But Sebastien needed no such caution. Instead, he merely placed the pair of cupcakes on the counter so they could more rapidly release their sultriness to the open air. Then he sank back down into his seat and took my hands between his own.
“All of those questions definitely have interesting implications,” he offered, voice husky with some emotion I couldn’t quite decipher. “Later, we can talk about packs and transformations and other items of scientific curiosity.” He paused, closed his eyes briefly, then speared me with a piercing gaze as he continued. “For now, though, I think it’s time to finally discuss the elephant in the room. Let’s focus on this all-important mating bond.”
Chapter 41
As if responding to Sebastien’s statement, our ungainly tether swelled into the girth of a boa constrictor as it trailed down my body and twined around each leg. The bond squeezed and slithered in a not entirely unpleasant fashion. And for half a moment, I thought I could actually see the glistening rope of connection binding me to my mate.
Then I blinked and the vision winked out, to be replaced by a cupcake cradled in my mate’s outstretched hand.
He’d peeled back the paper so carefully that each ridge was still perfectly formed, and the steam rising from the pastry had dwindled from a cascade of super-heated moisture to a thin trickle of warm air that twined between us and caressed my sensitive skin. A moment earlier, the heat within the chocolate would have made the experience unpleasant. But now I could almost imagine I was being stroked by my mate’s fingertips, and I didn’t argue when Sebastien offered me the very first bite.
Nothing had ever tasted quite as luscious as that cupcake, almost—but not quite—too hot for my mouth to handle. The molten interior oozed out around my piercing teeth, and a thin line of chocolate drizzled down over my lower lip. Sebastien leaned forward to wipe the goo away with his fingertip. And when he popped the morsel into his own mouth, I lost the entirety of my breath.
Other males of my acquaintance would have pushed their advantage at that point. There was something about lupine nature that tended to turn an aroused female into a challenge to be conquered and a hill to be rushed up. But my human partner granted me plenty of space to regain my shattered equilibrium, nibbling on the cupcake’s external softness before licking up half of the molten core.
The entire time, though, his eyes never left my own. It was almost as if Sebastien was embracing me with his entire being, and I curled into his warmth like a cat might lean into a caress. Perhaps that’s why, when offered the last third of the cupcake, I grew bold. Purposefully smearing chocolate across my mouth rather than eating my last bite daintily, I silently challenged my partner to kiss the sweetness away.
He was more than happy to oblige.
In the end, we were both breathless and laughing by the time that cupcake landed in our stomachs. And I was somehow certain that this was the moment that would bind us together forever. That, with his next words, Sebastien would accept me as his own true mate.
But, instead, my companion’s eyes grew hooded as he picked the final crumb out of my collar and popped it into his mouth for disposal. “You want this mating issue settled, don’t you?” he asked. “The uncertainty hurts you. A pain right here.” He rubbed his belly exactly where our tether so often tugged at my gut, and I couldn’t help but nod. Being half-bound to a human was an exquisite pleasure...but it was also pure agony. I did need this issue to be resolved.
“We’ll resolve it soon,” Sebastien promised, using the exact same word that had so recently run through my own head. “But I need you to answer a question first.” And this time when he paused, the air chilled while the same wall rose up between us that I’d sensed upon his initial approach.
I didn’t want to follow this trail to its inevitable conclusion. But I wasn’t a coward either. So I lifted my chin and said, “You can ask me anything.”
Meanwhile, in my heart, I knew what was coming. Sebastien would request more time. Of course he wasn’t ready to bind himself forever to a female he couldn’t possibly begin to understand. I hadn’t yet answered his long list of questions, had evaded similar queries quite ably for several days in fact before finally offering to fill in any gaps in his knowledge. A scientist wouldn’t jump into an unexplored decision that would so seriously impact the rest of each of our lives. It went without saying that Sebastien wasn’t yet ready to become my mate.
“You don’t have to decide now,” I continued, a tear already welling behind each of my eyes. If Sebastien needed more time, I’d give it to him. It was the least a mate could do...no matter how much the delay would rip up my insides.
Only, my companion didn’t maintain a proper distance. Instead, he tilted my chin upward until I once again met his gaze. And the eyes that pierced me resembled nothing so much as the molten core of our recently consumed cupcake, so rich and intense I lost myself for a moment within their mahogany depths.
“I’m not worried about changing my mind,” Sebastien clarified, making me wonder what was holding him back. I didn’t have to wonder for long, though, because he kept talking as if I’d spoken my query aloud. “I’m worried about you regretting a decision made under duress and without proper consideration. A decision that you continue to chase now due to chemical or magical interference that blurs your rational thought.”
“I’m thinking rationally...” I started. But Sebastien stilled me, placing one warm finger atop my chilling lips.
