Page 47 of Wolf Bonded (Rejected Moons 2)

Apparently, labels are what Milo wants to talk about. “That makes you a part of the harem, I guess,” he says.

“Does it?”

“I mean, I definitely wasn’t expecting it when we met you,” he says. “I didn’t even like you. No offense.”

“None taken.” It’s not as if I didn’t know that.

“But we’re all pretty well tied together now,” he says. “Once Emlyn brings someone in like that, they don’t leave. It’s the same thing that happened to me, and to Nate.”

“And that’s cool with you?”

He shrugs. “You’re not as bad as I thought you were.”

“Ha. Thank you.”

“Nah, seriously, I think…” He hesitates. “I think that having more of us in the harem has been good for everybody. I know it’s been good for Emlyn. She’s…well, she’s got appetites.”

I can’t help laughing at that. “She sure does. What a woman!”

“I know, right?” Milo laughs too. “Every time I think we’ve got her handled, she surprises me. It’s good she has you too.”

“Do you think it’s because she had an alpha mate and lost him?”

“I don’t know,” Milo says. “I know she was absolutely rabid for him while he was alive. So that could still be affecting her, absolutely. I’d like to think all those feelings are gone now. She doesn’t talk about them anymore. But you can never be sure.”

“It was a common thing for women to have multiple partners in the coven,” I say. “But it wasn’t formal like this. Women just slept around with whoever they wanted, just like the men did. The most important thing was to have as many pregnancies as we could.”

Milo nods. “I was too young when I left my coven to know how it worked there,” he says. “But Emlyn tells me the arrangement in her pack was pretty similar. The alpha mate’s job was to impregnate the female he was assigned to, but during the rest of the month, they could each mate with whomever they liked.”

“But that’s not how it is with you,” I say. “With us, I mean.”

He shrugs. “I’m devoted to her,” he says simply. “I know Nate is too. And it doesn’t look to me like you’re going anywhere.”

“No,” I say, remembering the feeling of magic coursing between the two of us. “I’m definitely not.”

“So, there you have it,” he says. “Personally, I like what we’ve got going. It seems a lot more solid than a coven, where people come and go whenever they want. And I’ve never been part of a wolf pack, but I don’t like the idea of submitting to an alpha. In our group, everyone is equal.”

I nod. I like that about us too.

“So, okay,” he says. “I’ll show you how I use magic to hunt, and you showmehow I could be doing it better.”

“I’m not going to be any good at hunting,” I warn him.

“That’s okay.” He pulls his shirt over his head. “You’re not hunting. I’m hunting. You’re watching. You’d better get up a tree or something, though, so you don’t scare the game. That way you’ll be able to see what I’m doing.”

I nod and scale the nearest tree. Perched in the low branches, I keep still and do my best not to make any noise, watching as Milo conceals himself in a cluster of bushes.

I see right away that what he’s particularly skilled at is keeping himself out of sight. I almost lose track of him myself. If I hadn’t seen him go into the bushes, I wouldn’t know he was there.

It must have been a skill that proved very useful to him when he was living on his own, with no one to watch his back.

He waits there for a long time. His scent in the air should be warning away prey animals, but he must be disguising that somehow too. I wouldn’t know. I don’t have the nose to pick up on the presence of a wolf. The sense I use to detect danger is vision, and I swear I have to focus intently on the bushes to see even a trace of him. If I wasn’t really looking—

He lunges out from the bushes suddenly. Before I even realize what’s happened, his teeth are locked around the neck of a rabbit and he’s shaking it dead.

I drop out of the tree. “Damn,” I say. “Impressive.”

He drops the rabbit at my feet as if he’s a hunting dog seeking praise from his master. A moment later, though, he’s back in his human form, tugging on his pants.

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