Wray by M.K. Eidem

differently.
    "Kim."
    Hearing her name Kim rolled over and found
Wray standing at the edge of the pool, his hands on his hips. He
didn't look happy.
    "Hi." She said smiling at him.
    "What are you doing?" Wray asked through
clenched teeth. When he had woken and found her gone, he'd
panicked, thinking that somehow she'd been taken from him. Reason
had quickly taken over, but it hadn't calmed the frantic beating of
his heart. He needed to find her; needed to reassure himself, she
was safe. Finding her innocently floating in the pool, her hair
fanning out around her, her breasts jutting up had his body
instantly responding.
    "I'm swimming." She said, treading water.
    "I can see that." He could see everything
thanks to the crystal clear water. "Why?" he asked, forcing his
eyes back to her face.
    "Um... because I wanted to?" Kim said,
raising a questioning eyebrow at him.
    "Why didn't you wake me?"
    "You were sleeping,” she said as if that
explained it all.
    "That does not matter." He said through
gritted teeth. "You should have woken me. Something could have
happened to you!”
    "Swimming?" Kim's tone let him know she
thought his comment was ridiculous. "Not in this lifetime." She
said then disappeared under the surface swimming along the bottom
until her lungs forced her to come up for air.
    Expecting Wray to be still at the edge of the
pool, she was shocked when she was ripped from the water and pulled
against a heaving chest.
    “Wray!” She exclaimed. She couldn’t believe
he’d waded into the pool fully clothed, but one look at his pale
face, let her know he was really upset. “Wray…” she repeated
softly, her eyes searching his. “What’s wrong?”
    “You could have drowned!” He growled at her,
storming out of the pool.
    “I’m a very good swimmer , Wray.” She said, trying to reassure him.
    “That does not matter.” He irrationally
denied not stopping until he reached the rock where she had left
her shirt. “You could have become trapped.”
    Kim frowned at him as he set her on her feet,
but didn’t release her. There was no way she could have become
‘trapped’ in the pool, there was nothing to ‘trap’ her. So what was
Wray talking about? Who was he talking about?
    “Wray… I’m okay." She said, put a reassuring
hand on his chest. "I’m fine.”
    “You will not get in that water again
without me!” He ordered in a hard, cold voice she’d never heard
from him before. “Do you understand me?” When she just
looked at him, he gave her a hard shake. “I will not lose anyone
else , Kim!”
    “Who did you lose , Wray?” Kim asked quietly and suddenly realized that’s why he was
acting this way. Someone Wray cared about had died… in water.
    “Van…” Wray said slowly lowering her to her
feet, “my offspring.”
    “Offspring…” Kim trailed off. Wray had
offspring… How was that possible? He’d have to have a female to
have offspring... that meant… Wray had a female.
    Paling , Kim ripped
her arms out of his hold and backed away from him. Oh God, she’d
kissed a married man. She’d let a married man touch her. Suddenly
she realized she was dripping wet and naked. Naked in front of a
married man. Grabbing her shirt, she whipped around and pulled it
on.
    “Kim…” Wray had seen her pale before she
turned from him. He knew he'd been rough with her, but seeing her
underwater had brought back painful memories.
    Kim kept her back to him as her fingers
fumbled with the buttons on her shirt. Pulling her dripping hair
from under the shirt, she wrung the water out of it, not noticing
the way the luciferins dimmed slightly in response to her
distress.
    "Your offspring drowned." She forced the
words past stiff lips.
    "Four years ago." Wray acknowledged
remembering that terrible day. "The transport carrying him was
swept off a bridge during a storm. He drowned before they were able
to get him out." He didn't tell her that Tora had been in the same
transport. Didn't tell her that the guards