“Alarick,” I said, my heart twisting inside me. “Please tell me you aren’t really blaming yourself for that. You were hurt. If you’d come into that room, the vampires would have killed you. There were a dozen of them.”
“And I’d have been a worthy mate to you.”
“A dead mate,” I said, stepping forward and wrapping my arms around him. “Alarick, I never blamed you for a single second. It never even crossed my mind. Please don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault in any way, and even if you’d turned tail and run, I wouldn’t blame you. I’d be happy that you were alive.”
He swallowed, his huge hands encircling my waist. “You’re warm.”
“Yeah,” I said, pressing my body to his and laying my head on the bulging muscles of his chest. The top of my head barely reached his nipples. I’d forgotten how insanely big he was. I couldn’t even reach my arms all the way around his torso.
Alarick lifted my chin again, this time leaning down to brush his lips over mine. “We’ll go with you,” he murmured against my lips.
“You will?” I asked, drawing back and looking up at him, hope springing to life inside me.
“Well, I’m not going to let you go alone,” he said. “It could be dangerous.”
Relief flooded through me, and I realized just how much I’d wanted that answer. Not just that he’d go with me, but that he wouldn’t tell me I was crazy to go looking for more wolves when his father had already told us there weren’t any. “Thank you,” I said, stretching my arms up to slide around his neck. Alarick lifted me off the ground, his kiss firm and commanding this time. Automatically, I wrapped my legs around him, circling his hips and linking my feet behind him. He moaned and kissed me harder, angling so ours mouths fit together in their perfect, familiar rhythm. He cradled my head in his palm, cupping my bottom with his other hand and crushing me against him.
“I hate to break up this little scene, but we’re about to head back,” Adolf’s voice cut in after a few minutes.
Suddenly, I realized my teeth were out. I pulled my mouth from Alarick’s and covered it with my hand, embarrassment flaming inside me. Shit. I knew getting angry brought them out, but I hadn’t known kissing would make my fangs descend.
“Are you okay?” I mumbled behind my hand.
“Yeah, fine,” Alarick said, setting me back on my feet, confusion furrowing his brow. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
I realized then that I didn’t taste blood. I hadn’t nicked his tongue. And thank god for that, because I probably would have attacked him if I’d tasted his blood.
“No reason,” I said, trying not to move my lips too much as I spoke.
Alarick turned to his brother. “Actually, we want to talk to you before everyone leaves.”
Adolf raised his brows, glancing between us. “Okay.”
“Come on,” Alarick said, wrapping my hand in his and tugging me toward the group.
They were now standing around waiting, the fire beside them dead and the food long gone. They fell silent when Alarick arrived.
“Timberlyn is back with us,” Alarick said. “But we’re not staying. She’s found out about the possibility of other wolves in a protected area, and she’s going to try to find it. I’m going with her. You can come with us, or you can stay here at Ravenwood with my father. That choice is yours. I don’t know when or if we’ll return, but we’ll be leaving in a week. Take that time to think it over and decide for yourself what you want to do.”
“You’re not coming back?” Brooklyn asked.
“I don’t know,” Alarick said. “That depends on what we find.”
“What makes you think there are more wolves?” Jose asked. “We’ve looked everywhere, and so has Mr. Wolf. If we didn’t find anything, why do you think you will?”
“They’re protected by magic that keeps outsiders from detecting them,” I said. “I don’t know if we’ll find anything or not. But I’m willing to take that chance.”
“Why?” Donovan asked. “You’re not a natural wolf, Timberlyn. You’re not going to find a mate or be able to reproduce with one.”
“My mother might be there,” I admitted. “My birth mother. There are other supernaturals besides wolves. So, I’m not going for entirely unselfish reasons. But around the time she was there, there were also wolves in the community.”
He nodded, seeming satisfied with that answer.
“What if you find Alarick’s mate?” Brooklyn asked.
I swallowed hard, aching at the thought of that possibility. But I wasn’t going to deny him that if he had the chance to meet her. “Then we’ll find her,” I said. “If he’s happy, I’m happy.”
I knew that wasn’t entirely true. It would break my heart into a million pieces to see him happy with someone else. I’d probably want to murder her. But if I found my mother, I’d go and live with her and try not to run into him too often.
“You’re not going to graduate high school?” Lindy asked, gaping at me.
I shrugged. High school seemed silly and unimportant right now. I had bigger things to worry about. And Ravenwood would probably let me come back and finish whenever I wanted. They didn’t seem very particular about education. Svana and Viktor were way older than high school students should be and probably weren’t actually learning anything in their classes. The Wolf brothers kept order at the school and went to classes, but they had been there for five or six years already.
“I know I have a year and a half left before I graduate,” I said. “But hopefully I can transfer to another school or come back here. Right now, this seems more important.”
“No one needs to decide anything today,” Alarick said. “We’ll meet in
