But my mate sniffed the air and gave me a look. “Rain’s coming. We need to get back.” He hugged the basket containing the mushrooms. “I can’t get these babies wet.”
For a moment, I thought he was talking to his belly, and I was jolted upright, thinking we were having more than one baby.
“Mushrooms, love.” He patted his tummy. “Our little one is safe inside me.”
A splotch of water landed on my nose. The rain was here, but the trees protected us and we wouldn’t get too wet.
“Let’s go.” I offered to take the basket, but Roland was weirdly protective of the mushrooms.
The rain tumbled down, heavier than I expected, and the towering trees did little to keep us from getting drenched.
But Roland paused and hunkered over the basket. “My beast doesn’t like rain much. He thinks the water will trickle in and harm his horn.”
This was the first I’d heard that a unicorn’s horn was susceptible to water damage. I knew Roland didn’t like swimming for that reason, but how had he avoided rain all his life?
My mate put a hand over his head. “The rain hitting my head gives me sensory overload.”
I yanked off my jacket and covered him with it, but it was so wet, water dribbled over his face. Remembering the cave where he’d taken me when I was injured, I wished pack land had something similar. Oh maybe a rabbit burrow or a fox’s? My bear could dig around the entrance, making one bigger so Roland could snuggle inside.
But my beast disagreed, saying we couldn’t toss out rabbits or foxes from their home, and by the time he’d finished, the rain would have stopped.
My clothes were getting heavy because this wasn't a shower but a deluge. I had an arm around Roland as we trudged along thepath that was now mud which was oozing over our shoes and ankles.
I searched for somewhere to get out of the rain, and though there were no caves, I sighted an overhang that might shelter us and guided my mate toward it. We huddled beneath the rock, and Roland shivered.
“You’re dripping on me, Bryden.”
“Sorry.” I brushed his face, but that made it worse and more water trickled over him.
Let me take my fur, and I’ll keep our mate warm.
I stripped off my drenched clothes and shifted. My beast used his hulking frame to encircle Roland and warm him.
“That’s much better. Thank you.”
My beast was like a furnace, and even though I was nestled inside him, I was overheating. Wishing the rain would stop, I closed my eyes and thought of myself with a baby in my arms. I’d better remember to bring an umbrella whenever we went out, because if our little one was a unicorn, they might be rain averse like their omega dad.
“I don’t like rain, but I love your bear looking after me, our baby, and also the mushrooms.”
What is it with mushrooms? They’re horrible, and I hope he won’t bring them into the cabin.
My beast squeezed him tighter until there was a roll of thunder, followed by lightning streaking across the sky. Roland turned and buried his face in my bear’s hairy chest. He whimpered thathe had memories of his former herd cavorting in the rain and him cowering under a trailer of hay.
Maybe we should have chosen a pack in an arid region, because while the climate here wasn’t tropical, it had a rainy season.
“But I need to not be fearful because the baby will learn from me, and I don’t want them to be scared during a storm.”
My mate was quiet while more thunder rumbled and lightning lit up the world in a silvery gray. He’d stopped quaking and whimpering, and when the storm took off toward the north, my bear nudged him and turned him around.
“Oh, wow. Everything looks so different, as if it’s just been washed and polished.” He strolled out from the overhang, and my bear rushed after him to keep water from dripping on him.
Roland made a face whenever he was hit by a drop of water, but he brushed each one off and said I could take my skin.
“I don’t like getting wet.” He held up a water droplet on his fingertip. “But I can shake it off.”
“How is it you can take a shower and not let the water bother you?”
“Because I have the power to turn it off or make it warmer.”