“Answer me these questions then,” he countered even as contact with his skin tugged at the tether in my belly and roused my wolf into a scampering dance that threatened to bowl me over onto the ground. “Will you ever regret binding yourself to someone who lacks the ability to run through the forest with you like a wolf? Will you regret being stuck in the middle of two worlds, never quite able to bridge the disparate ends? Is that worth this connection, powerful as it is, between two people who’d never heard of each other a week ago?”
Then his finger slipped away from my lips, leaving me free to speak. I opened my mouth to say, “Yes, of course, this is all I’ve ever wanted.”
But I couldn’t lie to him. Not to my mate.
Shivering, I realized that Sebastien was right. We barely knew each other. I had no idea how he’d fit into my future or he into mine. I had no clue if my brain rather than my libido was making this selection...or whether my obsession with Sebastien was instead based on residual magic lingering from that vow I’d sworn to Chief Greenbriar within a darkened zoo less than a week before.
And I didn’t have to say any of that either. Sebastien must have felt my confusion flowing down our mate tether, the same connection that currently twined its way up around my body until it squeezed tight as a garrote around my throat. Should a legitimate bond of mutual affection make it this difficult to breathe?
“That’s what I thought,” the professor murmured sadly. He reached out as if to touch me, then let his hands fall back against his side before they made contact with my bare skin.
“Ember, I’m not saying I’ll never become your mate,” the professor continued, his voice gaining strength as he proceeded. “If we come to a mutual decision once we know each other better, I’ll gladly accept everything a shifter mating bond entails. But for now, I’d like to give you the option to find out what you actually want and to make that choice with a clear and unfettered mind.”
No, no, no! my wolf whimpered. Her sharp teeth cut into my stomach lining and my hand pressed inward against the pain. But I didn’t voice her words aloud. Didn’t argue with Sebastien, whose explanations made a cold, scientific sort of sense.
“Ember Wilder-Young,” Sebastien said formally. And I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see him when he finished severing this connection that had salved my loneliness when I was furthest from my clan while giving me hope that I’d someday regain a pack bond. I swallowed and kept silent as he tore away half of my soul.
“Ember,” he continued, “I release you from your vow.”<
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Chapter 42
I shattered in solitude. Sebastien had propped the back entrance open to accommodate the wolf I’d descended into in my agony. Then he left via the same doors he’d initially come through without a single backwards glance.
How can our mate abandon us at a time like this? my wolf whimpered. But he wasn’t our mate. The human we’d hoped to spend the rest of our lives getting to know had instead refused to turn us from two beings into one.
Fighting against the sensation of yawning emptiness that had expanded from my belly to encompass my entire body, I struggled to force wobbly legs forward to follow in his wake. But there was no umbilical cord of connection trailing behind my absent partner. No warmth buoying me up and no half-formed tether dragging me down. Sebastien was simply gone, and I had no way short of walking through Eddie’s entire mansion hollering the former’s name to find him once again.
So I gave up. Didn’t take into consideration the host who was ignorant of werewolves or the city full of unwitting one-bodies that stretched across both sides of the nearby bay. Instead, I raised my chin to the ceiling and howled out my heartbreak. And, within minutes, wolves were assembling in the garden just outside the small back door.
They slid out of the shadows in one intermingled unit, both Wolfie’s pack and Sarah’s united to answer my desperate plea. Mercifully, the weakness in my legs had resolved itself by the time they finished their lupine greetings. So we walked together toward the rose arbor then slid one by one beneath the gap Eddie’s staff had purposefully left clear.
After that, we were running. Dozens of werewolves hunting moonbeams in a perfectly manicured garden where even field mice feared to tread. The border of Eddie’s property appeared all too quickly, but on the other side was a fence with a similarly well-placed gap. This time when we worked our way in single file through the opening in woven metal, there was nothing but ancient redwoods on the other side.
Wolves can’t cry. That was my one saving grace during the subsequent hours, the physical impossibility for my lupine body to shed so much as a single tear. Instead, I simply ran and ran and ran for hours, every single one of my not-quite pack mates sticking close to my retreating heels.
And when we were so exhausted that we couldn’t move another centimeter, we fell into a pile of furry bodies along the bank of a gurgling stream. A few of my relatives eased sore throats with a sip of the clear liquid, but most of us just curled up close together to fend off the chill of the evening, shared body heat making warmth out of night.
Bonds ran between us like strands of a spiderweb. Thick threads attaching relatives, thinner tendrils barely holding together temporary pack mates who’d never met each other before today.
In the center of the network, I alone was an island. Unconnected to either my Haven relatives or to Sarah’s pack mates. Unbonded even to my not-quite-mate.
And yet, both strangers and relatives had come when I called and run until they dropped right alongside me. Tonight, that would have to be enough.
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED Rogue Huntress! If so, the sequel—Huntress Unleashed—is due out in March.
While you wait, Wolfie’s first book, Shiftless, is free on all retailers. You can also download a free starter library and explore unique extras when you sign up for my email list.
Thanks for reading! You are why I write.
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