Page 42 of The Alpha's Arranged Bride

He lifted his head and howled out his elation to the sky.

There was nothing that could have stopped the wolf from leaping around, racing through the woods, circling the trees, bounding through chest-high drifts of snow, yelping and barking like a puppy.

Blake and Levi laughed, chasing after him, throwing snow, wrestling each other, until the moment of elation passed, and they returned to the pile of his clothes and stripped their own off. They shifted, one after the other, their sandy, shaggy, half-grown wolf forms taking the place of their human ones. They were no longer pups. They were in that awkward halfway stage.

And somehow, against all the odds, they could still lift their heads with him and howl out in joy and innocence and drink in the sweetness of the night.

They ran, at first slowly, as he was still learning the braces, making adjustments and instant calculations, but the boys were patient. They stayed right behind him, trusting him like they used to trust him to lead the way and to keep them safe. He’d been their father, but he’d also trained them and many others in the pack at the start of their road to becoming fierce warriors. He’d helped the boys with their school lessons and had told them as much as he knew about the world. They’d always looked to him and that had humbled him, and he wasn’t a proud man to begin with.

Their continued faith in him shook him. The wolf looked at each of the slightly awkward, gangly youngsters trailing through the snow, cutting through trees, drinking in the cold night air, and his heart swelled. He didn’t stop for miles, but when he did, they were still in the woods. He let out a howl that felt very much like an I love you. I’m always going to love you. No matter where I go, I’ll always be proud to be your father.

The wolf’s nostrils flared when he scented his mate. Tree branches snapped in the distance and snow crunched, but up close, when the shining white wolf appeared, the air seemed to ripple around her. She was magic incarnate. Even the wolf nearly forgot how to breathe. All his careful training was so easily undone by the moonlight beauty reflected in those rippling waves of fur. She was a sea of white, swaying with every musical step she took. He’d seen her as her wolf with human eyes, but to see her through his wolf’s eyes was a revelation.

Even the boys were impressed. They stared openly at her, frozen until she came up and rubbed her muzzle against his. A friendly greeting that he leaned in to.

Prairie Rose was all movement and energy, and she wasn’t willing to pause. She loped off, walking as if the snow itself parted for her, bathed in the pale glow of winter. She was silver in a silver world, a wolf at home in her pack. There was nothing he’d ever seen that was more spellbinding.

She slowed her pace to let them catch up, but then she clearly dropped back and let him lead. It was significant and symbolic that she let him be at the head. He was alpha of no pack, no home, no life, but when they ran, he was still their leader. She’d been his support without his even knowing just how firmly he’d leaned on her these past months. Her strength was enormous. There were men in the world, a warrior and a monster, men like Kieran who fit into neither category. There was worse and there would always be better. Worse monsters. Better men. And then there was the entirely different class of wonder that he’d known nothing of. That quiet, calm confidence that could withstand anything life threw at it. Whatever Prairie Rose had, whatever she was made of, it was a force that refused to buckle or break.

His sons and his mate trailed behind him, streaming like arrows drawn from a bow. When he picked up the pace, they did too. His family, his wolf, his breath, and his body. He’d found his way back to them in equal measure. He was nearly there, but it was like a grainy sighting in the distance, a speck on a path, pinpricks of light through shuttered lids.

Forget Arizona. There is nothing left for you there.

He’d never forget, but his wolf knew and surrendered. He drank in the fragrant night air.

He stopped short, looking back at his family, and in the very same instant, he turned his face away from the temptation of oblivion and the justification of a hard, loveless life.

Chapter 18

Prairie Rose

Last night was wonderful. There weren’t even words. Prairie Rose had never felt magic like she felt last night. She’d never seen anything as beautiful as the look on Agnar’s face when he did the impossible and ran in those braces. She’d never seen an animal know such bliss or peace.

She just wished she could tell Briar May so that she’d stop worrying. She wished she could share what had happened with Kieran and Zora, with her parents, and with her other brothers and sisters.

