Page 17 of Summertime Secret

“I’m right here with you, baby. Right here until you shift. It is going to hurt like nothing you’ve ever felt. Once you finish the shift, your body will start to heal itself. Focus on me. Never take your eyes off me, baby.”

Nodding, I try to even my breaths, but I can’t seem to get enough air. I pull at my clothes because they’re too tight on my skin. Edon helps me, pulling at his clothes too, until we’re both naked, lying in the moonlight as the moon beams bright above us.

“Edon,” I cry out, but it sounds faraway. Heat sizzles in my veins as the faint sound of crackling fills the air. Why would he be starting a fire? It is too hot. My skin is slick from the heat. I cry out again as my flesh begins to itch so bad I want to tear it off.

“Come on, baby, let her out. Don’t take those eyes off me.”

Struggling to focus, I stare up into his gray eyes. Edon is mid shift, his canines elongated, his ears too, his dark hair thickening, covering his face and neck. All I can think of is how cute he is. It is the first time I will see him shifted and suddenly I cannot wait.

His eyes go silver as his shift overtakes him. It takes my breath away as his body goes into the air before coming down as a huge, silver and gray wolf. Bending his head, he nuzzles me with his snout, his wolf urging mine to take control, to ease the struggle of my shift.

“I’m coming. She’s coming, baby,” I whisper before everything goes black.

Blinking, I huff out a breath. I can breathe again. I pull in fresh, crisp air until my lungs ache. Tilting my head back, I look up at the dark skies overhead, eyes drawn to the silver moon. It seems so far away. Pushing up on my hands, I shriek.

Fur. Thick, white fur on long, slender legs and…paws! Moving from one paw to the other, the earth is spongy beneath my new, big, paws. Again, I push forward on my new limbs. It takes me a few feet of stumbling on my new four legs, but I make a few steps.

Hearing a purring sound, I lift my head. My vision is so clear, the focus sharp, as I look for the sound. I can hear so much. Tittering of little animals running in the brush around us. And him. I hear my mate, humming, purring, watching me with big, gray eyes, his jaw tilted in an adorable smile as his tongue wags out.

“Mate,” he rumbles, coming to nuzzle me with his snout.

“Mate,” I hum back, nuzzling him back as I bow my head to my new alpha. To the leader of our pack. To the one who found me out in the woods when I was lost but had no idea.

“My beautiful mate,” he whispers, but without words. I can hear it, I can feel it, but he says no words. Of course, he doesn’t. We’re wolves now. We can’t speak to one another. Yet, we can. Without need for a voice, our thoughts bounce between one another.

“My Alpha,” I bow my head, following a demand he does not have to put into words. Not that he couldn’t. A demand to bare my neck to him as I bow my head in submission. To him. To my alpha.

“My luna. My love. The creature created just for me.”

A loud purring fills the space between us. It takes a moment for me to realize it comes from me. I am purring, a loud, melodic humming emits from my chest. I am bowing to him, to my new Alpha, to my love.

“My love,” I hum back before he comes beside me, nuzzling my neck where he bit me the night we first mated. A warmth burns there, as the mark glows with his magic, shimmering beneath my fur.

We’re bound together, in all of our forms, forever.

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Chapter Twelve

Edon

Seeing my mate in her wild form is a magic I never imagined I would get to experience. I have gone through most of my life on my own. No parents to care about me or teach me about being a shifter. No friends to welcome me into a pack or show me about this life. I never thought I would find a mate, my own Luna, a woman and a wild who will love me for the rest of eternity.

Here in the clearing where we first met, she preens beneath the moon. Goddess, her wolf is beautiful. Those stunning emerald eyes of hers sparkle as she bows her head, showing me submission as her alpha. It is something our whole pack will understand--they must submit to me as their leader if we want a united pack.

“Come, my love. Let’s let our wilds run free,” I tell her, using the connection between us to speak without words.

“Yes, my love. We want to be free,” she hums back, her paws pad at the earth beneath her feet, her excitement buzzing through her new form.

Nuzzling her neck, I lick and press my canines to the mark at her neck. The mark that claims her as mine. I must mate her in this form too. Bite her as our wolves, binding us together in all our forms for all of time. But first I want to let us run free, let her enjoy her first moments beneath the night skies as her new wild.

Taking off, I let out a chortle as Bessi whines and pushes after me. I sometimes run for hours in this form. I don’t stop to feed or drink, I just run. Sometimes I run right out of Moon Haven, but I am always cautious of the other regions that surround us. We’re not allowed to cross pack borders without good reason.

These are things I will have to teach my mate. Where the invisible lines are drawn, and how important it will be not to cross them. I must teach her how to shift quickly to protect herself. How to listen to her wolf when it pleads to be let out.

“I love her,” Bessi hums beside me as we race through the woods side by side. “I want to let her be free forever. I love her. I am so proud to have her.”

“That’s my girl,” I rasp back, watching her wolf almost smile at me. “You’re going to be such a good Luna, my love. I am so glad you found me that night. So glad to have you at my side. As my Luna, my love. I love you, Bessi.”

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