Shifting Hearts

Chapter 6 - Secrets are No Fun

I woke up slowly, keeping my eyes shut, basking in the comfortable warmth surrounding me as I relaxed into the softness beneath me.

Wait!? WHAT!?

It's then that I register the strong arms caging me to a firm chest. Gently struggling to free myself but not wake the person behind me, I wiggled in the steel-like grip.

A drowsy groan echoed behind me and I froze as last night came rushing back to me.

Oh, it's him.

I twisted in the grip and turned so I was facing the man behind me.

I knew it was totally cliché, but the alpha looked even younger as he slept. With horses, faces didn't display much emotion. Feelings were mostly displayed through body movements and noises.

Human faces, however, they were what were likely to betray you. Every time you hurt someone; you see the pain in their eyes. When a person really laughed, their smile looked just a little too big. Or when they're so exhausted, they looked like a weight is pulling them under.

I groaned at my own sappiness and squeezed my eyes shut.

Whoa, girl. Getting too deep. It's a guy's face. Calm yourself.

After taking a bunch of calming breaths I opened my eyes and looked at Cooper again. His whole face was relaxed. No worry lines creased his forehead. His mouth was drooping open, listing breaths that brushed my arms.

I smiled slightly. He truly was beautiful.

Buuuuuut... I had to go to the bathroom so I either had to escape the monkey-death-grip or wake him up. And I didn't want to wake him up because I knew for a fact that this was the first good sleep he's had in a while. At nights, he'd been out trying to pick up my scent somewhere, tracing any hint of me on the breeze.

Heaving a deep sigh, I steeled myself before beginning to wriggle and shimmy out of his grip. This accomplished nothing but him tightening his arms even more, squeezing me so hard I could hardly breathe. My bladder was going to explode if I didn't get up.

I whined, a high, pitiful sound in the back of my throat. His brown eyes flew open and fear, protectiveness, and anger shined in his eyes behind a haze of sleep before it faded as he began to fully wake up.

I smiled awkwardly up at him. "Um. Morning, Big Bad," I laughed uncomfortably, "Mind letting me up? I have some urgent business to attend to."

Cooper, annoying as he is, merely sighed contently and snuggled down into the bed, mumming tiredly, "Go back to sleep."

Huffing in exasperation, I silently put my hands on his chest and pushed backwards. It was apparently enough because I was suddenly falling off the bed and landing in a heap on the floor.

"Ugh." Obviously, none of my equine grace had transferred into my human body.

I opened my eyes to see Cooper looking over the edge of the bed at me.

"That was your own fault." he said while trying to hide a smile but failing.

I glared at him before rolling to my feet and staggering towards the bathroom.

I stood in front of the mirror, washing my hands, when I glanced up at my reflection. It was still weird seeing myself as a human, so I quickly looked away and ducked back into the bedroom where Cooper was sitting on the edge of the bed looking tired as he slowly woke up.

When he heard me, he raised his head to look at me and a dazzling smile lit up his face. I rolled my eyes from where I stood in the doorway to the bathroom.