Chapter 59\u00a0<\/p>\n
You\u2019re safe here. he said through the pack bond, his mental voice warm with affection. \u201cNo one can see You from below, and there\u2019s no one else around for miles.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I looked around once more to make sure we were truly alone, then let Claire emerge for the first time in\u00a0<\/p>\n
what felt like forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The shift was like coming alive after a long sleep. Every sense sharpened and intensified until I could smell the individual scents of every plant, hear the heartbeat of a rabbit a quarter mile away, see the heat signatures of night birds in the trees around us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it was the view that truly stole my breath.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Through my wolf\u2019s enhanced vision, the city below became a living tapestry of light and shadow, movement and stillness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The reds and golds of heat signatur\u00a0<\/p>\n
art. nixed with the cool blues and silvers of artificial light, creating a\u00a0<\/p>\n
palette more beautiful than any artist could imagine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How do you feel? Tristan\u2019s voice\u00a0<\/p>\n
came through our mental connection, warm and curious.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I searched for the right words to describe the sensation of standing here in my true form, looking out over the world with eyes that could see its hidden bo\u00a0<\/p>\n
Like\u2026 like everything isn\u2019t so bad after all, I said finally. Like maybe there\u2019s still hope for happiness. I feel\u00a0<\/p>\n
peaceful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And it was true. For the first time in longer than companion for years was quiet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
could remember, the constant anxiety that had been my\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not gone. I wasn\u2019t naive enough to think one beautiful view could cure years of trauma, but muted enough that I could breathe freely.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tristan\u2019s wolf was magnificent in the moonlight, his dark fur gleaming silver at the edges. He moved with the fluid grace of a born predator, but his eyes were gentle when they looked at me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An idea sparked in my mind, wild and impulsive and exactly the kind of thing the old Athena would have done without thinking twice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Catch me if you can, I said through our bond, already taking aff down the hillside.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/3\u00a0<\/p>\n
20:36 Sat, Jan 3\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 59\u00a0<\/p>\n
11%9\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t make it more than fifty yards before Tristan caught up with me, his longer legs and superior speed\u00a0<\/p>\n
giving him an unfair advantage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We collided in a tangle of fur and laughter, rolling down the gentle slope together until we came to rest in\u00a0<\/p>\n
a patch of soft grass.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When we shifted back to human form, I found myself lying on top of him, my hands braced on either side of his head, our faces so close that I could every details of his face in the moonlight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Time seemed to stop.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His hands were on my waist, warm and steadying, and I was pressed against the solid length of his body in a way that made every nerve ending sing with awareness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I could feel his heartbeat beneath my palms, could smell the scent that was purely him, pine and motor oil\u00a0<\/p>\n
made my mouth water. and something indefinably masculine that\u00a0<\/p>\n
Our lips were inches apart. All I would\u00a0<\/p>\n
to do was lean down, just a little, and I could taste him. Could\u00a0<\/p>\n
find out if he tasted as good as I remembered from that one stolen moment five years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow are you so fast?\u201d I asked breathlessly, scrambling to put distance between us before I did something\u00a0<\/p>\n
irreversibly stupid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My cheeks were burning, and I turned away so he couldn\u2019t see the effect he had on me. So he couldn\u2019t see\u00a0<\/p>\n
how much I wanted to close that gap between us and damn the\u00a0<\/p>\n
coquences.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been fast. It\u2019s you I should be asking.\u201d he said, and I could hear the smugness in his voice even though I wasn\u2019t looking at him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow you\u2019re just trying to make me feel better about losing,\u201d I accused, but I was smiling despite myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe a little,\u201d he admitted. \u201cBut I\u2019m also serious, Athena. You\u2019re faster than I remember. Stronger too. Have you been training beyond those self\u2013defense classes?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The question caught me off guard. I hadn\u2019t been training, but he was right, I had felt different lately, more powerful in ways I couldn\u2019t explain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this is where you come every night?\u201d I asked, deliberately changing the subject because I didn\u2019t have an answer to give him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes,\u201d he said, and when I looked at him, there was something secretive in his expression. So he has\u00a0<\/p>\n
2\/3\u00a0<\/p>\n
20:36 Sat, Jan 3\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 59\u00a0<\/p>\n
another place like this?\u00a0<\/p>\n
$11%%%\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNot places like this,\u201d he said, seeming to read my thoughts with uncanny accuracy. \u201cCome on. Let me show\u00a0<\/p>\n
you my world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 59 Chapter 59\u00a0 You\u2019re safe here. he said through the pack bond, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-second-gear-of-love-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}