This is it.
This is the moment when everything changes.
Today sucked. It was long and exhausting and it makes me question whether I’m doing the right thing, but Lori’s carefully timed words of encouragement make me feel a whole lot better.
They make me feel better than I should.
And I wonder, briefly, what the hell is going to happen next.
Chapter 7
Meredith
This time, I’m the one in the clearing.
I’m standing in my wolf form, walking around ten minutes early because I can’t believe he’s giving me a second chance. I’m nervous, and my anxiety is through the roof, but it’s actually happening.
This is it.
Everything is going to be okay.
I can smell him before I see him, and I stop pacing. I sit perfectly still and close my eyes. This is it. This is the moment. The air seems to shift around me, and when I open my eyes, I see him in front of me: a bear. He’s wild and big and strong, and I love the way he seems to smile down at me.
Bears make me uncomfortable. They always have. I’m a pretty small wolf. I’m a normal wolf, by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m small compared to a bear. Somehow, though, being this close to Robert doesn’t seem to make me unhappy or uncomfortable.
In fact, I just feel excited.
He reaches to me with a paw and pats my head gently. Is this a gesture of friendship or something more? I’ve never done this before. I’ve never shifted with a guy I was interested in or tried meeting up with someone in my shifter form. The times that I’ve been in my wolf body with other people, it was for necessity. Either we were hunting or needed to get somewhere quickly.
I’ve never done anything like this.
Part of me really likes it.
There’s another part of me that wants to be playful. My wolf wants to run and joke around with this bear. I can’t speak in my wolf form, but I can howl, and so I do. My bear seems to be jostled, just a little, but when I turn to start running through the woods, he follows me.
And oh, we run.
We run together, moving through the trees. It feels good. He’s not chasing me. He’s just...coming with me. Following me. Somehow, I can feel him protecting me despite the fact that we aren’t speaking or talking right now.
And suddenly, I realize why Team Shifter actually works.
It works because sometimes, there’s more to a relationship than talking.
Sometimes, just being together really is good enough.
Sometimes, being peaceful with someone, and being near them, really is the most incredible thing of all.
We pass through a small clearing. He stops running and I stop, too, turning back to him. I see the bear. He stands up on his hinders and looks at me, and I realize that I want more.
I want him.
Now.
Here.
The grass is soft beneath my paws as I walk back to him. I move carefully through the grass, but then I start running. As I run toward him, I shift, changing back into my human form, and I launch myself into his arms. He shifts as I do and catches me easily in his human form.
It’s all very romantic and movie-esque. I wrap my legs around him and start kissing him fast.