by T. S. Joyce
He let off a soft moan and reached out in his sleep, slid his hand up her waist and squeezed her lightly, then settled again, his hand heavy and comforting on her.
She would’ve gone back to sleep if her skin wasn’t tingling from her toes to her scalp. No, no, no. It was the first signs of a Change she wouldn’t be able to stop, and it was coming on fast.
A glance at the clock told her it was 1:24 am. It was officially Valentine’s day.
She wished she had time to write him a note. Wished she could explain. He’d slept with her, trusted her, and she’d fallen for him too early.
If he saw her Change, he would be the one to run, not her.
She needed to hide. She needed to cloak herself in Dillo’s armor and disappear far into the woods where he would never find her like that. Tomorrow morning, she could explain when she was herself again. Wait, that wasn’t right. Dillo was part of herself, too.
Why did she feel like crying? Because he’d been a perfect Prince Charming, and she knew…knew…he wouldn’t feel the same about her if he saw her Changed.
Panic spreading its black, sticky tendrils through her chest, she slipped out from under his hand and rushed for her boots sitting next to the door.
Fire spread from her toes upward. Too fast. The Change was coming too fast, and there wasn’t time for the boots. They wouldn’t matter anyway. Clothes didn’t matter either. No time. No time!
“Ava?” came Brock’s sleep-filled voice from behind her.
“Have to go.” She nearly choked on the last word. Her vocal cords always tightened up when she was this close to losing her skin. Her entire body was Changing, and it always started on her insides.
Grunting in pain, she yanked open the door and flew down the stairs, tripping three stairs from the bottom as her body seized up, and she hit the wooden floorboards hard.
“Ava, what’s wrong?” Brock asked. He was here suddenly, picking her up.
“Everything hurts,” she uttered on a breath.
“Oh shit, what can I do?”
“Outside,” she choked out.
And then his hands were on her again, burning her skin, burning right through her. A few seconds felt like a week as he carried her outside.
Tears streaked down her cheeks, but not from pain. It was from sadness. “Don’t…want…you to see.”
Brock’s eyes were brighter than the moon, hanging low over him. That was her focus. Pretty blue. God, she wished she could stay here with him. Wished she could stroke his cheek and wipe away the worry lines that creased the corners of his eyes and furrowed his brows.
She wished she could keep him a little longer.
That’s why the tears burned her eyes as she sank into another shape. As she disappeared into another skin. As her soft human skin morphed to armor and her face elongated. As her bones snapped and shrank and re-formed into the animal she’d been so good at hiding from the world—but not from Brock.
After the pain and the burning faded, she sat in the snow, horrified, looking up at the giant human man who was crouched down in front of her, clothed in his black sweatpants, and that was all.
He didn’t have words. Humans never had words when they saw shifters Changed. Only shock.
Sadness washed through her. Her animal had never been so aware, so focused.
She looked down at her feet, no longer the cute toes of her human body, but tough, thick nails built for digging in the earth.
How could a man like him be okay with this?
With a soft huff of breath, she curled into a tight ball that protected her from the world. She couldn’t see, couldn’t feel, couldn’t hear anything but her own panting and racing heartbeat. She tucked her ears in tight. So sad. We had him for a minute in time, but it’s not enough.
The Valentine’s Day Curse was alive and well for a creature like Ava.
She was moving. Moving? She couldn’t feel the cold, tingling sensation of the snow against her tough outer skin now. She uncurled slightly and peeked out to see Brock. She was staring up at the underside of his chin as he looked forward. She was cupped against his stomach, and he was taking her…somewhere.
Wait…he was holding her. Holding her? She’d never been touched in this form—not by anyone.
On and on, they walked until she could see tree branches above him. Time and time again, he looked down at her with those shocked eyes and then back to the woods he was walking her through. At last, he gently set her down in the snow.
She expected him to leave her, but he didn’t. He just set her down and backed up a few feet, then knelt in the snow, staring at her with an unreadable expression. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and was shivering. Poor human man wasn’t made for the cold. He didn’t have armor like her.
