Page 116 of Fated to the Warrior Wolf

Her hands on my cheeks had my eyelids snapping back open a moment later.

“You said before that I called you. What did you mean by that?” Leigh asked, studying me carefully from where she knelt in front of me.

“I heard…” My eyes widened in realization as I played it back.Mental bond. “I heard your voice inside my head. Andthen I got a snapshot of the clearing. All the men surrounding your wolf.”

She nodded, biting her lip as my hands came up to cup her shoulders. “Do you think I was wrong?” The question was a pained whisper, with none of her usual fire. “About everything, about us, completing our bond—just everything?”

That was when it hit me, finally sinking in.

We don’t have to stay apart. The Goddess has spoken.

I threaded my fingers into her hair, pulling her to me for a searing kiss. She squeaked at the sudden change in direction, but melted into me all the same, wrapping her arms around me and pressing her bare chest against my own.

By the time I pulled back, her lips were pink and puffy from my kiss. “Bond with me,” I demanded, watching with a grin as her eyes went wide.

“What? Gael! We can’t just… It’s not even the full moon!” She tried to pull away, to stand and pace away from me, no doubt, but I didn’t let her. I kept her anchored to me like my life—like heranswer—depended on it.

“The full moon is tomorrow. I know where we’re heading, and I can make it happen. All you have to do is say yes. Do you want to spend the rest of your life with me, Leigh? If all the rest were gone. If there were no outside trouble, no curse, no family expectations. If it was only you and me, a man and a woman, would you say yes?” I couldn’t tear my gaze away from her face as she considered it. Everything hung in the balance. I could feel it in my bones, surer than I’d ever been about anything before in my life.

“Of course I would,” Leigh said softly, pushing back a lock of her bedraggled hair. I quickly took the discarded sweatshirt from her hands and pulled it back over her head. There was no way she was warm yet. “Of course, I would say yes, but?—”

“No buts. We’ll figure this out together. Me and you, asmates. We have a soul bond. We’re literally inside each other’s heads. It doesn’t get closer or more intimate than that. And I can’t believe the Goddess would have given us that if we weren’t meant to embrace it. So, will you say yes? Will you bond with me tomorrow, under the moon and the Goddess herself?”

She rubbed her belly, and I knew she was torturing herself over Petal’s future. Imagining orphaning our child. But somehow, deep down, I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I placed my hand over hers, and she looked back up at me with a worried frown.

“Petal is going to be okay. I know it. And I think if you stepped past the fear, you’d know it too. Reed said something to me the other day, and I brushed it off at the time. He said it felt a lot like the Goddess was bringing us all together for a reason we just hadn’t figured out yet. And you know what? He’s right. There’s no other explanation. And I refuse to believe there’s no hope for us, for our family. There has to be hope, or what’s the point of all this crazy shit happening?”

I stroked her chin with my thumb. The decision had to be hers. Even if it killed me, I’d wait. I’d ask her again every full moon until she either said yes or there was no breath left in my body, but the decision was hers.

She straightened her shoulders, and it was like watching her put on armor. Goddess, but she was magnificent. Leigh was all alpha, and I loved her so fiercely for it that I couldn’t breathe sometimes. Because that was exactly what I wanted our daughter to grow up to be. If she had half of Leigh’s fire, she’d be just fine, no matter what the future held.

“Yes. Prince Gael Starling, I will bond with you under the full moon tomorrow, and we will protect our daughtertogether. Yes,” she said again, and my heart nearly exploded with joy.

I kissed her again then, not caring that I was coated in blood or she was damp and covered in dirt. She was the mostbeautiful creature I’d ever seen, but even if she weren’t, I wouldn’t have cared. Because the person she was on the inside was my perfect other half.

When I got to my feet, I pulled her with me. “As much as I’d love to admire all this for the next hour or three,” I said, rubbing over her beautiful bump, “we still need to get to somewhere safer and meet back up with the rest of the pack. Are you ready?”

Leigh nodded, and I scooped her back up off her feet.

She clung to me as I walked, not saying a word about me carrying her, which told me how truly spent she really was underneath her alpha bravado. I kept an eye out for more threats, but thankfully, we didn’t run into anyone else before we reached the nearest guardhouse. The door was locked, which was a good sign. Before I could free a hand to knock, it popped open.

Our youngest perimeter guard, Burt, stuck his head out, looked both ways, and waved us inside. He locked the door behind us as I knelt and gently sat Leigh in the chair next to the cabinet with the spare clothes and supplies stored in it. She hesitated before unwinding her arms from around my neck.

“Are we safe in here? The guys you fought weren’t the only ones. It sounded like alotof people out there for some reason. Do you know what’s going on?” she asked, looking between me and Burt.

“You’re safe here. I won’t let anyone get to you or Petal, and that’s a promise,” I said before turning to Burt. “What’s the status?”

He swallowed hard.

“I’m not sure, sir. It’s been pretty quiet after the initial alarm in this part of the woods.”

I nodded and gestured for him to pass me his radio. He complied without hesitation.

“This is Gael, from perimeter station C. Sound off your status,” I ordered into the radio. Within seconds, reports came in from every station except G, which remained silent.

“Andrei, send a team to G and report in once it’s secure.”

“On it,” came his succinct reply.

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