Page 31 of Cold Foot Croc

“They gave us medicine every day to keep the animals suppressed. It felt like torture not being able to Change.”

His heart dropped to the snow, and he averted his gaze so she wouldn’t see how disgusted he was. He wished Cold Foot Prison would burn to ashes. A couple minutes ago, if she would’ve told him she didn’t have to Change for a couple of years, he would’ve envied her, but not after she’d talked so sweetly about her animal.

Raynah loved her crocodile. That much was evident in the softness of her voice.

He felt selfish, but he also felt something else that he couldn’t put his finger on…like he was taking something for granted.

“The faster you get to know your animal and let him in, and let him be your teammate, not your enemy, the faster you can find your new normal.”

He inhaled that frigid air, dragging it into his lungs until they were completely full, and then he let it out and nodded. “I’ll Change again if you want. I don’t want you anywhere close though. I don’t think I would hurt you, but I just want to be safe.”

“You won’t hurt me.”

“Raynah—”

“You won’t. I already met your bear, and he protected me, remember? He knows me. He’ll recognize me.”

“No. No, no, no, you have the baby. I’m not unleashing my grizzly bear around you.”

“Stop saying unleashing him. You are sharing the body. It’s his turn. Let’s go.”

“Raynah—”

“I will show you my titties if you stop arguing and start walking.” She pointed to the woods.

Well, all arguments he might have had just flew out the window.

He nodded once and marched himself right for that forest. “I think we should name the baby Billy,” he said, trying to distract himself from the absolute hell he was about to go through again.

“I’m probably not naming him Billy. Veto. Are you saying nice things to your bear in your mind?”

“I don’t even know how to talk to my bear. He only speaks in my head when he wants me to kill someone, whenever anyone does anything remotely annoying around me. That’s not my favorite conversation. We don’t speak the same language.”

“Okay, that’s a little weird, but yeah, you do speak the same language. You two just don’t know how to care what the other side of you wants yet. Plus, he can feel your intentions. If you have good intentions for him, he will grow to trust you.”

“I don’t have good intentions for him.”

“Yeah, and that’s probably why it takes you an hour to Change. I saw the video of it, by the way. Deeply disturbing.”

“Wait, you saw what?”

“Your brother sent me the drone video of you Changing last night. That is unacceptable. You and your bear are punishing each other for no reason.”

“I…” He frowned. He didn’t like any of this. “I don’t think you should be here.”

“This is good right here. Change and protect me.”

He gestured to her belly. “You really shouldn’t be around someone who has no control.”

She snorted. “I saw you the night you fought Farrah. You didn’t even kill her, and she was a giant cunt.”

Okay, Raynah had a point there. “I’ve never heard a girl say that word.”

“Bra or no bra?”

“What?”

“Do you want to see all of my titties, or just my bra?”

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