2. Emma #2
A weight slipped from my shoulders, and a knot loosened in the center of my chest. Fuck if that hadn’t been bothering me a helluva lot more than I’d realized. My vision blurred once more.
She bent over the bed and pressed her lips to my forehead. “You’re my baby girl, Emma, and you’ll always be my favorite kiddo on the planet. You’re the rainbow-headed piece of my heart, whether you have fur or feathers or claws or jagged teeth.”
“Thanks, Mom,” I murmured.
“Okay if I sit here a while?” she asked.
“Sure.”
Mom disappeared and returned with a chair from the dining room.
She placed it as close to my spot on the bed as possible.
Then she disappeared once more and returned with a steaming bowl of soup.
It reminded me of the soup I’d had in the off-grid cabin in the woods. Probably made by the same people.
“Mom, go back to your cabin and get some rest.”
“Not until I see you eat and get your own rest. It’s not like the existence of the shifter world depends on me, Emma. You need to eat and then get some sleep.”
“Mom…”
“No arguing with me, young lady. I’m not going anywhere.”
After the soup had mostly disappeared, she slipped her hand into mine and placed her other one over it. She hummed the lullaby she used to hum to me when I had nightmares as a kid.
My eyes slid closed. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“No place I’d rather be, sweetie. You sleep.”
Logan!
I startled awake to a stubbly chin grazing my forehead. My heart pounded as I opened my eyes to see him bending over me, as though he’d stepped out of my dreams and landed at our bed.
After bolting upright, I swung my legs over the edge of our bed.
Then I wrapped my arms around his middle, pulled him as close as I could, and pressed my cheek to his stomach, drawing in his masculine, wild scent.
No matter what happened, he was my home, for as little or as much time as we were granted.
“Logan, there you are,” I whispered. “I didn’t know what had happened to you or how long it was going to take you to get back. It’s been hell around here.”
He smoothed his hands over my back. “Your mom said you had a hard day.”
The low timbre of his voice rolled over my skin, and I shivered, my legs trembling. It’d been too long since I’d held him.
I frowned, lifted my head, and scanned the room. “Where did she go? Earlier, she wouldn’t leave my bedside no matter how much I commanded her. She even brought me soup and made me eat it.”
“I think she knew now was a good time to get out of here. We might have plans, those sexy plans. The kind mothers should never know about.” The corners of his mouth twitched. “Though, I’m afraid she’s gonna find out when you have one of those primal orgasms.”
I leaned back and circled his waist with my legs. My already wet center met his already hard dick. Fuck. I’d missed him. “I think the whole pack is in for a real helluva humdinger tonight.”
With a low growl, he gripped my thighs and tugged me hard against him, thrusting against me. “Maybe we should talk first?”
Talk? He wanted to talk? No… I didn’t want to talk.
His eyes clouded; his irises turned a dark, stormy blue. “You have a secret to tell me, and I have things I need to tell you.”
I grabbed his arms and pulled him over the top of me. Shivering, I wrapped my arms around his back and rubbed my cheek against his chest, relishing the low thud-thud-thud of his heart. “I have so much to tell you, but for now, I only want you. I only want to remember what us feels like.”
“I might already know a thing or two,” he murmured, his biceps flexing as he settled his elbows on either side of me, “but it can all wait until after… Because for us, Emma, there will always be an after.”
There will always be an after…
Until there’s not.
Lightning flashed in the window, illuminating the boiling, billowing clouds overhead. A breath later, thunder shook the house as a cackling echo sounded in the distance.
My heart clenched, and I bit my bottom lip to stop the gasp that would have otherwise escaped. Until there’s not? Where the hell did that come from?
No, I refused to let a what-if sabotage the time we had together, so I arched toward him, hoping he hadn’t heard my words through our fated mate bond and glad we were both already naked. Surely he hadn’t noticed the tiny shake of my head as I pushed the self-defeating mindset out of my mind.
He grasped my chin and brought my mouth toward his. The scent of smoked whiskey, cigars, and freshly cut pine filled my mind.
Before his lips brushed mine, I paused to study his eyes. New cobalt shadows danced in his gaze, marring the bright blue of his irises, and pain reverberated through our bond. Something had changed in him, damaged him in a way I couldn’t yet define.
“What happened to you out there?” I whispered.
Had it changed the man I’d bonded? It was as though I could see the wound in him, as though he reached for me from the depths of a chasm I didn’t understand. The pain caused a rush of moisture in my eyes. God, he was drowning, and I didn’t know why.
His mouth tightened.
“Logan?” Please.
“I… I…” His voice cracked, and he growled as if to cover it. “I need you, Emma. Now. Every day. Always. You’re mine.”