Page 10 of An Ancient Bond

“Really.” I stroked her curls gently.

“I… I love you, too. Isn’t it too soon?”

“Not for true mates,” I assured her. “It’s not crazy at all.”

She lifted her head. “But the other thing, what I told you about the male I saw all those years ago, and what your wolf said. Maybe we lived other lives. It feels like that to me. Like I’ve known you for so long, that you’re not a stranger to me at all. Is that weird?”

Other lives. Could it be possible? “Is it weird that I feel like I’ve loved you since before I was born?”

She blinked and opened her mouth to answer, but I shook my head. Someone was approaching, coming to the door. Someone powerful.

I stood, wrapping a sheet around me. My wolf, who had not retreated all that far, rose to the surface as I opened the door, ready to protect my mate. We lost her once in this life already, he growled. We will not lose her again.

Alpha Samuel stood at the door, and when he gazed at my face, my wolf stared back. We met his gaze head on, holding it without any effort at all.

“Well, well, young Rebin,” he said, as a sharp-toothed smile flashed on his usually stern face. His own wolf rose to meet mine, challenging him. “It is good to meet your wolf at last.” It almost sounded like a question.

Would it be good? Was my wolf a threat? What happened next?

My wolf spoke through my lips, and the power that I’d felt in him before seeped into every word. “Ah, young Samuel. Thank you for all you and your pack have done to give comfort to my mate in her loneliness. You are a good Alpha.”

His words were simple, but they fell on my Alpha like a mountain of praise. His jaw opened wide, and he blinked furiously into the silence.

To my shock, after what felt like an eternity but must have only been a moment, Alpha Samuel bowed his head. A small dip, but it was there. “Thank you,” he whispered, and stepped back.

“Alpha?”

My mate’s hand on my back was comforting, but when Alpha Samuel and I both answered, “Yes?” to her question, there was a tense, awkward moment.

Then Alpha Samuel let out a laugh, shook himself, and offered Annalise a key. “This is for you.”

Taking it, she looked down at it, curious. “What is it for?”

He stepped back again, and we both stared out at the area by the lake.Hundreds of shifters were there, most of them carrying babies or holding the hands of toddlers, though some were weedy teenagers. All of them were smiling at my mate. Some were crying happy tears.

“You’ve carved a toy for every pup that has been born into our pack for twenty years,” Alpha Samuel began.

His mother, who was standing a few yards back, called out, “Twenty-five, Samuel.”

“I stand corrected. Twenty-five years. All that time, you’ve given your talents to this pack, and your heart, and asked for nothing in return.”

“I asked for cornbread,” Annalise muttered, obviously embarrassed.

To his credit, the Alpha did not laugh, though his eyes sparkled. “Of course you did. And you don’t owe us anything. But… we missed you, Annalise. You’re family. You’re pack.”

At that moment, a child called out, “Mama! Ith that Aunt Annalithe? The one who made my wolf ball?”

A tiny boy darted up next to the Alpha, holding a wooden ball that had been carved so the exterior looked like a forest with vines and trees, but inside were three small, perfectly formed wolves, rattling softly as he moved the toy. The wooden ball had been stained a gorgeous honey color, and had the name George carved into one of the branches.

“Aunt Annalithe?” he lisped.

She mouthed the word aunt, her eyes darting to the child’s mother. “Laura. This is little Georgie?” The mother nodded with a smile, and Annalise peered back down at the boy. “You called me Aunt?”

“Yeth, you’re the betht. Thank you for my ball, I love it tho much.” He jumped forward, pressed a wet kiss to her hand, and ran back to his mother. I grabbed my mate’s trembling arm, feeling the depth of joy and surprise in the bond.

Alpha Samuel’s eyes gleamed. “They all call you Aunt, sweet Annalise. Every young mother and father looks forward to the day when their child gets their toy from their long-lost aunt. But we want you to know… you don’t need to be lost. You have a place in the heart of this pack, as well as your wilderness. Both of you. So this cabin is yours. For the two of you, from now on. If you could find it in your heart to spend even a few more days near the Den?—”

He was cut off as she rushed past me and hugged him, her arms wrapping around him as he stood in shock. “Thank you,” she murmured, letting him go only after Ida came and pried her son free.

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