I came inside and took my time showering. “I know. I’m rushing. It’s just…I can shift again, but at any minute my wolf or the healer is going to tell me to stop. I’m trying to go as much as possible and for as long as possible.”
“Huh,” he teased, slapping my bare ass. “That’s a goal for me, as well. Get a move on. You’ve got kids to coach. Or learn to coach. Same thing.”
This man.
I dressed in less than ten minutes even with a growing belly throwing my balance off. A record time for me. Hurt like hell, but I had to get to the kids. Other than my mate and the pup in my belly, they had become what my world revolved around.
For the first time since the accident, I could put my athletic career to some use. Not the use I intended in the beginning but fulfilling and hopefully making a difference in these kids’ lives. They needed people to believe in them. Family and friends, yes. But more than them.
And I believed in every single one. All the coaches did.
We arrived at practice with an ice chest full of drinks and cut oranges. Parents provided things, but we always came prepared. Wulf was off today because it was a very special practice. This time, the kids would show off their skills and what they’d been working on for an audience of their parents, peers, and friends. And, I’d heard, we had Skin to Fur scouts keeping their eyes on the talent.
All of the kids participating were shifters, of course, but some of the audience wasn’t. He couldn’t do our usual howls at the sky but we had a more human cheer.
We gathered around and this time, I wasn’t running the whole thing. I was here as an almost coach and advice-giver and an encourager and support. So was Wulf.
These kidssohad this.
One of the youngest kids, Andrew, had an injury at birth that gave him an irregular gait. He had hip pain and trouble walking sometimes. But when he was okay, he was here. The truth was, he was here and present and even if it meant only cheering on the others, he was here. On the bench. Running the best he could. Walking when he had to. A smile on his face the whole time.
He was our inspiration.
I hoped he made it to the Skin to Fur Tournament.
We spent the whole day cheering them on. Some of the kids made impressions on scouts. Others wowed and made their parents cry tears of happiness.
They celebrated with pizza brought in by a local sponsor and declared the day a success.
This was the best job I’d ever had and it would’ve never been possible without the accident.
Wulf was right. Sometimes the worst times in our lives opened up something better. But at times, the pain lingered.
Like mine.
Like his.
That night, after everyone had gone home, we ate together. My new nightly treat was a huge bowl of yogurt with frozen fruit in it. Healthier than ice cream, but just as tasty.
“This stuff isn’t bad,” Wulf said every time he ate it. Like it was the first time.
“I know. And it’s protein. The healer said we have to have lots of protein for the pup.”
Wulf got up and started on the dishes. We were staying at his place tonight. We hadn’t had the time for me to move in butwe were planning it for next week. I’d taken three days off and so had he. I was living out of a bare minimum wardrobe and only the essentials in the meantime, most of which were in Wulf’s dresser and bathroom.
I pulled out my eReader and started my fourth pregnancy book. It was a lot of information to process, but it was important. My eyes began to close only a few pages in. I was a bit sunburned, and the sun really did me in. Plus coaching and all the four-legged workout I’d done that morning.
Wulf had given me everything. A life I never dreamed of. The pup in my belly. A chance not to feel so damned broken.
I watched from across the living room as he finished up. The valleys and ridges of his muscles moving. The way the back of his neck was a bit burned as well despite the sunblock.
The indentations of his back as it met his plump ass.
“I feel your eyes on me, omega.”
“Good. You wanna do something about it, alpha?”
He chuckled. “Not tonight, sweetheart. Tonight, you are more exhausted than anything. You need rest.”
