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“It is our bond,”he explains in my head.“Mated pairs can speak to each other in this way when they are near each other, in wolven form.”
“Can you hear me?”I think to him, testing the connection.
“Yes.”
Dark clouds blanket the sky and rolling thunder booms overhead.
“We need to find shelter,”Malak says.
“There’s an inn not far from here,” I offer. “In the town of—”
“No,”he replies sharply.“The Mage will expect us to go there. We must keep off the main roads until we are closer to the border.”
He continues on his path, taking us deeper into the woods.
The skies open up as rain begins to fall. My damp clothes stick to my skin and plaster my hair to my face and neck, chilling me straight to the bone. What I wouldn’t give for a thick coat as the cold breeze picks up, weaving through the trees and wrapping around me in an icy embrace.
After what feels like forever, we finally find a rocky outcropping. It isn’t much, but at least it’s some sort of shelter from the freezing rain. Malak lowers himself to the ground, and I slide off his back. My teeth begin chattering as I miss the warmth of his contact.
He shifts into his two-legged form and wraps his arms around me. He pulls me into his lap as he sits down. Cold and tired, I curl into his embrace. Gently, he nuzzles the top of my head. The gesture so intimate and familiar, my chest tightens. “Is this better?” he whispers.
Swallowing against the knot of emotions in my throat, I nod.
“I missed you,” he whispers into my hair. “So much. Did you—” He pauses a moment as if unsure what to say before finally managing, “think of me often?”
“Every day,” I admit, the words leaving my lips unfiltered.
His expression brightens and he cups my chin, brushing the pad of his thumb across my lower lip.
His face falls as I pull away. “Luna, what is wrong?”
“How can you act as though nothing has changed, Malak?” Tears sting the back of my eyes.
“Because it hasn’t.” His gaze holds mine. “You are my mate, Luna.”
“You say I’m your mate, but I thought Wolf-Shifters didn’t abandon their mates,” I reply sharply, unable to hide the anger in my tone. “Your letter, Malak… that’s what you did.”
“I had no choice, Luna.”
“Yes, you did,” I insist. A tear slips down my cheek. “You could have used our code… You could have explained—”
“I could not risk my father discovering my true feelings.” He takes my hand. “But I came for you, Luna. I’m here now.”
“What has changed?” I ask. “Why now?”
“My father has bequeathed the Vale to me in its entirety,” he says. “It is mine to rule. And as its Lord, I can choose my own mate, without my father’s oversight. And I have chosen you.”
“You want everything to be as it was, but it’s been three years, Malak.” I look down at our joined hands. “I am not the same person I was when you left me.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not,” I counter. “The person I was”—I shake my head softly—“she cried herself to sleep so many nights thinking you’d forgotten her.”
“But I did not forget you.”
“How was I to know that?” I ask. “You hurt me, Malak. And I—” My voice catches and tears track down my cheeks.
Cupping my face, he brushes them away and tips my face up to his. “Do you still love me?”
