Page 37 of The Protector’s Heart

They walked through the woods in silence, the snow and ice crunching under their feet the only sound. The altar came into view and he stopped in front of it and placed the lantern on the smooth marble surface.

He looked down at her and she tilted her head back until she was looking into his eyes. Sometimes he felt like she could see right through him. He clasped both her hands and said, “It wouldn’t matter to me if being with you meant I lost the pack. I’d gladly go rogue for you and Jack. My pack laws are different now, though, and that means that I don’t have to leave. When we mate together, you’ll become an honorary member of the pack. The protectors will protect you and Jack the same as they would any other member. You won’t be shunned for your humanity; you’ll be revered as my mate.”

His heart started to pound as he stared into her eyes. She looked at him expectantly, and he pushed back the desire to strip her and mount her on the altar, fairly certain it wasn’t what the creators of the stone monument had in mind when they’d carved it.

“Nila, since the moment my wolf urged me to follow the sound of your tears and I found you in the storage room at the clinic, I’ve known that you were mine. Everything that I’ve done since that point was with you and Jack in mind. I took over the house that Brynn had been renting from my folks and completely redid the interior, and I willingly sat next to Brynn every day so I could catch glimpses of you. I also shifted and watched your house from the woods sometimes, and I occasionally drove by your house.”

Her brow rose. “You were stalking me?”

He made a face. “It’s not stalking if you’re my mate.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sounds like semantics to me.”

“Semantics?”

“Sure. You say mate, I say stalker.”

He huffed her name. “Nila.”

She giggled. “I’m kidding. I knew you were watching me, at least at work. I didn’t know about the other stuff, but I’m not surprised. You’re a very determined guy, but you never crowded me or pushed yourself on me. I’m here now by choice, and that means the world to me.” She paused and said, “If I told you I wanted to go get Jack and go to Diane’s for the night, would you stop me?”

His wolf clawed at him from the inside, howling in dismay. Although he wanted to snarl and tell her no, he knew he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. “I’d drive you there myself.”

Her face softened and her eyes glittered suddenly with unshed tears. “That’s why I want to be your mate, Malachi, because you gave me the choice. You accept me for all my flaws and my humanity, and you care about Jack as if he were your own flesh and blood. I don’t want to be anywhere but where you are for the rest of my life.”

Now his wolf wanted to howl for joy, and Malachi would have danced a jig if he wouldn’t have looked like an idiot. He settled for wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close, dropping his mouth to hers. He loved kissing her. She tasted as sweet and wild as she smelled, and her body fit against his perfectly. He loved how he could hear her heart beat faster and scent her arousal even in the frigid night air. His attraction to her had started with his wolf’s recognition of her as his mate, but his attraction to her now wasn’t based on some wolfy knowledge or physical things. It went far deeper. He loved how much she cared about Jack, and how great a mom she was. He loved how she wrinkled her nose when she thought something was particularly funny, and the way she cared about her patients.

He’d fallen in love with her. He’d been aware of his slowly deepening feelings for her as they’d grown closer, but he hadn’t really admitted the words to himself.

Breaking the kiss, he stroked his thumb over the curve of her cheek and said, “Nila, I love you. I want you to be my mate, and when things are settled with your past, I want you to be my wife and I want to adopt Jack. Will you mate me and marry me?”

Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open. For a heartbeat, she said nothing, and then she grinned and tears slipped down her cheeks. “I love you, too, Mal. I will absolutely mate you and marry you, and I know that you’ll make a great father for Jack.”

A great weight lifted off his shoulders as he pulled her even closer and they kissed. In his mind, his wolf was doing cartwheels, and he grinned inwardly. It hadn’t really been that long since he’d found her – just a few weeks – but the journey to get to this place had seemingly taken forever.

He pulled from the drugging kiss and nipped her lower lip. “I need to explain some more things to you, sweetheart.”

“I’m all ears,” she said, hugging herself closer and laying her cheek on his chest.

His wolf growled in approval and Malachi smiled. She’d said yes. Everything else was just details.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

After spending two cold hours in the snowy woods, she and Malachi walked back to Brynn and Acksel’s house and took Jack home. She was quiet on the drive to Malachi’s house, looking at Jack as he tried to fight to stay awake. The girls had worn him out, and she smiled as she realized that not only was she getting a family when she married Malachi, but Jack was, too. A big family that wasn’t just Malachi’s parents and sister, but also the pack. Acksel had made it clear before they left that when she mated Malachi and he adopted Jack, her son would become a pack member, able to join the ranks when he shifted sometime during his sixteenth year.

She’d always been worried about Jack growing up in Damien’s pack. He would have been encouraged to see her as unworthy because she was completely human, and she’d always assumed that Jack would be treated differently because he was only half wolf. But Acksel’s pack didn’t care about that anymore. Brynn was carrying Acksel’s child, and Acksel had ensured that the pack laws were changed so that Brynn and their kids were considered full pack members. Nila wouldn’t be a true pack member like Brynn, because she was the alpha female and that was special, but Nila would be an honorary member, and Jack would have full membership rights. So would any children she and Malachi had.

The time spent in the woods had been eye-opening. He’d told her not only about his people and their ways, but also the truth of his feelings for her. Love. He said he loved her. She loved him, too. She wasn’t exactly sure when it had happened, and maybe it was fast, but it felt right. She felt connected to him on a superior level, as if they really had been made for each other. Their relationship might have gotten off to a rocky start, what with her trying to push him away and him secretly stalking her, but they were solid now. It wasn’t just a connected feeling, she just flat-out loved him. Loved how sweet he was to Jack, how he treated her like a queen, and how he let her know that he supported her no matter what her choices were.

When he stopped the SUV, he got out and opened the back door and removed a nearly-asleep Jack from the car seat, lifting the diaper bag over his shoulder. She stared at him in surprise as he walked around the front of the SUV and then opened her door.

“What’s with the look?” He asked as he held the door for her.

“You just constantly surprise me,” she answered, stepping down onto the snow and standing next to him as he shut the door.

“Oh? I like being surprising.”

He held her hand as they walked into the house together. She’d lifted her hands to take Jack from him and put him to bed when he said, “Why don’t you go run a nice hot bath for us? I’ll put him to bed.”

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