Page 43 of Brock’s Mate

She went to the window and moved the shade, looking out at the yard. The moon was still almost full, bathing the landscape in moonlight.

Brock was standing out there in his wolf form, staring into the woods. After a few minutes he went into a slow trot, around the side of the house. Another minute or two and he reappeared from the other side.

He was circling the house. Patrolling. Trying to make sure she didn’t leave after all?

She stayed at the window, watching him make another circle, and another, and another. Each time, in between, he stopped and stared.

Staring outward, she realized. Not trying to keep her in. Making sure nothing could get in to hurt her.

She stood and watched him for a long time, but when she finally went back to bed, he was still out there.

Standing watch.

The next morning Brock woke late, feeling groggy. His wolf had spent half the night patrolling, and the other half curled up in the hallway outside Desi’s room, sleeping fitfully. He’d finally gone human and crawled into his own bed towards dawn.

Desi slept in too, and was unusually quiet. Once they’d both had something to eat, she badgered Brock about wanting to Change, but he wasn’t going there until he’d managed to bring her and her wolf together in her mind, and her wolf had agreed to some form of communication.

Desi grumbled, but went along with him more easily than he’d expected.

This time he avoided the easy path and found his own way into her mind, ending up in a forest glade. Her wolf was there before he called, at the edge of a clearing. Desi was there too, but she was asleep, curled up on a sunlit rock.

Desi’s wolf said, You again. Are you ready to submit to me?

Not a good start. She still wanted to be in charge, and she didn’t seem to feel any inkling of a mate bond. Unless this was her way of flirting with him?

Give it up, gorgeous, he said. Never happening. I’m not the submissive type, and you wouldn’t want me if I were.

Who said I wanted you? But she flicked her tail in a way that was definitely flirtatious—if you were a wolf.

Brock’s wolf appeared beside him. I would enjoy making her submit, he said.

Oh, fuck. This could get complicated. He hoped the two of them weren’t going to fight. Because he wasn’t ready for submission battles and virtual wolf makeup sex.

Brock didn’t know if Desi’s wolf could hear his, but she gazed at him with interest. Brock’s wolf yawned elaborately and scratched his flank.

Fuck. Him. They were flirting.

Trying to keep this on track, Brock said to Desi’s wolf, You don’t need to submit to anyone. But you do need to form a partnership with your human. If you don’t help and protect each other, you’ll probably end up dead.

I will protect us, she said. I will kill all our enemies.

Right. Stronger shifters than you have tried, he told her.

He put his hand on his wolf’s neck, and together they used their mental powers to project images into her mind—things that had happened to other shifters who’d gone rogue.

Things that might have happened to her if DiSantos had gotten to her. What would happen if the Council found her.

She shook herself briefly, as if unconcerned, but underneath he could feel her uncertainty. She asked diffidently, How do you keep these things from happening?

Brock said, We work as partners with our animals. We’re smart about when and where we Change. We’re careful about killing things. And we have friends at our backs. A pack.

Pack? Her ears perked up slightly.

Interesting. Maybe not as much of a lone wolf as she liked to think she was.

Brock and his wolf showed her images of the Silverlake wolf pack and the Wild Blood Crew. They projected how it felt to be bonded to a pack or crew. How it made them strong.

He could tell she was intrigued. Wolves, more than almost any other shifters, yearned for connection, for a pack. Lone wolves were rare.