Filed to story: The Wolf Prince’s Fated Love
“Can you shift?” I asked, going into emergency triage mode. “Your wolf’s fur can keep you warmer.”
“Can’t. Too tired. She ran from them as far as she could before the water got too rough and we almost drowned,” she whispered against my neck, her exhaustion clear.
Even with nothing but my own heat to offer her, the shivers were starting to slow. I wouldn’t breathe easy, though, until she was dry and warm and in the bunker. I scooped her off her feet, stepping over the strewn limbs of her attackers as I headed for the nearest cache of clothing.
Thankfully, it wasn’t far, and I popped open the watertight black chest a few minutes later. I set her on her feet, not letting go of her hand as I dug through the clothing. There was a pair of sweats in there that was only a little too big, so I helped her step into those first. My next round of digging found a way too big sweatshirt, but it was better than nothing.
“Arms up,” I ordered, and she complied without hesitation. With trust. It was enough to clog my throat, but I was in damage control mode. I turned back to the chest, finally releasing her hand so I could find myself a pair of pants, when she gasped behind me.
“Gael?” Her voice was barely above a whisper, and I spun, looking for the threat.
“What is it? I don’t sense anyone?”
“It’s your back, there’s-” She grabbed my shoulders, spinning me around. “Would you hold still for a damn minute?”
“I’m sure I’ve got some cuts, but it’s okay. They’ll heal in a few minutes. Right now, we need to get you to the nearest guardhouse, where you can warm up and we can lock a door.” I tried to turn back to the chest, but she didn’t let me go.
“No, Gael, stop.” She used an alpha bark on me, and while it didn’t really work-your own mate couldn’t use an alpha command on you effectively-it did give me pause. Her chilled fingertips traced along my skin, leaving a shivery feeling in their wake. “Your back. It’s covered in mate marks.” Leigh used my shoulders to turn me yet again, this time to meet my eyes. “They’ve come in.
Your marks have come in.” She said it slowly, as if she could tell I wasn’t hearing her.
Her words weren’t processing. She couldn’t be right. She’d said it herself-we were doomed. Our destiny was to never progress, to stay separate so I could protect our daughter. It wasn’t possible.
“BD?”
She must have seen the lack of belief in my eyes, because when I didn’t answer her, she held that eye contact as she reached down and lifted the hem of her oversized sweatshirt and lifted it back off. My wolf growled, knowing there was no way she was warmed all the way back up yet-and I had to work not to get distracted by both her chest and bump now back on display-but she spun as she pulled it off, and I lost my breath.
Stunning, perfect mate marks. They covered her entire back, from the nape of her neck, broadly spanning across both shoulders and twirling down in graceful arcs to the base of her spine in striking red ink.
All the breath in my body left me, and I sank back to my knees.
We aren’t doomed.
“You have mate marks.” I breathed the words reverently, letting myself reach up and trace them. I wanted to kiss every delicate line, every sweeping curve. I’d never seen marks in such a stunning, bold red before, but they fit the firecracker of a woman who wore them. They almost resembled a phoenix, broad wings tapering down into the smaller lines framing the bottom of her spine. I pressed a reverent kiss to a curl of ink on her shoulder blade.
“So do you, prince. They’re on your back. That’s what I was trying to tell you.” She held her blonde hair to the side, peeking back at me over her shoulder as if to watch my reaction.
I let my eyes fall closed, sucking in great gulps of air through my nose. My hands were shaking, and we weren’t out of danger yet. I wanted to enjoy this moment to the fullest, but it was hard when her safety was still at risk. But the marks were everything.
I get to keep her. Even my father can’t dispute this.
Her hands on my cheeks had my eyelids snapping back open a moment later.
“You said before that I called you. What did you mean by that?” Leigh asked, studying me carefully from where she knelt in front of me.
“I heard…” My eyes widened in realization as I played it back.
Mental bond. “I heard your voice inside my head. And then I got a snapshot of the clearing. All the men surrounding your wolf.”
She nodded, biting her lip as my hands came up to cup her shoulders. “Do you think I was wrong?” The question was a pained whisper, with none of her usual fire. “About everything, about us, completing our bond-just everything?”
That was when it hit me, finally sinking in.
We don’t have to stay apart. The Goddess has spoken.
I threaded my fingers into her hair, pulling her to me for a searing kiss. She squeaked at the sudden change in direction, but melted into me all the same, wrapping her arms around me and pressing her bare chest against my own.
By the time I pulled back, her lips were pink and puffy from my kiss. “Bond with me,” I demanded, watching with a grin as her eyes went wide.
“What? Gael! We can’t just… It’s not even the full moon!” She tried to pull away, to stand and pace away from me, no doubt, but I didn’t let her. I kept her anchored to me like my life-like her answer
-depended on it.
“The full moon is tomorrow. I know where we’re heading, and I can make it happen. All you have to do is say yes. Do you want to spend the rest of your life with me, Leigh? If all the rest were gone. If there were no outside trouble, no curse, no family expectations. If it was only you and me, a man and a woman, would you say yes?” I couldn’t tear my gaze away from her face as she considered it. Everything hung in the balance. I could feel it in my bones, surer than I’d ever been about anything before in my life.
“Of course I would,” Leigh said softly, pushing back a lock of her bedraggled hair. I quickly took the discarded sweatshirt from her hands and pulled it back over her head. There was no way she was warm yet. “Of course, I would say yes, but?-“
“No buts. We’ll figure this out together. Me and you, as mates. We have a soul bond. We’re literally inside each other’s heads. It doesn’t get closer or more intimate than that. And I can’t believe the Goddess would have given us that if we weren’t meant to embrace it. So, will you say yes? Will you bond with me tomorrow, under the moon and the Goddess herself?”
She rubbed her belly, and I knew she was torturing herself over Petal’s future. Imagining orphaning our child. But somehow, deep down, I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I placed my hand over hers, and she looked back up at me with a worried frown.
“Petal is going to be okay. I know it. And I think if you stepped past the fear, you’d know it too. Reed said something to me the other day, and I brushed it off at the time. He said it felt a lot like the Goddess was bringing us all together for a reason we just hadn’t figured out yet. And you know what? He’s right. There’s no other explanation. And I refuse to believe there’s no hope for us, for our family. There has to be hope, or what’s the point of all this crazy shit happening?”
I stroked her chin with my thumb. The decision had to be hers. Even if it killed me, I’d wait. I’d ask her again every full moon until she either said yes or there was no breath left in my body, but the decision was hers.
She straightened her shoulders, and it was like watching her put on armor. Goddess, but she was magnificent. Leigh was all alpha, and I loved her so fiercely for it that I couldn’t breathe sometimes. Because that was exactly what I wanted our daughter to grow up to be. If she had half of Leigh’s fire, she’d be just fine, no matter what the future held.
“Yes. Prince Gael Starling, I will bond with you under the full moon tomorrow, and we will protect our daughter together. Yes,” she said again, and my heart nearly exploded with joy.
I kissed her again then, not caring that I was coated in blood or she was damp and covered in dirt. She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen, but even if she weren’t, I wouldn’t have cared. Because the person she was on the inside was my perfect other half.
When I got to my feet, I pulled her with me. “As much as I’d love to admire all this for the next hour or three,” I said, rubbing over her beautiful bump, “we still need to get to somewhere safer and meet back up with the rest of the pack. Are you ready?”