Chapter Sixteen: I Want to Take You Home

It would have been so much easier if she'd been raised in the pack. If she'd heard about the mate bond from her earliest years if she'd seen the adults around her blissfully paired with their soulmates. If she'd grown up in a pack, she would have recognized the signs, she would have felt them strongly, and she would have known without a doubt that she had found her mate the day their eyes met in the classroom.

But she hadn't. She'd grown up secluded not only from wolves but from other humans. He had to be patient. He had to show her slowly, but surely, that they were destined to be together. That she could relax and trust him.

Only two days had passed since her uncle had attacked her. Her wounds were all completely, and almost miraculously healed. Only pink-silvery scars remained as a reminder of the brutality she’d suffered. They sat together at the little table in front of the window in Cora’s cottage, drinking bitter coffee out of paper cups.

"Honorera,” he started abrup