8. Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
Liam
I make love to Taylor over and over through the day and night. I can't get enough of her… the taste of her skin, the warmth of her flesh, the intoxicating scent that has me burying my nose against the curve of her neck as I move inside her. Holding her in my arms, feeling her heart beating against my chest, it's pure ecstasy unlike anything I've experienced.
After we’ve made love, I feed her. Giving her the nutrition she’s not been able to accept into her body until now due to her illness. I return to her room as the bathroom door opens and she appears wearing nothing but a towel in a humid waft of steamy air that’s infused with her woodland rose petals scent.
She’s delectable, with pink skin that glows. Her cheeks are flushed and as she catches me staring at her, the blush works down her neck and over her chest. She’s lost the pallid complexion of her disease, and as she walks toward me, I’m happy to see that she’s so much steadier on her feet.
“I made some risotto for us.” I place the steaming bowl on top of the small table in her room, the rich aroma of parmesan and fragrant herbs filling the air between us.
“Oh wow. Thank you.” Her eyes glow as she raises onto her toes to kiss me before sitting at the table. She takes a bite, and her eyes widen in surprise. “You’re an amazing cook, Liam.”
Warmth blooms in my chest at her delight as I slide into the opposite chair. Providing for my mate, nourishing her, is a basic drive I can't resist. “A necessity due to hectic work hours, I’m afraid. Pizza and burgers get old when you buy takeout all the time,” I deflect with a chuckle. “And I'm happy I can give you something better than fast food.”
Taylor laughs softly. She shakes her head as she dips her spoon into the bowl. “There must be something in the air here. I haven't had an appetite like this in months.”
The reminder of her illness, of how badly she was fading when she stepped into Sally’s Diner, has my wolf bristling but I push him down, focusing on the flush of life now coloring her cheeks.
She forces a smile. “To be honest, I haven't really been able to keep much down lately. Mostly Graham crackers and water. This is a nice change.”
My heart clenches at the struggle she's been enduring all this time. If only she knew the truth… that her days of suffering are over now she’s been treated for her actual disease.
She meets my gaze, so beautifully vulnerable. “Is that common? To get back my appetite? For someone in my condition, I mean. Do doctors typically encounter that?”
The irony of her words isn't lost on me. As a doctor who treats humans, the drugs she was on should have helped her, but as a wolf shifter doctor her disease wasn’t human.
“Miracles happen to the best people,” I say simply. My gut churns. She deserves to know the truth. Needs to understand what’s happening to her. But not just yet. She needs more time.
Taylor chuckles and takes another bite of her meal. She takes my words as a kindly jest, not realizing I haven’t told her the truth she deserves to know. I watch as she eats, satisfying my primitive desire to feed my mate. The desire grows into something more complex and desperate.
My wolf growls, the sound too low for her human ears, but she picks up on my arousal though the bond. Her pupils dilate and the spoon clangs into her empty bowl, forgotten by the both of us. The bond snaps with need and I heed its call.
I’m out of my chair, striding around the table and pulling her out of her chair. The towel drops to the floor and I hold her naked body against mine, claiming her lips in a searing kiss as my hands roam the curves of her body.
I lead her back to the bed where I fall between her parted thighs. She’s already so wet for me. I slide into her welcome, slick heat and let her arousal consume me. I let everything I feel flood the bond, willing it to strengthen faster.
Deep down a part of her already recognizes the truth, but her human mind still rejects it. I feel her reeling emotions—the confusion, the longing, the persistent sadness that haunts her. She thinks what she feels about me is her imagination. She still believes she's dying, that her life is slipping away, unaware that my blood is rewriting her DNA with her wolf heritage.
It’s kinder to wait until she feels the bond more strongly. Until it’s irrefutable. Until there will be no doubt in her mind. So I simply love her with a tenderness that has become my entire world, for the rest of the day.
We watch the sun dip into night through the window as I hold her in my arms. I already know her soul. Now all that’s left is to hear about her life. I pepper her with questions, committing everything she says to memory.
“I'm a conservationist who's always been driven to preserve endangered species and their natural habitats. Grew up in a small Oregon town, fell in love with the outdoors from an early age. After college, I started working for a non-profit focused on conservation efforts,” she says, her voice soft.
She turns in my arms and her scent washes over me, more potent and muskier than it’s ever been. My hands freeze on her hips. Her brow creases as she no doubt feels the way my heart has stuttered.
Her scent is almost as potent as a born female wolf shifter. I drive my nose into the crook of her neck and drag in her scent, making sure I’m not imagining things. I’m not wrong. Her scent is developing.
“What are you doing?” she giggles.
My gaze runs over her body, noting the changes in the past day. She’s still too thin, too frail, but there's no missing the way her softness has firmed into muscle.
Her body is changing. Unexpectedly.
“Just seeing how my blood transfusion is helping you,” I say.
I have less time than I thought to introduce her to the world of wolf shifters before the changes become too obvious for her to ignore. I need to tell her the truth of who and what I am, and what we are to each other.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Liam?” Her gaze bounces between my eyes, as she rubs the center of her chest right over where she’ll feel the bond.
