Page 23 of Fated In Winter

“Romy?” Gideon asked as he came forward. His dark hair was pulled back from his face, his blue eyes startling against his skin. He was so dominant that I had to lower my gaze, unable to even look at him.

“Hi,” I said, belatedly remembering I couldn’t tell him why I was meeting with Conner. Of course, considering I smelled like him, and Gideon probably knew all about the mating bond, I had another reason for being near Conner. Not for the Yule and winter party that Gideon wasn’t allowed to know anything about.

“I see congratulations are in order,” Gideon said, and held open his arms.

My wolf shook in glee, and I swallowed hard before I practically threw myself at my Alpha. He caught me and crushed me in his hold. I let out of shaking sob, unaware that this is what I had been missing.

Contact, friends. My Alpha.

“Romy,” he whispered. “It’s okay.”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” I said, crying into my Alpha’s shirt. This felt wrong. This should be with Conner. And yet, this was also my Alpha, the man who might not be able to ever know me the way that Conner had the potential to, but my Alpha was the one that I should be able to trust without question. He was the one that I could rely on and lean on. Just like his family should have always been.

And that hadn’t been the case. I had hidden from my Alpha and hadn’t realized it till just now.

I had been hurting my wolf, keeping her from her Alpha, keeping her from the outside world.

And I couldn’t do that anymore.

“You have mated,” he whispered.

“I did.”

“To a Redwood.”

“You’re mated to a Redwood as well,” I said as I dried my face and looked up at him.

“She’s a Talon now,” he growled, though there was laughter in his eyes.

“You should tell her family that then.”

“Touché. I feel you still in the Pack, but I don’t feel Conner. It seems like the moon goddess is up to more of her shenanigans.”

The fact that he could speak so easily and jokingly about a deity that he spoke to was awe-inspiring to me.

“I don’t know what it means.”

I told him about the rogue, how I saved Conner, and how we hadn’t completed the mating, but the mating completed itself.

He frowned, but not at me. “We’ll have to ask Xavier about that. It might not be that unheard of.”

“I don’t know. It’s just, I thought I was supposed to have a choice.”

“The moon goddess would only choose for you if she knew you would already make that choice to begin with.”

“I don’t know if I completely agree with that logic,” I grumbled. “That’s just an illogical fallacy.”

“Or it’s something that you needed?”

“I’m fine, Gideon.”

“Are you?” he asked. He shook his head. “No, I’m going to answer that. You aren’t fine. You haven’t been for a while.”

I took a step back, lowering my head.

“Don’t hide from me, Romy. You are Pack. And we need to do better.”

“What?” I asked, my gaze meeting his for a fraction of an instant before I lowered it again. His wolf was just so strong. He didn’t even mean to do it, he was just Alpha, calmer, but he was a caring one, a nurturing one—exactly the opposite of his father.

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