Beaufort Creek Shifters (10 book series)
Daddy’s Innocent Mate Chapter 15

Elias

I spent the night feeling like I was sleeping in a jail cell. Francine was right beside me and my son was in the other room, but it felt like they were both miles away. Archie barely spoke to me after our trip to the market. He had no idea what was happening this

morning.

Neither did Francine.

Did it feel good to sneak out of my own house at the break of dawn? Not really. But I felt like it was the only way to do what I wanted to do. I had promised Fran that I wouldn't do any more adrenaline-chasing, and I'd sworn to myself mentally that my adventurous days were over.

Yet regardless of how much I swore in my mind, I couldn't shake the desire to run with the wolves. I just wanted to jump out of a damn plane without Fran hounding me about it. I was a damn bear-I didn't need to get hounded. I just needed to become one with the clouds so I could make my brain shut down for a while.

The car door shut, rattling me back into reality with Wendell at my side. He grinned and handed me a mug of coffee. "Did she handle it alright?"

"Yeah, sure." I sipped the coffee from the mug. "Thanks for taking Isaiah's place. His head is still messed up from the rafting trip."

"He practically begged me not to go."

I laughed. "Jada would kill him if he tried to jump out of a plane right now."

"I thought Francine would do the same thing to you."

"Yeah, well..." I glanced at the house, searching for signs of movement. "We worked it out."

Wendell grumbled something under his breath while maneuvering the car out of the gravel driveway. "All good relationships need balance, or whatever."

"You sound like you're speaking from experience."

"I'm not."

I huffed with amusement. "Been burned?"

"One too many times."

"Tell me about it."

He took a sharp breath and turned the wheel slightly, taking us around the winding road that led to the entrance of Bravecrest pack land. There was plenty of time to turn back and sprint inside, to apologize to my woman for hiding this plan from her. The sign pointing to the entrance came into view. That meant there was less time-but if I jumped from the car, I could shift into bear form and gallop back toward the house.

"I was worried that when you got paired, you wouldn't have time for us to hang out," Wendell commented. "I'm glad that's not the case. Your friendship means a lot."

Oh, that just made me feel like rotted wood. Here I was lying to one of my best friends after lying to my girlfriend and my child. Nobody was the wiser. If I didn't do any damage control now, then the anger that came later would be apocalyptic.

It's fine. I'll be fine, I thought.

And hoped too.

I forced a smile. "It's good to hang with you, man."

"We have to do the burrito challenge."

"You think Jug will let us jump with burritos up there?" I cackled. "You're kidding."

He snickered. "We can always sneak them in under our suits."

We reached the entrance of the community that would spit us out onto the two-lane highway. As soon as Wendell turned right, my heart leaped into my throat, forcing me to cling to what Wendell and I fondly called the "holy shit handle." He noticed me clinging and guffawed while slapping the steering wheel.

I grumbled for him to shut up. He didn't. When he swatted my back, it shook me from my sour mood, inspiring me to crack a smile. "Whatever, man."

"You need to lighten up. That little brush with death was nothing."

I shrugged it off. But something about his carefree tone annoyed me. "Fran hated it."

"Of course she hated it. I bet Archie hated it too."

"They mean the world to me."

Oddly enough, those words felt easy to say. They just rolled right off my tongue, embodying thoughts that I'd been having for weeks. They mean the world to me. It was true. Most of what Fran did for me was more than anybody had ever given, and that included Archie's mother.

I shook myself out of my sleepy funk, wiped off the weird pensive look on my face, and let the smile return. "Alright, old man. Drive faster." I kicked my feet up on the dash. "We're not getting any younger."

***

Skydiving was one of the few things that made me feel alive these days. Aside from spending time with Fran, of course. And since Fran wasn't privy to what I was doing, I had to make sure this jump counted.

Everything seemed fine until we got up in the air. We approached the jumping point only to find turbulence, and even then, I wasn't going down without a fight. While the pilot recommended hanging back, I leaped from the plane, ignoring Wendell's muddied shouts. He wouldn't be too far behind me. Any minute now, he would do just the same, his figure floating gracefully with mine toward the target below. A great sea of green exploded below me, the belly of the earth bloating with massive trees, brush, and local flora. Dizzying colors spun in my peripheral as I zipped toward the earth at terminal velocity.

My ears burned with white noise while I got into position. The target came into view next, a massive circle of red upon red that beckoned me to land. I reached for the release on my jumpsuit, clutching the handle and waiting for the right moment to pull. Alarms went off in my head. While everything was going just fine, something felt wrong. It wasn't the fast-approaching warehouse or the faded hum of the plane behind me, and it certainly wasn't the fact that I was falling alone, since a glance back had proved that Wendell hadn't jumped with me.

I yanked the cord. Nothing happened.

The alarms grew louder.

At this point, my drop speed had maxed. I knew better than to panic, but the way my heart throttled my chest made it feel like I was about to explode into a million pieces. I reached for the backup parachute and yanked on the cord, crying with relief when the parachute deployed and caught me just above the canopy of trees.

Just ahead was the landing point. I missed it by about fifty feet. The wind must have knocked me off course and sent me spiraling to the west. A streak of soil-brown caught my attention, then disappeared, distracting me for a split second as I reached for the handles to control the parachute.

One side deflated. I lost control and rapidly descended into the trees, getting tangled up in the branches and earning some scratches to the face. I probably deserved all that since I had gone against the warnings of a professional and hopped out of a choppy plane. Not to mention the fact that I was in full lying mode with my entire family.

If Troy could see me now, he'd say I deserved it. Full stop.

A branch whacked me in the face before I came to a full stop. Silence fell around me like a curtain, the sudden loss of wind making my eardrums scream with it. I'd never heard silence so loud. Within a few minutes, my senses adjusted, and I heard the sound of crackling twigs. The branch under me creaked. I knew it wouldn't be long until it dropped my weight, but I was exhausted from the fall.

I just wanted to rest for a second. Snap.

Just as the branch gave way, I released the parachute and let myself free-fall, reaching up to grab a sturdier branch that would keep me from hitting the ground. My palms burned from scraping bark and twigs. Once I caught a branch, I braced myself, clinging to it for dear life and staring at the swell of soil below my feet. Leaves danced past me, floating aimlessly to a pile on the ground.

There was maybe another ten feet to drop to the ground, but I wasn't sure about my legs. They felt tingly, like they had fallen asleep during my dive. That was unusual for me. As experienced as I was, my body should have been sharper with response time. But instead, I had panicked, worrying too much about losing my faculties and leaving Fran with a kid who wasn't even hers.

All that in a matter of seconds. That was all it took to remind me that what I was doing-what I had just done-was stupid. Fran hadn't demanded that I resist my dangerous adventures. She had merely asked. I'd made a promise to her that I failed to keep, and I'd let her down.

I'd let everybody down.

Another twig snapped. My ears perked up as my head snapped in the direction of the noise, the sight of soil-brown fur putting me at ease before my brain could register why.

Black spots, petite paws, long tail-that was my mate. That was Fran.