Page 22 of Grey
Nancy turned around and put her arm around Tatum’s shoulders. “Yes, honey, you did see that. Grey is a stallion shifter, just like Crew, Ford, Avi, and my Dexter. I’m human like you and I didn’t believe my eyes when Dexter shifted for me the first time either. But it’s real and it happened, honey. Can you imagine how serious the secret is? How incredible shifters are,but how important it is that their secret needs to be kept? Grey shifted for you because he cares so deeply for you he didn’t want to keep the secret from you, and he’s trusting you with this truth, believing that you’ll keep it in your heart and not tell another living soul.”
Her mouth went dry.
Holy crap, the guy she was falling for was a horse.
Grey had never been so nervous in his life when he shifted.
Even when he was a teenager and had shifted for the first time and worried about whether it would hurt or if he’d even be able to shift, or had wondered if he’d know how to turn back to human. But all of those nervous feelings didn’t compare to stripping in front of his soulmate and turning into his stallion.
Because what if she passed out? He didn’t have arms to catch her.
And what if she screamed in fear and tried to run? Dexter and Nancy would stop her, but then he’d have to deal with her being scared of him.
But she didn’t pass out and she didn’t scream. She did seem pissed while he was stripping, and now she was silent.
Which was maybe worse than her being pissed at him.
He whinnied a second time and wished he could talk to her in his stallion form.
“I, I, uh…” Tatum cleared her throat. “Can I touch him?”
“Sure, he’s your soulmate,” Dexter said.
Tatum looked at Dexter. “You say soulmate like it means more than what I think it means.”
“Shifters have soulmates. It’s the one person in the world meant to be ours. Shifters know it the instant they meet theirsoulmate; it’s like the whole universe has aligned and we feel whole where we didn’t before.”
She walked slowly to him, her eyes wide and her hands trembling, and he held his breath as he waited for her to close the distance between them. This was the moment he’d been waiting his whole life for—sharing his shift with his soulmate. Now that he’d done it, he just hoped that she would accept him.
She walked slowly to the horse.
To…Grey.
She still wasn’t sure she trusted what she’d seen, but then she laid a trembling hand on his nose and knew she’d seen something incredible. It shouldn’t have been able to happen. A human couldn’t turn into an animal; that was the stuff of legends and movies. But she could practically feel Grey inside the horse, feel a connection to him that defied reality.
She ran her hand lightly down his nose and he snuffled at her, which made her giggle. “It’s extraordinary.”
“Would you like to go for a ride?” Dexter asked. “We have a thick blanket to sit on and we can put a soft rope around his neck so you can hold on. Then you could go for a ride if you’d like.”
Her brows rose. “Really?”
“It’s a lot of fun,” Nancy said, “and it’s a great way to connect as mates.”
Mates. Tatum liked that word. It seemed stronger than boyfriend and girlfriend.
“I’d love to.”
Grey let out what sounded like an appreciative grunt.
Dexter grabbed the gear and set it up, and then they walked out into the pasture. The moonlight made the whole world lookpale and perfect, and even though she’d never been on a horse in her life before, all the nerves she’d been feeling were gone the instant Dexter gave her a boost and she sat atop hermate.
“Holy crap,” Tatum said.
Nancy chuckled. “Have fun. We’ll be here when you get back.”
She looked down at them. They were both beaming at her as they held each other. “You’re really happy for us.”
“Of course,” Nancy said. “Grey is like a son to us, and him finding you was an answer to our earnest hope that all the boys would find their soulmates. Our son Khyle finding Tris, Crew finding Zara, and now Grey finding you. Our hearts are so full right now.”
