Page 6 of An Ancient Bond

“I want you more than I want air.” I repeated her words, hoping she understood. “More than I want to live another day on this earth. You may have been the one to claim me first, to save me. But I claimed you right back, woman. I think my mistake today was in listening to your fears rather than your heart.”

I nuzzled her neck, setting my blunt, human teeth to the spot where I’d bitten her the night before. She shuddered, and the air bloomed with her scent.

“Spring grass,” I muttered. “It was you, all along.” Time was running out, and I broke into a jog.

“Me?” she murmured.

“Until last night, I’d never wanted a woman. Never looked at one and felt desire. I tried once to have sex with a pack member a few years older than me.” She snarled in my arms, and I stifled a grin. “I couldn’t get hard. I tried with a male as well, a friend whose wolf felt called to other males. There was nothing there. I was broken, until you came into my life. Until you saved me, my wolf was asleep. If you hadn’t come to the Den last night, I would have died alone.”

She was silent, so I went on. “I’m the only pup born to my parents, both of them still alive. They live in southern Wyoming now, near the northern border of the pack. When I failed to shift after three years, my parents moved from their home close to the Den to as far as they could get from here, so they didn’t have to explain to their friends what was wrong with me.

“A year after we moved, my father built me a shed next to their home so I could pretend to have some sort of independence, or so he said. I think it was so he didn’t have to look at me, didn’t have to see what a failure his son was.”

Annalise cursed quietly. I lifted her a bit higher, turned on by her protective impulse, then continued. “I didn’t even dare to hope for a true mate. How could a shifter who couldn’t even connect with his wolf be given that sort of gift? It was pretty clear that I was defective somehow. The only times I ever felt anything like desire was in my dreams at night, or on my trips to the Den for the rituals. More than once, I smelled spring grass around the Den, and my cock would grow hard.” She shifted in my arms, the scent of her desire growing. “Now, I want to know everything about you, but since you’re feeling shy, I’ll go first.”

She grumbled, and I smiled into her hair. “Right. I love reading shifter history and playing the guitar. I don’t like asparagus, or the smell of beer, or too much noise, and I don’t need a lot of people around me to feel comfortable. In fact, I’ve been living that way more or less for years. In the shed.”

“What about your mother?”

My heart ached. “She loves me, but it’s hard for her to express that, with my father feeling as he does. When I was very young, she used to say I was an odd pup. That I cried for years, asking for… Never mind. In any case, I’ve been on my own in most ways for a good long while. You might discover we have more in common than you thought.”

She made a small sound that may have been a giggle, then said, “I mean, we’re both virgins, so there’s that.”

5

Three Miracles

REBIN

Ialmost dropped my mate, I laughed so hard. “I hate to tell you, silver girl, you’re not a virgin. And neither am I. Do you not remember last night?”

She arched an eyebrow at me, going the tiniest bit stiff in my arms. “Silver girl?”

I blinked. “Yeah. Silver, like the tips of your wolf’s ears.” They were so beautiful and unique, just like her. “They shone like diamonds in the dark last night.”

Whatever had bothered her, she relaxed once I explained. “I guess I’ll allow it,” she muttered. Then she pursed those lush, pouty lips, her tears long gone. “And we are virgins, sort of. It doesn’t count in wolf form.”

I snarled, nipping at her nose playfully. “It most certainly does. You could have my pup in your belly right now.”

A look of disbelief flashed in her eyes. “I… I’m too old. Twice your age.” Her lips trembled, and she pressed a hand over them. “You do deserve a mate who can bear you pups.”

Pulling her hand away from her face, I bit her fingers just hard enough for her to feel. “The Mother Moon gave you to me for a purpose, mate. If Her plan doesn’t include pups, so be it. We’ll change the world in some other way. But I’m going to fuck you every single day of our lives, and every single night, either way. The moon gave me three miracles already. Why not one more?”

“Three miracles?”

I nodded, carrying her the last few yards to the back steps of the Alpha’s Den, to the kitchen door. “She gave me my wolf last night. She gave me my mate. And she gave me a dick so hard, it could chop down a walnut tree.”

We were both laughing when Ida, the Alpha’s mother, opened the door, holding an enormous picnic basket. She set it down and gathered Annalise from me, kissing my mate’s flushed cheeks. “Oh, my favorite carver! Other than my own grandson—don’t tell him, but sometimes I even prefer your things to his; they’re so amusing. And our lost little soul, Rebby! Didn’t the Moon Goddess show Her wisdom last night? And you two honored Her so beautifully, just like the old ways call for. It was a ritual the pack will be talking about for years. All right now, let’s see. I’ve packed up all the things you like…”

She stopped hugging Annalise and began pulling items out of the picnic basket, making sure I knew which foods were my new mate’s favorites. Curiosity gnawed at me as she handed my mate a bag that rattled when it moved, and then another one that had clothing and toiletries, the two women chatting as if they were the best of friends.

The Alpha’s mother knew my mate so well, already knowing how she took her coffee and what spread she preferred on her sandwiches. How?

“Now, you know all new mated pairs are given two months to get to know each other. You don’t have to hunt or fish—we’ve stocked the cabin on the western edge of the lake just over there. Everything’s taken care of, except for the fun parts.” She nodded to the small lake that was visible from the Den. “So get to it. Go on, shoo!”

We obeyed her command gladly, half-running away from the Den together, laughing under our breath.

6

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