Ryker laughed and swatted my hand away. “Just trust me. And don't stand up.”
I fumbled until I felt the edge and clenched it with one hand, then reached down to hold on tightly to my seat with the other.
“I trust you,” I answered. My chuckle turned into a gasp as what I thought was a boat rocked suddenly. Thanks to my newly enhanced ears, I could hear the slap of water against the hull, confirming that I was indeed in some sort of a small boat.
“I trust you,” I repeated, tightening my grip nevertheless.
And I did trust Ryker. After all, that was what led me to climbing into a complete stranger’s car in the first place. Trust was the reason I listened to him explain that a true mate was like a soul mate for what he called shifters; the one person you're meant to be with and that true mates are destined to share an eternal life together, never fighting, never straying, never falling out of love. It sounded too good to be true. And that was without the part about being able to turn into wolves and being immortal. Even though it sounded pretty far-fetched, for some reason I had trusted Ryker enough to stick around until sunset so that he could prove his tale by turning into a wolf.
Trust was why I hadn't run screaming from him when he actually did. That same trust, I supposed, and what I quickly realized was love, was why I agreed to be changed into a shifter too and start my life with him.
It quickly became clear that my trust was well placed. Not long after he explained things to me, two massive guys showed up on our doorstep. One of them had a little wolf pup in his arms, which he protectively shielded from me when I opened the door. Ryker quickly introduced me as his true mate and the pair broke into wide smiles.
Soon Carrick, lifelong shifter friends with Ryker, and his true mate Brooks – who until recently had been human like me – were hauling furniture all over the house while the wolf pup ran and played. To my shock, the little puppy abruptly turned into a human toddler and went right on playing.
Once everything was set back up, Brooks took me aside to talk with while Carrick helped Ryker put books and knick-knacks back on shelves. Even though I was already pretty convinced that I was going to go ahead and let Ryker change me, my conversation with Brooks sealed the deal.
The night after I was changed they left their kid with Carrick’s mother and the four of us traveled to the nature preserve on neighboring Eclipse Island to run. The first time Ryker changed in front of me I was surprised to see he was white. Amused, he had explained that he was an arctic wolf and I was likely imagining gray wolves. I suppose that was why I was just as surprised to see Carrick and Brooks were gray wolves. It seemed that our human sizes and animal sizes didn’t correspond; despite their considerable size as humans, Brooks and Carrick were both smaller than Ryker and I.
And boy could we all run! We loped through the snow and the leaves and in the sand, and I had never imagined something so incredible.
I wasn't sure why Ryker had thought he would be lonely during the holidays on the island. There seemed to be shifters everywhere we went; one served us coffee, one gave us Christmas cookies, another came to check on us during our dinner at a nice restaurant. They were everywhere! And all of them seemed to love Ryker and welcomed him home happily. Without fail, each one would look at me, their nostrils would flare, and they would break into a wide grin and congratulate Ryker, leaving little doubt that true mates really were as special as he claimed.
We joined the entire Silvanus clan, as Ryker called his distant cousins, for the Christmas parade, standing on the sidelines as cars and horses and small decorated floats rolled down Main Street. The local high school brought their marching band and their color guard, and there were a couple of scout troops, and a few assorted clubs. A light snow was falling and as much as I wished I had been able to go to Frostbourg, I couldn't deny that there was really nowhere I would rather be than holding hands with