Page 37 of Prayers for the Prickly

I’m sorry I scared you earlier. I scared myself, too. It was an intense few minutes, but everything’s okay now.

A part of me is terrified to know what happened, while another part of me needs to know what happened so I can decide if it’s better or worse than all the things I’ve been picturing in my head.

I’m bruised, but I wasn’t hurt,Gregor explained.A rope wrapped around my arm, and I got yanked off the boat and into the water, but it’s not that cold this time of year and I wasn’t in it verylong.

How the hell did that happen?I snapped.

I wasn’t paying as close attention as I should have been after I threw the hook we use to snag the line attached the buoy. I should have pulled my arm back faster, instead it got caught up. I’ve seen it happen before, just never had it happen to me.

Well I sure as hell hope it never happens to you again. I could see what it looked like underwater, like I was seeing it through your eyes. I could practically taste it; everything was so vivid. I did experience the sensation of drowning, and it wasn’t a pleasant one, so please, for the sake of my rapidly fraying nerves, don’t forget to pay attention anymore for the rest of the trip.

I won’t, I promise.

You are going to pay for nearly giving me a heart attack. I want you to know that and be prepared for when retribution comes for you,I declared.I’m giving you fair warning, but only because you nearly died today.

Not the way I normally go around collecting points, but I’ll take the V on that after almost drowning.

Okay, you can stop reminding me of that at any time now, please!

I was getting snappy, hissy, too, and I knew it. I felt him try to wrap around me in a great big mental hug, but that didn’t stop the image of him trapped beneath the waves from taking root inside my head.

Sorry.

You’d better be. You’re supposed to be helping me plan a life together, not looking for ways to scare years off mine.

I promise it wasn’t intentional. Does that help at least?

A little,I grumpily acknowledged.

I miss you.

Are you saying that because you truly miss me or are you trying to get the subject off what happened today?

A little of both.

Huffing, I crossed my arms, even if he couldn’t see it.Fine, I’ll let you have that one, too.

At least it was worth something.

Gregor…I warned, snarling through the link that connected us.

I know, I know, that was in poor form and much too soon. I’m sorry. I’ll wait awhile before I try to make light of it again.

How about you wait until never!I shot back, wishing that he was right there in front of me so I could shake him and make him swear never to make me feel that sudden onslaught of terror again.

Never will work for me, too,he replied, putting my soul at ease a little.I doubt my uncle will let me anywhere near the hook for the rest of the trip.

Again, I’d like to opt for the addition of a never option, I insisted.

I can’t promise that,he replied,but I can promise that I’ll never volunteer to throw it again.

I’ll take all the victories I can get, he replied.Even the tiny ones.

I felt his chuckle through our connection and was finally able to shut off the lights in the den and head upstairs. It would be the first time I’d sleep alone in our big bed, but I knew as well as anyone how important it was within family units that everyone pitched in when there was a need.

A hundred years ago, shifter communities had looked very different, and most of them had been so segregated that they never really evolved past tiny villages with a small number of families all so entwined that their family trees had such a sparce number of branches that it had led to several of them dying out. Those who learned to interact peacefully with others had begun to thrive again, until towns like this one and the one we came from had begun to crop up, the founding fathers proclaiming them safe spaces for shifters of every kind, as well as the humans who occasionally discovered that they had one of us for a mate.

Your things are still scheduled to arrive Saturday, correct?he asked, startling me from the soft hush that had begun to claim my mind now that my thoughts had slowed down.

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