Page 69 of The Wolf Prince's Mate

“You’ll want it. If you don’t, swallow your pride and accept it anyway. Stay in here as long as you want.”

He strode out of the room, leaving me alone in his office. Part of me wanted to snoop around, to see if I could find anything to tell me more about who Hunter was, but I ignored it.

I didn’t need to know who he was.

We were finally done.

It seemed like it, anyway.

And fuck, I hoped that was true.

Rather than leaving right away, I opened the folder.

And stared down at the papers inside.

And cried.

This time, I didn’t even try to stop the tears.

thirteen

NOVA

“So,he gave you a cabin and a studio as anapologygift?” Sydney asked.

“And a Jeep,” I agreed, though we were walking on foot. The cabin was a few miles down one of the pack’s newest roads, but I wasn’t ready to get back in a vehicle yet. Not while I was still pushing away memories of rolling my car down a mountain.

I’d loaded up a duffel bag and backpack with my stuff. Charlie said he’d carry a massive suitcase for me, since he was still on guard duty, so I packed one for him too. When I told Syd where I was going as I passed the garden, she insisted that she would carry my stuff too, so we went back for another set.

“I want an apology gift,” Sydney joked.

“You don’t want to trade a year of your life for it, believe me,” I said.

“Still. The new cabins they’re building out here are legendary. They’re only giving them to the top enforcers. And mated pairs whose men used to be part of the pack and rejoined after their mates were turned.”

“I don’t know how you hear these things—but I’m pretty sure that means you’ll get one when you seal a bond with Fletcher.”

She shrugged. “The other people who work in the gardens talk a lot. And I listen. Plus, I have a lot of friends. I’m not close to them, but they talk to me anyway.”

“You’re a good listener.”

“Thanks.” She flashed me a smile. “So, did Hunter convince you to abandon your feelings for Clay and run off into the sunset with him after he apologized?”

I laughed, hard. “No. He says he’s going to figure out a way to stop his wolf from losing his shit if I decide to date Clay. And that I don’t need to take a mate, which is a relief.”

“Areyou going to date Clay?”

“I have no idea.” The admission wasn’t an easy one. I did like him as a friend, and I was attracted to him, but things were complicated between us.

“Does it bother you that he would never be able to seal a mate bond?”

“I’m not sure. That’s part of my hesitance, I think. I can’t imagine how badly it would hurt to end things if we were together when I realized I couldn’t handle the connection without the bond,” I admitted. “I know it’s silly to think I might want that commitment, but I don’t know whether or not I will.”

“It’s not silly to think you might want it. A mate bond is a guarantee that your partner will be yours forever. A promise to stay true to each other, no matter what. A connection between both you and your wolves, that no one and nothing can break.”

“Yeah. Right now, I can see myself being okay with the possibility of a relationship ending eventually, you know? All relationships seem to end on me. Even Silas doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore, and I thought that bastard would be around forever, just as a friend. But if I really got attached to a partner, and he changed his mind in ten years, or twenty, or thirty…”

I shook my head. “I could probably survive it, but wolves mate for life, you know? She would always be yearning for that kind of connection, through the relationship and after it. And she’s already so scared all the time, I don’t know if I could risk putting her through that.”

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