Chapter 432: Dream of Me - Part 1
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*****
ELIA
She'd fallen in and out of the Beast for days, her body and mind exhausted, her emotions at once a hurricane of feeling, then a numbing void.
Nothing was as it should be. Nothing. And she fought. She fought and fought and fought. And she was tired.
When she woke up on the floor of her room again and knew she'd been the beast, but didn't know for how long, but it was late, late in the night. Very early in the morning… She couldn't find it in herself to interrupt the bubble of love that Gahrye and Kalle were living.
Biting back tears of self-pity, she crawled up into the massive bed and pulled the covers over herself, curling herself around her rounded stomach, terrified that all this shifting might be hurting Elreth.
She needed her mate. So desperately. She needed his arms and his strength. She needed his whispered comforts, and the shiver of his hands on her body. She needed him. Without him none of the rest of this mattered.
As she pulled the covers over her shoulders and buried her face in the thick pillow, she pleaded with the Creator to bring them back together.
Please, please, please… just bring him back to me…
*****
RETH
He fell into the furs, exhausted, exhilarated, terrified, and aching for Elia. His earlier dream of her in the beast form had been both comforting and scary, and now he just yearned.
There was a chance he would not live to see the next night. That he would not sleep again before he left his mate forever. The thought made his entire body tremble.
Please, he pleaded with the Creator. "Please, let me see her and touch her and… show us how to be in this together. I need her. I need to say goodbye, just in case…"
He fell asleep praying and opened his eyes in the darkness of his bedchamber, his heart sinking.
Until he realized he could smell her. And there was a lump in the furs next to him.
"Elia?" he croaked, frightened that it was only in his mind. Only a dream again, or—
"Reth?" Her voice was high, faint—not because she was fading, but because she had only just woken.
She was warm, and flushed and round and she was there.
"Love!" Reth breathed. "You're here… you're here… thank the Creator, you're here!" He didn't give her a moment to turn over to face him, but pulled her into him, dragging her across the furs and wrapping his arms around her, burying his face in her neck, exploring every inch of her skin, examining her for wounds or… "Elia… your stomach!"
"She's here, Reth. She's real." She twisting, rolling over in his arms and pulling herself even harder against his chest. Her words were muffled, but he couldn't bring himself to hold her any less tightly, terrified she would fade. "…she's growing so fast, and I just… I need you so badly, I'm falling apart. I keep shifting and I don't know why. I can't deny it. I can't stop it from happening—sometimes I don't want to. Sometimes it's an escape and Reth… I need to come home. I need to be with you. I can't do this anymore!"
"Oh, Elia, Love," he croaked, squeezing her so hard he was afraid he would hurt her, but she only clung even harder, her nails digging into his back. "I prayed," he whispered. "I prayed and prayed to speak with you before… I need you too. And you're here. Thank you, Creator. Thank you."
"What's happening, Reth? What's going on?"
"I need to see you," he said hurriedly, holding her with one arm while he pushed them both up to sit.
She obviously didn't want to stop touching him, rolled herself into his chest, but she tipped her head back to look at him, and gasped. "I can see you!"
He took her face in his hands and stared at her, her wide blue eyes looking gray in the dark, her hair mussed, but beautiful, fluttering around her face. Her breasts full and round—over her belly that… dear Lord. Elreth…
Reth huffed a call that he'd never made before, the call of father to child, the call to safety, to come, be near me little one.
Elia's breath caught in her throat and she put one hand to her mouth, the other to her belly.
It wasn't big the way females became at the end of the pregnancy, when their entire bodies were overtaken by this little life. No… it was a beautiful swell, rounding her stomach and pressing out to announce its presence quietly.
With shaking hands, Reth leaned shifted back enough to put his hands on either side of her stomach and made the call again.
Elia gasped. "She… she moved. She can hear you!"
Reth huffed and his voice broke and he didn't even care. With Elia sobbing, her fingers buried in his hair, he curled forward, putting his cheek to her belly and called to his baby. His daughter.
Then a tiny bump, little more than a flutter, flicked his cheek and he reared back, mouth open. "She kicked me!"
"She's strong, just like her daddy," Elia cried. "Reth… oh, Reth!" She broke apart, sobbing open mouthed, and threw herself back into his chest. "Reth, we need you. We both need you!"
He pulled her in, one hand cupping the back of her head. The other wrapped around her waist. His entire body shook, both with love and with fear.
What if he lost tomorrow? What if… what if he never got to see his beautiful daughter.
The snarl broke from his throat to choke him, just as the ache of it all, the terror of losing her, of losing them both, threatened to crack his heart in half.
"Elia," he rasped, "Love… I'm here. I'm here right now. Hold onto me, Love. I'm here."
She sobbed again, but her grip on him was a stranglehold. And he loved it.
He never wanted to let her go. Ever.
Creator, please… never let us be parted.
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