Reviving Bloom (27 page)
“They might still be some day, darlin’. There is still time for that connection to hit them.”
Pike walk
s
up behind me and wrap
s
his arms around my middle, placing a kiss on my neck.
“I know, but
seeing them together seems right. I feel it in my gut. Does that sound strange?”
I turn
in his arms to look up into his face. His eyes g
e
t distant as he contemplate
s
my words then he look
s
back down at me and smile
s
.
“No, it doesn’t sound strange. You should always go with what your gut is telling you, I’ve always followed mine and so far I love where it’s led me. Right to you, darlin’.”
He lean
s
in and presse
s
a brief kiss to my lips then release
s
me to address the group since Price and Bonnie
have
joined us.
“Alright,
we’re gonna get back on the road, but there’s gonna be a little change. Price you’re gonna ride in the
back of our car with Bonnie. Emily you’re gonna ride with Kit in the moving van.” He look
s
at everyone to make sure there w
o
n’t be any complaints and then clap
s
his hands
together and says
, “Ok
ay
, let’s hit the road.
Bonnie try to refrain from drinking your weight in water
because I’m not stopping again till we reach Tennessee. Once we’re across the state border we’ll stop and get lunch.
”
Emily looks
at me
and mouths
“what the heck”? I shrug my shoulders though I kn
o
w her brother
’
s trying to give her and Kit more time alone. I
’m
slowly learning that my mate
’
s worse than one of the old busy bod
ies that c
o
me around Billy’s trying to fix me up with some lo
ng lost nephew
. A complete and utter meddler, I make one comment and he’s ready to plan the wedding.
“I hear spring
’
s a good time to get married.”
Pike laugh
s
in my head.
“Ha ha, weren’t you the one who just told me they had time?”
I ask climbing back into the passenger seat of the car.
“I wasn’t talking about them, darlin’.”
“Then who are you talking
….”
I looked over at him after fast
ening my seat belt and he winks
at me.
“Oh no, Tennessee, we have more than enough hurdles to cross right now without throwing a wedding into the mix. Plus if you’re gonna propose to me it better not be in the front seat of
a
rental car
that smells like sweaty feet
.
”
Crap, that came out kind of mean, I hope he
i
sn’t serious.
He stare
s
at me for several long moments then start
s
laughing so hard he
double
s
over against the steering wheel
. Once he
’
s able to contain himself he lean
s
in and grab
s
my neck pulling me to the center of the car so his lips c
an
meet mine. He pull
s
back from the kiss to press his forehead
against
mine and whisper
s
, “God, I love you.”
OH MY GOSH!
He loves me, but it’s only been a week. I lean back so I c
an
look into h
is eyes. “Already?
”
You’re his mate. Stop questioning if he loves us, of course he does. Geesh!
My wolf shakes her head
at me though I can tell she’s glowing from his declaration just as much as me.
He skim
s
his fingers along my cheek down to my lips. “Since the first moment I saw you
walking through those woods determined to help an injured animal
.”
We
’
re moving so fast, it
’s
onl
y been a week since he
came
barreling
into my life
and half of that week he spent in his wolf form pretending to be a dog
, but my heart
’
s screaming for me to say those words back to him. He
’s
surrendered his heart to me and I fe
el
the need to surrender mine to him.
I grab the hand he ha
s
touching my face and kiss his palm, then lean in
to
kiss his lips. “I love you too, Tennessee.”
“The two of you are so sweet; you’re liable to give me a toothache. Can we please get on the road now?” Bonnie joke
s
from the back seat. I turn to find Price
looking at her like she grew a second head
and
I
ha
ve
to laugh when Bonnie notice
s
to and ask
s
, “What? You
’
re thinking it too, it’s not my fault you
’
re afraid to say it because he’s the big bad alpha.”
Dang, my friend’s leaning heavily on her sass this week. I hope she remembers her sweet side is just as good.
“She’ll be ok, darlin’. She’s only using it to protect herself.”
