And Bailey sinks into me, heaving out a long sigh.
Finally. Here it is. I guess the final piece of the puzzle was meeting her wolf. And her getting emotional like this, maybe.
I shove the messy blanket with flower petals and food containers aside so I can scoot backwards and lay back with her in my embrace.
A few minutes pass with me holding her, purring, and stroking her hair. And being able to hold her warm, nude body like this while comforting her with my purr might be bringing me as much comfort as it’s bringing her.
When she seems sufficiently loose, I stop purring and ask,
“What happened?”
“Thank you for that,” she whispers. “I love that.”
“Anytime you need,” I say low, kissing her.
She snuggles in and pulls the blankets over us as she nuzzles my neck with her nose. “You’ve never given that to anybody but me.”
“Nope,” I confirm.
She sighs happily, then shakes it off. “Where are my glasses?”
I grab her glasses from the rug.
Putting them on, she looks about ready to burst with excitement but then takes them off. “Whoa. They’re way too strong. They’re definitely making me woozy.” She sets them down. “I kept hearing it. I thought it was our future child, that she was mad at me. It was so stressful. I met this lady on the plane on the way to Italy who knitted me baby booties, telling me she has a second sight that told her I’d be getting a daughter and a puppy. And of course I figured when things went wonky with us that maybe Iwas fighting Fate who was going to give us a daughter who could shift like you, hence the daughter and the puppy, you know?”
“Solid theory.”
“So, I figured it was the soul of this future daughter I kept hearing whenever I was trying to push away any feelings of a future with you. Like maybe I was preventing her future, which was really messing with me. But now I know it wasn’t our future child. It was the wolf inside me. The wolf I didn’t think I had. Jase, I have a wolf!”
“You sure do, baby. Congratulations!”
“But I don’t think we’re in synch. I don’t think I have any control. I don’t know how I shifted and I know I only shifted back because you alpha-commanded me. I now know for a fact it was my wolf communicating with me, but suddenly, my wolf was here! I watched, I could see what was happening, and I couldn’t do anything to influence any of it.”
“Think back to what happened right before you shifted.”
“Well… I opened the first container of food and saw the blood and instead of being grossed out by it, I was salivating. I had to eat it. Had to. I stuck my finger in it and licked my finger, then suddenly something pushed out from here.” She puts her hand against her chest. “The push didn’t hurt, it felt weird. Tingly. Bubbly, almost? She just… expanded out from here.” She touches her chest. “And she was hungry. So hungry.”
“Yeah, I vaguely remember that sensation when I first started shifting.”
“I didn’t know at first what was happening, but then I saw things through a different lens that let me know I was shifted. Let’s go for a run, Jase. Like… right now! How do I get her to come back?”
“Bailey… your wolf is a pup.”
She frowns. “It always sounded like a young wolf to me.”
“Because it is. Your wolf is tiny.” I show her with my hands how big her wolf is. Around the length of a loaf of bread.
“What color is my fur?”
She doesn’t look upset. She looks ecstatic. And I can imagine she must be after living her life as half shifter with some shifter senses but thinking she’s without a wolf.
I tell her, “You know my wolf’s colors? Yours is the opposite. Cream. Tan dipped tail.”
Her jaw drops. “Weird.”
“Not so weird with all we know now, is it?”
She shakes her head. “Guess not.”