Simon: Le Beau Brothers: New Orleans Billionaire Shifters with BBW mates Series (Le Beau Series) (4 page)

Simon rumbled, this woman’s
caress brought a sense of peace and health he’d never experienced in all his one hundred and seventy years. It felt like his energy level had been jump-started. The surge had his human half rising closer to the surface. It was as if his human soul was stretching and reaching toward her touch.

She stroked him and scratched behind his ears.
Oh my God, that is amazing!
Her hands felt so good. His wolf continued the soft rumble of satisfaction in his chest. As close to a purr as a wolf could get. He adjusted his position on the couch, he needed her to touch every inch of him.
Please, Anna, don’t stop what you’re doing.

He heard his father calling for everyone to be seated and she whispered, “I’ll come back after dinner if you would like.” With one last scratch her
fingers were gone.

His human half shot to the surface like a bullet from a gun, her
touch was nothing short of a miracle. Clutching the doorframe for support, he rounded the corner into the dining room. A hush fell over the family as all heads turned toward him. Anna had her back to him and slowly turned to look him in the eye for the first time. The short few steps from the doorframe to her chair were like struggling through quick sand.

He extended his trembling hand to her, after so many days unable to speak, “Welcome, Anna,” was all he could croak out. His throat felt dry and raw from disuse. She gave him her hand and remained very still as he raised it to gently brush his lips across her knuckles. He turned to Cade as he released her hand
. “You have a lovely mate, brother. She’s a treasure.” Already, the exhaustion was returning. He gritted his teeth, determined to remain human until he reached the couch. His backside hadn’t even warmed the cushions before he lost control to his wolf again.

Twenty-five minutes later, he heard her soft footfalls and scented her as she returned. She lowered herself to sit cross-legged on the floor next to him. He sniffed for Cade’s scent, concerned that his brother would resent this interaction with his new mate. He didn’t smell
or sense anxiety or jealousy from his brother, rather the fresh scent of pride.

Her healing magic was profound, even his wolf sat silently watching in awe as this human woman achieved what no one else had. Somehow, just her
caress was healing him. He didn’t understand it and he sure as hell wasn’t going to question it. If her touch helped him rejoin the human world, he would accept every stroke with relish and find a way to thank her later.

It felt so good to lay with his eyes closed and absorb whatever she was doing. He felt her instinctively reposition her hands strategically on his head and chest. From her shaky, hesitant
fingers, he would bet money she was unaware of the way she intuitively reached for the perfect position. A shifter’s wolf resided mainly in his thoughts and heart, a virtual second soul in the body. She had unerringly located his wolf within without realizing it.

He started his low contented rumble again and relaxed under her hands. Wherever she
touched, he felt a mild heat, it seemed to radiate from her palms. The sensation was warm but not overly hot. It felt REALLY good. She remained still for such a long time he started to doze off.

Like a heating pad that had shut off, slowly the warmth stopped radiating from her hands and the areas she
touched cooled. He waited for her to pull her hands away before he rolled off the couch and lowered himself to the floor next to her. Expressing his gratitude, he laid his head in her lap for a moment, gave her hand a little lick, then rose and padded down the hall and out of sight. His body and soul urged him to sleep and absorb the healing it had taken in. He could almost feel it soaking into every cell and molecule.

He woke the next morning still in wolf form but feeling amazing. His human soul was closer to the surface, that sliver of light was a little larger and brighter. If he could skip as a wolf
, he would, maybe do a cartwheel too.
I sure hope she comes back today. Damn, shifters really need opposable thumbs in wolf form.
He cocked his head, studying the doorknob. With no other choice, he waited and prayed for her return. This of course left him time to review what had happened the night before. He gasped when he realized that once she stroked him, the pain in his head disappeared. He hadn’t noticed the spike being removed from his brain. He’d been too busy enjoying her touch.

Two hours passed, he was losing patience and preparing to shoot through the door the next time it opened so he could track her down. That’s when he heard them approaching the patio door.

“You can do this, cher, just follow your instincts like you did last night.”

“I’m afraid I might hurt him. What if this energy shooting out
of my hands is harmful if I zap him too much? I have no idea what I’m doing or how to do it.”

“My mother said you’re a natural healer
. Do what feels right and it will be fine. She said technically you don’t need training. You instinctively do what is needed for the injured person. So training will be a bonus but isn’t essential.”

“Learning from a real gypsy who is also a voodoo priestess is going to be so cool!”

Cade laughed as he held the door open for his mate. They both stopped just inside the door as they came face to face with a very excited Simon. He rushed forward and rubbed himself across her legs. If Cade hadn’t steadied her, Simon would have pushed her over in his exuberance.

“Hey, calm down, you’ve got her covered in hair
,” Cade groused jokingly.

Anna was laughing so hard she slipped and landed on her rump in the kitchen. Before Cade could help her stand, Simon had her straddled and was licking her face happily.

“All right, all right, that’s enough, remove your wolf tongue from my mate or lose it.”

Simon jumped back and crouched playfully, tail wagging wildly.

“Do you want me to try to heal you more, or would you rather take a run with Cade?”

He sat
so fast he almost bent his tail. That would have hurt, a lot. Panting, he waited for her to tell him what to do.

“Okay then, healing it is. Do you want to use the couch or the floor? I might
be able to reach around you more easily on the floor.”

Simon chuffed happily and led them to the center of the living room. He unceremoniously laid himself out in the middle of the room and
waited, tail thumping against the wood flooring.

