Page 23 of Bonded Beyond Trickery

Just when I’m about to run away and hide somewhere, the door to the suite opens and Whitaker’s voice rings out, “Tilly? Are you still here?”

I’m frozen for a moment, unsure of what to do and if I should answer.

“He’ll be able to smell the breakfast you’ve cooked,”my wolf points out with a snicker.

Fucking hell.

I consider slinking away, but before I can, he walks into the kitchen and freezes. I wring my hands together, part of me hoping that the floor opens and swallows me whole. Surprise, surprise. It doesn’t.

There’s curiosity in his voice and something else I can’t quite discern, “You cooked breakfast?”

“Um,” I start, feeling my entire being falter with the way my mate is staring at me, “yes? If you would rather go down to the dining hall and have breakfast with the pack, then that’s fine as well. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to find the kitchen fully stocked. I thought that maybe it would be nice for us to have breakfast together? Just us?”

Fuck. I’m babbling. My wolf huffs out an amused breath in my mind, but I ignore her.

Whitaker’s lips curve into a small grin which grows the longer I fidget in front of him. With a few long strides, he’s standing right in front of me. I almost jump out of my skin when he wraps an arm around my waist and hauls me against his chest.

“Thank you,” his voice is a deep rumble that shoots straight through my body and my nipples hardening.

It becomes very obvious, very quickly that the only thing I’m wearing is my mate’s shirt. I feel my cheeks heating because I should have taken the time to get dressed. Not that I know where my clothes are.

Whitaker sucks in a sharp breath and when I look up at him, he’s staring down at me. “You’re wearing my shirt,” it’s a statement, not a question, but I still find myself nodding. “It looks good on you,” he growls, lust swirling in his eyes.

“Sorry?” I wince, but Whitaker just grins down at me. “I wasn’t sure if my bags made it out of my car. I didn’t bring them in and then,” I pause, searching for the right words, “things kind of got away from me.”

Whitaker smirks and before I can knee him in the balls or pull away from him, he leans down and kisses my lips softly and sweetly. Its’ such a soft caress that it shouldn’t make me feel like fire licks along my skin, but it does.

“We’ll get it taken care of,” he promises. His eyes sweep back down my body and darken. “Until then, feel free to wear my clothes.”

I shake my head and find myself giggling as he leads us over to the island in the kitchen. When we’re sitting on the stools there, I pull our plates closer. The silence between us as we eat isn’t stuffy or uncomfortable.

I’ve noticed this before when he was giving me a tour. There’s a comfort in the silence between us. I hope it helps to give Whitaker the peace that he needs and deserved. The pressure on the shoulders of an Alpha is immense and I want to be his peace.

When the food is gone and we’re both sitting there quiet, the comfort of being with my mate, finally, must get the better of me. The words slip out of my mouth without thinking them through first.

“When will we be doing the Luna ceremony?”

Whitaker freezes and it feels like a knife to the chest. The pure fucking panic and uncertainty written on my mate’s face tells me everything I need to know.

I could examine our bond to get a read on him, but I don’t. I can’t.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

“How about,” he barely gets the words out and clears his throat, “not this full moon but next month’s.” I can’t look into his eyes as I nod. “You deserve a beautiful ceremony and we’re too close to this month’s full moon to do it right,” he tries to soften the blow, but his words don’t quite ring true.

“Of course,” I whisper.

Yeah, my words don’t quite ring true either.

But, considering I’m the one who hide who I was for years, maybe I shouldn’t expect anything more. I won’t let this stop me from finding my place in the pack though and I’m certainly not running away.

I’m supposed to be here. In this pack. At my mate’s side.

I’ll fight for my future.

CHAPTER 10

TILLY

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