“You did?” She lifted up on locked arms and stared down at him in shock.
“Yeah. Byron was born a fox, and he Turned his mate. She struggled just like you are, and now she’s okay.”
“She’s a normal shifter now?”
“No. I don’t know, maybe. She and her fox are two different personalities, and it was something they just had to get used to. But she’s leading a normal-ish life, and they even have a baby now.”
“Really?”
Tobias rested his head on his hand, elbow on the blanket. “Really. A little boy. All smiles. I got to hold him.” Tobias reached up and brushed his thumb across her bottom lip. “You’re going to be okay, Vera.”
She huffed a stunned breath and kissed his hand. It actually felt like things would be okay. Eventually. She felt her fox now, quiet inside of her, observing everything, and she hadn’t pushed to steal her body. Not even once. And now this success story of Byron and his mate?
“There’s something else,” Tobias murmured, pulling her to him again.
“What else?”
His lips lingered on her forehead for a long time, and his heartbeat raced faster between them. There was a smile in his voice when at last he whispered, “I love you, too.”
Chapter Thirteen
He loved her. Her.
Vera drew her knees to her chest to ward off the early morning chill. She’d woken early after a dream of running in the woods. Was it her dream or her animal’s? She didn’t know. Everything was so mixed up now, so confusing.
She should’ve dealt with this a long time ago, but she’d listened to Clayton over the years. Listened to his lies. Listened when he’d told her the only way for her to survive was to suppress her animal. The medicine she’d created had a different meaning now. All this time she’d thought it had been salvation, but she was hurting herself instead. Hurting her animal.
It had to be different with Tobias and his brothers. It couldn’t be used like she had done constantly for years. Hibernation only, and the beasts had to be released during the summer months because she never wanted Tobias to feel broken apart like she did now.
He was so damned striking here in the gray morning light, lying on his side, arm outstretched from where she’d slipped out from under it. Even relaxed in sleep, he looked like a warrior. Pink, half-healed scars crisscrossed his neck and chest from the fight yesterday, and never once had he shown he was hurt. That alone told of his insurmountable internal strength. She didn’t know how many times he’d gone to battle like that as an enforcer, but somewhere along the way, he’d built an immunity to pain.
She still couldn’t get over how sensitive and thoughtful Tobias was with her. He was the opposite of everything she’d expected when she’d decided to find herself a grizzly shifter mate. She’d expected domineering, controlling, snarling, and moody. And he could be all those things with others. She’d seen the way he was with Link, like he was always on the verge of a fight with the werewolf, but with her, he was quiet, tender, always watching her as if he was searching for a way to make her more comfortable. And his patience was something she never would’ve imagined in a tough man like him. Tobias likely afforded very few to see this softer side of him, but he’d let her in.
A trill of fear pulsed through her veins as she thought of saying goodbye to him again so soon, but she’d heard him yesterday and had thought about it deep into the night, long after he’d gone to sleep. He thought she needed to Change until she and her animal learned trust. Well…she trusted Tobias, and if he said she needed to work on this part of herself before she threw efforts into making his medicine, then she owed it to him to put in the work.
Vera leaned down and brushed her lips gently against his cheek. Tobias’s lips lifted and fell in a sleep smile. She stood and padded silently to the door. And before she walked outside, she shot him one last lingering glance. She was shit at farewells.
Okay, Fox. I’m sharing. Please don’t block me out again.
****
Tobias’s internal clock must’ve been broken because by the time he woke up, the sun was high in the sky. It was the smell of dead rabbit that had woken him, and before he even opened his eyes, he knew what he would find.
Vera the fox sat staring at him with those bright gold eyes of hers, and her bunny-gift was snuggled up against his ribs.
In a deep, sleepy voice, he asked, “Are you good?”
She opened her mouth and lolled her tongue out to the side in a grin.
“Are you…are you both in there?”
Fox averted her gaze to the window and narrowed her eyes, blinking slowly and looking bored. Whatever that meant.