Page 59 of Embracing Sky
I perked up, considering my options. “Chinese?” I asked. “I could go for some shrimp fried rice.”
Fletcher placed a tender kiss to my forehead, then helped me up. “Chinese it is.”
The two of us retreated to the living room, where we put on some soft music and colored in intricate coloring books with fine-liner pens until Adam came home with the goods, and the food was so delicious that I almost forgot about my problems.
Almost.
36
SKY
“Tonight’s the full moon,”Fletcher announced, prancing into the living room with a bounce in his step. He always got excited about full moon runs.
I made a face. “Okay. Have fun.”
For the past several months, I’d made up lies for why I didn’t want to shift beneath the light of the full moon. I was full of excuses, from bellyaches to migraines, to simply not wanting to go. Knowing Fletcher would have a rebuttal, I mentally began flipping through my list of “I don’t wanna’s,” but Adam didn’t give me the chance.
“No, Sky. You’re coming with us tonight.” His tone left no room for argument, even though Ireallywanted to argue.
I frowned at him and sat up a little taller in my seat. I opened my mouth, but he held up his hand. “Hear me out. It’s early enough in your pregnancy that you can still shift safely and without worry, but you need to be able to trust your inner-wolf in order to fully heal. I know that you’re afraid of losing control, but I’ll be right beside you. I won’t let that happen, Sky, I promise.”
I looked down at my hands. Damn it. Hit the nail on the head. How was he so damn good at seeing right through to my soul?
“Do we have to? Can’t we wait until next month’s full moon?” I whined, but both Adam and Fletcher shook their heads.
“Every month deeper into your pregnancy, it will get riskier for the baby. It’s safest to do it tonight. It won’t be nearly as bad as you’re imagining, I’m sure. You need to stand up to your fear so that it doesn’t keep holding you hostage.”
“But what about Gracie? Doesn’t she own all the territory around here?” I asked. Last I knew, I was on the Rubydawn Alpha’s shit list for trying to kill her son. She probably still hated me. Not that I blamed her.
“We actually bought the house, and the acreage it sits on, from Gracie when we moved here years ago, so don’t worry. No one’s gonna come after you. Besides, they’d have to get through Adam first, and Adam’s a pretty imposing wolf.” Fletcher grinned and winked at me.
Adam chuckled. “Iamone of the largest wolves in the pack.”
“And you know what they say about big wolves…” Fletcher’s eyebrows waggled.
I snorted, but my cheeks flushed hot. “God.” Both of them burst out laughing. I stood and went over to them. “Can we just get this over with? And promise me we won’t eat any baby bunnies?”
“No baby bunnies, got it.” Fletcher gave me a thumb’s up.
With a groan, I stood. Guess I wasn’t getting out of shifting tonight. Might as well grin and bear it. Ugh.
Truth was? I hadn’t shifted or even let my wolf close to the surface since that day. The day I’d almost taken a life. The memory still ran on a continuous loop in my mind sometimes at night, when I lay awake between my sleeping mates and let my thoughts run wild. It had scared me. Not just that I’d lost control of my wolf, but that I’d lost control of myself too. My humanity had slipped between my fingers like sand. I’d nearly become a monster.
“Sky?” Fletcher gently squeezed my shoulder. His voice was gentle, a melodious ripple of sound that somehow calmed my suddenly anxious mind. He offered me a small smile. “Everything is gonna be okay. We won’t let you fail, okay? We’re right here with you, every step of the way.”
I let them lead me outside into the backyard with its open view of the woods beyond. No neighbors for miles—that’s what Adam and Fletcher had wanted when they’d moved to Greymercy, to start a new chapter of their life. I was thankful for that. It meant that no one would be caught in the crossfire if my beast went rogue.
Adam and Fletcher stripped and shifted, the magic crackling in the air like static. My skin twitched as my inner-wolf perked up from his place deep inside of me, as if realizing we were standing beneath the pale light of the heavy full moon. I bit the inside of my cheek and stared at my mates as they approached me, and I realized… I’d never seen them in their animal forms before.
Adam was magnificent. A massive tawny-furred wolf with dark guard-hairs and angular features, he cocked his head and looked me in the eye. It wasn’t dominating, but he didn’t look away either. His golden eyes burned with Alpha energy and my wolf shied back with a whine.
I dropped my gaze to Fletcher, the smaller, sturdier lynx at the wolf’s side. Fletcher’s bobtail gave a wiggle as he chirped at me, a feline trill that sounded so unlike any house cat I’d ever heard in my life. It made me smile. Even his animal voice was soft-spoken.
Fletcher rubbed against my legs like an overgrown tabby, then pranced forward a few steps with another chirp. Adam stood tall with a steady swish of his bushy tail. He never looked away from me. I knew what he wanted, what they both wanted—to see me shift from man to beast, for me to submit to Adam on four paws instead of two feet.
I couldn’t explain the anxiety that twisted my insides into knots, my hands fisting at my sides as I tried to breathe through the waves of panic gripping me.Breathe, Sky,Fletcher’s voice fluttered through my mind as if carried there by the breeze, though the forest was still.Relax and let it all come out.
After what seemed like forever, I felt the shift begin, that all-too-familiar feeling of being split in half, of trading skin for fur, of magic enveloping me and wrapping me in a tight embrace only to break me to pieces and put me back together again.
