Page 49 of Wolf's Mark

By wolves.

But eventually, the old tales had died out along with the human elders of Cartersville, leaving our kind to build lives that had nothing to do with our pasts.

By the time I was nine or ten, my thoughts centered on playing little league football and attempting to escape the confines of my bedroom to see my friends. Kids my age played video games and longed for summer when school was out.

We hadn’t considered what our lineage meant or the fact we were different than almost everyone else in my school.

Yet I remembered something my mother had talked about more than once.

Finding our true mates.

Of course a ten-year-old kid knew what marriage was, but finding a mate seemed to have a much darker meaning. I’d listened only half the time, barely gleaning that in order for our species to survive the way we’d been used to living, breeding with our kind was necessary.

The practice had been ignored.

I’d thought little of it over the years as I grew, aging to the man I was now. Most of the Wolfen dated whoever they wanted, often marrying humans who never learned about their true heritage.

Some had.

I’d heard horror stories about horrific divorces where the husband or wife had threatened to expose who and what we were to the world. The situation had quietly gone away and I’d never asked questions. I hadn’t cared.

Until now.

What had finally settled in about Sedona was that it was entirely possible she was my mate. But she seemed entirely human. I hadn’t detected a wolf scent on her and my keen senses would be able to gather the odor immediately.

It threw me.

She threw me.

Who was I kidding?

If what my instinct told me was true, I was right about my first thoughts. She would be a likely target for any member of a rogue pack or this creature the council seemed terrified of. But I had to know if I was right before I made a decision to do anything drastic.

Sedona looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. As she leaned down, the rebellious expression I’d caught first inside the dance club flashed in her venomous smile. And in her eyes. “Look, buddy. I don’t take orders from anyone.”

“Is that what I’m doing?” I asked. “Issuing an order or providing you with a reason to stay?”

“What reason?”

“Because I want you. Because our connection is unusually strong. Because there’s no other place you’d rather be.”

“Arrogance doesn’t suit you. Stick to your Italian suits instead.” She sat down, her attitude still a delightful surprise.

She was one of the few women who could make me laugh, her ease at telling me exactly what I needed to hear refreshing. “I thought I’d passed that test.”

“Which one?”

“Your arrogance test.”

“Unfortunately, just when I think perhaps I was wrong, the prick inside of you rears his ugly head.”

“Prick, huh? Do you always speak your mind?”

Sedona wrinkled her nose, which was about the cutest thing she’d done so far. “Not nearly enough. If I did so on a regular basis, perhaps I wouldn’t be taken advantage of.”

Her statement provided clues about her past, but pressing her wasn’t going to win me any points. She was one tough and vulnerable lady.

The thought she could be my mate was never far from the forefront of my mind.

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