All the stuff that had happened in the last day was too overwhelming. Shifters. Biter. Dominic. Shifters.
“Change back,” I told Dominic. I loved stroking his soft fur, but I needed to get away from the strangeness.
My baby was a wolf shifter. I had so many questions still, about giving birth and how to be a mom to a shifter. I’d have to ask Cara those questions. Dominic was good for—I caught my breath.
He shifted, the change from fur to bare skin incredible to see. I had to pinch myself so I’d know I wasn’t watching something on TV.
He looked at me before reaching for his clothes. My pulse changed from a steady chug to rapid spikes. A man shouldn’t be that sexy. Just a short while ago he’d turned my knees to jelly, and already he was ready to go again.
I forced myself to look away. I needed some time to think.
Shifters were real. Dominic was my mate, whatever that meant. I was starting to like the sound of it.
“Laleesha?” Dressed now, he crouched beside me.
“You can’t tell me who I can and can’t talk to.” There, I said it, even if my voice did sound thin and uncertain.
“I—”
“You don’t own me or my baby.”
“That—”
The words flew out of my mouth. “You tried to stop me from talking to Val. Val’s been a friend to me. He made me leave the biker camp and go to Sophie for help. I want to do right by my baby. Val’s right, she needs to learn from wolves.”
And I was drained. Nothing more to say. “I want to go back to Sophie’s now.”
His face contorted in ways that might have been funny if I wasn’t so tired. “Okay,” he finally said.
He helped me stand. For an instant I leaned against him and soaked up his strength. Reluctantly I pulled away and started the walk back.
Every time I saw him, it seemed like I was relying on him more and more. That couldn’t be good if he started telling me what to do. But I let him take my hand, and when we got back to Sophie’s I let him kiss me.
I clung to him for a moment, my fingers knotted in his shirt. “Thank you,” I said. “Thank you for coming to get me.”
His arms around me tightened. “Always.”
It was a relief to slip out of my clothes and into a shower. The warm water splashing over my back washed away the strain of the last day. I’d been taken by Biter, and survived. That brought a half smile to my face, all I had the energy for. The water running into my cuts didn’t sting, so I soaped up my arms, glad the soap didn’t burn either.
My body was already changing. I ran my hands across my belly where it pooched out. My baby was there, inside me. For the first time my breasts were big enough to hold. I hefted them, thinking of Dominic’s eyes when he looked at them, and remembering the feel of his mouth and hands. He didn’t seem to mind that I was small.
He didn’t complain about eating me either, not at all. The heat surged between my legs. I rinsed myself, sluicing the water thoroughly over my inner and outer folds. Touching myself, I wished I hadn’t sent him away. Not that I could do anything in Sophie’s house. But when my cabin was finished, he could visit me there.
Until I got too big. He would lose interest then, and I wouldn’t have time for him after the baby came.
He might have been serious about getting married, but it wouldn’t work. He didn’t like wolves, that was plain. My baby deserved a daddy who loved her.
I toweled off, scrubbing hard as if I could scrub away my disappointment. Remembering too late about my wrists, I dragged the towel over them. But they were just a little tender. I held up my wrists and stared at them. Those cuts couldn’t have healed that fast. All that was left was a thin white line. Dominic had licked them. That couldn’t—
My legs wouldn’t hold me anymore. I lowered myself onto the side of the cold metal tub. Dominic healed them.
That was too creepy. Changing shape was creepy. I’d started to think it was normal, persuaded by how Cara and Dominic and Val acted like it was no big deal.
But it was a giant humongous deal.
And I had one of them inside me.
I’d managed not to face that fact before. I mean, I knew it, but I didn’t really know it. Now I did.
Being a shifter was more than soft fur to pet. I didn’t have a single clue how many other differences there were yet. Cara had told me my baby would look human, that she wouldn’t shift right away. I didn’t think to ask about what happened when it was inside me.
All the awful sci-fi movies I’d ever seen where the baby was a monster and ate its way out played through my head. I wrung the towel in my hands. My baby wouldn’t do that, would she?
She was a girl, that I already knew somehow. But girls weren’t any more gentle than boys. They bit just as hard, and were better at sneaking up on you.
I had to know. I wouldn’t be able to sleep until I knew what I was carrying.
When Cara first told me I was carrying a wolf, I should have made her tell me everything. But she’d told me to call if I needed anything. And I did, I needed some answers.
Sophie had a phone in the house, too, hanging on the kitchen wall. I got dressed, found Cara’s phone number, and went out to the kitchen to call. The sun had moved to the other side of the house and the kitchen was dim now, but there was enough light for me to see the buttons without turning on the overhead.
My fingers wouldn’t quite punch the buttons. I shrank from bothering Cara. She couldn’t have really meant for me to call. She was just being polite.
But I couldn’t be shy anymore. I had to be strong and take charge.
