He was still running when he realized he was alone again.
He found himself atop the fell overlooking Greyburn, almost above the trees. A fresh wind carried Cassidy’s scent from below; she was headed back toward the house. He could imagine her flushed and breathless as she reached the door, attempting to straighten her ragamuffin’s dress, looking over her shoulder to see if he followed…
Why she had left him he didn’t know. He should be grateful. Perhaps prudence had returned to her when it abandoned him. There was nothing prudent in the elation he’d felt when they were alone together, or in the hollowness of his heart now that she was gone.
Yet all the while they ran, she hadn’t Changed. Had she been too shy, too long among humans to shed her clothes in his presence without self-consciousness?
Tonight, at the ceremony, she must put aside such inhibitions. In the Great Hall, the Changing would be done for a specific purpose, rationally, with no risk of intimate contact. That, too, he should be grateful for.
The ceremony would be another essential part of Cassidy’s education as a loup-garou. And tomorrow he would make the rest clear to her. Tomorrow the shield of duty would be firmly back in place.
When all barriers of human garments and human custom were cast aside, there was nothing left but resolve to battle the deepest instincts of the beast.
That was a battle Braden didn’t dare lose again.
Eight
Cassidy dashed up the stairs and into her room, closing the door behind her. She leaned against it, spreading her hands on the cool wood, until her heartbeat had slowed and she could breathe normally again.
The bathtub still waited before the fire, offering restful comfort. She stripped off the calico dress and stood naked in the center of the room, shivering even though her skin was flushed and hot.
All because of the wolf. A mighty, green-eyed gray wolf who had run by her side in the forest, whose fur had been so lush under her hands, whom she’d known the instant she saw him.
Braden.
She moved to the tub and tested the water. It had cooled, but she didn’t need it to be any warmer. She sank down to her chest in the water, then lower, until her chin grazed the surface.
When she’d run to the woods, she’d expected to be alone. She hadn’t counted on a wish coming true.
In the few days she’d known Braden, she’d only been able to imagine what he must be like in his other form.
She wouldn’t have dared asked him to Change, as she’d asked Quentin. She had vague memories of her mother for comparison, but no recollections or imaginings could prepare her for the awesome reality.
Braden was so much more than a man, or a wolf. What he was couldn’t be said in words, not even with the most exquisite poetry. Blake’s Tyger couldn’t begin to compare.
And that was what Braden expected her to be. That power, that grace, that marvelous perfection.
She looked at her own body under the water. It felt strange to her now, as if it belonged to someone else. As if she were seeing it for the first time through another persons eyes.
She touched her flat stomach, the ribs that showed a little under the skin, the curve other hips, her breasts. Her legs were long, her waist small. Her body always did what she asked it to do.
But it didn’t know how to Change.
She knew Braden wouldn’t be any different when she saw him again; he’d be the same man, with the same face and the same manner. Nothing would have changed just because they’d run in the forest together, just because she’d seen him in his wolf shape and felt closer to him than ever before.
As marvelous as it had been to run by his side, to know for a few moments the rich comradeship of a shared joy and understanding—in spite of all that, something was missing. The feeling of closeness was as fleeting as a heat mirage in the desert.
Had Braden wondered why she didn’t join him in the shape he wore with such assurance? Had he felt disappointment that she hadn’t made that obvious crossing, jumped that last barrier?