Total pages in book: 202
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
Finally, I stop at the riverbank and wait until she skids to a halt beside me. I lick her face. She leans against me, panting before she moves forward, drops her head and sniffs the water and tentatively licks once, sniffs again, then drinks ravenously.
I jump straight in and swim ahead about twenty or thirty feet, then wait, treading water while she looks at me, water dripping from her chin.
After a moment, I let out a low bark. I want her to come in.
She hesitantly moves in, water coming to her neck. I’m about to swim toward her when I feel something hit me in the chest from the inside out. Panic. Her head disappears underwater.
Dark hair bobs up and she gasps, pulling in a mouthful of air and water before her arms flail and she goes under again. She’s shifted to human and she’s in distress.
I shift to human form and quickly swim a few strokes before diving under and grabbing her, hauling her up to the surface.
She coughs and sputters, gasping for breath.
“You’re okay,” I assure, “I’ve got you.”
I swim us back to the riverbank and gather her onto my lap as I clap her back with my palm a couple times while she coughs out more river water.
“You can’t swim?” I ask.
She shakes her head, grasping my back and clinging to me.
“Why didn’t you say something?” I ask gently.
She shrugs, coughing some more.
I continue to stroke her back while she catches her breath. She’s embarrassed.
“You don’t jump into a deep river when you can’t swim, sweetheart. What were you thinkin’?” I ask, thinking about how Riley must have felt, thinking he lost his mate to drowning.
How has her wolf never gone swimming?
“My wolf can be a little dumb,” she admits. “You made it look so easy, and I didn’t know there was that big drop, so I was just… I guess I can be a little dumb. I shouldn’t blame it on my wolf.”
I stroke her cheek. “I’ll show you the waterfall another day. How about more of a run? Or do you wanna go back home?”
“I want to shift again and run. I…I want to build strength and endurance and just… enjoy letting my wolf play. It feels so good to do it knowing I can. Knowing I won’t get in trouble for stretching her legs. Because I spend so little time in the wolf shape, I don’t generally feel in synch brain wise when I shift.”
“Shift often until you synch up, babe. It’s important for your mind, body, and soul in both forms.”
She nods.
I’m steaming mad at her pack’s alpha for making her vulnerable this way by not allowing damn wolf shifters to shift. Can’t fuckin’ find any sense in that. I have a hundred questions, but I’ll save them. Today, she gets what she wants. Tomorrow, she does too, but tomorrow I’ll also get some answers.
“You want to rest for a couple minutes or go now?”
“Go now,” she replies, getting to her feet. She shifts to wolf.
“If you get into trouble, shift back and talk to me. Don’t just try to do what my wolf does, okay?” I put my hand to the top of her head and sift my fingers through her soft fur. She barks once in reply and then runs ahead of me, back toward Roxy’s, so I shift and follow.
***
It’s already dusk when we get to the banks of Tyson’s place. The house is dark, but I see her nose twitching as she looks at it. She knows it’s his house. She looks nervous. Her expression clears when she catches me watching her.
Time flew. I’ve shown her a good portion of the woods nearby and I can see she’s tired. I shift back and she follows, immediately yawning. Her eyes point at the waterfall.
“That’s a really beautiful waterfall,” she says, taking a deep whiff of the air. “So much clean water around here.”
“I’ll teach you to swim another day, then we’ll go under it to the cave that’s on the other side.”
“I’d love that,” she says. “Or you can get me some water wings or a pool noodle and I’ll just stay in this shape and kick my feet until we get there.”
Grinning at the big smile on her face, I wrap my arm around her and we sit on the grass. I gaze at her as she stares at the waterfall with a happy expression I like. But it doesn’t take long for me to sense her thoughts shifting to fear, to worry.
I bump her shoulder with mine. “How’s some roasted chicken sound to you?”
Her stomach rumbles in reply and she looks embarrassed.
I laugh. “Walk back as human or run back as wolves? Faster as wolves and we don’t have clothes nearby.”
“We need clothes?” she asks.
“Tend to stay clothed out on the village streets, especially when there’s been drama, which there’s been a lot of lately. Our village is accessible by outsiders so unless we’re in the forest, we’re careful in both forms.”