She didn’t pick up. I couldn’t think of what to say so I didn’t leave a message. It was hard enough calling.
My stomach growled. I’d been too scared to be hungry after Biter took me, and that business with Dominic and Val made me too nervous to eat. Now that I was back safe at Sophie’s, my stomach was bawling for some food.
It would be a couple of hours before Sophie closed up the market and came home. I fixed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for now. For dinner I’d make a pasta salad and put the last of the roast chicken in it.
My tummy felt better after eating. I tried calling Cara again. Didn’t that girl ever pick up the phone? For only the teeniest moment I was afraid she knew it was me and was deliberately not answering. If Dominic heard me say that he’d threaten to spank me. I couldn’t stop smiling then, happy despite myself.
I couldn’t sit down or I’d fall asleep. I put the pasta on to boil and pulled the chicken out of the refrigerator. I had just got out the cutting board when the phone rang. Dropping the knife and board on the counter, I sprang to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Laleesha? How are you doing?” Cara’s warm voice held concern.
“Fine. My baby…” I didn’t know where to start. “Uh. You said it would be normal coming out. But what about inside me?”
“Just like a normal birth,” she said firmly.
“She won’t bite me?” I sounded stupid, I knew it, but I had to ask.
“She won’t have any teeth. She can’t bite.”
“Babies have fingernails. She’ll claw me.” I couldn’t shake the fear that my baby would somehow hurt me.
“Oh Laleesha, please don’t worry. Baby wolves don’t hurt their mothers. Baby shifters don’t either. Your baby won’t shift until she’s at least six, but probably not until she’s twelve or so.”
“How old were you?”
“Sixteen.”
“But you’re a bear.”
“That’s right,” she said slowly. “Val Stanton will know about wolves.”
I could ask him that. It wouldn’t be too embarrassing.
Now for another stupid question. “Can shifters do magic?” Like changing into a bear wasn’t magic.
“What do you mean?”
“Like heal people.”
“We shifters heal fast. Scratches go away almost instantly.”
“What about people who aren’t shifters? Can a shifter heal them?”
The stove burner hissed as the water in the pasta pot started to overflow. I turned down the heat.
She still hadn’t answered.
“Cara?”
“I don’t know of that happening,” she said cautiously. “But we have legends about it.” She laughed a little. “I always thought it was just a story. Maybe not.”
“So you don’t know everything.” I couldn’t keep the disappointment out of my voice.
“No,” she admitted. “We don’t usually mix that closely with humans.” She added quickly, “For self-protection. Humans kill the things they don’t understand.”
I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me. I knew what she was talking about.
“Laleesha, you don’t need to worry about your baby. Really you don’t, not unless the doctor finds something wrong. It will be just like a normal human birth. No fur, no claws. I promise.”
Her certainty reassured me. It wasn’t just my wanting to believe her either. It made sense that shifter babies wouldn’t be able to hurt their mothers. And she and the others wouldn’t have made sure that I went to the doctor if my baby wouldn’t look human.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“Any time, Laleesha. Don’t ever hesitate to call.”
I hung up, finally believing she meant it.
The pasta was soft when I forked it. I turned off the burner and started chopping the chicken. I got everything put together in time to surprise Sophie when she came in after closing the store.
She took one step into the kitchen and stopped dead when she saw the table was set. Sniffing appreciatively, she tilted her head at me. “You were supposed to be resting.”
“I got hungry,” I confided.
“Well, for a change I’m not upset at all that you didn’t listen.”
My face must have shown something.
Immediately she added, “That was just a joke. But it’s not a joke that I’m starving. Let’s eat!”
She seemed to enjoy the pasta, and I sure did. When she insisted on cleaning up by herself, I gave in and went to lie down on my bed for just a few minutes.
But I was wore out from everything that happened. As soon as I lay down, I passed out.
When I woke up, instantly alert, the whole house was silent. Sophie must have gone to bed. I’d left the door open when I lay down, and all the lights were off. Sometimes she watched TV in bed, but there was no sound at all.
So what woke me up?
I got a bad feeling. Biter always bragged about getting back at anyone who crossed him. That was me now. I’d felt so safe after Dominic rescued me that I never even considered Biter might come after me again.
No, no, I told myself. I’m worrying about nothing, just like I did when I thought my baby might rip me open.
I lay there, stiff with tension like a wire stretched tight, while I tried to convince myself not to be stupid. But the silence was so thick, like the whole world was holding its breath. All sorts of terrible thoughts went through my mind.
I had to get up and make sure Sophie was okay. Maybe she’d had some kind of attack and that’s what woke me.
Quiet as I tried to be, the bed still creaked when I eased my weight off it. I held my breath, but the only sound was my heart thumping in my chest.
My imagination. My stupid imagination.
Bolder now, I crossed the room. I was just leaving the bedroom when the hallway light flicked on.
“There you are, babygirl.”