Autumn After (Waiting Hearts World)

6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Cedric

It didn’t take long before we fell asleep, wrapped in each other’s arms, my mate’s body pressed against mine. There was no denying that’s who he was now, not that I wanted to. But when my knot grew inside him, locking us together at the most intimate moment, that was fate’s way of telling me he was truly mine. It was the happiest moment of my life.

I hadn’t ever thought about how it would feel to find my other half. I never guessed I would feel so complete and content. Like I’d been living my whole life with just half a soul, and now I’d found Willow and a new journey of my life started.

Given the opportunity, I’d spend every day with my knot buried in my mate, locking us together. Even now, while I was tired, in desperate need of a shower and food, I still would pick my mate over all those things.

That feeling was quickly pushed down as guilt wafted through me. I hated myself for not telling him who or what I was. I justified it to myself multiple ways, but at the end of the day, it was still wrong.

There was no way he knew about shifters, and when he woke up, I’d have to tell him. It would change his whole world. Never mind the fact that I’d have to tell him we were mates, destined for one another. That alone might send him running for the hills if seeing my wolf did not.

I only hoped that the draw he felt to me—the one that caused him to fall immediately into my bed—would be enough to keep him with me while he worked through all the new information I’d throw at him.

I didn’t mark him, and at the time, I told myself that was good enough. I wasn’t pushing too hard or doing anything without his consent, but then my knot grew and good enough no longer was. As he slept, and I wished for sleep to come, I made the plan to tell him first thing in the morning. It wouldn’t be easy, and there was the real possibility he would reject me or worse, laugh in my face, but waiting was only going to make it more difficult. Slumber finally took over, my plan firmly in place.

I would show him my wolf. With proof of me being a shifter, it would be harder to deny.

Only fate decided not to wait for me to enact said plan. When morning came, I wasn’t woken by the sun or my mate squirming on the bed, trying to get comfortable, or yanking the blankets or snoring. Nope. I woke up to Willow’s blood-curdling scream echoing through the walls of my cabin

I pounced out of bed, running toward him, ready to take my wolf form and destroy anyone who sought to do him harm. But when I reached the front room where he stood, he wasn’t in danger. He was looking out the window and whatever he saw there had him visibly shaking.

“Are you okay?”

He turned and ran to me, throwing his arms around me and hugging me tight. “There’s... there’s... there’s a wolf out there, and he’s... he’s huge, and he was looking at me like he was going to come in here! He’s so close to the house, Cedric!”

I held him close, wishing more than ever that I’d told him right from the beginning. He didn’t need to wake up his first morning to be scared nearly to death.

“Let me show you.” He took my hand. “Let me show you.” Touching me and coming to me when he was scared, knowing I’d keep him safe, was a good sign.

He didn’t need to show me. I might not know who he saw, but I knew what—one of my packmates out for a morning run, possibly with the intent of visiting me. They hadn’t meant him any harm, of that I was sure. I still hated how frightened it made him.

I needed to find the words to be able to tell him what he needed to know and now. He was already scared, and I feared making it worse. But instead of explaining, I nodded and went with him to the window.

Of course, Sid, the shifter in question, decided on the exact moment we reached the glass to shift from his wolf form to his human form and was now standing there buck-ass naked. That was normal around here. No one cared about clothing or skin, but humans? They were weird about stuff like that and even had laws about public nudity. The packlands was a borderline nudist colony compared to how humans lived. Hell, I kept extra clothes at several different homes since I went many places in my wolf form.

“Oh, my gods. What? What? What?” With each word, his voice got increasingly louder. Sid tilted his head in surprise, a ghost of a smile on his smug face. My mate started to freak out, and I was once again kicking myself for being responsible for this. I really couldn’t be mad at Sid. This was his packlands, and he wasn’t doing anything wrong. I still wished he hadn’t done it.

“We have some things to talk about,” I said, pulling him from the window. He didn’t need to see any more of that. My mate’s eyes were for me alone. What he needed was to hear from me what was happening.

I led him over to the couch, sat him down, and joined him.

Willow’s breath came in heavy pants, and his eyes darted around the room like the boogeyman might jump out at any moment.

“What is happening? Did I get into a car crash? Is this part of the coma dream? Cause I was on board when the coma dream was sex with the most perfect specimen I’d ever seen, with a dick the size of my arm, but I am not sure about the whole wolf-man thing.”

My lips twitched into a smile at the mention of my dick. “No. You weren’t in a car accident. Lavendar broke down, remember? I found you in the rain. And my dick is real. I promise.”

“Okay. Okay, that all makes sense. What about the wolf man? I just need coffee, right? I didn’t actually see a person change into a wolf or vice versa. Or whatever I saw, right?”

“So, the thing is, I’m not exactly human.” Not the best way to begin, but it was all I could think of.

He turned and looked at me. “Don’t... don’t mess with me. I just saw... just... no.”

“Willow,” I cupped his cheek, holding his head still so he could focus on me. “I’m not messing with you. Promise. Have you ever heard of a shifter?”

He stared at me like I had five heads.

“A shapeshifter? A werewolf?” Neither were accurate terms for what I was, but I didn’t know what else to say.

“Shit! A werewolf? Are you going to bite me and turn me into a monster?”

Why the heck did I say werewolf? I knew better. I was messing up every single part of this.

“No! Werewolf isn’t even the right term. I was just trying to find something that you could connect with.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, willing the right words to come to me. “Shifter is the real name—wolf shifter to be specific. Werewolf was the fictional name for shifters, and I thought... never mind. Let me start from the beginning.”

And I did. I told him where we were, who I was, and he listened to me, his body stiff as if he wasn’t sure what to make of it. But then he asked me a question I wasn’t expecting.

“So, does that mean you didn’t really like me? It was just a wolf thing? Like you need to take a m—take someone to bed?”

His question near broke me. I pulled him right onto my lap and hugged him close. “No, no, it means the opposite. When I met you, I recognized you. I saw you as the person for me. I don’t just like you, Willow. I would take my last breath protecting you, providing for you, taking care of you. You’re my mate.”

“Mate?”

“Yeah, mate. Yesterday, when I knotted you, that was fate’s way of showing us that we were meant for each other. I already suspected, knew in my heart that you were, but that showed me I was right.”

There was so much more to tell him, but my brother picked that moment to knock on the door.

“Cedric, I know you’re in there,” Sid called.

“Crap. Give us five minutes!” I yelled back. “Let’s go get cleaned up, because he’s not going to leave until we talk to him.” By now everyone in the pack probably knew I had a human in my cabin.

A quick shower later, and we were letting my brother in. What a day it had been already, and I hadn’t even had my coffee yet.