Page 11 of An Ancient Bond

Thank you, I mouthed as he walked quietly away.

Alpha, he mouthed back, with a respectful nod.

I had never imagined the two-month period that was usually spent in isolation would be so noisy. But Annalise had a reputation she had never known about in this pack, something between a fairy and Santa Claus, and every shifter under the age of twenty-six had stopped by with a small gift, and a story about their toy. They all brought their toys as well—everything from balls like Georgie’s, to clever wooden sliding puzzles, to lifelike dolls with moveable joints—and I was amazed at the skill and ingenuity my mate possessed. One or two had broken over the years, and she repaired them, talking quietly to the children as they watched her work her magic.

She was magical, and as the days passed, she grew more and more comfortable around the pack, even sitting with some of the other women and sharing tea in the afternoons. I watched her constantly, noting how kind and patient she was. Unlike many of the younger shifters I’d known growing up, my mate was a listener, her calming energy spreading to those around her. It reached a point where the pack’s mothers would bring their fretful toddlers or teething babies near just so they would rest.

The evenings were our own, though, and we locked the pack out and learned each other’s bodies as if there might be a test given at the end of the two months… which was only a few short days from now.

“What do you want to do next?” she mused one night as I oiled her curls. I’d loved learning how to care for her beautiful hair, and I’d talked Ida into teaching me to do fancy braids. I wasn’t that good at it yet; I didn’t have my mate’s skill with my hands, though she teased me that I could carve a wooden ball with my tongue, after all the exercise it had gotten over the past several weeks.

“What do you mean, next?” I replied, stroking her shoulders with the backs of my nails, running my fingers over the mating mark just to make her shiver. “I could see if you can come just from me touching your breasts again?—”

“No, you… you horndog!”

“You mean hornwolf,” I growled, nipping at her neck.

She twisted in my arms. “I meant us. Do you want to live in Wyoming, and try to repair something with your parents?” I was already shaking my head halfway through the suggestion. “Okay, would you want to live at my place? It’s not really big enough for both of us. I sleep on a cot, and live wild mostly…”

She sounded uncomfortable. She’d been having trouble sleeping the last few nights, waking up feeling vaguely ill, and I knew why. She obviously had no idea, though. “I’d like to stay here,” I said slowly. “At least for a while.”

She hummed. “How long of a while?”

“I would think at least five months, love. Probably a few more, depending on how you feel after the pup comes.”

“The… pup?” Her voice became a squeak as she froze, not even blinking. Possibly not even breathing.

“Your scent changed a few weeks ago, silver girl. Breathe.” When she didn’t, I let my wolf out a little bit. “Breathe, mate.”

She obeyed, and after she’d breathed a few times, whispered, “It’s not possible.”

“I assure you, it is. You know shifters don’t have reproductive cycles like humans. All you had to do was go into your?—”

She swatted my arm. “My fertility cycle, I know. That’s what I’m telling you, I haven’t had one of those in yea—oh, shit.”

I curled my lips under to keep from smiling. Female shifters experienced cycles of hypersexual need, the only sign that they were fertile. And given how often I’d woken over the past eight weeks to her crawling over my body, half-asleep herself, but whimpering with desire, I had a feeling she’d been cycling while we were in our honeymoon cabin. Shifter gestation was six months, and she had to be a month into her pregnancy already.

“I’m too old to be a mother,” she said, her eyes filled with fear. “Can my body even handle a pregnancy? I’ve never heard of any female my age having a child. Not where she and the baby both survived.”

The thought of losing her was one of the only things that could force my wolf to the surface without a shift, and it did now. His voice echoed on the walls of the cabin. “You are healthy and strong. You will bear us pups that will strengthen the pack. Don’t be afraid, little soul. I will keep you safe, as always.”

She sighed, pretending to be annoyed with him, and me, but I felt how his reassurance sank into her soul. “Fine,” she grumbled at last, turning back around so I could finish her hair. A moment passed, and she mumbled, “I hope it has your eyes.”

“And your lips,” I added, pressing a kiss to her ear.

“And your hair.”

“And your talent.”

Of course, they did. All three of the girls who were born five months later, on the night of a full moon, with the pack gathered close by, and a playful wind carrying the babies’ sweet cries to every corner of our packlands.

8

Unwelcome Visitors

TEN MONTHS LATER ~ ANNALISE

The lake’s surface rippled beneath the soft March breeze that blew from the direction of the Alpha’s Den, carrying a scent I didn’t know. No, two scents.

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