Page 11 of Fated In Winter

My brows rose. “Really?”

“Really. We don’t know why, but that little girl sure is special.”

“And one day, she’ll be your Alpha.”

“Goddess willing,” Romy whispered. “It’ll be nice to have a female Alpha.”

“The Aspens have a female Beta at least.”

“That is true. It’s odd to think that the Aspens are the ones that are ahead of the game versus us.”

I laughed. “Well, with what they’ve gone through, they had to reorder their entire den.”

“And all of the Jamesons and Brentwoods decided to have mostly boys, and so it makes sense that that’s what the bloodline would reveal.”

“We have more women though now. I mean, Gina is our Enforcer.”

“I love Gina. She’s so great. And perfect for Quinn.”

“I didn’t know you were friends with Quinn.” I heard my tone and did my best to ignore it.

Romy gave me a look and rolled her eyes. “Not that way. I hated his ex-mate.” She let out a little growl, and my wolf approved.

“I still can’t believe she did what she did.”

You did not break mating bonds. It could kill those around you, including children. Everything had worked out in the end, but Gina had almost lost her mate and future stepson in the process.

“Quinn and I worked together often, and I counted him as a friend. And then he moved to the Redwoods, and I don’t get to see him as often.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“I still don’t understand how I don’t know you,” I whispered.

“I tend to keep to myself, like I said.” Romy shrugged as we moved along the ward edge, both of us on alert to scent for Darren.

“But you were at all the battles?”

“For most of them, others I stayed with the maternal dominants to take care of the children. I’m right at the border of submissive to dominant, where sometimes it might be easier for me to fight. Other times it’s easier for me to defend. It just depends on my wolf and what she needs at the time.” She looked at me then, a small smile creeping up her face. “That’s not the case with you, I take it.”

“I’m a little too growly for that.”

“Well, it’s good that the Redwoods have you.” I sighed, and she met my gaze. “What was that sigh for?”

“No reason.”

“Seriously?”

I shrugged. “I shift quickly,” I said honestly, surprised I was even saying it. Then again, she was my potential mate, and she had no idea. Maybe my wolf just needed to speak.

“So you shift quickly. What does that mean?”

“That means I’m constantly on the edge of my wolf. Sometimes I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.”

We stopped then, and she turned to face me. “I think you have great control. I watched you shift, and it was a thing of beauty. Do the others know you’re so worried about this?”

She was close to me then, so close all I had to do was reach out an inch and touch her. But I didn’t.

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