This hate would create hate. People who have hidden their powers would feel unsafe, and if threatened, would become the threat people believed them to be.
I’d learned a long time ago that love and kindness went much further than fear to those who are hurting and have pain that doesn’t show on the outside.
There weren’t many that helped me after my parents died. I was tough, and I didn’t think I needed it, but there were few that kept being nice, no matter how much I pushed them away. A smile in the morning to someone in emotional pain goes a long way.
My eyes flicked over to Asher, who was focused on driving us out of the city.
I was still trying to push him away mentally. I knew it, and he knew it. But he wasn’t going to give up on me. I could feel it deep in my bones that Asher would fight for me, even if I had given up.
He deserved a true chance from me.
And I deserved the kind of love he was offering, right?
I swallowed a deep breath of air, and then released my thoughts.
“It’s going to be hard. My parents’ murder changed me in ways I’m not sure how to even come back from. But I believe in change, and I want to try with you. Truly try.”
I had to believe in change.
Not just for myself, that I wouldn’t be a miserable bitch anymore, but that I could be friends with people and maybe even enjoy their company.
That the people of Seahill could come together and love each other, instead of divide humanity.
If I could do better, people can do better, then the world would do better, and the better off everyone will be.
Asher looked over at me and grinned.
“Welcome to the light side, Echo. We’ve got kisses and cuddles to smother you with.”
I laughed.
He may be a tad ridiculous sometimes, but he didn’t hold back who he was, and he made me laugh more times than I could count in the past ten years.
We parked by the entrance to the national park and then went for a hike.
“I’m always more at peace in nature than in the city. But I can’t bring myself to give up Seahill,” Asher stated, and I found myself nodding to his words. I was the same way.
“Mind if I let myself be a little freer?” I asked nervously. Being in the wild as one of the wild was the most peaceful I could ever feel.
“Go for it; just don’t eat me.” He smirked, and I went off to undress myself behind a large tree.
“Any requests?” I called out to him, curious.
“Your favorite form,” he replied, and I couldn’t help but smile, knowing my favorite form was like reading my diary if I had one. The animal spirit inside everyone could tell you the most about the person, who they were as individuals. In modern culture, people laugh about spirit animals, but my people believed that every person had the spirit of an animal that made you who you were. Sometimes many, like a totem. But I still carried that belief.
Without much thought, I changed into my favorite form, interested to see Asher’s face when he took in the 360-pound grizzly bear.
I roared at him for kicks, to see if he would show fear, but there was none.
Just awe.
“I can see it,” was all he said before he started slowly walking down the trail, expecting me to join him.
“There’s not hunters around, right? I don’t have enough room in my apartment to nurse a big-ass bear back to health if you get hurt.”
I sniffed the air and couldn’t scent any human beyond him. I’d have known if there was another person out here with us.
We walked together down the trail in peace and quiet, enjoying each other’s company and being in nature. When we came to a stop by a bubbling stream, I decided to throw my inhibitions to the wind and enjoy myself. Bears could play as much as any animal could.
The water was cold, but I stepped in and splashed around. When I was in an animal form, I didn’t need to be civilized. I could just be free.
So, I splashed and tried to get Asher with the cold water, but he did some magic with his hands, and the water couldn’t touch him.
Cheater.
Chapter Twenty
Echo
We didn’t need words as we sat by the cold stream after playing with each other. It was just nice to be us.
I knew I’d be cold if I shifted, but I didn’t care. Strong feelings were running through my veins, and I needed to do something so badly that I felt like I would combust.
My body started to transform, and in seconds I was a naked woman sitting on a rock next to a man that had accepted all the sides of me he’d seen so far and hadn’t run away.
His eyes were on the babbling waters as they flowed, even though I could sense he was very aware of what was sitting next to him.
I scooted closer and raised my hands to his shaved jawline. His features were so sharp and precise, as if he was carved from stone.
His eyes met mine as I gently turned his face to mine.
Without another thought, I leaned in and married my lips to his.
It was slow at first, the need to feel each other connected warming up my soul.
Then the desire hit, that strange tingling that flowed from his body to mine, that feeling of pleasure than ran down my skin, making goose bumps rise.
When our mouths opened, and tongues met, a spark went straight to my heart, jumpstarting me into a frenzy of need.
His hands touched my skin all over, feeling every curve, every rise and fall of my labored breath.
I wanted him everywhere—over me, around me, inside me.
The need to touch—to connect—was driving me wild in a way I’d never known was possible.
His lips moved from my lips to my jaw and to my neck, his hands bringing me closer to his body. In a matter of seconds, I was straddling his lap, his strangled groan only fueling me more as my bare sex met with his jean-clad hard-on.
I felt like an animal in heat, and I couldn’t find the will to stop it. I didn’t even know if I wanted to stop it.
We were consenting adults and working on a relationship. Sex was a good idea, right? I was ready, wasn’t I?
As if he’d been reading my thoughts, Asher started to slow our frenzied movements.
When he pulled back to look into my eyes, I saw the answer to my questions. I wasn’t yet. There were still more layers to my self-preservation that we needed to remove before sex.
But the look on his face made one of those layers melt.
He would wait. He would be patient with me until I trusted him enough to give myself to him.
“I’m not a blushing virgin, you know.”
I did feel the need to throw that out there. I had sex once when I was a rebellious teenager, and it sucked. I was angry about my situation and thought that if I’d screw someone then I’d feel better. Turned out I felt worse, especially after I realized the boy I chose just wanted to add me to his list of chicks on the reservation he’d banged.
I did get a teeny bit of revenge, though. When he was at football practice, I turned into a big bear and made him pee his pants in front of everyone. I was satisfied after that.
Asher grinned. The warmth from that smile settled over me like a warm blanket, fresh out of the dryer.
“So you’re saying I have to protect my virtue around you?” He wagged his eyebrows, and I laughed.
“What are you doing to me?” I asked, and he thought for a moment before hitting me with an answer that tattooed itself on my heart.
“I’m making you fall in love with me, one smile at a time.”
I didn’t even do it subconsciously this time.
I purred.
The chill in the air finally soaked into my skin, and I told him it was time to start heading back. I needed to eat again and sleep, plus putting clothes back on would be nice. He agreed, and once he stood and took a step away from me, I turned back into a bear. We walked back to the tree where I’d left my clothes, so I could change back and get dressed.
Dusk was falling above the city, and everything seemed calm. The protesters were gone, but the nightlife people weren’t out yet. The calm before the storm, in my world, where things like to go bump in the night.