She lay back without protest. He could see how her legs trembled, pushed to the very edge of their strength. It was remarkable that they had supported her so long. Surely they would not have done so had she been of pure human blood.
“Morgan,” she whispered. “I did it. I… stood up.”
Already the kiss was relegated to the back of her thoughts. He could not blame her. He should be relieved, though his body ached and cursed him for his cowardice.
“Yes,” he said. He considered the edge of the bed and chose to crouch beside it instead. “How did it happen?”
“I don’t know. One moment I was dreaming, and the next—” She ran her tongue over her lower lip. Morgan winced. “I dreamed that I was running as a wolf. With you.”
“I felt it,” he said. “I saw you, in my mind.”
“You did?” She smiled, as if she had just discovered that there was a joy greater than recovering the use of her legs. “It wasn’t only a dream?”
He began to understand. She had dreamed of running, of her wolf blood carrying her to freedom, and her body had acted. It had defied the doctors and naysayers who had declared that she would never walk again… including herself. He should have sensed from the beginning that her paralysis was made up of denials and assumptions, not of a ruined body. That was why he had kissed her the first time, goaded her to defy her brother, allowed himself to get so close…
When did you become so wise?
“If you can walk,” he said, avoiding her question, “your injuries must be healed.”
“Healed.” She breathed the word, exhaled it, savoring a taste she had not expected to sample again. “Is it possible?”
“Your legs held you up. Your muscles must be weak and thin, but they work. Can you feel them?”
“Yes.” Wonder in her eyes, she ran her hands down her body from waist to thigh. Her nightdress molded to the shape beneath, and Morgan clenched his teeth. “I can. It hurts.”
The pain must be great, but she bore it without complaint. Pride swelled his heart to uncomfortable proportions. “I only know a little about such injuries, but I have seen men who have not used arms or legs for many months, and they can get well if they do not give up. It will continue to hurt, after so long. The wolf will help. It was the wolf that healed you.”
She met his gaze. “But I… I haven’t Changed in years.”
“Your body doesn’t forget. Just as your muscles don’t forget how to stand. They will learn to walk and then run again.” He stared into her eyes. “You are brave enough to do it, Athena. You always have been.”
She pulled herself up to lean on the pillows, carefully flexing her knees. “But if all it needed was courage, then why did it take me so many years to find it?”
Ask Ulysses, he wanted to tell her. He is the philosopher—he and Caitlin. “What were you afraid of?” he asked.
“I—” She closed her eyes, and he could feel her traveling back over the years, to that snowy mountainside long ago. “I don’t know. I believed the doctors. I believed Niall.”
Niall. Morgan bit back a snarl. “He kept you in that chair.”
“No! No.” She shook her head, refusing to hear anything against her brother. “Nothing is that simple. He did everything for me.”
“He did not understand the wolf,” Morgan said. “Neither did you.”
The confusion in her eyes cleared, and a new energy coursed through her. Morgan could see it, radiating from her body. “I believed the wolf was gone forever. I made myself believe it.” She looked at him in such a way that his throat closed up and he couldn’t have spoken had he wished to.
“It wasn’t only the wolf inside me that made this happen,” she said softly. “It wasn’t a miracle. It was you. Your inspiration, your belief in me… even your bullying. You were an example I had never found anywhere else.”
He jumped to his feet. “You give me too much credit.”