Authors: Lucy Kelly
“Yours!” she answered even as she reached overhead with her arms to brace herself. He was trusting strongly enough she might end up with a headache. Her arms were strong from years of lifting her entire body weight. She was able to meet his thrusts and as wrung out as she’d been after the last orgasm she could feel another building inside her. It came rushing on, exploding through her entire body from her core to her extremities. She couldn’t stop the scream it forced from her lips.
The sensation of her pulsing and squeezing around him set off his own release. He fused their hips together as he roared. It felt like he was emptying his soul into her body. He could feel them bonding and becoming one.
As he collapsed, he was careful to keep his weight on his forearms. Even now he was careful of her. She would always come first to him.
Laura felt her heart trying to beat its way out of her chest. She too had felt the bond form between them it was as if there was a cord stretching from her core to his, her soul to his. The words of the bonding ceremony came back to her. She did feel as if they were now one joined soul.
She couldn’t help the wince as he pulled out of her body. Even that feeling she relished. She wasn’t a girl anymore, she was a woman, a mated woman. She had a goofy smile on her face as Alex brought a cloth to clean her up and then removing the bath sheet she was still lying on, he pulled up the sheet and blankets. Getting back in the bed next to her he spooned her from behind, his larger body completely enveloping her smaller one.
He lay on the side of the bed nearest to the hall door. Even here, in their bed, he lay between her and the outside world. He would protect her with his life, his precious mate he vowed to himself as they slipped into sleep.
Late in the night, or early the next morning, Laura woke. She was unused to sleeping with another person, let alone a furnace like Alex. But that wasn’t what had woken her up. Maggie had lowered the temperature in the room so they would remain comfortable. Alex hadn’t moved, he was still wrapped around her. One arm lay heavy over her waist, his hand holding onto one of her breasts as if he were afraid it was going to get away.
His cock lay nestled under her ass, and even at rest it felt huge. She went over everything that had happened since she woke.
Was it only that morning she’d overslept? Look how much my life has changed! I have so much more now.
Even all that wasn’t what had woken her up. Something was different. Then she felt it, deep inside, almost like the click of a light switch. Her body had changed. In that moment, she knew she was pregnant.
She wouldn’t say anything but she knew. Tomorrow she’d find out from Mara how long she’d have to wait to find out for sure. Holding the secret safe in her heart, she let herself fall back asleep.
Chapter Twenty-One
The next morning Alex woke her with kisses. He couldn’t keep his hands off her and it made her glow with happiness because she felt the same way about him. They had a fast bout of sex before getting out of bed. Today she was a full changeling and looking forward to starting her lessons with Frieda.
“I know when I’m not wanted,” he said, giving her a kiss as they finished breakfast.
Laura just laughed, she wasn’t falling for his tricks. “Go on, I know you have lots to do too. Weren’t you just grumbling about how much you had to do today?” she teased.
“I can’t help it if I’m going to be missing you most of the day. We’re newlyweds, I’m entitled,” he said.
“I’ll miss you too,” she said shyly.
Before he could rearrange his schedule or find any other excuse to linger, Frieda interrupted. She wanted to start training Laura. “Go on with you now, we have work to do,” she said with a shooing motion. After he left the room she turned to Laura. “Young love, such a lovely sight. Now come with me, we have much to do.” Turning, she led the way out of the room, down the hall, and out onto the patio off the pantry.
“How do your legs feel today?” she asked as they stepped outside into the morning sunlight.
Laura hadn’t really paid attention to her legs she was so used to them just being there. They were a part of her body but she’d learned not to really pay attention to them. Now she took a moment to focus on that part of her body. She could feel the seat of the chair and the warmth of the sun on her thighs and shins. She could feel the soles of her feet in her shoes. Looking up at Frieda, she smiled. “They feel great, I still need to build up my muscles though. In a couple of hours I’ll have to leave for my daily therapy appointment.”
“Today I want you to try shifting. Can you get out of the chair and lay down on the ground? It will make things easier,” she explained.