“What does she need to protect herself from?”
“Bloom, you’re not the only one who’s faced a lot of revelations this week. Bonnie also found out there
are
shifters and that her closest friend is one. Not to mention she saw you attacked. So give her some time to adjust to her new world. She’ll go back to herself once she does.”
“Goodness, I hadn’t even thought of that
. No wonder she’s been acting this way.”
“She’ll be fine. Don’t worry darlin’.”
“I’ll hold you to that, Tennessee.”
“Oh, I love when you hold me.”
I roll my eyes at him as I pull out of our connection.
Price
is looking between Bonnie and Pike;
I c
an
tell he
’
s waiting to see if
my mate will
do anything about her outburst.
I’m
quickly learning pack members
are
not suppose to dis
respect the alphas, but Price has
n’t learned yet that Bonnie
i
sn’t pack and even if she
were
she would always speak her mind. It’s one of the things I love abo
ut the girl and there
’
s no way
I
’m
gonna ask her to change just to appease some uptight wolves.
“Calm down, wolf
, Bonnie means no harm. She’s all bark and no bite
,
”
Pike reassure
s
the younger man.
“Hey now, you don’t know I might bite.” She turn
s
to Price and wink
s
with a huge grin across her plump face. “At the very least I nibble.”
Price flushe
s
ten shades of red before his skin finally turn
s
back to its normal creamy white. He really
i
s a handsome guy. He
’
s only an inch taller than me, but he ma
k
e
s
up for his lack of height by being pure muscle. Price look
s
like a fighter, or with his dark brown hair buzzed that way, maybe I should say a soldier. Yes, I c
an
easily see him with dog tags hanging around his neck, but no he
’
s a
wolf
.
That
mean
s
there w
ill
be no life in the milit
ary for this brown eyed man. He’s
sworn his life to his fellow pack members and he’
ll
die before he break
s
that promise.
“You’ve become rather intuitive, darlin’.”
Pike sa
ys
through our connection.
“Hmm, how do you mean?”
I ask turning my attention to him.
“What y
ou were thinking about Price. About a year ago he
thought about joining the army instead of staying with our pack, but his loyalty to us won out. I’m thankful for that, I know he’ll be a valuable member, but you just met him. How c
an
you know all this?”
The question i
s asked more to himself than to me.
“Just like
how I felt about Emily and Kit. I fe
el
it in my gut.”
“Have you always been able to sense things about people
or is this a new discovery?”
I th
ink
about the question for a
few minutes as I play my
past through my mind as if it
’s
on fast forward. There
a
r
e numerous times in my life I’
ve
had the same gut instinct about someone or a situation, so no this
i
sn’t new.
“I’ve always had this knack
of
read
ing
people. It
’
s how I knew Bonnie would be my best friend and how I knew that Trace was no good. But the last one came a little too late for me to steer clear
.
”
I pause then ask, “Is this another shifter thing?”
“No, darlin’, it’s not. I believe I should follow my gut, but it seems yours can do a lot more than mine. We should probably bring
this
up to the elders
also
when we meet with them.”
“If you think it could mean something.”
“It might, but don’t worry love we’ll figure this out together.”
He reach
es
across the seat and rub
s
my knee to reassure me
, but I
’m
to wound with this new discovery to let his touch comfort me the way it should.
Once we cross the Tennessee line we stop at a diner to have lunch. Pike and I finish before every
one else so
we
decid
e
to wait on them outside
. He lean
s
against the car and I curl up to him with my back to his front and his arms wrapped around me.
There
’
s a rain storm getting ready to come through and the wind
is
starting to pick up speed. I watch as a flyer
i
s picked up and tossed around the parking lot then swept away.
I hear the bell on the diner
’
s door ring and it pull
s
my attention from the flyer just as
t
he others step out of the small building with Emily and Kit bringing up the rear.
The gust
cause
s
Emily
’
s hair to fly back from her face and in that instant I s
ee
Kit take in a deep breath and I kn
o
w.
