Shifting Hearts

Chapter 8 - Discoveries

"The truth is," I took a deep breath and avoided making eye contact with Cooper.

A firm hand gripped my chin and forced me to look up into Cooper's brown eyes.

"Whatever it is, you don't need to be afraid to tell me," he said sternly, a small smile on his lips.

Dylan stood awkwardly in the doorway, sidling his feet subtly to the side as he tried to make a discreet escape.

Without breaking eye contact with me, the alpha werewolf called after his younger brother.

"Don't think this is over for you, pup! Just because I'm letting you go do your chores doesn't mean you're off the hook!"

"Yeah, yeah!" The sassy response echoed through the house before we heard a door slam.

Cooper let out a small growl of annoyance at his brother's behavior and I let out a small laugh.

"Now, you have something to tell me..." he prompted.

How to go about this?

"I just have to say that the only reason I haven't told you is because I was scared and I didn't know you, so I didn't trust you. But in my defense, I've only known you for, what? Like a week now. So, you should really be grateful I trust you in this small amount of time. Because..."

"Ok, I get it. Eli, you're rambling," he laughed, dropping his hand from my chin and taking my hand.

I huffed and blew away the hair that had fallen in my face, "Sorry, Big Bad."

"It's fine. It's just that whatever this thing is that you're keeping from me, it's been driving me crazy. Just like you." He grabbed my waist and dragged me into his lap, tickling my sides lightly.

As I slapped away his hands, I stood up and reached down to drag Cooper up with me. Although, I had no chance of budging the tall wolf, so when he stood it's mostly of his own volition.

"This whole thing will be easier to explain if I could just show you," I said as I pulled him towards the door. His hand tightened around mine and I could tell he liked the hand holding. I looked up and saw the obvious confusion on his face, but he's not questioning it so that's good.

I stopped at the main horse paddock, and Rosie and Skipper began making their way towards us. However, I waved them off, and they went back to grazing contentedly.

"What? Are you a horse whisperer?" Cooper joked.

"Close enough."

He's obviously confused by that, but I slid under the rail and into the paddock and began to shift before he could ask me.

I watched his face as I shifted. His confusion morphed to panic as something terrifying was happening to his mate, then revelation as everything clicked, before stopping at acceptance.

I felt the shift complete and was left on all fours, now eye level with Cooper as he took in my transformation.

Cooper stood frozen where he was, leaning against the fence, mouth agape and eyes fixed on me.

Nickering kindly, I walked forward and reached over the fence to nudge him with my big horse head. This seemed to break him out from his daze and, much to my amusement, he shook himself all over as though to clear his head.

I nickered again and he reached out and stroked my nose gently, as though I were a normal horse.

"This makes so much sense. Why I was so obsessed with Misty, why, when you were here, she wasn't, how you seemed to know what she was doing, everything," he murmured, mostly to himself.