Morgan's Mates (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read Free Page B

direction his life, and therefore her own, was about to take.
    “Nathan!” Morgan came running down the trail when she spotted him. “I’ve been looking for you all night. Oh my God. Where have you been, baby?”
    Nathan stopped and waited for her to catch up to him. He stiffened when she threw her arms around his shoulders and hugged him.
    “I’m so sorry, Morgan,” he told her. He hated himself because he thought he sounded weak. He was certainly not articulate enough to explain his situation to her.
    “This has to stop,” she said, although he was relieved to see she wasn’t angry. But the fear behind her words hurt him even worse than her anger, because he knew he had been the one to cause it. “You have to tell me what’s wrong and let me help you. Please, Nathan. I love you. Let me help you.”
    “I’m going away,” Nathan said. It took all his courage to finally make this announcement. Things had been so good between them until this damn sickness had taken over and ruined things. He cursed himself for not being a stronger man, for not being stronger for Morgan and capable of licking this thing on his own without help from his wolf.
    “I don’t understand. Where are you going?”
    “I can’t be a man anymore. I’m going to be the wolf.”
    Morgan shook her head. “But you’ve always shifted. What’s different about this time?” she said. She didn’t seem to understand.
    “This won’t just be a shift,” he explained. “When I change this time, I won’t be a man again.”
    Morgan released him and took a step away. He watched tears well in her eyes. “Not ever?” Her voice choked on the question.
    “I’ll be back.” He tried to sound more confident than he really felt because he knew he might not ever be back. He reached out for her and took her back in his arms. She tried to struggle away, but he wouldn’t let her go. “I love you, Morgan. And I’ll always be right here in this forest.”
    “You’ll be a wolf out here?” she asked him. “But you won’t be a man anymore?”
    Nathan took her under an arm and led her down the trail at his side. He thought one last walk together would do them both a lot of good. There was a lot to say. Some things he would probably never find a way to give voice to. But this would be his last chance to try for a while, perhaps his last chance to ever try with her again.
    “Baby, I’m thirty years old,” he started. “Everything came too fast in life for me, college in Chicago and my career with the software company. Then meeting you…”
    “Are you sorry you met me, Nathan?”
    “Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
    “Then why are you doing this? Why are you leaving me?”
    He sighed and continued to lead them forward along the trail. He just couldn’t tell her everything. He didn’t want her to know the full truth. “I talked with Doctor Hughes in Wolf Creek last week. Then I drove out to the farm to see Mom and Dad.”
    He felt her tense under his arm. She had never gotten along well with his parents. “Couldn’t they help you?” she asked.
    “They put things in perspective for me.” A cold breeze blew against them, and he hugged her to keep her warm. “Sometimes male shifters experience a need to let their wolf free. Not everyone goes through this, but some of us do. When it happens, it’s as if the wolf controls us for a while. This is what’s happening to me now. But I’ll be okay. I’ll be back someday.”
    “I don’t understand.” She sounded so disappointed with him.
    “I’m going to shift later today or maybe tonight after I’ve had a chance to spend time with you as a man. After I shift, I won’t be a man again for a long time.”
    “And your mother and father and the doctor in Wolf Creek think this is normal.” Now there was disbelief laced with disgust in her voice. But it was better that she felt this way. It was better, even if she ended up hating him, than if she knew the real truth