Page 6 of His Impossible Elf Mate
Whatever this was between us, I knew he was feeling it too.
We escaped the house with minimal fretting, and soon I had to shed my hoodie, as the late summer air, as cool as it was, had me sweating.
Just the short walk into the woods that bordered Dakota’s home had me slightly breathless. I tried to pant without letting the elf know I was struggling. Pretty sure I failed.
“Let’s take our time,” Teárlach suggested, slowing his pace. He held out an arm for me, which I took gratefully as we began to ascend the incline of a hill. It wasn’t steep, but by The Luna, it felt like it. My muscles screamed in protest as we climbed.
“There’s a viewpoint up there with picnic benches. I don’t think many go there,” I managed to get out around heaving breaths.
“So it is the perfect place for us to rest for a moment and enjoy one another’s company?”
“Yes.”
He led me around the bench and I gratefully took a seat next to him.
The air was filled with the sounds of my heavy breathing. “Sorry…”
“For what, Axel?” he asked looking genuinely perplexed. “You have been gravely ill. Your body will need time to recover the vitality you had before.” He was so matter of fact, it soothed me.
Teárlach fully expected me to recover, to be who I was before, or close to it. Unlike my family, who seemed to fear a relapse at any moment.
I was being unfair. Being cut off from the pack for a month must have been impossibly difficult for Blake and Kade. And having to watch me still trapped in a coma for two weeks after he woke from his must have been traumatic for Chase. I couldn’t have done it. I preferred having something to fight.
“Thank you,” I finally whispered.
“For what?”
“Your… friendship… whatever this is. I think you came at just the right moment.”
“I think I did, too.”
It was a long time before Teárlach suggested I might be getting cold and that we should return to Dakota’s house. He warmed me with some magic, even pushing in some healing to help with my exerted muscles. I pulled him into a grateful hug before taking his arm for the homeward journey.
His shocked but pleased face would stick with me for a while.
We didn’t talk about much. That was one of the easy things about spending time with Teárlach, we could just be quiet together. All we talked about was the differences between how each of the shifters were recovering from the sickness. I was doing better than little Angel, but not as well as Grady and Trey.
While I didn’t understand a lot of the research being done on us, I was fascinated with it and how dedicated Teárlach was to helping his people.
The walk home was peaceful. Our pace was slower, as if we were both reluctant to return to the house where, no doubt, my family would be ready to treat me like a child. I knew they meant well, I just struggled with feeling so weak.
“Teárlach, I heard Dakotacall you T, I was wondering….?”
“If you could do the same? Of course, Axel. It would please me.”
“Please you?”
He paused just shy of the door from the yard into the house. “A nickname, or shortening of a name, is a… rite of friendship, is it not? A sort of endearment that suggests a close friendship? I must admit, initially I was not sure of how my name was altered, but given how some pronounce my actual name…”
We both chuckled. His smile lingered even after his laugh faded. “It truly made me feel welcome here that Dakota would bestow a new moniker on me. I have come to like it.”
I grinned, pleased for him. “Yeah? That’s cool. Now you’ll have to find something for me.”
He thought for a moment as he reached for the door. “I hardly think A would suit. A what? I would be thinking. I need to speak to A. A who?”
A laugh burst from me, quickly joined with T’s own as we crossed into the house.
My back stiffened at the disapproving expression from Kade, which turned conflicted in a flash. I knew they didn’t exactly approve of my friendship with the elf, the relationship that was building between us.
