by Celene Lowe
I heaved my heavy belly up from the log where we had stopped to rest. "Dolf, for fuck's sake, I'm just Selina. I'm just some white-trash bartender from a shit logging town. Stop being so nervous."
"Former logging town." Gray reminded us. "Former."
"They'll be back," Marrok muttered darkly. "Too much money wrapped up in raping nature for them to hold off for long."
"But the important thing is that we saved a lot of bloodshed," Zev interjected. He had been sitting on the shore of the lake, his long human legs stretched out in front of him. I wanted to waddle over to my mate, to have him hold me close and run his fingers through my hair, and cradle my belly where our heir was growing. But I was too damn pregnant to move.
"The Sandulf pack wanted to raid the whole town," Zev went on. "They were ready to make they're move, had even called one of the lone, mercenary wolves down out of the highlands to do their test run. Unfortunately for them, he got a whiff of Selina on his way down from the mountain.
I shuddered as I remembered the day we were attacked by the mercenary wolf. He had been without a pack, without others to teach him what it meant to be a wolf. I shuddered because it could have very well been me. Until I met Zev, I was a wolf without a pack, without even knowing what I was capable of doing and being. I owed him so much. I wanted to kiss him, but I was too uncomfortable to move.
"Can we shift, please?" I begged. "This belly is so much easier to haul around while I'm on all fours."
Zev grinned at me and I saw him shimmer. I smiled and let my own wolf loose, stretching gratefully outward onto my four, stable, heavy, strong paws. Our den was nearly ready for the winter. I looked one more time out over the glittering lake and caught a flash of headlights down in the town far off below us. I wondered if it was my mother. I wondered if she missed me. I wonder if she thought I might come home with twigs in my hair like she used to.
Then I turned my back and headed up the mountain to my real home. With my mate beside me.
THE END