Page 41 of The Strongest Wolf

I sometimes wonder where mine must be. Somewhere out there in the world is a man the universe has created to be my perfect half, the one supposed to make me feel whole. Regular humans would call them soul mates, but we call them fated mates. Chosen by fate, and everything we want and need in a partner.

How many shifters grow old, wither away and die waiting for that person to stumble into their life, and how many say fuck it, and choose their own happiness instead of waiting for that supposedly perfect happiness to find them?

Galen slides his arm around my waist and tucks me closer beside him. Wherever my fated mate is, I don’t need him. I have Galen, and he’s the only one I want—and will ever need.

As always, I draw in his wild scent that never fails to make my body stir with arousal. Glancing up at him, my eye catches his. He smiles, and I smile back.

He lowers his head and his lips brush against the shell of my ear. “Thanks for keeping her safe.”

I shake my head because I didn’t keep Eden safe. Not really. All I could do was get her away. I failed with Melody, but at least Eden has the sort of life she should have had all along. Now she’s with a man she loves, and with a pack she can feel safe with and among.

The Stone pack never had a moon-blessing. The men would just bite the woman they wanted to move into their cabin to clean and cook for them, and most importantly, to fuck. They bit them, and that was that. They were mated.

When Eden told me about the ceremony, one conducted under the full moon at midnight where everyone would gather so they could celebrate a newly mated pair, I wanted to cry.

I watch them now, their eyes full of love as Luka gently strokes back Eden’s long, dark hair from her face.

I’m happy for her. But that doesn’t explain why it feels like there’s something lodged in my throat. Or why it hurts to witness her happily ever after.

No, I know why it hurts.

I could have the same thing. That’s why it hurts. If I pulled Galen away, looked him right in the eye, and told him I wanted us to be mates, I know what he’d say.

Yes.

We could have our own moon-blessing ceremony just like this one.

Tonight, if I wanted it.

But I can’t. I need to know what his pack thinks of me first. I need to know I won’t force him into a position where he has to choose between me and them. Because if we go to his pack as mates, he would choose me. How could he not when I’d be his bitten mate?

I refuse to let him give up his pack for me. Not when he’s worked so hard to build a new life for himself after he lost his family, Eden, and Melody.

If his pack accepts me, then… maybe.

Eden told me that she’d spent hours—days, even—working on a speech to communicate exactly what Luka meant to her, and how much she loved him. Luka must have done the same. But now that the ceremony is here, it’s like words don’t matter.

And they don’t. I feel their love from two feet away as clearly as if they’d spoken the words aloud.

I lean my head against Galen’s chest. His lips brush against my brow, as if he feels this need to be as close to me as I do to him.

One day, this could be you.

My heart spikes. In alarm, excitement, or sheer fucking terror. I don’t know. But it doesn’t just spike, it pounds harder and harder as the ceremony goes on. Until I can barely hear over the crescendo.

“You gave me a place to call home.” Eden’s voice emerges huskily as her eyes swim with tears. “And gave me laughter, safety, and family.” She steps closer to Luka and curves her slender hand around his jaw, smiling up at him as if he’s paid her the most beautiful compliment—and in a way, he has. I see the way he looks at her. Nothing exists for him in that moment except her.

“You gave me your love. Without it, I would have no reason to laugh, nothing to protect, and an empty place in my heart.Youare my family.” Lowering his head, he brushes his lips across hers in a fleeting kiss. “Will you be my mate?”

I’m suddenly holding my breath with no idea why. They love each other, I know that. We all do. So then why am I gripped by this tension she’s about to say no?

Eden’s eyes flutter closed, and she angles her head to the side, baring her throat to him. “Yes.” Her body is relaxed and expectant. She couldn’t have made it any clearer in words and action that this is what she wants.

Luka lowers his head.

I grip Galen a little tighter, tension dancing down my spine. This is it. This is when Luka will bite her and tie them together forever.

Why does it feel like this is happening to you instead of her?

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