Even my cub has accepted Slade, but I am now more conflicted than ever. Especially when word spreads through the pack about the way my mate stood up for me to Mace and his mate over their treatment of his first love and his son. I am touched by the gesture, and it doesn’t make my decision to reject the bond any easier. I cannot deny the fact I am more than just sexually attracted to Slade, and I think he feels the same way about me. Despite his teasing, and the dirty things that come out of his mouth, my mate seems to want more than just my body.But I need some time to process things as emotions are running high right now. Not only is what would have been my parent’s twenty-third anniversary coming up, we also all await for the Ironclaw’s to bring Everest’s body from the forest. So then we can return him to the Earth properly. His kin will know when their Elder has taken his last breath and only then will they bring him home. To intrude on his private time of reflection to the moon,
I guess I had it coming. In the words of Olive for “strutting around like a damn peacock,” when I tried to use my body to get my mate all flustered rather than my words. I know she was affected; I could smell it in the air, but it backfired on me. If anything, I feel I have driven her farther away and deeper into the arms of that omega. Sloane is not so easily swayed by my body or the things it does to her. There is a desire and lust brewing between us, but bedding her is not all I’m after. I want all of her. And I have now inadvertently given my mate the impression that I only want her for one thing. I fucked up. And I’m not sure how to fix it.Sloane does not drop her cub off at my house tonight for her date with the omega. I assume she has taken her son to Rose’s house or Celeste has come over instead. I let my mind get the best of me imagining my mate in that wolf’s bed, the way he touches her, the way her lips taste his skin. But I resist my urge to go challenge him to a fight, t
I stop following my mate and I let her go. Sloane has made it clear she doesn’t want me around, especially not tonight. When they are nothing but specks in the distance, I walk over to the memorial tree, and bow my head. I pay my own respects to Jack and Ava Cross. I pull the dove I carved from my pocket and set it against the roots of the tree.My throat is thick, “I will take care of them both, moon as my witness. Rest easy.”It is a promise I intend to keep, no matter if Sloane opens herself up to the mating bond, or rejects me for another wolf completely. It is my duty as both a wolf, and the one the moon bestowed on me upon our pairing.Afterwards, I strip myself bare and make for the trees. I become one with my wolf and run until the restless energy dissipates, until some of the pain and tension leaves me. I might have run all night long, until something pulls me back. I hear my mate’s screams after I am already running back towards the clearing. My paws tear across the soil, a
I did not drop my cub off with Slade last night. Nor did I have dinner with Basil after visiting my parent’s memorial on the pack lands and having a good cry. I returned to my house with my best friend and my cub, and we opened the box of wine. I paced myself until after I fed and put my son to bed, and Lark hung around to keep me company until one box of wine was gone, and I announced I was turning in for the night. Then I curled up with a bottle of wine I’d been saving for a special occasion and nursed it in my bed. Basil’s scent was already fading from my sheets, and the omega was the last thing on my mind. My thoughts even wondered away from my infuriating mate. I watched as the clock ticked closer to midnight, though I had to be up for an early morning class, I chased sleep. My parents should have been celebrating twenty-three years of marriage. Perhaps to a getaway trip, after Celeste and I threw them an intimate party. We should have been cracking out their wedding photos a
When dusk comes, I slip into a black dress and prepare myself for the ceremony to come. A knock at the door surprises me. Times like these I wish I had wolf senses. I’m both relieved and disappointed that it’s not Slade on my porch. I have no right to feel either way, nor should I feel hurt that the beta isn’t going to keep fighting for me. I am the one who wants to let go. I am getting everything I wanted. So why does it feel like this?Basil gives me a bashful smile at the door. The omega is in dark slacks, a button-down shirt, and he’s combed his hair back. “Hey. I thought you could use some company, so you didn’t have to face the wolves alone. I know I probably should have called first.”I am touched by his sweet gesture. I force down the lump in my throat and feel the threat of tears in my eyes.“Thank you. That’s very kind of you. You didn’t have too.”“I know. I just thought you could use a friend tonight. And well maybe make your mate a bit jealous. Kill two birds with one s
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t forever break the mating bond between me and Sloane. I try and blame it on not feeling like it was the right time after Grandfather’s ceremony. But the truth is I am a coward and not strong enough to let my mate go. A part of me holds out hope Sloane will change her mind. That she will come to me and say the words I desperately want to hear. So, I did what I do best, I turned tail and ran. Once in my room, I trade the constricting dress shirt, for a faded t-shirt. I’m just about to take off the black, linen pants, when I’m drawn to my bedroom window. I gaze out, and even though the night is bathed in shadows, I know it’s my beautiful mate I see in the distance. I know she is coming to me. The moon has heard my plea. With my heart in my throat, I watch her draw near. The moon is bringing her to me. She couldn’t have felt my longing for her through the bond because both of us had drinks tonight. I do not feel her in my head either, but I do in my heart. No,
I shed one skin for another. And I now stand before her on two legs. Her smile is bright beneath the stars. And all I can do is stare. She’s so fucking beautiful. I am entranced. She reaches down and takes my hand. I will follow her anywhere. She leads me deeper into the woods. The beta bleeding on the ground is nearly forgotten, until I finger the bruises on her arm. I growl in spite of myself.But my mate does not cower in fear. She is not afraid of me. She used to fear the forest, and with good reason, but I know she feels safe with me. And that alone helps to calm the rage I feel inside. I push down my wolf. It is far too beautiful of a night, especially with my mate beside me, to be lost to the animal inside me. Right now, I want my human side to be dominate. To feel every fucking thing this night brings.“Does it hurt?” she whispers as her fingers circle around the bite mark.I shake my head. Her midnight eyes are as luminous as the moon above. “I dream about you every night,”
I can hardly believe two weeks have already passed since Slade proved to me his dreams were so much better than mine. My mate did not disappoint in the forest that night. He exceeded all my expectations to say the least. I can still feel the bite of his teeth upon my breasts, hear the pop when his hungry mouth released my nipple, and the pinch of his fingers against my engorged clit at that perfect place between pleasure and pain.He didn’t mark my skin in the way of the claiming, but he left other evidence of him ravishing my body behind alright. My wolf tasted all parts of me, leaving no skin untouched, and most of me with love bites. My back bore the scratches of the tree bark for a week after. I had to get creative to figure out a way to apply the salve to myself to speed up the healing.Now, when my life becomes monotonous especially, when a professor’s lecture drones on about muscle groups or disease processes, I daydream about that night beneath the moon with my mate. His powe