She had to help him. Had to make him warm, but all she could do was dig. The only thing she could do was dig to warmer ground. She bolted the last few steps to him. She was fast, and he looked surprised, but it was okay. She was going to make it better. She would dig him a nest. She went to work, digging and digging, throwing snow and then dirt behind her, making a mountain. She made the nest wide enough for him. He was shivering more now. Oh no, oh no, this wasn’t good.
“Little Dillo,” he murmured.
Only six more feet to dig, and I can block you from the wind! Poor, fragile human. She loved him. She lo—love—loved…
Dillo stopped digging and looked way up at him. Way way up. He was so big compared to her now. She was making him a nest because she loved him.
He had done that, taken her heart in so little time.
Handsome man. Good man. Scary man.
“It’s okay, Little Dillo,” he murmured. “I have to go inside. I wish I could stay out here all night with you. Do you want to stay out here or come inside? I don’t know how to…” He inhaled a shivering breath and then blew out steam and frowned. “I don’t know what to do.”
Oh. Human, you should go inside. I have worms to dig up.
No words came out, and no noises. All she did was wiggle her nose when she talked.
“Should I go in and put on warm clothes? And come back to stay out here with you?”
Her legs splayed in the salt and pepper earth and snow she’d kicked up, Dillo shook her head hard. Sleep. Be warm. I will worry about you out here.
He huffed a frozen breath and rose, and she skittered backward a couple of feet. He felt very big right now.
“It’s okay,” Brock murmured, holding his hands out to calm her. “I wouldn’t ever hurt you. Can you understand me?”
Dillo nodded.
His smile meant even more to her in this form. He was smiling at her, a little critter, knowing what and who she was.
“Goodnight.” He was shaking so bad the word came out through chattering teeth.
She watched him walk away, barely resisting the urge to go trotting alongside him just to stay close.
She didn’t yet understand his feelings about her animal, but he tossed a smile back over his shoulder at her. And that seemed important.
Chapter Nine
Brock would definitely treat her differently today.
Ava curled around her extra pillow and hugged it tight. It had taken her an hour to get warm after she’d Changed back into her human skin early this morning. Even the heat from the hearth didn’t help that much, but it wasn’t so much the physical as the emotional. Her heart felt chilly.
The sunrise had been a sight to see out the window, and she wondered if she’d ever seen anything more beautiful from the comfort of a bed.
Yes. You saw him last night, sleeping, resting his hand on your hip.
Why did the thought of losing that comfort make her so sad?
A knock sounded against the door, and she sat up in bed. “Just a minute!” she called.
Freezing, Ava kicked out of the covers that had tangled around her legs and stood on the cold wood floors. She tried to stand, but in true Ava fashion, she tripped on the corner of the comforter and hit the ground har
d.
“Oh, good grief,” she moaned, hugging her stinging knee. “That’s gonna bruise.”
In a rush, she looked for some clothes. Jeans, no panties, and a pink fuzzy sweater, no bra, would have to do. At last, when she was dressed enough, she checked herself in the mirror in front of the door. Wild hair. Was that a leaf? She plucked the foliage out of her short locks and threw it on the small table in front of the mirror, smoothed out her hair, and opened the door.
No one was there.
With a frown, she looked down at the small gift wrapped in black paper with a black bow.
Kneeling, she plucked off the small card and opened it.
Happy UnValentine’s Day.
I minded the rules. No romance.
- Brock
Heart beating faster, Ava grabbed the present from the snow-covered porch and unwrapped it. She stared in utter shock at the sealed cup of live ants she lifted from the packaging. They were crawling up and down the insides of the plastic cup.
He’d been wrong. This was the most romantic thing anyone had ever done for her.
She had no guess how he tracked down a cup of ants, her armadillo’s favorite snack, in the dead of a Colorado winter. This wasn’t just a silly gift that she would forget by next year. This was an “I accept you.” All of you.
And it was happening to her.
She clutched the little cup to her chest and stood. Across the yard, Brock came out of the back door to the lodge and gave her a two-fingered wave. His smile said that nothing had changed between them.
Tears burned her eyes, and she blinked hard as she stepped out onto the cold snow in her bare feet. Brock jogged down the porch, and she swore his smile grew with every step he got closer. He was dressed for the day, jeans and a nice sweater that peeked through his thick winter jacket. His hair was messy and his blue eyes danced as he leaned down to catch her.
