Dreams Fade Away (Sample)

2. "Please hold onto me. Don't let go of us."

He had a faraway look in his eyes and I felt his body go rigid with every word he spoke. "Well, my parents did too. They loved each other so much, according to my grandparents. They were basically attached to the hip." Wow, I wonder what changed.

"See, us werewolves are partly animals and our animalistic instincts take over most of the time. Do you know what is the most primal urge?"

I didn't answer him, I could feel it was a rhetorical question and he didn't look like he wanted to be interrupted.

"The most primal instinct of any animal is to procreate, to have babies and ensure the survival of their species. The males of any species always know how to impregnate the female, even when nobody taught them that."

"So, after a werewolf couple has mated and a couple of years pass, their wolves make them want to have babies, to create pups. It's pretty normal, really. Most mated couples actually conceive in a few months."

"So, after my parents were done with all the fooling around, they decided to try for their own pups." Harper out air quotes when he said "fooling around" and I watched him silently.

"They knew that they would experience difficulty in getting pregnant but they knew they loved each other and promised that they would get through everything together. They had marked each other by then and were committed for life."

"My father was 20 and my mother was 18 when they met each other. They both realized that it was high time to have pups after three years." Harper turned his head and his green orbs stared into my blue ones. "Do you know what were their ages when they finally conceived me?"

I gently shook my head and I wasn't sure I wanted to know. I didn't have a good feeling about this.

Still looking into my eyes, Harper went on. "My father was 40 years old when they finally conceived me."
He left the sentence hanging in the air and I gasped out loud. 17 years?! Harper's parents tried for seventeen fucking years for a child.

Would it be the same for Harper and me? I suddenly remembered how he had mentioned that fertility reduces drastically when a werewolf is mated with a human. I felt a tear slip from my eye at the thought of what we would have to face in the future, if I decided to stay with him. I hastily wiped the tear away before he could wipe it himself.

Harper's face softened when he caught me doing that but he made no move to touch me and I was glad he didn't.

"They stood strong and kept trying for ten fucking years. They loved each other and tried the best they could."

"Everything went downhill when one day my mom caught my dad sleeping with a widowed pack member." I gasped and I felt another tear slip down my cheeks.

"All their promises went down the drain after that because instead of confronting my father, like my mother should have, they started sleeping with other unmated wolves in the pack." I didn't know what to say but I didn't need to say anything because harper was the one doing all the talking.

"My mother had suffered through so many carriages but she easily conceived so many times when she mated with other pack males. The same with my dad." His expression morphed into one of disgust and I couldn't help but be saddened at the thought.

"A few years in, things got so bad that my mom moved out of my dad's room. She took up residence on another floor, far away from him and neither of them had any problems with the arrangement."

Fuck! That was so messed up.

"They still kept trying, but it had become more of a duty than an act of passion or love. I don't know how their wolves felt during those seven years and I don't want to imagine. Your wolf shuts you out when you sleep with someone other than your mate and when it happens for too long, your connection to your wolf breaks, which is painful and life threatening. If you survive, you will be depressed for the rest of your life, because you won't be able to shift anymore."