Chapter Thirteen

“You do realize that hiking and roughing it in the woods isn’t my favorite pastime?” Tristan woke her up this morning by bringing her to a glorious orgasm.

That should have been the perfect start to a perfect day. He ruined it by telling her to dress for a long walk through the property. She could have refused, but like the stupid cat, curiosity got the better of her. They spent the last hour walking (slowly) towards some mysterious destination. When she heard the water, she walked a little faster.

They came through the trees to find a wide-open spot with a waterfall cascading into a pond that turned into a lake.

“It’s beautiful.”

He smiled at her. He had been all smiles since he opened his eyes. Her heart stuttered again. She was sure she was the cause of his happiness; it was contagious.

“I thought you would like it up here.”

She did and not just because it was beautiful. There were no stray emotions, no mind fields for her to walk into unaware. Her body relaxed, the shields that she maintained dropped allowing her to experience the beauty not just visually, but emotionally. This was something she could never do in the city.

He gave her this gift. It meant more than rings, cars or fancy food.

“Thank you.” She crossed the space separating them wrapping her arms around him while laying her head on his chest.

“Your welcome. We have a picnic lunch when you get hungry.”

“Do we have towels, in case we decide to skinny dip?”

“That may have been taken care of,” he told her while he pointed over her shoulder.

There was a large picnic basket sitting on some rocks. They walked over to find towels and even a couple of swimsuits in it. He sat their lunch next to the basket.

Mira leaned over and rolled up the legs to her pants. “Let’s start by getting our feet wet.”

Tristan led her to a large flat rock that was warm from the sun. They sat and dangled their feet in the water.

“How did you know this place was here?”

“Ven and I scouted out the property for close to a month before we decided we wanted to see the house.”

They balanced each other out perfectly. It was a mystery to her why the two of them couldn’t see that. Even in age the youngest and the oldest. Although soon Ven wouldn’t be the youngest anymore, he would always be the youngest to come to this planet and Tristan the oldest.

“This is already one of my favorite places.” She angled her body, so her feet were still in the water, but her head was lying against his thigh.

“Peace is a blessing,” she told him as she closed her eyes. “We get so used to always going and listening to the background clutter of our world that it never seems to dawn on anyone that it’s never silent. I remember the first time I experienced silence with my ears. The power went out. There was no hum of the clock, the fans stopped turning. That faint electrical sound that means the lights worked was gone. The refrigerator was silent. There was no hum from the streetlights, there wasn’t even a car moving. It was marvelous. I never knew there could be that kind of quiet in my head.”

“What was growing up like?” His hands drifted through her brown hair caressing her scalp.

“It was a fight only I didn’t know it. I thought this was how it was supposed to be.

“I can still remember kindergarten. There was a girl, Mary Sue, she was my best friend. I don’t know why, maybe because I knew she needed help. I kept saying that Mary Sue was being hurt, but no one believed me until she came to school with a black eye and a broken arm. They helped her, but they whispered. My mom came and told everyone that Mary Sue told me what was going on at home. She didn’t, but that stopped the whispers. My friend moved away with her grandma.”

“Your mother was trying to protect you.”

“I often wonder, but I think she was protecting herself. No one wants a child that’s strange, or different from the other children.”

She relaxed as Tristan continued stroking his fingers through her hair. The curls tangled around his fingers before he worked them out.

“By the time I was ten everyone made fun of me. They called me spook and made sounds from scary movies as I walked past. I left my notebook on the bus one day. I used it for writing down the things I felt. One of the kids found it and read it. I was sure that one of the teachers in my school was being abused. I didn’t know who to tell. It got out. The sad thing is I was right, but from that moment on the other kids wouldn’t let up. I tried to kill myself when I was twelve.”

Her shoulders tensed as she waited for the judgment to fall harshly on her shoulders.

“I am sorry; I am also grateful that you failed.”

She held up her wrist. “The cuts weren’t deep enough. I planned to do it again. My mom said I’d get over it. The only thing I regretted was not saying goodbye to my grandma. I decided to wait until after I saw her one more time.”

A pang of longing for her grandmother went through her chest. She missed her smile and the way she would hold her with a tightness that most people couldn’t match.

“I told her goodbye. Then she asked me what I meant by that. I told her, I figured my mom had already told her. I’ve never seen her move as fast in her life. It didn’t take five days before I was getting help. It wasn’t real help, but it kept me alive for the next thirteen years. During that time, my grandma would tell me about books and articles she read about being an empath in a world of non-believers. The medicine they gave me kept me in a constant stupor, and still, the emotions attacked me.”

She stood up and started pulling off her clothes. Skinny dipping was something she never had the nerve to do. Only the pretty people did that.

“Last one in the water.” She called out as she carefully walked her way into the shallow hoping there was no steep drop off. The brave thing to do would have been to dive it. It also may have been the foolish thing to do.

“What are you doing?” She turned around to see him holding his shirt in his hands.