Getting in and out of her chair was one of the first things Laura had learned when she became paralyzed. She had to be able to get into her chair by herself even as a child. Now she quite easily got out of the chair and laid down on the ground as Frieda had suggested. She could feel the stones underneath her back and under her legs, they were warm from the sun.
“What’s your favorite animal?” Frieda asked her.
Laura looked up at the sky, once again amazed she could even be out during the daylight hours. As she looked at the clouds she thought about animals and what might be her favorite one. That one looked like a fluffy bunny, she did like rabbits.
“A bunny, how nice,” said Frieda.
Laura lifted an arm to roll over and saw a paw. “I’m a bunny!” she said but the only thing that came out was squeaks.
“You did very well, now just think of being yourself again,” said Frieda.
Laura did as Frieda said, she thought of how she felt when she first got out of her chair, feeling the warm paving stones against her back. A few moments later she lifted her arm and it was an arm again. She was still wearing her clothing.
“How did I do that?” she asked, looking over at Frieda.
“If I had asked you to change into an animal your mind would have stopped you. By asking you to think of your favorite animal your powers manifested it naturally,” explained Frieda.
“Am I going to change into an animal every time I think of one?” Laura asked.
“At first, yes you will. You have to understand, you can be anything you think of. You can be an animal, you can even be a tree. You can be any living thing real or imagined. Imagined or mythological creatures have extra magic, griffons, dragons, unicorns, etcetera,” she said.
“Is that why you shifted into a unicorn when you looked for the place of power?” Laura asked.
“Yes and now that you know how to shift, we’ll start working on control. You don’t want to go to the movies, see an animal on the screen, and shift!” she said.
“Did that ever happen to you?”
“They didn’t have movies back then thank the goddess,” Frieda said under her breath. “Now think of another animal and practice your shifting. Then try holding onto your human shape while we talk about animals.”
Laura realized fairly quickly that being on her back was not a good position when shifting, really awkward when you’re an elephant! So she rolled onto all fours. While she couldn’t yet stand, she found she could brace herself on her knees and stay up. She couldn’t wait to build up her muscles and start to walk. The strange thing was, when she shifted her legs were strong! Completely ignoring Frieda, she shifted into a cat, because it was an animal she was familiar with, she ran around the patio. She totally understood cats now! She was stalking a leaf when Frieda put a hand on her back.
“I understand it can be easy to become absorbed in the traits of the animal. Never forget who you are. Now back to work. I’m going to call out different animals and I want you to shift into each one as I go along. You need to be able to shift into animals you’re less familiar with. Even ones you’ve never seen,” explained Frieda.
For the next hour Frieda had Laura shift into a camel, a frog, a snake, and many other creatures. Laura was amazed, she was actually spontaneously shifting into animals! Then Frieda had her leave the patio and enter the woods. She told her to shift into a tree but she couldn’t do it.
“This just means we have things to work on. Don’t worry, honey, Rome wasn’t built in a day,” said Frieda. She went on to suggest they break for lunch. Laura was tired so she agreed. She also wanted to send another email to her family. She wasn’t going to mention anything about being a changeling but she missed them and wanted to touch base.
After twenty-one years of seeing her father and brothers nearly every day it was hard being away from them. She had so much she wanted to share with them! Unfortunately, most of it would have to wait until she invited them out for Thanksgiving.
*****
Nearly two thousand miles away in Maryland the Donahue men were meeting once again to give each other a status report on the search for Laura. She had been gone for nearly three weeks and except for a few emails, they still had no clue where she was.
“Status reports, Aaron, you start,” said their father, Doug.
“I’ve eliminated Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont,” he said, “Steven helped me check all highway footage, including coming in from Canada. We had to come up with some weird stories to get some of the footage. A couple of times homeland security agents tried to question us. We’re going to run into problems if this search continues this way. We need to come up with another search vector.”
“While you were bombing out in the east, I got a couple of hits heading west. She seems to have stuck with the side roads but we got lucky a couple of times when there wasn’t any alternative but the larger tollways. There were two camera captures on her license plate, both in Ohio. From the date stamps, she was definitely heading west,” explained Benji.
