Page 60 of Soul Bound

“Being strong doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to fall occasionally. It’s the fact you keep getting up that makes you strong.”

I don’t know how long we lay there in bed wrapped up in each other. We don’t talk, and this time when she’s silent, I don’t feel the worry I felt when she was before. We both just feel content to lay there together. My wolf has never felt more content or at peace than with her in my arms.

After learning about what happened to Winslow, the little puzzle pieces that weren’t quite fitting finally clicked for me. I now understand what drove her to live on the streets in New York and what has made her so brave. The things she’s been through would have broken most people. But Winslow has taken it all in stride and only used her past experiences to make her stronger. I have massive amounts of respect for her.

18

Winslow

Neither one of us could fall asleep.

After lying there together for a while, Ranger grows restless and announces that he needs to go let his wolf out to run. Looking at the time, we learn it’s still only four in the morning. Ranger deems that a perfect time to go let his wolf out since there will be fewer human eyes around to witness his transformation.

“I’m coming with you,” I announce, slipping out of bed, still only wearing the oversized T-shirt from earlier. I don’t even know where my panties are.

“Really?” He raises a brow at me as he pulls on a pair of jogger sweatpants.

“Yep.” I run to my adjoining room and dig through my backpack for a pair of leggings to wear outside. “You can go run and I’ll sit outside while I contact Whisper.”

I don’t tell him the main reason I want to go with him is so I can look at his wolf up close and personal. I’ve only seen him shift the one time, and when he did, he didn’t stick around close for me to get a good look at him.

“Why do you need to contact your hacker friend?” He leans against the doorjamb of my room, his corded muscular arms crossed against his chest.

I pull the leggings on quickly before slipping my feet into my combat boots, tucking the laces into the sides, feeling too lazy to lace them up. “You didn’t hear this from me, okay?”

He squints. “Okay?”

“Whisper may or may not have figured out how to hack into the government’s satellite imaging. I was thinking I can have him look at the date and time of when the people at the facility left with TBD and see where they went with her.”

“TBD?” He sounds so confused.

“Yeah, I’m sick of calling the baby ‘the baby’and‘Thalia’s baby’, so I’m nicknaming her TBD.”

“That’s a horrible name.” His mouth quirks. “No one should ever let you name a child.”

I snort. “No one should ever allow me to care for a child.” I grab the hoodie I had packed and pull it on too since it’s chilly out. “I’m horrible with children.”

“I can picture you with kids.”

“That’s a horrifying thought.” I shake my head violently. “I can barely take care of myself and knowing my luck, I’d pass this lovely ghost seeing gift on to it and that’s just cruel. It was terrifying when I started seeing ghosts when I was eleven. No kid should be able to see the things I saw.”

“Wolf shifter pups are destructive as hell. You thought teething human babies were nightmares? Imagine a teething wolf shifter.”

“You can shift when you’re that young?”

“No, we don’t shift until we go through puberty, but when we’re young, so is our wolf. With adolescent wolves the need to bite and chew on things is strong and translates into our human forms.”

All I’m picturing is the poor wolf shifter mothers trying to breastfeed their biting babies.Yikes. My nipples ache in sympathy.

“Your mother deserves a fucking award for breastfeeding the four of you.”

I grab my computer before leaving our rooms and head outside. Ranger was smart when picking the hotel. It’s on the outskirts of the city but still surrounded by a nice wooded area. We walk around back, and I plop down in the grass, crossing my legs under me.

Ranger starts to strip, and I watch as the muscles move as he removes each article of clothing. My stomach tightens at the memory of his mouth being on me. I’m not crazy sexually experienced, but being with Ranger is like nothing I have ever experienced before. No one I’ve been with compares to him. He made me feel like I was fire, and with each brush of his mouth or hand on me, it felt like I had an electrical current coursing through me.

“Are you just going to watch me take my clothes off?” he asks, tossing his shirt into the grass beside me.

“Uh…yeah.” What a stupid question. I open the bag of chips I had bought from the vending machine in the lobby of the hotel. “It’s dinner and a show.”

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