David wanted nothing more in the world to than to bury himself in Michelle’s velvety softness, but he wasn’t quite ready. He wanted to prolong the moment as long as he could because he knew that afterward, his life would never be the same, that for the rest of his life, he would love her.

He wondered if she understood what this moment meant for a shifter, if she understood that once mated to her, he’d never want another woman again. Gazing down into her passion-filled eyes, he knew that he’d found the woman who was perfect for him, that his days of looking for someone to share his life with were over.

When Michelle shifted her hips and raised them to him, he knew he couldn’t resist any longer, and any words of love he’d been about to speak were lost as he drove himself into her. He filled her fully with that first thrust, then waited as waves of pleasure threatened to take him over the edge, then thrust into her again and again, no longer able to control himself.

He felt her body tightening around him as he filled her over and over, her cries of pleasure driving him closer to the edge. Reaching between them, he found her tight little button of pleasure and used his thumb to take her right to the edge, then thrust himself deeper inside her as she tumbled over the edge.

Her body gripped his, her muscles clenching him tighter than ever before, and the intense pleasure drove him over the edge. Thrusting his hips, he drove himself deeper inside her and let the pleasure take him, her name on his lips as his muscles trembled. When his body finally stilled, he collapsed on top of her, still buried deep inside her throbbing core.

Michelle sighed deeply under him, so he rolled off her and gathered her in his arms, afraid that he’d crush her. She sighed again, and snuggled closer to him, then looked up at him. “I had no idea it could be like that,” she said, then blushed deeply and looked down quickly.

David tipped her head up. “I hope you know how much that meant to me,” he said, feeling the bond between them, a chain connecting them.

Michelle nodded. “I felt it too,” she said, then laid her head back on his chest.

They fell asleep wrapped in the bliss they’d found together, the future a distant thing that couldn’t penetrate what they’d discovered that night. But morning came too soon, and with it all the worries they’d buried in each other’s arms the night before.

David knew that Michelle was awake when she tensed up in his arms and sucked in a deep breath. “Hey, I hope that’s not because you’re waking up with me?” he teased, looking into her eyes.

She relaxed, took a deep breath and smiled at him. “That’s the only good thing about this morning,” she said.

David breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad to hear that,” he said.

“What time is it?” she asked, stretching.

“Almost eight o’clock. I was going to wake you in a few minutes,” he said. “Sophie will probably be showing up here any minute.”

Michelle jumped out of bed and started scrambling around for her pajamas. When all she could find was his shirt, she shoved it over her head, then began looking for her panties. David leaned up on one elbow and watched her, thinking that she looked good in his shirt, her hair coming down from its braid, sleep lines still on her face.

“You look good in my shirt,” he said, then laughed. “I think that might just be a country song.”

Michelle looked up at him, straightened up, and put one hand on her hip. “Are you just going to lay there or are you going to get up?”

“Well, since you’re giving me choices, I choose that you come back to bed and I find out one more time what you look like with that shirt off,” he said, laughing when she blushed a deep shade of red.

“But Sophie…” she tried to protest, but David had already sprung out of the bed and scooped her up in his arms.

“Let’s not worry about Sophie,” he said, setting her on her feet and sliding his hands under the shirt. “I’m more concerned with what’s under here.” Michelle sighed when his hands found her breasts, all thoughts of Sophie gone from her mind.

Luckily when Sophie and Jessie did show up more than an hour later, they were both dressed. “You look much better this morning,” Sophie said, setting a tray filled with food on the little table for two shoved in one corner. “Eat something and then we’ll talk.”

But with the light of day, Michelle seemed much stronger, and while she ate, she recounted her experience at the gravesite once more. “I know what I said about Molly, but I was wrong. She’s been trapped here, guarding that doorway since it was created after her death,” she finished, mopping up the last of her egg yolk with a piece of toast.

There was a long silence when she was finished, then Jessie said, “We have to find a way to close this thing.”

Michelle nodded. “But I don’t know how, or if I’m strong enough to do it on my own. This is a little bit out of my league.”

“I think I might know someone who can help,” Sophie said, a big smile spreading across her face. “And I think it’s definitely time that Michelle met her.”

Sophie wouldn’t say another word about who she was taking Michelle to meet, but when Jessie politely refused to join them, she got a little worried. “Do you know where we’re going?” she whispered as they followed Sophie to the garage tucking into the trees.

“I think so, but I’m not sure,” David said, shrugging his shoulders.

“David Rayburn, if you say one more word, you’ll be sorry. I don’t want you putting any ideas in her head,” Sophie called, getting into a big red truck.

When Michelle slid in beside her, she asked, “Do you like it? I know the color is a little bright, but I fell in love with it the minute I saw it.”

Michelle laughed. “It suits you.”

