Page 83 of Wolf Bonded (Rejected Moons 2)

“I know,” Milo says. “I know you did. Don’t get so upset.”

“I didn’t do blood magic,” I say. I let go of him and let myself float a few feet away, and he turns to face me. “I didn’t hurt anybody.”

He opens his mouth, then closes it.

I hear what he didn’t say out loud.You killed Victor.

But Ihadto do that. And I don’t regret it.

“If I had killed him with my teeth,” I say quietly, “if I had walked away with his blood on my lips, you wouldn’t be judging me at all.”

“I’m not judging you,” Milo says.

“You don’t think I should have done it.”

He sighs. Then he closes the distance between the two of us and reaches out, pulling me into his arms.

I let him.

“Is it gone?” he asks me quietly.

“Is what gone?”

“His voice in your head.”

It wasn’t a voice in my head—not exactly—but I know what Milo means.

“It’s gone,” I say. “The alpha bond is broken.”

“Are you absolutely sure this time?”

“I felt it the moment he died,” I say. “It wasn’t like last time, when we thought he died, but he really didn’t. Last time he felt dimmer. He was probably unconscious. But this time, it was like the tension between us just snapped.”

Milo nods. “Then I’m glad you did it,” he says. “Whatever you had to do to get out from under his control over you, I’m glad you did it. I’m glad you’re free.”

He wraps his arms around me and pulls me close.

The current presses us closer, washing me into him, and I let it happen. And when he kisses me, it feels like he’s catching me, and like this is what the whole world, all the elements around us, want us to be doing.

I breathe him in and lose myself in my complete love for him, and in the knowledge that everything that exists between us is something I’ve chosen. I don’t have to worry anymore about the power and pain of an alpha bond. I’ve left that behind forever. Whatever I had to do to make that happen, it’s worth it because Milo is right. I’m free now.

From now on, my mates are the people I choose.

50

NATE

Whenwe’vestoppedforthe night, when Milo and Wilder are stuffed full with the pair of squirrels I caught and are sleeping soundly, I go to Emlyn.

She’s sitting awake under a tree, drawing in the dirt with a stick, but she looks up as I approach.

“Come here,” I say.

She rises to her feet and comes, her gaze locked on mine, almost as if I’m her alpha and she’s obeying my command. It’s not like that, of course. I don’t have that power over her.

But maybe I have a different power. Maybe we’re linked in a way neither of us quite understands yet.

I don’t say anything. I just strip away her clothes, quickly and efficiently, tossing them to the side. I run my hands up and down her bare skin—the swell of her breasts, the curve of her hips.

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