Page 58 of Run Free

I laughed. “Anyway, I despise flying, too, so more often than not I’d travel at night in my fur. It was the fastest, easiest, and most economical way to travel. I was heading into Oklahoma going south towards a concert down in Texas. I remember stopping to sleep for the night, still in my fur. That’s when they got me. Tranquilizer dart. I woke up in a cage in that damn zoo. The owners were human, but they knew about shifters. They tested every exotic animal that came in with tasers and various medieval style weapons to try and force us to shift. It was brutal, but I endured it. Somehow it was like they knew anyway. The one always commented it was my eyes that gave me away. Maybe they were right. There were a lot of other shifters there too. They wanted us to submit to humans and learn to behave and shift on demand. There was a couple of mated pairs there and the humans tried to force them to procreate. They wanted their animal offspring to sell for further money.”

All of the girls had tears in their eyes as I relayed my tale, but especially Clara. She rose and climbed into my lap, both seeking and giving comfort. I let go of her hand and wrapped my arms around her.

“I don’t need to go into full details, just that it was a very bad and brutal environment. They would literally beat us into submission and when I didn’t comply, they left the others alone to focus on me. In some warped way, that made me feel a little better. I had multiple broken bones, and feared they’d heal wrong, so every night I broke them again, because as you know, in wolf form our healing is accelerated, so they would mostly be healed if the beating occurred in the morning.”

They cringed and I knew it wasn’t possible for them to understand my desperation at that time.

“They resorted to starving us, and if that wasn’t enough, one day they just stopped coming at all. That was a relief actually, but without food I started fading fast. I was delirious and in and out of consciousness. The last thing I remembered before waking up in the clinic with Clara laying by my side was this brilliant white light and an overwhelming smell of coconuts.”

Lizzy giggled. “Clara!”

“Do I really smell like coconuts?” she asked, sniffing through the tears streaming down her face.

“Yes,” they all admitted.

“He’s always saying that, but I never knew it.”

“Anyway, I thought I’d died and she was this beautiful angel of death coming to take me home at last. I had prayed for that for days by that point, and suddenly, there she was.”

“I’ve heard you call her angel a few times now, is that why?” Lily asked.

Clara looked up at me and scrunched up her nose in that cute way she always did when she was confused or frustrated or simply trying to puzzle something out. I leaned down and kissed her nose, surprising her.

“Yeah. She’ll always be my angel.” I rubbed her back, trying to bring her comfort. I knew my story was hard for her to hear and one I hadn’t fully shared with her. Of course she knew the aftermath and could guess most of what happened from a medical viewpoint, but she hadn’t actually heard me talk about it before.

She hugged me tightly around the waist.

“It’s so weird seeing Clara cuddle up to you like this. Like really weird,” Ruby admitted. “Cute, don’t get me wrong. You guys are adorable together, it’s just not Clara.”

“And she’s crying. Clara never cries,” Shelby said, wiping a tear from her own cheek.

It was my turn to give them a puzzled look. Clara always seemed to wear her emotions on her sleeve, and my mate had always been affectionate and never shied away from me. Even when I took her virginity she was so responsive I hadn’t even known until she confessed it to me after the fact. I didn’t get what her sisters were talking about.

“I guess to be fair, we really don’t know if it’s Clara or not,” Ruby added. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen her with a guy.”

“Like ever,” Shelby confirmed.

I grinned. That wasn’t a bad thing in my book. Clara sat up but stayed on my lap.

“Enough, you guys,” she warned them.

Clara

Chapter 26

I knew exactly what was coming next and I couldn’t take it. They thought they were coming over to give Gage a hard time as some sort of weird “welcome to the family” thing. We didn’t do that to Liam, Lily, or Cole, so I wasn’t one hundred percent certain what they were up to. Then again, they were all family friends to begin with. Gage was not. After his heartbreaking story, they were taking pity on him and switching over to a Clara roast instead, but I wasn’t in the mood for it.

I already felt vulnerable and emotional from listening to all Gage had been through. It was pretty much everything I’d suspected, but so much harder to take hearing him admit it all. I was good at turning my emotions off and my sisters really weren’t used to seeing me cry, but for some reason it was like that part of me broke whenever Gage was near. Or maybe I just knew it was okay to let go around him. I didn’t have to be the strong one for once.

“Girls, leave her alone,” Lizzy said.

“We didn’t mean to embarrass you, Clara,” Shelby said, sounding apologetic.

“I’m not embarrassed. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with waiting for your one true mate. It wasn’t that I couldn’t date or hadn’t been asked out before; heck I even went on dates in college on occasion. It’s just, knowing nothing would come from it, and unnecessary emotions could get involved, I chose to wait. I’m glad I did. So what if Gage was my first, he’ll also be my last, and he was worth waiting for. You guys don’t need to make such a big deal about it. That’s all I’m saying.”

Several of my sisters were gawking with open mouths. Gage hugged me around the waist and pulled me back against him. I could feel through our bond that my words had made him happy. It was the first time I’d truly felt his emotions.

“That may be the most words we’ve ever heard you say at one time. You’re always so quiet,” Ruby said as the others nodded.

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