He watched as Cade shook his head and took a seat in the corner chair. Anna was a little tentative as she figured out where best to sit and place her hands. The moment she settled on a position
, he felt the energy flow from her hands to his body. He let out a huge sigh of relief and began to rumble. She gradually moved her hands around his body until her arms were wrapped around him, holding him in a gentle hug.

God, it felt so good to be held when he felt like a pile of miss matched parts and pieces instead of a complete wolf or man. He had always been in control, strong. The person everyone depended on. But that man had slowly faded week by week
, minute by minute. Until it was an effort to just remember to breathe.

Shifters thrive on touch. Crave
d skin-to-skin contact. A need so common and easy to fulfill that you take it for granted. If you sat back and watched a room full of people carefully, you could pick out the shifters quite easily. They are the ones touching this person’s arm and then that person’s shoulder. Running their palm down a friend’s hair.

It had never occurred to him when he enlisted in the marines that a simple thing like touch and contact would be as scarce as water in the desert. When a soldier was stationed in the U
.S., it was fairly easy to find human or shifter contact but put that soldier male or female into boot camp, on a ship, or overseas for deployment and something so freely given was a rare commodity.

A human can handle the lack of contact fairly well and learns to adapt. A shifter suffers horribly with no way to get relief or feed the need. He gets by in the beginning with a feeling of mild annoyance like when you think you have forgotten something but can’t remember what. Then it grows into a mild hunger that no amount of food will assuage. Gradually it develops into a gnawing that slowly drives the shifter into severe depression.

Simon had been discharged from the Marines in a state of deep depression. When he first returned home he’d slept all day waking only to eat. Through almost constant touch, stroking, cuddling and contact with family and shifter friends he was now able to function fairly well. He was still very quiet and withdrawn but he improved every day. It was rare to see him without someone touching him in some manner.

His whole sense of self had faded until his wolf was the only thing that held him together. So he had turned inside in order to survive. Through the love and staunch determination of his family combined with the encouragement from his wolf to rejoin the world
, he was becoming the man he once was. Now, he had Anna too.

She spoke softly as they sat together on the floor for over an hour. She told him about herself, her sons, anything that came to mind.

Repeating the night before, her hands cooled, signaling she was finished for the day. As amazing as the energy felt it also wore him out. He gave her his wolfy thank you of a lick to the cheek and wondered to his bed for a nap.

The three of them fell into an easy routine. Every day he moved a little closer to the surface.
Four weeks later he was able to shift and hold his human form for a short time. From that day forward he was able to hold his human form a little longer with each session. As Anna studied with Emma she learned to use the tools of a natural healer. Every few days she added a new aspect to her process, not only did she use energy, but she now incorporated herbs, crystals, and essential oils.

He could now shift for ten or fifteen minutes several times a day. He waited for Anna to remove her hands before he shifted. “I know I
’ve said it before, little sister, but thank you.”

She smiled warmly at him
. “I love helping you, although I sometimes think I get more out of it than you do.”

He cocked his head
. “How so?”

“When the energy moves to you it isn’t coming from me, it is flowing through me. The best way I can describe it is, I’m a conduit or tube, funneling the energy to you from a very powerful source. But just as you get the perfect amount of energy, I also receive what I need to be the best healer I can be.”

“Really? I didn’t realize that, I thought it came from you.” He frowned and looked to Cade for confirmation.

He shrugged
. “Mom says the same thing, it comes from somewhere else.”

“Huh. Well, wherever it’s coming from, I’ll take it. I’m going to take my nap. You guys want to go for a run later?”

Cade took one look at Anna’s excited expression and said, “We look forward to it.” He grinned and led his mate to the door.

Chapter 4

Thanksgiving

The sound of tires on asphalt and car doors closing heralded the arrival of Rose. Cade gently touched Simon’s shoulder. “Simon, I’m sorry, but could you please shift to human? Anna’s friend is about to walk through the door.”

Stupidly, he had exhausted himself trying to be human before Anna’s friend arrived. He put everything he had into shifting before she came through the door, which left nothing for interacting. He would just have to rest and use what little energy he had to not suddenly pop into wolf form and freak out the human.

Everyone turned as the front door open
ed. Isaac, Emma, and Rose walked in loaded with suitcases. Hearing the commotion, Anna hustled out of the kitchen, wiping her hands. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing! Both women squealed, grabbed each other and started a hugging dance combination.

Reluctantly Anna let Rose go from the tight hug she had her in, wrapped her arm around her friend’s shoulder, and they both turned to face the room full of handsome men and her mother-in-law. “Rose, you know John and Thomas, and you’ve already met Isaac and Emma. This extremely handsome piece of male specimen is my husband, Cade.”

He stepped forward, taking Rose’s hand in both of his. Clasping it gently, he said, “Rose, it’s a sincere pleasure to meet you. I’m so glad you’re able to spend extended time with us.”

“I’m glad I was able to come. I hated to miss the wedding. I’m sure the service was beautiful.”

Simon’s body jerked as if trying to rise and go to that beautiful, musical voice. He was concentrating so hard on maintaining his form he hadn’t really heard her voice with his ears but his soul had reacted. Strange.

“I wish you could’ve been here as well, but we can make up for it now.” She gave her friend another squeeze. “This scoundrel is the second oldest of the family, Stefan. Stefan, this is Rose. The one with impeccable manners is Marcus. Marcus, please meet Rose.”

Each of them stepped forward and gallantly kissed the back of Rose’s hand as they strangely leaned in, and she swore they sniffed her.