Fear grips my heart because although I want her to know, this is the wrong time. She’ll run. Her car is just outside, easily accessible. I need to tell her, but in a place she can’t leave. In a location I can help her confront her new reality.
“I was thinking you might be strong enough to go on a hike tomorrow. Would you like me to take you?” I ask, trying to keep my tone light. “The forest trails around here are beautiful. Since this is my hometown, I know all the best spots to show you.”
Taylor's face lights up with a bright smile. “That sounds wonderful! I'm feeling so much better. I have so much energy.” A teasing lilt enters her voice as she adds, “There must be something special in your blood that agrees with me.”
If only she knew just how right those words are. Before I can formulate a response, she winds her arms around my neck and kisses me deeply.
A slight frown creases her brow as she pulls back. “I crave you so much and I don’t understand why.”
Her confusion filters through our bond, but it's quickly overwhelmed by desire, the profound longing that has me crushed against her in an instant.
“Goddess knows I need you in the same way.” I capture her lips again, losing myself in her essence. In the bond. In the magic of discovering my mate.
We make love through the night, and when morning comes, Taylor is already reaching for her hiking clothes with an excitement that both warms and pains me.
“You know, I came here to find some hiking trails. It’s stage one on my bucket list. I was hoping to do some before...” She trails off, but I hear the unspoken words loud and clear. Before she had to return home to face her impending death.
She frowns at me as she rubs her chest. “What's wrong? You seem...tense.”
I paste on what I hope is a reassuring smile. “Just make sure you bring a jacket. It can get chilly in the forest.”
The excuse is weak but I can't bring myself to shatter her bright-eyed excitement just yet. Soon, though. Soon I'll have to change her world forever. I just pray she'll be able to accept her new reality.
Accept me as her mate.
Yes mate. Tell mate. My wolf thrums with excitement, wanting to show himself, but he doesn’t understand the delicacy of the situation.
I pack some food and shove it into a backpack as Taylor all but bounces on her feet at the back door.
“I can’t believe there are hiking trails right outside! I can’t believe I didn’t notice them before.” I miss my step when her eyes glow with a preternatural light but when I look again, her green eyes sparkle with nothing more than good health.
The changes in her over the past few days are nothing short of astonishing. Gone is the frail, sickly woman who walked into Sally’s Diner three days ago. In her place is a vibrant, energetic force of nature. The woman she always was before she was ravaged by disease.
Cindi looks up from where she's kneeling beside her garden as she carefully tends to the vibrant blooms surrounding the back patio. Her brow creases the moment her gaze lands on Taylor, eyes widening as she takes in my mate’s newfound vitality.
To her credit, Cindi manages to rein in her shock. I can practically see her holding back the flood of words she wants to let loose. Her brow flicks upward when she sends a pointed look at me. “Off for a little hiking adventure?”
“Just going to show Taylor some of the local trails,” I reply with a meaningful look, letting her know we need our space for what's to come.
Cindi's shoulders relax minutely and with a small, understanding smile, she refocuses on Taylor, her expression one of genuine warmth.
“It's so beautiful out here!” Taylor gushes, completely oblivious to the weight of our unspoken exchange. “The air is so fresh and vibrant. I swear I can almost taste it!”
With a final farewell to Cindi, I take Taylor's hand and lead her from the safety of the 'Bite’ and into the forest, our path stretching out before us. With each step, the need to reveal her new reality grows heavier with every passing minute.
I should tell her now. Show her what she's becoming, explain the bond between us but then she turns that radiant smile on me, telling me about the trees and the forest, so full of wonderment and contentment, and the words die on my tongue.
I'm on high alert, every sense attuned to potential threats lingering in the forest shadows. Mitch's words at the latest pack meeting echo a grim warning in the back of my mind. He thinks ferals are targeting our human female mates. We've been urged to exercise extreme vigilance until he can work out why.
Gripping her hand a little tighter, I can't help pulling Taylor closer against my side as my wolf tenses into alertness. No harm will come to my mate. I'll guard her with my very last breath even if I must tear apart every feral in our path with my bare hands to keep her safe.
Time slips away as we hike deeper among the ancient trees, Taylor fairly glowing with her rediscovered energy and zest for life. I can't resist basking in her joy, in the way she's blossoming right before my eyes, free of the illness that took everything away from her.
However, I can't keep putting this off, no matter how I wish to preserve this moment. Steeling my resolve, I finally bring us to a halt, searching for the right words to shatter her reality.
“Taylor, there’s something I have to tell you.” I internally wince. No good conversation ever started with those words.
Taylor stops and turns to face her, her brow furrowed. “Yes, Liam?”
Her gaze slides over my shoulder and she gasps. The bond flares with intense curiosity and shock, and I whirl to see a clearing past the ancient trunks of the pines surrounding us.
One that definitely shouldn't exist so deep in these woods I know like the back of my hand. Nor should there be a rickety old hut, whose walls made from twisted branches could only be held up through willpower alone.
Taylor brushes past me, her jaw slack with disbelief. “That’s not possible…That's...that's the clearing. And the hut…”
“What clearing and hut?’ I ask, stepping into the clearing after her.
The line between her brows deepens and the bond thrums with shock. “The exact ones from my dream...”