Page 31 of Forced Plus-Size Mate

I try gently tapping her shoulder, but she’s in too deep. I end up shaking her until her eyes fly open, so wide that they are white, her pupils tiny spots amongst the sea of blue-green.

“Body!” she exclaims. “I saw, I saw—”

“It’s okay, you’re safe now. It was just a dream.”

“It wasn’t a dream,” she counters. “It was history. I saw wolves… wolves fighting witches.”

Her words bring my dream back to me in detail. The confusing, violent images fall into a pattern, and a cold shiver runs through me as I realize we had the same dream.

“Come on,” I say gently. “We should get ready to go, anyway.”

“Okay,” she agrees, nodding. “I’ll get dressed and pack a bag.”

I meet her out the front a few minutes later. On our way to the camping ground, I get breakfast for us as well as a giant box of donuts for the kids. When we pull into the parking lot, I can see the small group already waiting for us.

Grace and Marty are from New Hope, and Nick and Dawn are from Silverton. I’m surprised to see they still came after the issues between the packs. Their parents seem friendly enough, but I notice that they leave before they have to interact with Amanda.

She greets the kids, handing out donuts. All of them are around eleven years old and pretty confident in their abilities.

This is their first test, though. Survival 101.

“Okay, guys, listen up!” I say. “I want every single one of you at the first crest of the mountain by the time the sun comes up, got it?”

“It’s too far!” Grace protests. “We’ll never make it.”

“Not with that attitude,” I chide her, laughing. “Don’t worry, Amanda is going to take your stuff and set up a nice camp for us.”

“I am?” Amanda asks, then chuckles. “I mean, yeah. I am.”

“Okay,” I say. “Let’s go!”

While the others strip and shift, I pile up their gear on a little snowmobile I have in the truck and lower it to the ground.

“You remember how to ride one of these?” I ask Amanda.

“I sure do,” she says, “but it’s been a while.”

“You’ll do fine. I’ll come back to check on you soon. Choose a good place for a camp. I don’t really mind where, so long as it’s in the first tree break.”

“You got it,” she says, getting onto the snowmobile. I turn and run after the kids, shifting in one smooth leap as I chase them down and overtake them with ease.

Wow, I feel stronger than before… faster, bigger, more powerful.

It’s so significant that I have to slow myself down a lot so the kids can keep up. My goal is to show them how to use the environment to their advantage instead of taking on the mountain as an obstacle.

Soon, all of them catch on, even Grace. They use slopes, water courses, and fallen trees to cover more ground using less energy, and as they run, they start to display ingenuity that is completely unique to each of them.

When Marty passes me by diving under a low hedge that I decided to jump, I bark and yip excitedly as I follow right on his heels. Dawn leaps from a nearby outcrop of rock and almost shoulders me out of the way in her haste to reach the peak. Nick is pounding along behind us, running for all he’s worth.

Where’s Grace?

With a triumphant howl, Grace comes sliding down the slope above us, riding a small avalanche that takes her right to the peak in one swift jump. She leaps around as the first light of dawn caresses the mountain behind her.

“I won!” she cheers after shifting back so she can punch her fist into the air. “That was awesome!”

“You barely beat me,” Marty gasps, trying to get his breath back. “It was almost a tie.”

“Almost, but not quite,” Grace laughs.

---