and we’d spent time day dreaming over the possibilities, imagining what the mystery wolf would be life.
His eyes widen as he remembered. “You should’ve seen the way her eyes sparkled, Darcy. She could barely contain her excitement, bouncing around in her seat like she was about to explode. We must have talked for an hour as she asked me question after question. Who did I think he was? Where was he? Could she trust the dream? I couldn’t help laughing, her enthusiasm was so addicting. I teased her about Daniel, telling her how this would crush him, but you could tell the idea of her settling down intrigued her. I don’t know if it will ever come to past, but what if it was true? Am I supposed to wait for that future knock on the door and have to share with a stranger the woman he was expecting is gone?” His voice broke. “No happily ever after for her. No babies… no future. All gone in the blink of an eye.”
I tried to speak, but couldn’t. My own tears coursed down my face as I listened to him bare his soul.
“I don’t ever want to fail like that again. I need to be strong so I should forewarn you, don’t kill me if I start to get a little possessive and over protective. I don’t mean to, but I’m fighting instincts here. Be patient.”
“Whatever you need, I love you. And Jasmine… she was so proud of you,” I whispered when I finally found my voice. “You’re a good man. Don’t ever doubt it.”
We huddled together in silence, caught up in the truthfulness of the moment. Gone was the buildup of magic. The aggression and anger from before had also abated and I could sense his fatigue. I don’t think he realized just how much he had bottled until he pulled the cork and let it out.
“Was that good enough?” He chuckled, his body putty under my hands. “I didn’t scare you away with my sappiness?” I could sense the mood changing as he began to bring himself back together.
“Never. You’re stuck with me forever.” I leaned forward and kissed him lightly.
“Good, because I’d accept nothing less. I love you, Darcy.” He smiled and this time it reached his eyes. “And thank you. I’ll admit, I do feel better and not so heavy inside.”
“Then that’s all that matters. You’re not alone anymore. You have me and I will always be here to listen. We strengthen each other and there’s nothing to be ashamed of in needing a little help. There’s no weakness in it.” I made sure to put emphasis on the last part. I didn’t want him walking away thinking I felt he was less of a man because he’d shown his emotions.
“I hear you.” He slowly pulled himself up and reached down to lift me. “Ugh.”
I looked at him. “I hope that
“No, even I’m not that stupid.” He laughed as he dodged the swing of my arm. “It’s Daniel. He’s almost frantic wondering where we are.”
We helped dust each other off, brushing away pieces of leaves and dirt. I heard the movement of a rabbit, hopping through the foliage and noted the sounds of the woods had returned. The crisis had been averted.
Walking back in the direction of the house, we swung our arms between us as we held hands. I looked down at our fingers entwined together, and couldn’t help but smile. Yep, we were okay.
I flashed him some images of what else I wanted to see entwined, expecting to get a response, but Mason looked like he was enjoying his surroundings. I added a little heat to my thoughts, sending them back along the pathway and was rewarded with that sexy smile I loved so much.
“Really? You promise?” he questioned, his temperature spiking with arousal.
“And then some.” I sent him a new image that caused even me to blush.
When I got no reaction, I sighed heavily. I was getting tired of how sporadic my connection with him was acting. One thing I noticed was it was practically flawless when I was in close proximity to him while in wolf form. It kind of made sense, but it wasn’t good enough. Seeing we spent most of our day and night as humans, I really needed it to work perfectly each and every time.
I gasped as an idea flashed through my mind and fear rushed through me.
“What if my connection problem is because we’re mismatched?” I blurted out.
“Mismatched?” he asked, a confused look on his face.
“Yeah, what happens if I got the wrong wolf? What if she was supposed to go to someone else and there was some big cosmic mix up?” I knew I sounded delusional, but at this point I was clutching at straws.
Mason ran his fingers through my hair, separating some of the strands now they were drying. “Baby, it doesn’t work like that, remember? Each of us are born with a wolf that is unique to us, one who brings us balance and helps us be complete. There is no such thing as mix ups, wrong deliveries, or whatever. You and your wolf were destined to be together. You strengthen and help one another when the other is weak. I’m sure if you asked her, she’d tell you the same thing. It’s a soul connection that can’t be denied or replicated. There’s something else at work here.”
“Okay.” I couldn’t help the way my voice wavered with uncertainty.
He brought my gaze back to his and kissed me softly. “Trust me.”
“Okay. I love you.”
“I love you too,” he replied before deepening the kiss.
I sank into Mason, reveling in how amazing his lips felt against mine. I don’t know how long we stood there, caught up in the moment, but when he finally broke away, I was a little lightheaded. I grinned at the idea I was becoming a swooning werewolf.
“You ready to face the music? Daniel says Devlin is there and he’s getting more and more impatient. For someone who’s immortal and has all eternity before him, he doesn’t care for being made to wait. Apparently some of the younger cubs have locked themselves in their rooms because they said he was staring at their necks.”
I laughed at the image in my mind, of the devilishly handsome vampire licking his fangs at them. It was exactly something the teasing Enforcer would do.
“Poor things. Hasn’t anyone told them he’s just a big softy?”
“Only around you, Darcy. From the images Daniel showed me, it was too funny so everyone there just let them go. He’s gathered the others so we can start the meeting.” He chuckled. “We good?” He peered down into my eyes.
“We’re more than good. Race you back to the house.” And I took off running.
Chapter Ten
I couldn’t stop smiling at the sense of freedom I felt, even though I knew what lay ahead of me. This time with Mason had truly been an elixir to my soul and helped restore a lot of the confidence I’d lost. My feet flew across the ground as I tried to watch for holes and fallen logs. The last thing I needed was to stumble and injure something.
I expected him to pass me because he was definitely the faster of us both, and when I didn’t hear him coming, I figured he liked the “view” better from where he was. I tried to put a little wiggle as I moved, but when I almost fell, I gave up sexy for speed. Problem was I still wasn’t hearing him behind me. He was stealthy, but not so good he could move without making a sound.
I came to a complete stop and whipped around, my hair flying everywhere and I had to take a moment to pull it away from my face. All I could see was forest. No Mason.
A black wolf flew through a batch of low hanging leaves and I realized that the rotten punk was cheating. It reminded me when challenging a werewolf; make sure I was specific because they’ll look for any loophole to win. I hadn’t said
I worried it would take longer to change this time. All the shifting of muscle and bone takes a toll on the body and where magic alleviates most of the strain, there was a limit to just how much it could do.
I reached out to my wolf, getting a sense of how she was feeling. I expected some sort of lethargic energy, but she was rearing to go. I puzzled over it, and discerned a power I knew instantly as Mason’s. He was channeling some of his own Alpha power to me, lending me the strength so I could catch up. I didn’t quite understand the gist of it all, but being Alpha came with some pretty amazing abilities and I couldn’t wait to learn more about them.
