Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
We take down a deer, and feed. Then we cross paths with a stag. He dies too, and she tears through him with a vicious reverence that I will never forget. I consume parts of her first kills as is tradition, bonding with her as I would another wolf.
Then I lead her home, once her hunger is sated and her bones begin to grow weary with the effort of their twisted transformation.
I get my mate to bed with a feat of strength and physics that frankly makes me very proud. I have to use all the principles of leverage to get her on the mattress. She’s big. Very big. She’s also very sleepy. I’d say that first shift took pretty much all her energy out of her. Makes sense. She did not merely become a wolf. She became… this. I shift into my human form and watch her as she sleeps, not as a human, and not as a wolf, but as a third, more strange and terrifying thing. She is beautiful in this form too, but not what I expected. Not what anybody expected. I can only begin to imagine the chaos that will inevitably be wrought once she begins to understand herself in this way.
Mercifully, as the dawn begins to rise, she slides out of her were-form and takes her naked human body again. I have been awake the entire time, keeping a close eye on her. I want her to be safe, even if there’s not really anything I can do if something were to go wrong.
I breathe a sigh of relief as I see her pretty face again. She was a stunning werewolf, but I do love her human nature.
She stirs as the second shift, the returning to self, takes place. I press a light kiss to her brow, which seems to be the last straw of her slumber.
She opens her eyes slowly, and I feel simultaneously guilty for waking her up, and immensely relieved to see that she is still herself behind her eyes. It wasn’t quite the same when she was unconscious. She might have looked like herself, but I needed to know she really was.
“Was I a pretty wolf?”
I realize she has no idea what happened, or how she looked, or the fact that she was not, technically, a wolf.
I do not know how to tell her, but I know I have to.
“You were exquisite,” I say.
Callie
“What? Was I some kind of mangy whelp?” I laugh, making a joke. It’s really weird not to be able to remember anything that happened between orgasming and waking up in bed, but I hope I had fun. I also hope my ability to remember starts to come back.
“You weren’t a wolf, exactly,” he says. He’s vague. Very vague.
“What, did I just pass out? Nothing happened? My body feels like something happened. Oh, my god, is this what’s going to happen? I’m just going to feel like shit, but have no power?”
“Oh, you have power,” he says.
“What did you see? Tell me?” I’m starting to worry. There’s an ache in every part of me. It’s not unbearable, but it is constant. I feel different, too. I feel lighter, more free, as if something I’ve been trying to hold in for a very long time has finally been expressed and I don’t have to hold it back anymore. Something in me is sleeping at peace.
“Honey, you’re a werewolf,” Gray says.
“I mean, I know that. You’re a werewolf,” I say, staring at him in confusion.
“No. I’m a shifter. I’m a wolf. You’re a werewolf. A proper werewolf.”
“What the…” I frown slightly. “You mean, like…”
“I mean you have fangs, and fur, you walk on two feet. You’re incredible,” he says. I can hear awe in his tone, but I can also see a small amount of something like fear in his eyes.
It feels like he just told me I’m actually a unicorn. There’s not really any reference for what he’s trying to tell me. I used to discard all the werewolf information when I was researching wolf shifters. It would come up from time to time, but it wasn’t my area of specific interest. I have a vague sense of a bipedal creature with the body of a muscular animal, but in human form.
“Are you fucking with me?”
“I’m not. You’re beautiful. I think you might want to eat people, but to be honest some shifters want to do that too sometimes. The fact that people are made of meat can get very confusing, especially once you start bringing prey down.”
“I’m a werewolf,” I repeat. “This is going to get so complicated, isn’t it.”
“Understatement, darling,” Gray laughs, drawing me into his arms to hold me close. I am smaller than him, and I curl into the sheltering curve of his body while trying to come to terms with the fact that I am apparently a hideous monster as well as a very pretty heiress.