Page 6 of Moonlit Bonds

Keep dreaming.

“What are you doing, Gloria?” In shuffles Auntie McClellan, my saving grace. “You can’t go bothering the alpha with every request you might have. He’s a busy man.”

Gloria immediately blushes and drops her head in acknowledgement.

Auntie McClellan is one of the elders of the community, who can’t be less worried about sauntering around the community in her pink robe and bunny slippers. It’s not that she doesn’t have anything better to put on, but more that she chooses not to wear her other clothes.

“Good day, Auntie,” I say.

She presses a gentle kiss on my cheek, just as she’s done since I was a little boy who hung on her calf as she showed me the different herbs and bounty of the forest.

Gloria’s smolder is completely gone at this point, replaced by a scowl of disappointment, and she leaves without a word.

Finally.

I turn my attention to Auntie.

She narrows her gaze at me. “You’re keeping something secret. I can see it.”

“Not at all, Auntie. What can I do for you?”

“It’s what you can do foryou. Ever since you’ve been of marrying age, well, as you’ve been for too many seasons, there’s been some hot in the pants young ‘un chasing after you.” Auntie allows her glasses to slip down her nose as if she peered over them to watch Gloria practically scurry away back to assist with more things in this diner-store combo.

I try to give Gloria the benefit of the doubt, or at least Auntie’s doubt. I grin. “Conceivably, she just wants to ensure the pack stays strong.”

“Hogwash. Even my old eyes can see that without your being married, it is going to split the tribe, those who want to see the alpha settled down and those who are vying for that position. That’s why you have the likes of Jonas pushing his daughter on you, not that she seems to mind it.”

I swallow over the lump in my throat. After my parents’ relationship caused them to be ousted from the pack, I’d sworn off relationships. I wanted no entanglements. And now, I have a big tangled problem on my hands. Not like I can tell Auntie that. At least, not yet.

“Well, I guess only time will tell. I see no reason to settle down quite yet.” Except I might be bonded to a forbidden witch and unable to undo it. I lightly chuckle, hoping it will make Auntie drop the subject, but it comes out as strained as I feel. “Don’t worry. I’ll meet someone.”

“Good, because our survival depends on you.”

Auntie McClellan pats me on the cheek and luckily gets distracted by another conversation within seconds, leaving me to my thoughts.

It is never easy to lead, to have everyone depend on my decisions. Sure, I can let all of this stress roll off of my back, continue to live as I’ve done before. Yet, a part of me knows it will be like living without the sun, buried in regret…all of those lonely moments between heartbeats. After all, life is a culmination of our decisions.

Maybe we can ignore the bond if Sera can’t find a way to break it. Then again, maybe I’m delusional.

Maybe I should just give in.

The thought takes me by surprise.

It will put a stop to all the politics of who to take as my mate. Fate has decided for me. I can argue that to the council. She’s a witch. How can Fate then require me to choose between the way I feel alive with her, like never before, and the pack I am destined to lead? What if the night with Seraphina wasn’t an unfortunate twist of fate but simply a lovely serendipity?

I shake my head. I need to see Seraphina.

If she has a solution, none of this would matter and I will be free.

That thinking should be comforting. But instead, it fills me with a sense of loss.

My wolf sits inside me and howls at the thought, and I have to wonder, how would it really feel to sever this new, bright bond? Will I be a man who loves a woman or a packless leader? And if I lose my pack, what meaning would life even have?

This is my crossroads and all answers rest with Seraphina.

3

SERAPHINA

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