Forty Six

LIKE DIRTY SAVAGES

I lean up against the window in my bedroom, watching my Natalia sleeping so peacefully. The canopy is pulled

back slightly from when she crawled into bed, after kissing my arm goodnight. There is pain in my chest as a result of not being able to touch her, to feel her perfect skin, to make her mine. My brother is snuggled in a warm,

naked embrace with his mate tonight, and I stand watching mine from a distance that seems like a thousand miles.

But I know that Kane suffers in a

different way. His mate is dying. He can't mark her because it would cause an outrage within the pack. Being

near him helps, but she still deteriorates from the inside. Emalin is too stubborn to have him mark her before their

wedding, so it has become my responsibility to make sure it all comes together within the next month, so that they can wed before the next full moon passes.

I kissed Natalia on her perfect head, and slip out of the dark bedroom, lit only by the glow of the nearly full mo