She flew into his arms and wrapped her legs around him, laughing like a maniac. “You got me ants!” she exclaimed.
His laugh was deep and reverberated against her chest as he hugged her up tight and spun them in a slow circle. “You were right. Little Dillo is so damn cute. You’re so damn cute, Ava.”
She eased back and rested her palm against his cheek “Do you still unlike me?” she asked.
He searched her eyes, and such honesty tainted his tone when he said, “No.” He leaned in and kissed her lips gently. And when he pulled back and pressed his forehead against hers, he said, “I unlove you instead.”
Overwhelmed by all the emotions running through her, Ava leaned forward and hugged him up tight, rested her cheek against his. It didn’t matter they were different. Her entire life had prepared her for this. It had prepared her for this moment with this incredible man who actually saw her for what she was—just Ava.
She wasn’t scared anymore. Today would be the first Valentine’s Day that meant anything special to her, because of him. They would go snowmobiling, and then Ava would ask if she could help Ethyl in the kitchen, and she and Brock would sneak moments between work. And tonight, she would stay in his apartment and not be scared of the inevitable Changes that would occur in her life.
He could handle change.
He could handle Changes.
He could handle Ava and all the complications of what she was.
She couldn’t tell the future, but she knew it would include Brock. And this place. And Lodge 10. And all the people she’d met here.
It would include love, and it had all started with a fateful search for an UnValentine’s Day celebration.
She pressed her lips against his smiling cheek and whispered in his ear something that meant everything. “I unlove you, too.”
The End.
Newly Released Holiday Story from T. S. Joyce
A Shifter for Christmas
Shifters for the Holidays (Book 1)
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More Series by this Author
Kaid Ranch Shifters
Steal Her Heart (Book 1)
Make Her New (Book 2)
Lift Her Up (Book 3)
Love Her Better (Book 4)
Battle of the Bulls
Two Shots Down (Book 1)
Dead of Winter (Book 2)
Quickdraw Slow Burn (Book 3)
First Time Train Wreck (Book 4)
Keepers of the Swamp
Swim Deeper (Book 1)
Dig Deeper (Book 2)
Bite Deeper (Book 3)
Red Havoc Panthers
Red Havoc Rogue (Book 1)
Red Havoc Rebel (Book 2)
Red Havoc Bad Cat (Book 3)
Red Havoc Guardian (Book 4)
Red Havoc Bad Bear (Book 5)
Harper’s Mountains
Bloodrunner Dragon (Book 1)
Bloodrunner Bear (Book 2)
Air Ryder (Book 3)
Novak Raven (Book 4)
Blackwing Dragon (Book 5)
Kane’s Mountains
Blackwing Defender (Book 1)
Blackwing Wolf (Book 2)
Blackwing Beast (Book 3)
Bears Fur Hire
Husband Fur Hire (Book 1)
Bear Fur Hire (Book 2)
Mate Fur Hire (Book 3)
Wolf Fur Hire (Book 4)
Dawson Fur Hire (Book 5)
Chance Fur Hire (Book 6)
Saw Bears
Lumberjack Werebear (Book 1)
Woodcutter Werebear (Book 2)
Timberman Werebear (Book 3)
Sawman Werebear (Book 4)
Axman Werebear (Book 5)
Woodsman Werebear (Book 6)
Lumberman Werebear (Book 7)
For More from This Author
Check out her The Official Reading List of T. S. Joyce
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About the Author
T.S. Joyce is devoted to bringing hot shifter romances to readers. Hungry alpha males are her calling card, and the wilder the men, the more she'll make them pour their hearts out. She lives in a tiny town, outside of a tiny city, and devotes her life to writing big stories. Foodie, bear whisperer, ninja, thief of tiny bottles of awesome smelling hotel shampoo, nap connoisseur, movie fanatic, and zombie slayer, and most of this bio is true.
Bear Shifters? Check
Smoldering Alpha Hotness? Double Check
Sexy Scenes? Fasten up your girdles, ladies and gents, it’s gonna to be a wild ride.
For more information about T. S. Joyce and her work, visit her website here.
