Run With Me

Chapter Twenty Nine

Kirk caught Terri as she fell forward into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably. She was normally so stoic, so serious about things. He had seen her emotions over the last couple of months, but he had never seen, or felt, the level of pain currently ripping through her emotions. It was as if years of the need to cry was coming out all at once. Scooping her up into his arms, Kirk moved to the bed, sitting down so that Terri was in his lap. All he could do was offer comforting sounds and rub her back. The terry cloth robe she wore was soft on his hands and already warm from the moisture of the shower she had just had, but he wanted to be closer to her. Partially shifting, he clawed the back of the robe open and started petting the soft skin beneath. The act just made Terri cry even harder.

Their bond allowed him to feel the tumult of emotions going through his mate. The anger, he suspected was directed at her brother. The sorrow, that could be a number of things and he knew she would fill him in on all of those with time. The grief, both for her parents and for losing her pack. But Kirk had no idea where the guilt she was experience was coming from. What did she have to feel guilty for.

"It was this time of the year that the crash happened," Terri's voice was quiet, barely above a whisper, "I had wanted to go to this science lecture in the city and we went despite the weather." Terri told him about the last day she spent with her parents, the snowball fight in the same park that they had gotten to know each other by running in. She talked about the meal with her parents and how excited she had been about learning all the new things that day. The snow storm had settled into the area as they were leaving the city.

"I don't remember the crash," Terri's tears continued to flow, "I just remember waking up in a human hospital, missing my leg, and Darren being so very angry with me," she looked up at Kirk, choking back a fresh sob, "he's blamed me for this ever since. I was just a child, but he blamed me for my parent's deaths." For the first time, Terri voiced the truth she held in her heart. Even if Darren had never said the words out loud, it had been evident throughout her recovery, with every prosthetic, and with every family event that he blamed her for the death of their parents.

"Oh love," Kirk wrapped his arms around her, pulling Terri's smaller body against his, resting his chin on her wet hair, "you were a child. And the weather was out of your control," he squeezed her tighter, "none of that is your fault. None of it." Kirk continued to hold his mate as she cried into his shoulder. When John came and knocked at the door, a low growl from Kirk sent him away. Kirk wanted to get out of this area as soon as possible, putting as much distance between Terri and her old pack as he could before she finished her degree. He wanted nothing more than to give her the fresh start that she deserved.

"I need to resolve all of this," Terri finally spoke, "I need to put an end to all the conflict, the fighting. I need to stand up to Darren and be clear that he has been wrong this whole time," Terri leaned back and gave Kirk a kiss on his cheek, "I never would have agreed to this mating because all this time, he had it drilled into my head that everyone would treat me and my mate the way him and my pack have treated me for years. For longer than anyone should have accepted it," there was something clear in Terri's mint green eyes, "I am not defective. I am stronger than all of them in spite of them." She laid her head against Kirk's chest to listen to his heart beat.

"Oh, little Raven," his hands rubbed her back, "You're not just stronger in spite of them. You survived them. You're stronger than anyone because of them." When Terri looked up at him again, he smiled, "you're stronger because you survived them and became the strong, caring, capable woman that you are. And I'm proud that you are my mate." As his lips found hers, the renewed sense of their fresh mating swept over him and he was pulling the soft cloth of her robe back.