#Chapter 407 – At the Beach
Cora
When I blink my eyes open, I gasp a little at the gorgeous sight before me. Ocean stretches as far as the eye can see in front of me and there, at the horizon, just the tiniest sliver of a sun can be seen, finally taking its own rest below the horizon.
I look to my left and right and chills stumble down my spine at the beautiful beach that stretches out in each direction – perfect white sand against which the surf lightly crashes, lined with palm trees and scrubby forest with no human buildings in sight.
All of this beautiful, untouched nature makes the super plush beach day bed that I’m sitting on even more incongruous, though, and I laugh a little as I look down it. But my laughter fades as I admire my flowing white dress, and the crisp white sheets, and the amazing warm breeze that brushes against my skin. The bed has four posts from which gauzy fabric flies, and candles are scattered around all of it.
It’s so incredibly beautiful that I lose my breath. And I lose it again when I see the handsome man walking across the beach towards me.
“Hey, gorgeous,” he says, grinning at me with his hands in his pockets. ” Looks like it worked.”
Laughing in wonder now, I shake my head at my mate. “I thought – I thought it was supposed to be a forest!”
Roger shrugs, looking around at the beautiful landscape, the evening breeze lifting his hair. “That’s Ella’s dream state. I guess this is yours.” Then he turns to me, the corner of his mouth lifted into a little smile. “Thanks for letting me in.”
“Come sit!” I say, scooting over to make room. My mate obliges me, seating himself on the bed. I look him over, laughing. “Why are you dressed in linen pants?” I ask, wrinkling my nose.
“You dressed me like this!” he protests, waving a hand at himself. “I have no control!”
“I did not,” I laugh, shaking my head. “You look like you’re going to Margaritaville to listen to some Jimmy Buffet.”
Roger glares at me a little and then closes his eyes, concentrating. Between one blink and the next, his clothing changes so that he’s now in a more familiar black pants and white button- down shirt, though it’s not as crisp as something he might wear with a suit. Definitely more beach casual.
“Oh,” he murmurs, looking down at himself. “I guess it was me.”
“We could have just taken it off,” I say with a shrug, scooting closer and reaching out to touch him, to run my hand over his shoulder and his arm. To my surprise, he feels completely corporeal exactly as he does in the real world. “Can you feel that?” I ask.
“I can,” he confirms, a little pleasant shudder passing through his body. Then he takes my chin in one hand and leans in to kiss me, just a soft touch of his lips on mine. “Can you feel that?”
“Mmhmm,” I say, leaning back and grinning widely.
“This is so cool.” Roger says, flopping back onto the bed and staring up into the sky with a wide smile on his face.” Now we can hang out all the time – all day and all night.”
“Nah,” I say, leaning back as well and putting my head on his shoulder. ” Sometimes I will lock you in dream jail when you piss me off. And then I will come here, and have dream margaritas all by myself.”
“Cruel,” he growls, snapping his teeth at me and making me laugh. “Just as I said.”
“Oh yeah!” I say eagerly, sitting up suddenly and looking all around as I remember where all of this started. ” Where’s my wolf?!”
“I don’t know,” Roger says, sitting up next to me and likewise looking around.
“Why don’t you know?” I ask, turning to him, confused. “Haven’t you done this before?”
“No, Cora,” he says, rolling his eyes at me playfully. “You’re my first mate which is kind of required for the exercise. I have never done this before either. Everything I know about this comes second-hand from Dominic.”
“Oh!” I say, and then I start to laugh. He sits up and laughs with me, even though he doesn’t know what’s funny.
“What,” he murmurs, taking my face in his hands like he can’t resist and kissing me again between words, ” what’s so funny?”
“It’s just so cute,” I whisper, still giggling. “Usually I feel like the naïve one with all of this wolf and shifter stuff! But finally we’re on the same playing field! I get to pop your dream cherry!”
Roger laughs along with me, nodding and kissing me and pulling me backwards on the bed with him. ”
Anytime you want, Cora,” he murmurs against my mouth as his breathing starts to get heavier. “You’re the boss in your own dream – I’m ready when you are.”
“Really,” I murmur, rolling him backwards a bit so that I can straddle his hips, placing a knee on either side of him and laying my stomach flat against his. And then I run my hands through his hair, bringing my mouth back to his. “Anytime I want?”
But before he can answer me, simultaneously, Roger and I both gasp, our eyes going wide. “Oh my god,” I say, freezing on top of my mate, staring into his face.
“Did you,” he whispers, not even daring to blink, “did you feel that too?”
And I sit up in a flash, my hands flying to my stomach as I look down at it. Because that that was from the baby-
And then, quite suddenly and totally without warning-
It comes again.
A single, steady pulse of…happy.
“Oh…oh my god,” I murmur, tears suddenly springing to my eyes. “Seriously, Cora,” Roger says, his voice shaking, and I turn my eyes to his face as he works to prop himself up on his elbows, “am I imagining this?”
“No,” I say, shaking my head vehemently and laughing a little desperate laugh, “I mean unless we’re both imagining the same thing. Do you do you think it’s the dream?”
“Or,” he says, reaching out to touch a tentative hand to my stomach, “is our son actually…”
“…happy,” I finish for him.
But we get our answer the moment Roger’s palm presses flat against my stomach, because it comes again.
Happy…happy…
And then I really do burst into tears, burying my face in my hands. Roger sits up, wrapping his arms around me, and I feel his shoulders shaking a little with his own tears.
Because our little boy – he’s finally big enough, now, to not just be a little bundle of cells in my body – but instead a little person in there, feeling his own very real little feelings, big enough finally to start to pass them to us through the bond –
And we’ve finally got the first one. And it absolutely shatters my heart into pieces to know that the first thing he’s telling us is that he’s happy.
“Oh my god,” Roger says, still crying as he takes my face in his hands and starts to kiss me again, passing his own feelings along the bond to me, and along to the baby through their own bond, which is attached to mine. Roger sends the baby joy, and happiness, and pride, and love –
And I send it all too –
But then I worry that we’re overwhelming the baby, so I stop –
“Don’t stop,” Roger says, his lips still against mine, “let him feel it.”
So I don’t I pass my baby all the love 1 in my heart, and my excitement to meet him, and what a treasure he is to me already –
And the baby starts to pass it all back to us faster now –
Happy, happy, happy.
And Roger and I cry harder, laughing with each other, holding each other tight.