Last night, when they’d left in such a rush, Rome looked like he more than understood Agnar’s desire and need to be away from the city. He’d kissed her cheek and told her it was fine they were leaving. He’d convinced her that he wasn’t at all offended. If it wasn’t Rome, she would have mistaken that dark gleam in his eyes for something more, something of dark, terrible jealousy, but Rome pretty much always looked that way. She loved him and she missed him, even more so when she’d texted him to thank him that morning. He’d responded that she was indeed in his debt, and he’d call in the favor sometime when it was least convenient for her and most obnoxious for him to do so. Anything less and she would have suspected there was something wrong with her brother, but that response had been so token Rome that she’d laughed when she’d read it while she was making breakfast.

Agnar told her and the boys when they were walking out the door for school that he’d be going for a walk and wouldn’t be back until around noon. She would have worried before, but after their trip to the city and their run together, she respected his need for solitude. It no longer felt like something he’d vanish into or something that could torture him, his own mind and his memories flaying the skin from his body and his heart.

Because they were all tired and hadn’t had much sleep, she was going to send word that the boys needed a day off from school, but they’d wanted to go. They’d been late and slow eating breakfast and had a late start getting out of the house, so she’d left all the dishes on the table. She’d wash and clean when she got back and then maybe head over to Briar May’s to see Sadie and talk about that dinner that still hadn’t happened.

She walked in the front door, peeled her jacket and boots off, and froze as soon as she turned the corner to the kitchen.

The table had been cleared, the dishes stacked neatly in the sink, all washed, and Agnar was there. She blinked twice just to be sure, because she was quite sleep deprived. He was real, standing with his back against the counter. The bright sunlight of the early winter morning, just up but gleaming white through the window, somehow made him look even more shadowed. All his features were sharper, more masculine, transformed into a thing of great and terrifying beauty.

Her breath caught at the sheer majesty of him standing there in all black, watching her with an interest and a hunger that she hadn’t sensed before. He’d always been so coolly disinterested when it came to her. He’d promised her repeatedly that he wouldn’t love her, and he’d made sure she knew beyond a reasonable doubt that she’d never be his true mate. He’d slept in her bed night after night, and he’d never looked at her like he did now. He never smelled the way he did, dark and dangerous and so masculine that the air in the kitchen was obliterated.

Her heart kicked up and her body switched into fight or flight mode, adrenaline pulsing through her. He turned and pulled the curtains at the windows closed, darkening the kitchen. There was another window behind the small square table, and as he prowled there and wrenched those curtains closed as well, she shivered. He moved like his wolf, graceful and sleek and full of intent. Something had changed, something subtle and not so subtle. As her body picked up on it, rather than being prepared to fight, she felt her nipples harden with want.

They stood in silence, for what seemed like an age but was probably only a heartbeat, before Agnar rushed to her. As his lips found hers, he hungrily plundered her mouth. She could feel his body heat through his thin, well-worn Henley, his heart hammering in his chest, his scent masculine and heady. As they devoured each other he spun her around, so she was against the kitchen table. She could feel his hard length pressing into her and instantly she was wet. As soaked as she was the night she’d been drugged.

He tugged at her sweater, pulling it over her head as it was thrown to the floor. His lips briefly lost contact and her hand came out to drag him close again. His tongue explored her mouth, promising her unimaginable pleasures. His kiss was rough, brutal, and she melted into it giving herself totally.

Everything she’d shoved back down because it wasn’t the right time came rushing to the surface. She’d put her heart in a cage, she’d stuffed the desire for her mate into an unreachable part of herself. She’d hungered and she’d thirsted, and she’d longed for him, but he needed time. Even if that took forever, she’d told herself she was strong enough to wait. She’d made a promise to him. She’d taken vows. Forever and for always, their souls, lives, families, and destinies were intertwined. She wouldn’t have done it if, in the deepest and most unknown part of herself, the answer had been no, but it never had been. Not even once, not ever since that day she’d first heard Agnar’s name mentioned. Something drove her forward and she’d been on that path, hurtling towards him.

Mates were supposed to have lives, destinies, fates, souls, and bodiesentwined.

She wanted him with a desperation that was almost primeval, but what had changed? After last night’s run, they’d both gone to sleep exhausted. What had happened to the coolly distant Agnar? The proud man who forswore love or passion.

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