the same time.
Once I made the bottle, I scooped her up and sat down in the chair with her.
Quinn had gotten a little animal pen that we put in the corner of the living room.
It had her bed, a small box filled with litter, little food bowls, and some little plastic ball toys.
She wasn’t as interested in the toys quite yet.
She did enjoy attacking our fingers, though.
She fell asleep purring in my arms right after she finished the bottle.
I moved her back into her bed. I’d been trying not to hold her as much as I had been.
Lina’s truck pulled into the driveway moments later.
She came at the perfect time. My stomach started to rumble.
I opened the door and stood on the porch as she got out of her truck.
“Hey, Lina!” I yelled at her.
“Hey, sweetheart,” she said, “I have food, dice, and a notepad.”
“Do you need me to grab anything?”
“Nope, I got it all,” she said.
She had the glass platter with a cotton wrap around it, and a small sack sitting on top of it. I held the door open for her. She came in and put the glass pan on the counter, then set the bag onto the table.
“Let’s eat,” she said. We both filled our bowls up and went to the table.
“How are things going with Quinn?” she asked.
I almost choked on my food.
“That says more than what you didn’t say,” she said, smiling.
“You’re so perceptive,” I said.
“Of course, I am. I’ve been around the block for a while,” she said.
“We kissed!” I blurted out.
Her eyes widened, just a little bit, not enough to say she was shocked, but intrigued.
“Tell me more,” she said.
“Oh, that’s it,” I said.
“Do you want there to be more?” she asked.
“No… Yes… I don’t know… I’m confused,” I said.
“Okay… let’s take it from the top. Why not?” she said.
“Because our lives are complicated. He’s a werewolf… I’m not. He’s five years older than me. We both have obligations we have to go back to,” I said.
“The werewolf thing… that can’t ever go away, but it doesn’t have to complicate things… I mean, other than twice a month. Don’t worry about the age thing… who cares, you’re both adults. Tell me why yes,” she said.
“He has been amazing to me… ya know, other than holding me hostage, but since being here. He has cared for me and has done everything to make it right. He wanted to raise Izayuh with me…” I said. I sucked in a breath. The words hit differently out loud. Tears rolled down my face.
“He’s an amazing kid,” she said. She reached across the table and placed her hand on my hand.
“Listen to your heart first and then listen to your head,” she said.
“How do I know what it’s saying? How do I know it’s not just lust?” I said.
“I can’t answer that for you. Only you can. The thing is, you don’t have to make any decisions right now,” she said.
We finished our dinner, and then she taught me how to play dice. We played for a couple of hours before she headed back home. Just as we opened the door and stepped outside—
Awooooo.
Awooooo.
Awooooo.
It was really close.
“You’re welcome, son,” she said.
Awooooo.
She hugged me, and then she was on her way down the drive.
I stood on the porch, watching the stars twinkle in the sky. The moon was full and bright, reflecting off the water.
Leaves crunched to the right of me, and I spun my head that way. A solid black figure was coming my way. My breath hitched. The closer he got, I could see it was a big black wolf—Quinn.
He slowly approached the house. My hands shook slightly. I was fine. He told me dozens of times that they—he—wouldn’t harm me. I stepped off the porch toward him. He walked up to me, his head at my shoulders. I reached my hand out. He nuzzled my hand with his nose.
“I guess twice a month I’ll be taller than you,” I said.
His head dipped—a nod. I didn’t know why it took me by surprise. Of course, he could understand me.
“I guess this isn’t so bad,” I said. He pushed his snout into my chest.
We stood there for a few minutes when another wolf approached from behind. I startled, but he nuzzled me again.
“Is that Callie?” I asked.
He nodded again.
She wasn’t as large as Quinn. Her fur was stark white. The two of them were vastly different than each other. She didn’t come as close as he did. After a little bit, she took off back into the darkness. He nuzzled me again, then turned around and left.
“See you in the morning,” I said.
I crawled into the bed. As soon as my head hit the bed, my lower stomach started aching. It was a familiar pain I hadn’t felt in a long time. I grabbed a pillow, rolling somewhat on my stomach, using the pillow to press into me.
Pain dragged me from my sleep. Pain that I was all too familiar with—one that I hadn’t felt in a while.
It was similar to the contractions I had with Izayuh.
My period. I got up and ran to the bathroom.
As soon as I sat down on the toilet and went pee, I felt it all come out.
Lina and Dr. Arthur had warned me that the first one would be the roughest. My stomach cramped, making me fold over.
I reached into the basket, in the cabinet under the sink, for a pad.
They had said I could use tampons, but we hadn’t gotten any, since we didn’t know when my period would come.
I cleaned myself up and then went back to bed.
Something I hadn’t done in a long time. I laid on my side and hugged the pillow tightly.
Tears rolled down my cheeks. I wasn’t even sure why I was crying.
It was only a period… the first one since I’d been pregnant with Izayuh.
That was it. Another hit, another reminder that he wasn’t here.
I wrapped my hand around the pendant that carried his ashes and held it tightly. I cried silently.
The door slowly opened, and Quinn tilted his head at me slightly. He had a plate and a mug in his hand. He walked over to me.
“I’ll get up and come eat,” I said.
“No, you’ll lie here and rest. I got warm food and ginger tea,” he said.
I sat up and took both of them from him.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, before heading out of the room.
Within a minute, he came back with a blue fabric thing in his hand. “It’s a rice bag, for the cramps.”
“How’d you know?” I asked.
He tapped his nose. “I thought you might have been fertile two weeks ago,” he said.
“You can smell that?” My eyes widened.
“Yes, sort of. When you’re around someone for a while, you learn their scents. Then last night, you had a different scent. Lina also warned me it would probably happen really soon,” he said.
“How do you know all this stuff about women?”
“My mom believed men should understand women and their health. Lina, too,” he said.
“Oh…” I said.
“The first period after giving birth can be hard for anyone, but especially for you. So, I’ll be here for you,” he said.
“Normally, periods don’t really bother me, but my stomach is super crampy this morning,” I said.
“Do you need anything… specific?” he asked.
“Umm… well… I’d prefer….” I stammered.
“I’ll go get you some tampons,” he said, not forcing me to say it.
I nodded. He kissed my forehead and left the room. A few minutes later, I heard his car start up and leave. I finished the food and carried my empty bowls back to the kitchen. Lucy was sleeping, so I scooped her into my arms and brought her to bed with me. I drifted back into sleep.
Two voices woke me up, my eyes quickly opening.
I looked around, and no one was in the room.
The voices were coming from outside. One of them was Quinn.
I let out a sigh of relief. Normally, I could hear them a lot better, but they must have been a little further from the house.
They were talking back and forth for a little bit.
Then a vehicle started and went down the driveway. Quinn came back inside and stood in my doorway. Our eyes met.
“Who was that?” I asked.
“That was a friend of mine from back home,” he said.
“What’s he doing here?”
“Well, he came to talk with me; he’s part of the plan to go back.”
Quinn came into the room and sat down on the bed, near my feet.
“We will be going home on the eighteenth,” he said.
“Of this month?” I asked.
“Yes, thirteen days away,” he said.
“What’s the plan exactly?” I asked.
“The next time we shift will be the night of the nineteenth. So, we’ll stay close to home and get a hotel for a couple of nights. The next night, Callie, Hyder, and I will do what we do, and then that morning we will take on Ravik,” he said.
“Why that day?”