Chapter 13
Nora
I thinkI could get used to this.
Sunlight filters through the trees outside the bedroom windows. It casts shadows across the wall, making light dance with every breath of air that stirs the branches. I’m sitting with my back to the headboard, a book in my lap, a glass of iced tea on the nightstand next to me. There’s a bar of dark chocolate sitting there, too, and I let myself have a square after every chapter I finish.
A few days pass, and I’m still pretty much stuck in this room, but that’s completely my choice. I’m not a prisoner. It’s just that I still can’t bring myself to spend time with the Blacks. Maybe someday, but for now, I feel more comfortable up here.
I am comfortable, and my wolf has been content since the other night. I’m still drawn to Cole, I always am but sleeping with him on my terms put out the fire that was burning inside of me, at least for now.
Cole is out on a run with Tara, giving me some time to myself. I can sink into my book while the rest of the world keepsturning around me. Nobody’s asking anything of me, nobody’s making any demands. I can just… live. And how many times did I wish for that?
Everything is great—until it isn’t.
Something hits me in the stomach, and the memory of so many punches and kicks comes roaring to bright, vivid life. It actually makes me bend over with an arm across my midsection. Only I’m alone in the room. Nobody touched me.
And then it happens again, and with the sense of being hit comes a feeling of icy dread and fear. Hair rises on the back of my neck, my mouth goes dry, and my heart starts beating triple time. A cold sweat beads at my temples. Something is wrong. Something bad is going to happen. It’s going to happen to Cole.
This isn’t all in my head. I’m not making it up. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. Something terrible is going to happen. He’s in danger. Somebody might’ve hurt him, or they’re going to.
I can’t let that happen.
Without thinking about it, I scramble off the bed and run for the door. For the first time since I got here, I fling it open, then run down the hall and down the stairs at top speed. Every beat of my heart is a warning. Hurry. Hurry. Something terrible is going to happen.
Something terrible might already have happened.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Get out of there!” Male voices come from the living room. I run in, breathless, panicking. Declan and Zeke are playing PlayStation on the TV, yelling at each other while wearing a pair of headsets. They’re so busyshooting people, they don’t notice me until I practically throw myself in front of the TV to get their attention.
Right away, the headsets come off and their mouths fall open. “What is it?” Declan stands, his face scrunched in concern.
“Something bad is happening. Or it might’ve already happened, I don’t know. But I think…” Balling up a fist, I press it to my stomach and try to draw a breath through the pinhole my throat has become. “I think something is very wrong. I think Cole is in danger.”
Zeke jumps to his feet. “Where is he? Do you know?”
“Do you think you could find him?” Declan asks.
Can I? “Yes. I think so.” I have to. I have to find him. I have to get to him before something or someone else does. What if he’s already hurt? What if it’s worse than that?
A sob tears its way from me before I run for the front door, throwing it open, like I did upstairs, and running out onto the front lawn at top speed. Where is he? I feel him so intensely, I can almost smell him. Where can I find him?
“Nora? Are you all right?” The guys follow me, and I hear the worry in their voices. Maybe they’re right to be worried, and not only for Cole. He’s not the only one in trouble—I feel wrong, somehow. There’s something wrong with me.
My knees go weak enough that my legs fold, and I land on the grass, panting for breath. “What’s happening?” I gasp. I can’t stop shaking—my teeth are even chattering. My skin is hot and tight, and it feels like it’s going to rip off. “What’s happening to me?”
Declan drops to one knee by my side, raising his voice to be heard over my heavy panting. “Take your clothesoff.”
“What?” I bark. What’s that going to help?
“I said, take your clothes off,” he urges, sharper now. “You are about to shift. Get your clothes off before it happens.”
Shift? As in shift into my wolf? But that’s not possible. I’m not able to do that!
And yet my body has different ideas. Something is surging in me, something I’ve never felt before. It’s hot and wild, like lava rushing up from the core of the Earth so it can burst free. My hands are shaking, but I do as I’m told. I don’t even care that I’m outside, that I’m in front of the two of them.
And I finish not a second too soon, because something happens. Something earth shattering. I feel my bones moving, lengthening, feel tendons stretching, feel my limbs bending like they never have before. I open my mouth to ask what the hell is happening, but all that comes out is a high-pitched whine. Something from an animal. Me.
Closing my eyes, I give over to it like instinct tells me to, and everything around me becomes…more.I smell the grass, the breeze, the small animals currying in the trees, food being cooked somewhere nearby.
