Page 33 of M.A.Y.A
Maya had a nightmare again. Isaiah woke just as her body tensed. He pulled her into his arms and stroked her back while she trembled and cried. When a scream ripped from her lungs and filled his room, he carried her to the bathroom and gently lowered her in front of the toilet just as her eyes popped open in panic. Then he held her hair back as she emptied the contents of her stomach. She was mostly dry heaving since she hadn’t eaten much for dinner.
When she finished, she leaned against the vanity and brushed her teeth in drunken-like moves. Isaiah waited until she was ready before he picked her up again and carried her back to bed. He pressed his fingers into the knots between her shoulder blades as she clung to him, hoping to unravel some of her tension, but she continued to curl tighter and tighter against his chest, as if trying to fold herself into a ball and hide away from him and the rest of the world.
The mating bond was getting stronger, because even he was beginning to feel the effects of her nausea, of her panic and despair. After twenty minutes of cuddling her close, he knew that she wasn’t going to go back to sleep any time soon. She was still spiraling, even though she hadn’t said a word.
“Come on,” Isaiah said quietly as he slipped out of bed and stood. “I’m going to take you somewhere you can relax.”
Maya remained curled in the fetal position. “I really don’t want to go anywhere right now, Isaiah.”
He kissed her brow. “Trust me, baby. This will be good for you. For both of us. And we’ll do it together.”
He helped her to her feet, then picked up his shirt that he’d discarded the night before from the chair in the corner of the room. He tugged it over her head so that she was covered in his scent.
The hem of the shirt reached her mid-thigh, and he made quick work of folding the sleeves and slotting each button in place. His knuckles skimmed the sides of her breasts and triggered a delicate shiver, reminding him how much of a woman—how much ofhiswoman—she would always be.
Because she was still sore with fresh bruises from her fight, Isaiah swept Maya up in a bridal hold and strode out of his bedroom, through his living room to the clearing outside. As he made a left off the main path, he found peace in the way that she pressed her face against the side of his neck and breathed in his scent. Maybe this time away would be good for him too. The thought of losing her was still a novel fear that he doubted he’d ever get used to.
“Hold on,” he whispered, quickening his pace to a run. Maya clung to him, and even though she’d tightened her hold, her body was slowly losing the tension that had claimed her muscles in their bedroom.
Thankfully, they didn’t run into any packmates on the way. It was no secret that they remained unclaimed. His pack didn’t know that they’d made a promise to each other to wait the full two weeks. To the shifters in the central Den, something was wrong because Isaiah hadn’t completed the claiming ceremony. He wouldn’t put it past them to poke and prod and ask questions if they had the opportunity to do so.
Isaiah stepped over a fallen log and then angled his body to protect Maya from the brush as he made his way closer to the sound of running water. They approached the small, hidden pond that was fed by a waterfall.
“You can look,” he whispered against Maya’s temple.
She turned away from his neck to take in the landscape and surroundings. Her eyes widened at the sight of the waterfall and the sparkling shimmer of the pond that glittered in the early dawn. Tendrils of steam danced over the calm surface. Because there was a hot spring that ran under the pond and the waterfall was fed by a mountain river, the temperature was perfect for a warm bath. As a treasured spot for his pack, Den mothers made sure to maintain it so wolves could enjoy it throughout the year.
“This is beautiful,” she whispered.
Without wasting another moment, he set her on her feet and tugged her shirt over her head. He proceeded to then reach over his shoulder and remove his shirt as well. One by one, he undressed them both.
“Isaiah,” she said, even though there was a lack of indignation in her voice.
“Let’s go for a little dip,” he replied, then led her into the water. When he first heard her sigh, he realized this was the best decision for both of them. They needed a moment away so that she could relax and just be. So that they could spend more time together. They already knew each other well through their late-night conversations and their plans for closing the bunker portal. But every moment with Maya was precious, healing, and Isaiah craved time with her more than he’d craved anything in his life.
“I’m so tired,” she whispered as she ducked her hair back to wet it. “I’m so tired of wondering and waiting and trying to figure out if I’ll ever be human again.”
The moment of vulnerability made his heart ache for her. His poor tiny warrior was torn over what she couldn’t control, and he wished he could do something to take the pain away.
“Why don’t you stop trying then?” he finally said, pulling her close so that she could wrap her legs around his waist. The move was so natural it made him smile. He kissed her upturned mouth. “Stop trying to figure out how to be what you once were and start trying to understand what you can be now that you’re Maya. Now that you’remyMaya.”
Her voice was so small when she replied, her fingers digging in his hair at the base of his neck like a lifeline. “I don’t know if I’ll like who that’ll be.”
“The only choice you can’t make is reclaiming an identity before your captivity. There is no going back to that version of yourself. But the future is yours to do with what you want.”
She looked up, her big brown eyes so vulnerable with him, and so guarded with everyone else. “There’s no going back for me, but for you?—”
“No,” he snapped. “There is no going back for me, either.”
Isaiah pressed a kiss to the hollow of her throat. “What can I do to show you that I’m not going anywhere, whether you claim me as yours or not?” he said, his voice filled with a wolf’s growl.
She hummed from his touch, and he reveled in the knowledge that despite their short amount of time together, she’d always respond to him in this way. His hands coasted down her back under the water until they gripped her butt. He then hoisted her a little bit higher so that she hovered just above his hardening cock.
He adjusted himself and rubbed his erection between her slit. She gasped and slowly rolled her hips forward to increase the friction between them.
Not surprisingly, he hardened even more.
“Let me kiss you,” he said softly. “Let me touch you so you can feel how proud I am that you were the woman fate chose for me.”
