No, the anxious feelings curling from her belly and infiltrating every fiber of her being was something else.What?
What?She questioned again.
Shoving away from the door, Morlie headed to the bathroom, ignoring the urge to gaze out the window when she went by it.There was nothing out there, and she felt more and more foolish because she couldn’t stop staring at the woods as if some answer lay in the darkness of the trees.
It didn’t.
While she and Kai walked around the central area of the territory, stopping occasionally to see the shifters work or train, Morlie had a nagging feeling that she was being watched or followed.
Now that she knew that Kai was pregnant and all the Drahks knew it, it made sense that the Drahks probably watched them.The dragon-shifters, including her friends here, often talked about the lack of offspring and were concerned that there would be a three-generation gap if babies weren’t born soon.They worried what that would mean eventually for their numbers and the strength of their Thunder.
Yes.It was probably just one of the security team members keeping track of Kai from afar.
“Better her than me.”Morlie ran a hand over her short hair, frustrated.There wouldn’t be a reason for anyone to track her movements now that Aodh had called off the guards.
However, even as she tried to convince herself, she couldn’t forget the intense feeling that came over her when they were over at the fields on the west border.Eilidh was doing her training rotation there and came over to her and Kai.When Eilidh said the gang would be at dinner and maybe have another bonfire and asked her to join, Morlie agreed but had only given half her attention to her friend.
Inadvertently, as she’d faced Eilidh, she’d had an unobstructed view of the woods behind the other girl.Morlie had thought she’d seen something in the distance for a moment.Whatever it had been, it was deep in the forest.It was too deep for her to figure out what drew her attention.
Kai had given her and Eilidh some space and had walked over to Idalia, the head grower, to talk.
Morlie didn’t think she imagined the flash or moving shadow because Eilidh had pivoted her body to look in the same direction.But when her friend faced her again, she just stared at her for a moment and then started talking about the plans for the night again.
She told Eilidh she would be there.
Morlie stared at herself in the mirror for what seemed the hundredth time—searching her face and body for something.Some sign.Anything to explain why her body felt plugged into a live wire—jolt after jolt after jolt assaulted her system as if hotwiring her for another purpose.
There were so many whys going through her mind.Taste, smell, and hearing, to name a few.
Kai’s hunger made sense with the baby, but hers....Nope.
Pissed at her reflection that gave nothing away, she walked to the bathtub and decided to shower before dinner.She could have gone down to find Tana or someone and asked them to heat her water, but right now, she hoped the coldness would bring some sense to her.
She moved a bathing cloth from the linen closet to the empty small basket beside the tub and hung a body towel on the rack along the wall close to the bath.She then dumped the moisturizer into the water.Soon, the rushing water filled the tub, and she shut it off.It only took a minute for her to divest herself of her clothes.When she stuck one of her feet into the cold water, she bit her tongue and encouraged herself to keep going.It wasn’t until she was easing her backside into the frigid water and gasped that she almost leaped out.
But the icy bath did what nothing else had done over the last two days; it helped her mind clear.It calmed the riotous feelings in her body and helped her feel more at ease than she had since the bear-shifter had treated her like a large sack of potatoes and carried her off to the council.
Before she met Chanin.
Chanin.
Even mentally saying his name caused heat to infuse her body.Those quivers were back.It didn’t do her any good to think of the wolf-shifter.Regardless of what the dragons thought, he wasn’t coming for her.She thought about how Kai had a man in her life who was so consumed by his lust, love, or attraction to Kai that he would stand beside her while she wielded a god-awful big sword before an army of leaders.
Yes, she was Chanin’s mate, but he’d let her be dragged far away from him.
Tears stung her eyes.It was the truth of the emotions she’d been trying to fight since Aodh had thrown her to Liekki, and the dragon Alpha’s brother walked away.She’d glimpsed the wolf Alpha over the dragon-shifter’s shoulder, and Chanin had just stared at her and watched her leave.
Fighting the emotions that started welling up and choking her, Morlie slid down further and fully submerged herself under the surface.The glacial fingers of the water dragged along her scalp and down her spine.She kept her eyes closed and held her breath.
She was grateful for the coldness that helped stabilize her.
When her lungs felt like they were going to erupt in her chest, she broke the surface, sucking in large gulps of air.Rivulets ran down from her short hair and made streams along her cheeks.She blinked several times to clear the water from her eyes.The kiss from the air made her shivers return.Morlie stared down at her flesh and saw the goosebumps rising on her arms.
She considered the lunacy of staying too long in the cold water and risking getting sick again.Morlie exhaled as she reached for the small cloth from the basket beside the tub.After she poured cleaner from the jar on the tray at the edge of the bath, she washed up quickly.
Searching through the water, she removed the stopper before she got out.She grabbed the towel from the rack and rubbed her skin vigorously, trying to force the chill from her flesh.Feeling more like herself, she collected her dirty things from the floor and carried them to the basket in the closet.Once there, she grabbed a short top and a shorter skirt.Eilidh and the others were probably already downstairs in the hall having dinner.Morlie decided the best way to handle it was to hang out in a group, eat and dance, and then laugh around a roaring fire to keep her mind from straying to things she didn’t want to think about.
Once her shoes were on her feet, she headed from the room.Once again, she refused to peer out the large bay window no matter how much it called to her.
