Page 19 of Tide Touched

I can’t say what I’m searching for. Something else. Something more than this. I glare at the moon, knowing it’s a source of power for the Tide Witches, and can’t help but feel betrayed.

I unlatch the window and stare down, immediately hit with a powerful wave of fear mixed with vertigo. I stagger back from the window. I guess escape that way isn’t an option. Even with fast shifter healing, I’d be dead upon impact. Or, I’d wish I was.

I’ve only shifted once, but upon inhaling the woody breeze drifting from the nearby forest combined with the still high, full moon, my wolf writhes inside me, desperately wanting to run wild and free.

She also really wants to be fucked again. Rutted and rutted until I’m with child for my mate.

Absently, my hand drifts to my belly. I wonder if I’m already pregnant. I sit back on the bed, preparing myself for a life of discontent and stifling boredom.

Surely, they won’t keep me locked up here? Maybe it’s just while they don’t know me. Perhaps if I show them I can be trusted, they’ll let me out to wander freely.

I climb under the covers, sighing at the warmth, and finally close my eyes. Carter’s face glides into my mind, the memory of his body on mine, of his cock in me. I want more. I want him again. But does he want me?

Chapter Ten

Killian

As the others go to their tents—no one mutters a word about Moira taking my tent when I glare at them—and soon fall asleep, the quiet night is filled with the soft sound of steady breathing, chests rising and falling evenly. But I’m on edge. My hands curl into fists. Staring up at the stars was beautiful, but it only eased my restless spirit briefly.

I get up and quietly pad away from the camp and undress behind a tree. I need to run. To burn this restless energy away. I grit my teeth as the change overcomes me. It’s been six months since I first turned, and it still hurts. I wouldn’t admit it to Dad, but every now and then he’ll murmur that it does get easier over the years.

I bite down on my cry so as not to wake the others, and fall to the ground on four paws, a pant rasping from my mouth. God, that kills. I roll my shoulders, working out the aches of newly broken, reformed bones, my eyes squeezing shut.

I take to the woods at a brisk walk, revelling in the damp, clean scent. The first time I’d shifted was truly awful, I’d nearly passed out from the pain. I remember staring up at my father, desperately trying to blink back tears. I would not cry in front of him. The last time I did, I was eight, and I’d slipped off one of the cliff rock faces, into the water, and broken my arm. I remember the look on his face. He wasn’t even mad that I’d snuck off to the beach—No Fire Wolf should play in water! he would usually shout—he was just horribly concerned and pained at my own agony.

I brush off the memories. The last six months have been exhausting. Today more than any other. I start to run, hoping to run until my legs burn and I can’t think.

Since my first shift, something deep in my heart, my soul, has felt different. I can’t figure it out, put my finger on it. It’s as though my body has woken up. I feel everything more deeply.

I push my legs harder, running, jumping over fallen trees, relishing the burn and ache that soon weighs my limbs.

It took a while to get used to running on all fours. I didn’t ask my father, nor anyone else, for help or guidance. I needed to do it alone. I feel that way a lot these days. I need to do it alone. I need to be alone. I want to run, alone. In the woods, on the beach.

I don’t know if I’ll ever find a mate. I know my father sure hopes so, for the future of our pack. I run harder, my mind still not clear. Twigs and leaves crunch quietly under my paws.

The woods carry a deep, damp earthy scent that fills my nose. I slow to a brisk walk, needing a short break. I howl up at the moon, feeling slightly better, but not clear-minded.

Thoughts of Katherine come charging back, unbidden. Where is she right now? In bed with Carter? Has he… has he fucked her? For some reason, the thought has me nearly emptying my dinner onto the forest floor.

Just the idea of one of ours being with a Water wolf… it’s not natural. This whole thing with the Tide Witches saying we’re evolving seems strange. I always assumed I would mate with another Fire wolf. How would that be, to mate with someone so very different?

I have noticed that Katherine has a certain affinity for the beach, the water. Perhaps she will be happy with a Water wolf. My wolf flinches. It doesn’t sit well with me. No, she kicked all the way to the car. One of my wolves needs me.

I won’t let her down.

I let out a mighty howl, a promise to Katherine, and myself, that she won’t be stuck there forever.

Chapter Eleven

Katie

A deep, soulful howl slithers through my closed window, filtering through my room, warming my heart. Half-asleep, I sit up, a little disorientated. Blurry memories of the day seep in. ‘Carter?’ I get up and go to the window, following the howl that fits perfectly in my chest.

All I can see are the long, rolling plains of the estate and the line of trees where a deep, dark forest begins. But I can’t see any wolves.

The howl sounds again, long and sorrowful. I clap my hands to my chest, feeling as though that sorrow is somehow my own. I sink down into the chair, and it sounds again for a third and final time.

I climb back into bed, dazed, and fall asleep to the howl that fills me up, its pain my own.

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