Page 112 of The Beta's Blind Date

“I will.”

“Good.”

He pauses and takes a deep breath, then opens the box, removing an ornate knife with a jeweled handle. The Crescent Lake crest is also stamped onto the blade of the knife, as well as the symbol of the moon in eclipse with stars inside the eclipse. My brows furrow as I try to place the second symbol, racking my brain for why it is familiar.

“This knife,” Wesley says, “is imbued with powerful, protective magic that mimics a blood contract, although it is even stronger than a blood contract. It prevents you from revealing the secrets of Crescent Lake and its members, even if you leave the pack. I am telling you this because I know your alpha just violated your free will last night, and I don’t want you to think I am doing the same.”

I keep my eyes on the blade and nod. “Thank you. But I want to join. Keeping a secret to protect a pack and its members is different from being ordered to be someone’s mate and luna.”

Wesley stands up straight and motions for me to do the same. I hold my hand out to him as he slices through his palm, then I take the knife and slice through my own. The blade is heavy from both the jewels in the handle and the magic held within. It crackles and zings over my skin where I hold it and where I cut into my skin, and my blood warms as the magic flows into me and through me.

We clasp our cut hands together, and Wesley lets out his full aura, even more robust and more protective than before. But it envelops rather than suffocates. Haven stands next to him, her hand on top of his, her eyes piercing into mine. A small yet still powerful, detectable aura pours from her as well, weaving with Wesley’s. It’s delicate and pure, sparkling like starlight, and just as familiar to my soul as the eclipse symbol on the knife I used to slice my hand.

My breath catches in my throat, my body overwhelmed by the raw power emanating from both of them. My wolf pushes forward, more present than ever, more than in the presence of Reid, her head tilted as she regards Haven.

“I don’t understand,” I whisper, leaning towards Haven. “I thought you were human?”

“I am,” she says, her lips twitching.

“Taryn,” Wesley says, pulling my gaze back to him. “Do you promise to uphold the ideals of the first werewolves—of Karl and Eydís—and remember that the pack is your family, and we protect all members of our family, no matter how weak or vulnerable they may seem to our human eyes?”

“I do,” I reply.

“And do you promise to respect the laws set forth by the royal family, the laws that your alpha upholds to the best of his ability? Do you promise to respect your alpha but also question him when you think he may be in the wrong?”

“I do.”

“Do you promise to protect Haven, daughter of Selene, with your life by fighting for her if the occasion calls for it and by keeping her identity a secret you take with you to your grave?”

“Daughter of—” I whip my head towards Haven again, her eyes glinting as that sparkling starlight power continues to wrap around me, teasing my soul and playing with my wolf. “You’re…” She nods and my jaw drops to the floor. “Holy fucking Goddess!”

“Taryn!” Gigi scolds, swatting the back of my head.

“What?” She gestures towards a waiting Wesley and I wince. “Oh right. Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting”—I shake my head and clear my throat—“I do. I will.”

Both Haven and Wesley smile. “Then I, Alpha Wesley Kenway-Stone, declare you an official member of the Crescent Lake pack, breaking your bond with your previous pack and alpha and replacing it with the bond to Crescent Lake and to myself and Luna Haven.”

I grit my teeth against the flash of pain in my gut as the bond to my old pack breaks, but the pain is brief and immediately replaced by an embracing warmth of acceptance and family.

“Welcome to the pack,”Haven mindlinks me.

I blink at her. I don’t know why I am surprised after learning who she is. Everything clicks together in that moment—the way the ranked members behave around her, how I’ve always felt at home and at ease around her even though I’ve not spoken to her much. It’s not only because she’s their luna. It’s because she’s Selene’s daughter, the one she promised she’d send to us all those years ago.

“Thank you,” I say out loud, stepping back so Wesley and Haven can perform the same ritual with my aunt.

As Gigi makes her promises, tears line my eyes, and my hand flutters to my stomach, pressing against it. The love flowing into me from the new pack bond reassures me I made the right decision, that my gut instinct about Crescent Lake being more of a home than either pack I’ve lived in was more true than I could have imagined.

With my heart full and my wolf and soul comforted, I glance out the windows. The snow threatening to fall all morning flutters out of the clouds and onto the grounds of my new home, the place where I will raise my baby and—I hope—where I will live a long, love-filled life with my mate.

Chapter 39

TARYN

Thesnowfallcontinues,growingheavier by the minute, layering atop the already snow-covered grounds and trees of Crescent Lake, painting everything pure white. It’s so thick, I can’t see through it to the lake. Not that I’m paying much attention right now. I’m too busy drowning in my swirling thoughts mirroring the storm outside.

I thump my head against the back of the less-than-comfortable brown couch in the guest suite they’ve offered me for the time being. There is a bag of clothing Haven gathered from donations from pack members, but I don’t have the energy to look through it yet. I’m still in the T-shirt and sweatpants the hospital gave me to change into. And I have yet to take stock of the supplies and food she said the pack’s hospitality team placed in the small kitchen of the suite.

Instead, I’ve been sitting on this hard-as-rock couch, thinking through everything that’s happened and everything I’ve learned in the last twenty-four hours.

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