A Winter Dream
Chapter 15

Lila awoke to a bright room, which she kept her eyes closed against. She expected to feel sore, but she wasn’t. Instead, she felt rested and strong, but she did have to pee. She rolled over and peered through a squinted eye to replace her mom asleep beside her, half sitting in a chair and half lying across the edge of the bed.

Lila opened both eyes to look at her and realized that she looked healthy. Her skin was no longer gray, but rosy and glowing. She reached out a hand and stroked the top of her mom’s head, so thankful that she was looking better. Lila pulled her hand away, so she didn’t disturb her sleep.

When Lila rolled the opposite way, to try and escape from the bed on the other side, she got a face full of fluffy white fur. She stifled a giggle as Yari shifted and placed a giant paw over her closed eyes.

With no other option, but to scoot down to the foot of the bed and drop off the end, she did so. Lila narrowly avoided landing on another pile of fluffy white fur in the form of Ghauth, who suddenly breathed in deeply then lifted his head to look at her.

She hurried to the bathroom and shut the door. After she relieved herself and washed her hands, she looked up into the mirror. She was wearing a huge T-shirt that fell to mid-thigh and her hair was down around her shoulders in waves. She looked well rested and wondered how long she’d been asleep.

“You’ve been out for three days,”Yari moaned sleepily into the bond.

Just then, Lila’s stomach growled loudly, and she heard shuffling around on the other side of the door.

When she came out of the bathroom, her dad was entering with a tray of food that he placed on a low table near the sitting area by the window.

He walked over to her and rubbed her upper arms with his warm palms, “How are you feeling, pumpkin?”

“I feel great,” she smiled up at him, “Mom looks better.”

Callum smiled warmly at her then pulled her into a hug.

Resting his cheek on the top of her head he said, “My brave girl. I can never thank you enough for bringing my mate home to me. Having you both here…having our family back together after all this time…there are no words to express my happiness.”

Lila wrapped her arms around her dad and squeezed him back, “Me too.”

Her stomach rumbled again, and Callum pulled away from her saying, “Hurry and eat. We have a lot of things to do now that you’re awake.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” Lila asked with a raised eyebrow.

Lila’s mom, now fully awake, stood up and stretched, then smiled at her.

“That’s not for us to say,” she replied mysteriously.

She walked over to Lila and kissed her forehead.

“Eat then get dressed in something lovely and comfortable and come downstairs.”

Callum reached out and took Dana’s hand, weaving their fingers together, and the two of them smiled at one another like lovesick fools. They left the room together and Ghauth followed them out.

When it was only Yari and Lila, they began to eat the food on the tray together in silence.

When Lila was finally full, she looked up at Yari and said, “You know something, don’t you?”

“Maybe,”she said turning her head away.

“Tell me,” Lila coaxed.

“No,”she replied firmly,“just wear something pretty.”

With that, Yari bolted out of the room and Lila was left alone.

She decided to shower before getting dressed and stood for a long time under the stream of hot water before finally shampooing her hair and washing her body. Once she was finished and had dried herself off, she was ready to replace something to wear.

After forty-five more minutes, Lila was dressed in a deep blue sundress with her hair dried and styled - hanging freely down her back. It fell in natural waves and looked effortlessly lovely.

She decided to leave off the shoes and go down barefoot.

Once she stepped off the staircase and into the foyer, she followed the sounds of chatting down the hallway toward the Great Room which was next to the kitchen. She stood outside and listened for a time, able to count at least twelve different voices inside.

Just before she made up her mind to enter, she felt hands slide across her waist and wrap around her, pulling her against a big hard body. She smiled and turned around to face him.

Ransom was smiling down at her with complete adoration, “You’re so beautiful, Lila.”

“You are too, Ransom,” she teased.

He chuckled a low, masculine sound that made her knees wobble.

“Would you like to be bonded to me today?” he said with sincere, hopeful eyes.

“I would love that. How do we do it?” Lila asked.

“It’s much like the way you bonded to Yari. We’ll press our minds together and bind our memories and souls to one another,” he explained simply.

“Ok,” she agreed easily.

“Our families are here. Would you like to bond privately, or do you want our families to bear witness?” he offered.

“It doesn’t matter to me either way, as long as we’re together,” she said sweetly, and she meant it.

He gazed into her eyes with so much love it nearly took her breath away. He bent down slightly as she raised up on her toes, understanding that he meant for them to bond now in private. She closed her eyes as Ransom pressed his forehead against hers and filled her with memories, light, and love.

When they finally pulled apart, they knew each other like no one else every could. Joy shone in their eyes as their lips finally met in a passionate kiss that fulfilled every longing they’d kept deep within.

They kissed for a long time, hands roaming, arms enveloping, with soft sighs murmured into one another’s mouths. At the end of their make out session, they ended up with their foreheads pressed together once more, speaking into each other’s hearts without moving their mouths.

“I think we should go in to see our families now,” Lila said.

“Ok. We can continue this later tonight,” he promised.

And they did.