Page 56 of Shifters' Fated Summer
The tightness in my chest loosened.
“I wanted to help. But it didn’t go well.”
He waited silently, his body heat soaking into me. He was so patient, always letting me set the pace.
“He said he didn’t trust me and he wouldn’t accept the bond.” My voice shook as tears threatened. Giving in to the need to be held, I rolled over to face Luca and let him wrap his arms around me. With my cheek pressed to his collarbone, I let the tears fall.
Luca shushed me and smoothed my hair, holding me tight as I unraveled. The emotions ripped through me anew.
Fuck, I was so fucking tired of crying.
“I don’t want to keep trying to win him over. I thought we could do it. But it hurts too much when he rejects me,” I confessed. Each word scraped over my skin like jagged glass.
“Okay,” Luca said. “It’s okay, I understand.”
He held me for a long moment, and slowly I knit myself back together. I would be stronger, despite Cade.
Clearing his throat, Luca spoke. “I’m sorry it went that way. He’s being terrible. I won’t make excuses for it. But I’m here for you. I still want you. Please stay with me.”
I flinched.
The idea that I would lose him too had been needling at me. It was something I couldn’t face. But hearing his affirmations that I still had a place here with him, that fear softened enough I could tuck it away and pretend it wasn’t terrifying me.
“Yes, please,” I murmured, nuzzling against him.
The fact that Luca was committed to Cade was the inconvenient fact I was still ignoring.
But if Luca wanted to be with me, I would embrace that. I would enjoy every second with him, and make him so happy that Cade got jealous.
Petty? Maybe.
But at the end of the day, I needed Luca. I would fall apart without him. And even when I was strong enough to stand on my own, I wanted him.
Cade be damned.
Chapter 20
Training
At least training with Archer meant spending more time with Elowen. The next morning, I followed the pair across the deck and down to the side of the house where the dirt had been cleared and several logs were arranged in various ways.
Frowning, I surveyed the space. “What is all of this?”
I’d watched the pack train at a distance, but the equipment was all brown wood like the trees around us, and I’d never gotten a very good look.
Elowen laughed softly, her hand resting on her belly. “That’s a balance beam,” she said, nodding at the nearest log that sat four feet off the ground on two posts. Additional vertical timbers spaced out from the balance beam, leading to a rope looping between two trees.
“That’s the ladder for climbing,” she continued, and I turned to see a triangular structure of logs rising seven or eight feet. “They’re to train you, but we should start with stretches and then see where you’re at.”
“I am making no promises,” I said dubiously.
Her laughter lightened the mood as Archer led me through stretches, and I marveled at how his massive, muscled frame was able to reach his toes and twist his arm behind his back. I was about as flexible as Elowen was, but she had a pregnant belly inhibiting her. I was just inflexible and out of shape.
Embarrassing, but I could always get stronger.
Archer walked me through a simple obstacle course. Cross the balance beam, climb the ladder, use the rope to swing across - that one was mostly for fun, he said - and then climb back down. He assured me we would save the tougher elements for later once I had built up my balance and stamina.
Crossing the balance beam was easy, and I grinned at Elowen as I leapt off the other side. But once I started up the ladder, my confidence wavered. It took only minutes for my muscles to protest, and my breath was coming in short pants.