As they bounced along in the truck, going further and further into the mountains, Michelle marveled that anyone could live that far away from civilization. They turned off the main road and drove deeper into the forest, then just when she thought they were lost, they came around a bend and into a clearing.

In the middle of the clearing, there was a roughhewn log house a lot like Jessie and Sophie’s, but this one looked like it had been there for two hundred years. The road ended at the little cabin. Sophie shut off the truck and sat looking at the cabin for a minute.

She turned to Michelle and asked, “Are you ready?”

Michelle nodded, suddenly nervous even though she had no idea who she was meeting. They’d only taken a few steps toward the cabin when the door flew open, and a tiny old woman came hobbling out. She was leaning on a cane, wrapped in blankets even though the day was warm, and even from a distance, Michelle could see that one eye had gone cloudy.

“Sophie Rayburn, is that you?” she called, still hobbling toward them. “Who have you brought to my mountain? You know I hate to have guests.”

Michelle reached down and grabbed David’s hand; he gave hers a squeeze and smiled at her. “Don’t worry, Sally’s not as bad as she seems.”

“Who’s that talking about me? David Rayburn, what are you doing coming up here to bother me?” Sally screeched from across the yard.

“We’ve brought you someone I think you’d like to meet,” Sophie quickly said, rushing over to Sally and helping her to cross the last few feet to where Michelle stood frozen in place. “This is Michelle.”

The old woman looked up at her, squinting her good eye against the sunlight that streamed down through the trees. Then she gasped and said, “Oh, she looks just like her, but it can’t be her; she’s been gone for a long time.”

Michelle was confused, then Sophie said, “Michelle is Monique’s granddaughter.”

“But how is that possible? What is she doing here? I never thought...I mean, after she left, I...” the old woman trailed off, tears forming in her eyes.

Sophie took Sally’s arm and said, “Why don’t we go inside? I brought everything for a real tea. Michelle can explain while we eat.”

“Oh, a real tea? You know how much I love that,” Sally said, letting Sophie lead her away.

When Michelle walked into the cabin, she had that sense of stepping back in time again. The cabin was small, just one big room with a kitchen tucked into a corner, with the bed pushed into the opposite corner and a bathroom that had been added awkwardly on one side.

Sophie settled Sally in a rocking chair by the fire. “You rest for a few minutes while I make the tea,” she said, patting the old woman on the back.

While Sophie bustled around the kitchen, stoking the old iron cook stove, Michelle and David unpacked the food she’d brought. When they were finished, it looked like a feast spread out on Sally’s little table.

Once the water had boiled, Sophie shook some loose-leaf tea into the pot and brought it over to the table, and they all took a seat. Sophie made a big show of pouring them all tea, straining into their cups and then passing the sugar and milk.

Sally took her time choosing an assortment of goodies for her plate, then took a sip of her tea. “Okay, I think I’m over my shock, but you do look exactly like your grandmother,” she said, with a little giggle taking a bite of a cucumber sandwich.

Michelle was still a little bit confused. “Did you know my grandmother?”

Sally nodded her head, her mouth full of food. When she’d swallowed, she smiled a nearly toothless smile at Michelle and said to Sophie, “Get my memory book from my bedroom.”

When Sophie handed her the book, she paged through it for a minute, then handed it to Michelle. “See, there we are, in front of the school; it was the last day of school.”

She looked at the picture of two girls, their arms around each other, making faces at the camera, and her heart skipped a beat. The taller of the two girls looked exactly like her, and she closed her eyes for just a second, trying to absorb what she was seeing.

“Monique and I were best friends from the time we could walk, but then she and her family were forced out of town. We lost touch for a long time, and it wasn’t until we were both grown with families of our own that we became close again. She swore she’d never come back to Gypsum Creek again; that’s why it was such a shock to see you,” Sally explained, her eyes taking on a far-away look, as she traveled back in time.

“I didn’t know that I looked so much like her,” Michelle said. “I only knew her for a few years before she died. I didn’t know she lived here. Why did she leave?”

“She was born here,” Sally said, then let that sink in. “She had to leave because people discovered who her people were.”

“I still don’t understand,” Michelle said, wishing the woman would give her all the information at once.

Sally set down her teacup. “Molly was your great-grandmother; she had an older daughter that everyone forgot about. Molly sent her away to live with relatives back east when she was six. She came back years later, with a different name and a husband, convinced that no one would know who she was, but they found out, and the family had to flee.”

Michelle was in shock; had never known she had a connection to Gypsum Creek or Molly. “But that’s not possible. I mean, wouldn’t she have told me?”

Sally shook her head, “She hated this place, swore she’d never come back. Years later when, we found each other again, she confessed to me that she never got over being chased from her home.”

“That’s so sad,” Michelle said, thinking of the pain her grandmother has suffered as a child.

“I think it made her stronger,” Sally said, shaking her head sadly. But then she perked up. “Tell me why you’re here. Have you seen Molly?”