“Why didn’t you let us know? It’s still cold in Vermont,” said Steven.
“Actually, I met this great programmer with the Ohio State Traffic Safety Bureau. She was able to program an automatic search for me. Bad news, she only has access to Ohio data. Good news, she knows what kind of systems the surrounding states have so she gave me a disk. We have to get access to the data to run the programs though. Can you get the access, Dad?” Benji asked.
“Yes, I think so. Let’s try for Indiana first and see if she keeps heading west we can go from there,” he said.
“Okay, eat now, plan later,” said Josh as he and Evan put large serving platters down on the table. One platter held steaks and the other held baked potatoes, carrots, and other steamed veggies.
They were all digging into their food and discussing the plan going forward. They would have to start back at regular work and school soon. The search would have to be juggled into their normal lives. One thing was clear, they weren’t giving up.
They had finished lunch and were gathered back at the table after the kitchen had been cleaned. Benji and Evan were updating the map on the wall. Blue pushpins were possible sightings that needed to be checked out and red pins were positive sightings. There were only a few red pins.
Suddenly all of their phones announced incoming text messages. David jumped over to the computer to see if he could get a trace but once again Laura had been too fast for him. “Damn, she’s got mag skills!” he said when he couldn’t catch up with the signal, even using the latest tech.
They all got the same message. “Hi, everyone, I love you all and miss you like crazy. A lot of big changes in my life that I’m looking forward to sharing with you. I met a great guy! And for once you aren’t around to scare him off! I’m sure you’ll all like him, he’s wonderful and he says he’s my perfect mate.”
“Shit, some asshole already has his hooks in her. What does she know about men,” said Steven.
“We can’t even run a background check. He could be after her money. We verified she’s rich,” put in David. It hadn’t taken them long to discover her wealth. And since she was of age, they couldn’t find a legal way of getting into her bank records to trace funds. Banks required search warrants.
They all got worked up over the possibility of some man taking advantage of their baby sister and went back to the search with a vengeance!
Meanwhile, there was one man working on getting the revenge he wanted out of the human chick, as he called her. Roland Gantry had not gone away. He was staying downwind of the guards while keeping up long distance surveillance on his future victim. Mostly he had to hang out on a neighboring mountain and watch her house through high-powered binoculars. He’d broken into a sporting goods store to get them and was pleased with how well they worked.
He noticed the only time she left the house was each afternoon when she went somewhere in her camper. Two shifter guards went with her. They would have to be dealt with.
*****
Back at the house Laura had finished sending a message to her family so she sat down to lunch with Frieda.
“Where’s Mara?” Laura asked Lola when she rolled in the serving cart.
“She said now that you’re mated and Frieda is here you don’t need her to stay with you,” Lola told her.
“She’ll still visit won’t she?” Laura said.
“Of course, dear, she just has to catch up on things with her pack. She’ll be here for dinner tomorrow. She would have gone out to say goodbye but you were a snake and she doesn’t like snakes,” said Lola, to explain why Mara hadn’t said goodbye.
“Thank you, Lola. And the food is delicious too. Do you want me to stop and pick up anything from the store this afternoon?” Laura asked before Lola left her and Frieda to return to the kitchen.
“No thanks, sweetie. Your mate made arrangements for the pantry to be filled. They’ll be making a delivery while you’re at the therapist.” That said, Lola gave the table a once over to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything and then pushed the cart from the room. Laura had purchased the cart because it made things easier with her handicap. She was really glad Lola was getting so much use out of it. She needed it too. As it was, she was so tiny she could barely see over the top to steer it.
Laura was hungry so she dug into her meal. They were eating in the sunroom again, Laura couldn’t get enough sun now that she was allowed out in it, but her skin remained pale and void of freckles. The food was really delicious so neither she nor Frieda spoke for the first few minutes. After her initial hunger was sated, Laura turned to Frieda.