Moon Rise (Twilight Shifters Book 2) by Kate Danley Page A

replied. Her cheeks burned.  But she didn't know if it was what she wanted or needed right now.  Lars had come to her that night of the battle, come to her in her room and begged her to run away with him.  They had never discussed it since.  She knew he had feelings for her.  She didn't know how much was her, and how much was them just trying to survive and being the only ones who understood one another.
    Lars took her hand, reading the conflict playing across her face.  "Is the reason you can't love me because I'm a wolf?"
    "No," she said, horrified he thought that at all.  "No!"
    "As soon as that berry bush blooms, I am going to eat them until this shift goes away.  Don't worry," he tried to reassure her.  "I will not be a monster forever."
    "You are not a monster!"  Aein hated that he hated this part of himself so much, hated that he saw this change as a curse.  "We would have been dead if it hadn't been for your shift.  The cyclops?  Those spies on the road?"
    "You see how well I helped.  Lord Arnkell had people practically waiting here for us."
    Aein stopped him.  "Lars, you are perfect just the way you are.  You have saved my life more times than I can count.  But I almost died.  Finn is rotting in a cell somewhere.  We have a war to fight.  This thing between us?  The timing is just not..."
    "Don't you see, Aein?  This is our life.  This is always the timing.  It will never get better.  When I saw you there dying, when I was powerless to do anything to stop it... I promised myself that if you woke, I would talk to you about this because we may never have a chance again.  We are trapped here in the swamp and the reality is that at any moment a harpy could swoop down and end us.  We may both be killed by some creature here or our old countrymen there and then it will be too late.  I love you, Aein.  And you said yesterday, when you were faced with death, you said that you loved me, too."
    She thought back to the words which had come out of her lips.  Lars was so good to her.  He needed her.  She was important to his life and sanity.  She stepped forward, resting her cheek against his chest.  It felt so good to just rest.  To hold someone close.  To be held.  "I know what I said," she replied.
    "And did you mean it?"
    She lifted her face and gazed into Lars's soft, green eyes.  "I could never lie to you," she said.
    And he leaned down and kissed her.

Chapter Thirteen
    T hey were hushed as they put their gear on their horses.  Aein smiled at Lars shyly.  Though it should not have made such a difference to have finally admitted their feelings, somehow it did.  She still wasn't sure if it was good or bad.  There was a part of her that mourned the loss of the friendship they had before.  It was so uncomplicated.  So fun.  Now, there was so much more.  But she knew she loved him.  He had been there for her.  He made her laugh.  He needed her desperately.  That had to be love, didn't it?
    "Never thought I'd be putting on these old colors again," said Lars, fastening his belt.
    They had decided to dress in the leather uniforms of the soldiers who had fallen.  As repulsive as it was to take clothes off the dead, off people they had once known, they were going into Lord Arnkell's land and their own uniforms would stand out like a light in a mine.  Their metal armor, their indigo shirts, it was nothing like the crude leathers the Arnkell people were used to seeing.
    Lars came over and held her stirrup for her as she climbed onto her horse.  Her body was not happy about getting into the saddle after her fight with the harpy.  If it wasn't for the fact Finn might be dying and they were the only ones that knew he had been captured, she would have voted to stay in the cursed camp, monsters or not. 
    Lars's face broke into a huge, goofy smile as he looked at her.  Her heart could not help but soften.  She touched his cheek and then leaned forward in her saddle to give him one