Heart of the Winter Wolf
Page 33
Tonight. The night of the full moon. James reached for Jillian's left hand, intending to inspect the tiny red scratch on it, but she yanked it away. "It's still fine since the last time you looked at it. I'm a vet, trust me."
He settled for grabbing her other hand, held it firmly. "You're sure about tonight?"
"In for a penny, in for a pound," she said lightly and turned to walk away, but he didn't let go.
"I mean it, Jillian. We can't stop it now." An enzyme in Changeling saliva activated a gene already present in the human body. The faint scrape of a fang, barely enough to break the skin, was sufficient to pass the enzyme into the bloodstream, sufficient to bring about the Change. They'd talked about it endlessly, she'd made her decision--yet it was the hardest thing he'd ever done. He couldn't bear the thought of hurting Jillian. Now, with her first Change imminent, he was the one needing reassurance.
"Are you trying to scare me? You weren't this nervous when Hunter and Hailey were being born. I got through that and I'll get through this, and you know that Jessie's been coaching me." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. "Okay, I'm nervous, too. But all my life I've dreamed of understanding animals better. This is more than I ever imagined possible, and I want it, James. I want all of it. I want the wolf and I want you."
He held her, just held her, for a long moment until Hailey became restless. He tickled her and she squealed, breaking the bubble of tension within him.
"You know," Jillian stage-whispered, "if you let me give this child away, we could have a couple of hours to ourselves before dark."
He let go of her immediately. Jillian laughed as she walked a few steps, then thought of something and returned.
"Are you going to the house, hon? Could you please put these in some water?" She pulled out a carefully folded paper napkin from her lab coat pocket. "Someone left these on the podium for me." She gave him a long lingering kiss, filled with the reassurance James needed--and a promise for later that he was looking forward to collecting.
He watched as Jillian and Hailey bounced away across the complex. Saw them meet up with Birkie and Kenzie. Culley and Devlin were playing with Hunter--and James didn't need Changeling ears to hear Hunter's delighted yells. He chuckled and looked down at the packet Jillian had placed in his hand. Opened it to reveal a spray of Lily of the Valley that didn't seem to know how out of season it was.
A return to happiness. He looked again at his family, knew more than happiness, knew joy.
The End