Page 67 of In the Light of the Moon

“I… when I was in college. I started running with some Wolves I met on campus. They were part of a pack in town, and it was the first time I’d experienced anything like that.” He sat up completely and draped my legs across his lap. I turned on my other side so that I could more easily see him, but he was staring forward, as if peering into his memories that he hadn’t unlocked in a long, long time. “I told you that I studied under a master carpenter for a while. He was another member of the pack. For a few years, it was nice. I had a home, a group to run with where I felt accepted.”

I propped up on my elbow, moving slowly so as to not interrupt, and after he took another few deep breaths, Orion continued. “I… met someone. The Pack Leader’s daughter.” My jaw clenched, and I felt a flash of rage and jealousy. Orion rubbed his hand over my calf in reassurance. “She… she made me feel loved. Or what I thought was love.

“And I let her convince me that I was strong. That I was to protect and lead not only her but the pack. That my own family’s history in Antler Pointe was proof of that.” He shook his head, as if trying to stop what happened next from playing out in his mind, but, of course, he kept going. His voice got rough with regret, anger. “So, when I challenged her father for Leader, I thought she would stand behind me no matter the outcome. When I lost, though, I was severely injured and exiled.”

I stared in horror at what my Orion was telling me. To hear of the betrayal he’d experienced. “I’m glad now that the Pack Leader decided not to kill me. But at the time, when she—just turned her attention to another male in the pack, I wanted nothing more than to be dead.”

My heart was breaking for this Orion, the one that’d been beaten down before I met him, and I sat up, curling into his side. He accepted my touch and placed his arm around me. “My father passed away shortly before that. Perhaps his death was what made me so vulnerable to the manipulation. Because when I realized that she’d been hoping to align and mate herself to whoever took over as Leader, it was too late. That pack’s leadership wasn’t hereditary, and maybe she would’ve been chosen had she waited until it was time to select a new leader. But she was impatient and knew she wouldn’t be able to win a fight against her father. When I lost, she looked at me… it wasn’t as if I’d failed her. It was like I was nothing. And when I was given just a few days to lick my wounds and leave the territory, she was already slinking up to another male in the pack.”

I kissed the base of Orion’s neck and settled into the curve of muscle. My mate had been through so much, and while my anger was still very much present and simmering, so was the utter sadness for what he’d endured. I wanted to take the pain from him, to make him feel comfortable and settled.

“Mm,” Orion hummed and rested his head atop mine. “That feels nice.”

My lashes fluttered, brows furrowed, “What does?”

Orion rubbed his face on the top of my head and gave another contented grumble, “Whatever you’re doing. It feels warm. Good.” I concentrated again, on my desire for Orion to feel loved and rested, and I felt him nod against my scalp, “Yeah, that.”

I kissed him again and petted the soft patch of hair on his chest. And while we sat, the tension in his body began to slip away. He relaxed back into the couch, his muscles molding into mine.

Our breaths seemed to sync, deepening until the jarring sound of the record skipping jolted me out of the sleep I was descending toward.

Orion slipped out from beside me, and I watched as he put the record in its sleeve and back on the shelf. He turned back around while he stretched his arms overhead, and I marveled the way his muscles ran over his form like water. There was something about the way he moved that wasn’t human, like a smoothness that either I’d written off as him just being self-possessed or he’d previously held back.

Though my body was probably still done for the time being, I made no secret of my marveling of Orion’s body. Tall and broad and lean with his almost white skin and hair, he was the essence of raw, otherworldly beauty. How anyone could reject this sweet, wonderful man, I’d never know. And selfishly, I was glad because it meant that he’d made it to me.

Ridiculous tears started to prickle in my eyes, and I blinked them away before he could become alarmed. But when my vision cleared, I saw him watching me with head tilted and nostrils flaring.

“What is it, mo ghrá?”

I cleared my throat to make sure it wasn’t thick with tears. I smiled over at him, naked as the day he’d been born. “Just love you so much.”

His eyes crinkled, “And I love you. Do you still want to see my full shift? I think I’ll stay in wolf form while we sleep so that I can be more prepared in case they come back. My senses are sharper that way.”

“Of course, baby,” I whispered.

“Okay.” Orion smirked before lowering his gaze. Again, he took a deep breath, and I didn’t know what I had been expecting, but watching my mate’s limbs contort and shorten and sprout fur was something I didn’t think I’d ever be able to prepare for. There was no flash of light, but the thrum ofsomethingmade my chest vibrate in kind. The popping of bones, thump of his arms—now front legs—hitting the wood floor made me wince if only in worry that it was painful. The whole process was fairly quick, but it felt like forever until finally I was faced with… a very large Wolf. I’d never seen one this close, but I was fairly certain that Orion’s Wolf was bigger than non-shifter wolves.

The White Wolf, the mushrooms had called him.

Orion’s green eyes were brighter than in his human form, but they were just as soft, just as light. His fur was the color of fresh snow, his nose as black as my hair. When his body was fully changed, he huffed and shook, and a giggle burst out of me at the action. He was cute.

He padded toward me, though the gap between the couch and coffee table was a bit snug for his body. I scooted closer to the edge and reached my hands out. Orion bumped his muzzle into my fingers, and I threaded them into his thick fur. It was soft and coarse, perfect for keeping warm in the cool air outside.

“My mate,” I whispered and kissed him on the nose. It was cold and wet, and in return, he gave a long swipe of his tongue on my cheek. I gave a proper laugh now and peppered more kisses over his nose and beside his ears that seemed to be constantly moving. “Should we get ready for bed? We can watch a movie and fall asleep?”

He gave a little yip, and though I had absolutely no experience in wolf sounds and what they meant, I figured that it was a yes.

So I stood, and after bending forward to press a kiss on the top of his head, I set out to make sure all the doors were lockedand turned the lights off. Orion kept by my side and used his nose and front paws to do half the work, which was a funny sight to see.

He sat in the doorway while I brushed my teeth and washed my face, and I chatted away about the things I’d been working on with Granna, about how Josie agreed to learn at my side.

We settled on the bed, and I set up my laptop to play one of my comfort movies. It was an old horror classic that was more campy than scary, and after I braided my hair and secured my silk scarf, I slid under the covers. In the dark, I sleepily watched the movie with Orion lying on top of the covers behind me. His head rested on the peak of my hip, and I petted him until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Jasper

“Iunderstand all of your concerns, but we have all of this under control. You’re dismissed.” The pack meeting hadnotbeen going well. By the end, Graham all but spat the dismissal to everyone, and I saw multiple pack members bristle at the harsh command.

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