Page 49 of His Impossible Elf Mate
His face twisted, then he broke out in heaving sobs. “What am I going to do? I… I hoped it would be you!”
“We’ll find you an alpha. Either a beta with the alpha gene, or an alpha who would be getting such a great catch with you.”
Tears streamed down his face. “I can’t believe it. An omega. Like me.”
Tightening my grip on him, I tried to be the friend he needed. I hated crushing his hopes, but I had to live my truth. Telling him now saved him pain later.
“Guess we have more in common than we thought,” I said wryly.
His watery chuckle lifted my spirits. His arms wrapped around me. We would be fine. I just needed to help my friend’s dream come true too.
Dreams
Teárlach
Stumbling, my body weakening with every step I took, I made my way home to the small hut I shared with Axel. He told me it wasn’t called a hut, but rather a cabin. It had a few rooms and all the modern conveniences that I enjoyed. Despite being very plain, the cabin had tasteful decorations. I would have preferred more of the forest to be represented in the home we shared. Still, there was time to make it our own. Or we could choose to wait until our house was fully constructed before creating a true sense of home. We had plenty of time to decide what to do since our home was lower on the list than others.
Time was something elves had plenty of. Regardless of my mother’s wishes, I was staying with Axel until I was really needed at home. Besides, I had not completed my mission and solved the fertility crisis. I would not leave without the answers I sought.
Every day we seemed to get further and further away. It felt hopeless at times.
Shifters, elves, others, all called out to me as I made my way home, my energy rapidly dwindling, but my focus was solely on telling Axel what had happened. He deserved to know before I faded.
I could feel the darkness pulling me under. It took all the strength I had to just put one foot in front of the other to get home to him. I should have remembered to charge my cell phone.
For hours after I’d assisted Hiroshi with the healing, I’d felt unstoppable, giving me a false sense of security. Energized beyond anything I had experienced before, I had run through the compound to tell everyone I needed to about what had happened.
A shifter had commented that it looked like I had overdosed on caffeine. They had laughed at me. I had found it odd.
I had only left once I was sure I had done everything necessary to ensure the couple had everything they needed for Hiroshi’s heat, so they would not be left hungry or thirsty. The rest of their family was amused but overjoyed also at the sudden heat. A shifter usually had at least one year before heats returned after giving birth.
Ívarr had trapped me in a meeting for hours when all I wanted to do was run through the forest. He wanted to discuss the implications of what our magic meant for the shifters who were extra gifted. We saw all shifters as gifted. They each had an animal soul within them. Those with extra gifts just had something more,a latent magic that manifested in just one particular way, which begged the question, could we unlock them further? Would that help us? Was that what we were there for?
Now, I was finally on my way home to Axel and feeling all of my energy slipping away, like the adrenaline crashes I’d been researching for Ívarr as a way to induce the beta change. If I looked down, surely I would see my energy seeping into the ground.
Hands found me. Unknown voices, or perhaps I was just too exhausted to pick each person out. They spoke to me, assuring me they were helping me home. I could only manage to speak Axel’s name.
Everyone knew about us. I hadn’t needed to tell them. It was rare to see us without each other now.
Suddenly, he was in front of me. Axel had his hands on my shoulders, his shifter strength the only thing holding me up.
“T? What happened?” I felt his worry, and heard it in his voice. It shook with fear. His eyes—his terror was stark.
“Hiro… healing… weak… must sleep.”
There, in his eyes, was a deep understanding. Axel was my safe place in a world I didn’t quite understand. He lifted me into his arms, a reversal, yet still reminiscent of that day months ago when we shared our first kiss.
Gently, he laid me on the bed, then removed my shoes letting them drop onto the carpeted floor.
I felt his cool palm brush the hair from my face. “Then sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
Just like I was for him.
I knew I was dreaming instantly.
The air carried the scent of honeysuckle. The grass beneath me was spongy-soft, warmed by the late afternoon sun.
Trees surrounded the clearing I was in. Without looking, I knew it would be a perfect circle.
