Page 14 of Wolf Bonded (Rejected Moons 2)

“I wasn’t raised to like them either,” she said. “This is hard for me too. But I have to do it.”

“And I guess that means I have to do it too,” I say.

“You don’t, you know,” she says. “You could leave if you wanted to. I’d understand. It wouldn’t be like when I thought you were going to turn me in to my pack. It wouldn’t be the same kind of betrayal. You don’t have to stay with me forever. We never made any promises.”

“I can’t leave you,” I say, my arm tightening around her. “I wouldn’t even know where to start, Emlyn.”

“I know what you mean,” she says. “It’s strange, isn’t it?”

“Strange how?”

“We’re not mated. But I feel as strongly for you as I ever did for Victor.”

“That’s gone for you now? The urge you felt to get back to him?”

Emlyn hesitates. “I think what I’m feeling is a memory of that,” she says. “Like an echo. It’s still there. But it’s distant. Because he died, so it’s not like I can go to him.” She sighs. “Maybe I’m just going to have to live with it forever.”

“That sucks.”

“It’s all right. I have you, at least.”

“And it’s as strong between us as it was between you and Victor?”

“Yes,” she says. “Can you feel it too?”

“I feel it,” I say. “But I’ve never been assigned an alpha mate, so I don’t have that to compare it to.”

“You’ll have to take my word for it, then,” she murmurs. “The idea of leaving you…it’s actually painful. I don’t think I could do it. And I feel the same way about Milo.”

I can’t help grinning. “That’s good,” I say. “Our harem is strong.”

“And you don’t mind that we’re part Moon Caster?”

“I can live with it.”

She turns toward me and kisses my neck, and for a moment, I think we’re going to fall back into each other after all. Fuck, I love her body.

Then she stops. “So did you?” she asks.

“Did I what?”

“Hear me and Wilder talking earlier.”

“Oh,” I say. “Yeah, I heard you. You were just on the other side of a piece of cloth, and I don’t know if you know this about wolves, but we have pretty decent hearing.”

She laughs and swats my arm. “Don’t be a jerk.”

“You like it.”

“So you heard what Wilder said about taking me to meet the High Sorcerer?”

I snort. “High Sorcerer. That sounds so…”

“What?”

“Made up.”

“Everything is made up,” she says reasonably. “Do you think the nameMoon Casterswasn’t made up by somebody? Oralpha, even?”

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