AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Besides, his question has two answers.
Where am I going?
Eventually? Home.
I came down to the creek earlier to think about what my next move is. If Fallon’s meeting with the witches goes well today, she’s one step closer to fulfilling her birthright. Born of a witch father and a shifter mother, both the Luna and Hecate—the witch’s goddess—agreed that she’d be the one to usher the sanctuary town into a new age.
Marie Bordeaux bartered for her granddaughter’s soul; considering she herself killed her son, Jolie was her only hope to continue her bloodline. Lucas Guidry sacrificed his sanity and his soul, becoming a feral beast twice a month in order to beg for his mate to be returned to him. The two goddesses agreed to pool their magic to bring her back as Fallon, but only because she had a destiny.
I did my part. I kept her alive from the age of sixteen until twenty-five. It was a lot harder after she graduated from Rutgers and moved to New York, but Lorelei and me… we managed.
But the assignment is done now. Once Fallon is firmly installed as the leader of the coven, she won’t need a protector anymore. Honestly? With that Alpha mate of hers at her heels like a guard dog, she probably doesn’t need one anymore.
So that’s it. I… I think I’m done here. The next time the train out of Winter Creek rolls through, I’m going to be on it, and I’m surprised it took me this long to realize that I can’t keep going on like this. This little chat with Tristan was especially eye-opening to me in a few different ways, and I’m finally admitting that to myself.
One: despite the way he reacted at the creek, plus how much distance he’s kept between us since, the mate bond is a funny thing. He clearly doesn’t want to be my mate, but tell that to the lust pouring off of him right now.
Two: I’m not the type of she-wolf who will settle for a forever mate just because the Luna picked him out for me. She’s our goddess and I revere her like the rest of my kind, but being one of her guardians gave me a front-row seat to seeing some of her more… questionable decisions.
Three: I want him. Desperately. When he made that comment about marking him… fuck me. I wanted to say ‘yes’. My fingers twitched, itching to dig into his skin, lick the blood from the points of my claws, and show the whole world that this male is mine. But he’s not. He can’t be. Because this whole time we’ve been standing here, the constant prickles against my skin hasn’t stopped.
Our bond? It’s still being blocked.
No bond, no mate. It’s as simple as that. In order to claim our mates, shifters need to recognize that there’s a tie between two souls. Only then can they do the physical act of mating on the night of the Luna—the full moon—and get her blessing to finalize the bond. We mark each other with either our claws or our fangs, and that shifter mark is as much of a symbol that we’re bonded mates as wedding rings do the same for married humans.
Only, when it comes to a supe mating, there is no such thing as divorce. Mate bonds are the epitome of ‘til death do you part, and since supes are either long-lived—like shifters or witches—or even basically immortal—like the bloodsuckers—that’s a long time to be stuck with someone you don’t want to be with.
Tristan’s body might want mine, but his heart is as closed off as our bond. I don’t know why. It kills me that I don’t. He was so receptive to me the instant that he knew who I was… but then, like the flip of a switch, something happened. Something changed.
Three months ago, I was ready to give him time. To give him space if that’s what he needed. Forever is a daunting prospect even to wolf shifters who are raised on the idea of a ‘forever’ partner, and I was ready to navigate this huge change with him.
That was three months ago. And maybe Lorelei always used to shake her head and said my pride would be the death of me, but I spent the first few days in Winter Creek torn between doing my duty and listening to Fate. I kept watch over Fallon until I let myself get snared in the witches’ trap, and I waited for Tristan to come back to me.
He never did. Even after our explosive confrontation after Fallon and I escaped the Coven House, he avoided me the best that he could manage when we live in the same house and on the same territory.
So why is he looking at me expectantly now as though he has any right to ask me what I’m doing or where I’m going?
Or that he honestly thought I’d answer?
Sorry, hotshot. You gave that up the moment you purposely shut down your side of our bond.
Come on. If I’m not about to listen to the Alpha of the pack, what makes Tristan think that the Beta holds any sway over one of the Luna’s guardians?
So I grin. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
CHAPTER 7
AMBUSH
Like their counterparts in the wild, wolf shifters aren’t just pack animals. We’re also incredibly territorial.
Maybe my pack of two—and, later, three—is a little bit small to be considered a true wolf pack, but when it comes to being territorial, you can’t beat a she-wolf with my… quirks. It made it so much easier that Lorelei’s always had a much milder temperament than me so she never argued back, and poor Fallon would just throw one of her pillows at me whenever I tried to claim more of the dorm room than I needed to.
It worked perfectly for us when my twin and I were masquerading as college students. Then, when we shared an apartment, it might be ‘our’ space, but we both know I really thought of it as mine. That’s part of the reason it was so hard for me to leave it, but once I abandoned that territory—leaving it to Cal and Lorelei—I had no desire to go back to it at all.
In Winter Creek, I might sleep in the room on the third floor of the pack house. No one else does so it was easy for my wolf to claim the entire level as her territory—but that’s not the only spot in the town I’ve marked as mine.
The actual landscape of Winter Creek made it perfect to be a hidden supe sanctuary. The raging river they laughable refer to as a ‘creek’ is an obvious border to one side. I wouldn’t say it’s mountainous, but there are hills and rocky outcrops and even a waterfall spilling over into a lake that eventually feeds into the river. The town square itself is supposed to be one of the only areas of civilization without the trees and the woods encroaching on the land.
