TAMED | FREENBECKY

33

When Freen woke from her deep, dreamless rest, the first thing she saw was the new moon—just beginning to wax—looming outside a curtained window. On instinct she calculated the time until the next full moon—just under two weeks. Always her first thought upon waking, keeping track of her cycle was an unconscious instinct. Being caught unprepared was an irrational worry, but that didn't ease Freen's fear or her distrust of her own body.

Disoriented until she noticed Becca nestled in her arms, Freen remembered what had brought her to Becca's apartment and what had happened between them, and her breathing quickened. Despite Becca's initial knee-jerk reaction, Freen's coming out had gone better than she could have imagined. Becca hadn't rejected her, even knowing the whole truth. Apparently, she'd even allowed Freen to fall asleep in her bed, though Freen couldn't remember how she'd gotten there.

"You were exhausted." Becca answered Freen's unspoken question, voice scratchy with sleep. "After we talked, you practically passed out."

Freen had no recollection past shifting into a tiger then giving Becca a long, rambling recap of the past month and a half. That she had woken up with Becca by her side seemed like a good sign. "How long was I out?"

Becca rolled over to check her alarm clock. "About eight hours."

"What?" Freen sat abruptly, shocked and embarrassed that she'd borrowed Becca's bed for almost the entire day. They'd spoken for maybe a half hour before Freen had fallen asleep. After basically being broken up for the past two weeks, that was hardly enough reconciliation to justify treating Becca's place like a hotel. "I'm so sorry. I haven't been sleeping much and I just—"

"Because you've been too busy watching over me." Tugging gently on Freen's wrist, Becca encouraged her to lie back down. "I know. Providing a bed is the least I can do to thank you."

Freen blushed. Protecting Becca wasn't an entirely selfless act. Now that they'd found each other, Becca's safety was the only thing that mattered. Instinctively Freen knew that losing Becca would mean losing a part of herself—the part that made her human. Not only was Becca her most real connection to the human world, but she'd singlehandedly erased Freen's loneliness and convinced her that she could have the same things normal people did. Love. Happiness. A future.

Caressing Becca's face with the back of her hand, Freen murmured, "Until Kirk is in custody, I want to stay with you around the clock. If you don't feel comfortable taking me to work with you, I can keep watch in a different form. I just don't want to leave your side."

"Can you fall asleep when you're shifted without reverting back to human form?"

"No." Freen struggled to put her thoughts into words. Explaining something she barely understood was difficult at best. "My body seems to have a tendency or an impulse to retain its natural form. If I lose consciousness when I'm shifted, I usually wake up myself. Naked. Which is embarrassing." She paused, then laughed shyly. "You know, now that I'm talking about this, I realize that I don't know as much about what I can do as I should. I've never really tested myself. I've mostly just tried to avoid the whole thing."

"No more," Becca murmured. "And as much as I appreciate your protection, if you're going to watch over me during the day, you need to start sleeping at night. If we're locked in my apartment and you're in bed with me, I don't see any reason for you to keep running yourself down like this."

Freen's breath caught at the unspoken implication. "Does this mean we're back together?"

Cringing at the quaver in her voice, Freen tensed as she awaited Becca's answer. Since the night of the last full moon, every day she'd dreamed of having Becca back. Until yesterday, she hadn't thought it possible.