Page 8 of It’s Kind of a Bunny Story (Hey There, Hop Stuff #3)
I held Charlee against me. “Something is bothering you, and it has nothing to do with my creative nicknames,” I teased, hoping to ease the tension radiating from her. “Is your heat stirring already?”
Charlee waved a hand dismissively. “My heat is tolerable.”
I knew it was a lie. She wasn’t as skilled at hiding her distress as she believed.
What she needed was a month of sleep and four-course meals to put weight back on her fragile body.
Wasting energy on mating was the last thing she needed to be doing, yet it was the thing her heat relentlessly drove her to seek.
I’d eagerly taken her up on sex every time she desired it, but I couldn’t ignore the guilt in the pit of my stomach over how much I selfishly enjoyed it.
“If it’s not the heat, then what’s bothering you?” I ran my hands down her back. “Until I know the problem, I can’t fix it.”
“It’s not that simple. You can’t fix everything, Linc.” Her words were muffled against my chest.
I feigned a hiss of pain. “I’m hurt. We’ve been mates less than a week, and you’re already doubting my abilities.”
She huffed a soft laugh, but didn’t enlighten me any further. I was left trying to puzzle it out on my own.
She was fine until we’d talked about making the move to the house…
“Are you sure there isn’t anything else you need from the cave? I don’t mind carrying the extra weight.”
Charlee shook her head. “I’m sure.”
“If it’s not something you want from the cave, are you worried about the house? Copeland and I have never had a woman there, other than Monroe when she visited with the alpha.”
Sighing, she pushed away from me. “I’m not worried about the house or stuff. Let’s just get this over with.”
She doesn’t want to shift.
Forcing her to look at me, I studied her expression. “Are you afraid I’ll hurt you if you shift? I swear you’re safe with me.”
Her eyes widened with surprise. “Of course not! It’s actually unbelievable that you’re a stranger, but I’m already so comfortable with you.”
My relief quickly morphed into confusion. If she wasn’t afraid, then why the reluctance?
The truth dawned on me. “You hate feeling vulnerable.”
Her bottom lip quivered. “Shifting is something I avoid as much as possible. I stay in my human form because I wouldn’t have survived most of what I’ve gone through if I’d been in such a weak form.”
Dropping her head, she stared at the ground. “When we escaped, we stayed in our rabbit forms for nearly two weeks. It was mentally taxing. I’d hoped to avoid it, at least for a while, because it stirs up a lot of memories for me—none of them good.”
My heart ached for my broken mate. Shifters relished their abilities, yet she almost despised that part of herself. It made me seethe with rage at everyone in her burrow who’d caused this trauma.
I longed for the time when she’d open up and trust us with the secrets of her past. When her heat was over, I’d make sure she was given a safe space to heal and learn to love both sides of herself. But this wasn’t the time to push it.
“I can shift and let you climb on my back. That way, you won’t have to shift. My wolf can easily carry you back to the house,” I offered, wanting her to be comfortable.
“Thank you, but no.” Charlee grabbed the hem of her shirt to pull it over her head. “I can shift, so there is no reason to make the journey harder on you.”