Pulling the afghan off the back of the sofa, I covered us both and held him close, my dragon quiet for once, and my soul at peace.
Chapter Sixteen
Theo
My mate was nervous about trying to shift again. The few times I brought it up, he found reasons not to. I got it. It had to be hard to go from not knowing shifters existed to finding out you were one and that the person you were dating turned into a dragon. Adding to that, not understanding how your body worked? That was a lot.
Being latent, he didn’t have a lot of heads-up that he was a cat. Although looking back, he’d been talking to Bunny Foo-Foo, like for real, for-real talking, having a two-way conversation. He just hadn’t realized that was what was happening at the time.
Like me, he’d been in foster care after his parents died. Unlike me, a relative found out and took him in, but it was a great-aunt, and my guess was from the human side, because he had not a clue who or what he was before that day when he shifted for the first time.
Today, I decided that he was going to shift, or at least try to. The longer he waited, the harder it was going to be for him. It was one of those jump-on-in things. If he didn’t, he was never even getting on that diving board.
I took the sandwiches I’d finished making and put them in my backpack, along with some water and snacks. It was hardly a luxury picnic, the kind you saw in romance movies, with the fancy little wine goblets and salads and tablecloths and I didn’t even know what all. Caviar, I guessed. It was enough for what we needed. Slinging the backpack over my shoulder, I went to find my mate. He was on the back porch drinking coffee.
“I made us lunch.”
“It’s a little early, don’t you think?”
“I said I made us lunch, not that we were eating it now.” I tapped my backpack. “Let’s go explore the woods. I want you to see how wonderful this place is.”
“I’d like that. Let me just change my shoes.”
I looked down to see his feet in flip-flops. “Probably for the best.”
When he came out, he took my hand, and then we walked to the tree line.
“This is nice,” he said. “It’s like we’re far, far away from the whole entire world, even though I could jog back to the house and not even be out of breath.”
“I love it here. These woods were why I bought the place. I don’t mind being with people at work, and I didn’t mind being with the people at the tattoo parlor, but being around all those buildings… There were days when that was rough. This is a thousand times better.” I stopped. “Close your eyes and just listen. What do you hear?”
One of the first things I noticed after my initial shift was how much better my hearing was, and how I could hear prey. I wasn’t a big hunter. Never had been. My brothers and I could keep up with them when I wanted to. It just wasn’t my favorite.
“I hear leaves blowing in the wind and crunching. Someone’s walking. Not a person, it’s not heavy enough for that.”
He was doing great.
“Good. Keep listening. What else do you hear?”
“It’s not walking…it’s hopping.” He was right. It was a rabbit, a decent-sized one at that.
“Now, inhale deeply. Do you smell the scent of the beast?”
He did as I said and shook his head. “No, I smell turkey.”
I tapped his nose. “That’s our lunch, mate. But that’s really good.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah, I do.” I took his hand again, not liking being this far away from him.
“Where are we going? Or are we just aimless?”
“Not aimless. I want to take you to my dragon’s favorite place. It’s about another twenty-minute walk.” Flying, it was super quick, but walking was manageable in most weather.
“I can’t wait to see it.” He squeezed my hand, and we started back in the direction of the clearing.
When we finally stepped into it, he dropped my hand and ran to the burn pit. “This is…don’t take this the wrong way, but this is like where cannibals come to cook their meals.”