“Watching the water caress your beautiful curves. I do believe I am jealous of it.”

A huge smile split her lips before she ducked down until she was hidden under the water. A few minutes later, there was a splash to her right. Tristan was in the water his naked glory on display.

They played chase, with her just managing to avoid him. The fact that he let her win made her heart beat faster. She turned and splashed water at him. Soon they were in a water fight laughing and screaming about who was winning. When she grew tired, he suggested they sun themselves on the rocks.

“I can’t believe I am here.” Tristan was spreading SPF 50 sunscreen all over her. He didn’t want to take a chance that she might burn since she wasn't blessed with the darker skin of some of the others.

“How did you come to embrace your uniqueness?”

“My grandma dying was a wakeup call. I didn’t have any more time to walk around in a medically induced coma. I found a doctor, who would help me wean myself from the medicine. While I was doing that I started reading all the books, my grandmother bought me over the years.”

“It worked.”

“Yes, but the tale is cautionary. My issue isn’t normal. So many people deal with this every day in a way that is much more debilitating than what I went through. I don’t encourage anyone to act without trained personnel to help.”

“Is this why you help your kittens?”

“I can feel their despair. There is no denying what can happen if someone doesn’t care enough to step in. The world is filled with more empaths than anyone realizes. All you have to do is sit in a coffee shop and observe. The door opens, and no one turns around. The door opens again, and heads pop up eyes roam the store even as the owner of those eyes is trying to desperately focus back on the friend at the table or the book they are reading. Without seeing who was at the door, they responded naturally to a cry for help or even such happiness that it reaches out and wraps you in its embrace. We deny the truth about ourselves every day in an effort to fit in.”

“This is not an unknown behavior to Kur’iks. We too would deny the truth to fit in, but our truth follows us. It is in our green eyes, and the symbol carved into our skin. It proclaims us to be shapeshifters. That’s not unheard of, most of the galaxy can shift from one form to another. Our creators may have wanted more than a shifter.”

He stood up and moved away from her. “Would you like to see?”

This is where the rubber met the road. Her grandma liked to say that when things got hard. She reminded herself that she had seen this before. Part of her still thought it was a dream.

“I’d love to see.” Later, she’d tell herself that it was for scientific purposes. Right now, she wasn’t in the mood to lie to herself. She was beginning to want to find out what being his mate was all about, but first, he needed to know she wasn’t completely stable. She needed to know what and who she was sleeping with.

The popping of bone wasn’t expected. Why should those who created him, make it easy for him to shift? She wanted to press her hands against her ears, but if he could live through it, she could listen to it. The transformation wasn’t long. Seconds, not minutes. Still, the sound of his bones cracking would stay with her for a long time.

One look and she had to order herself not to run. He was tall like over twelve feet tall, and that’s where the human comparisons ended. There was a thicker gray skin all over his body, not hair, but if she didn’t look closely it appeared as hair. He was standing on his back legs. His toes and fingers became deadly claws. His snout had elongated, and his teeth were sharp enough to rend with one bite.

He was a wolf, no, he was a werewolf. Those scary movies that kept you on edge because you know that whatever was in the shadow was going to tear you apart. That was Tristan. What the hell had she been thinking? Her toes curled; she was going to run or piss on herself. Right now, they both had merit. Who wanted a meal marinated in piss?

Tristan sat down far enough away from her that she could take a deep breath. Oh, the black spots were a warning she was about to pass out. She’d have to remember that in the future. He wasn’t fooling her. There was no way he was docile. He was waiting for her to get close enough to touch, and then he was going to eat her up and spit her bones out!

Her eyes went wide with fear, then she laughed. It must be true that theory that said you could only be scared for so long when nothing was threatening you. If Tristan wanted her dead, he didn’t have to bring her out here. As far as eating the only thing he ate was her pussy, and well she was down for that, as long as he looked human.

Since running away or pissing on herself were no longer viable choices, she stood and moved with slow, cautious steps toward him.

“Who’s a good boy?” She rolled her eyes at her dumb words. If he wasn’t going to kill her, the way she was talking would change his mind. “Sorry, that came out wrong. I mean please don’t kill me. You like me. I like you. We're a…” She was going crazy.

“So, I might not be all there mentally. You should know that. I’m going to touch you now.” She placed her hand on his exposed arm. It was tough, but it reminded her of the butter softness of leather.

He never moved he wanted his mate to touch him, to get to know both sides of who he was. He dreamed of this moment. His mate was fearless. Her smooth fingers touched his arm before moving to his face and neck. He uttered her funny words. They wouldn’t be able to communicate until they became one. Still the humanoid understood what she was saying, and he was proud of her.

He had a mate. What deity believed he was worth blessing with such a treasure? She wasn’t any mate. She was thick and round. When the male pushed into her body, she made the sweetest sounds. There was no fear of tearing her in half. He had seen the other mates but never had he thought there would be one for him.

Careful of his claws he pulled her to him. He wrapped his body around her and hoped she would let him hold her for a while.