His answer did not come as quickly this time. “I” —he swallowed— “I would if I could. If you didn’t want to be with me…I would let you go.”
Bethany believed him, but she could tell that there was something he wasn’t telling her. “But?” she coaxed. “What are you not saying, Drake?”
He closed his eyes. “I love it when you say my name.”
“Don’t try to distract me,” Bethany said dryly.
After several seconds, Drake opened his eyes. “Iwouldlet you go, but…” He emphasized the word. “In order for that to happen, I would have to request that my Alpha put me down.”
“Put you down where?” she asked. Her brow furrowed deeply and her lips thinned. She didn’t like the sound of that.
“I don’t want this knowledge to sway you, love. I want you to make whatever decision you feel is best for you, not based on my actions or reactions.”
“Please, Drake, tell me what that means.”
Drake sighed. It was heavy, as though he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders. “It means he would have to kill me.”
She jerked back out of his arms. “What?” Her voice rose an octave and filled up the room.
“We are not human, Bethany. We do not respond to things as humans do. We are Canis lupus and we have our own ways. I know it’s hard to understand them if you’ve not grown up with them your whole life.”
She didn’t even know what to say. She literally held his life in the palm of her hands. “So, if I choose to walk away—” She took in a quick breath. Bethany’s hands were shaking and she didn’t understand why. “That would mean the end of your life? Just like that?”
Drake’s shoulders were tense and his mouth drawn into a hard line. He looked as if he’d rather eat nails than have this conversation. But Bethany wasn’t going to let it go. It was just too important.
“We should probably sit down for this conversation.” He motioned to the large, and suddenly inviting, couch.
She sat on one end, turning her body so that one leg was pulled up on the side while the other dangled. Drake sat, but he didn’t lean back. Instead, his elbows rested on his knees as he leaned forward. His hands were clasped together and his chin rested on the fist they made. It took so long for him to begin speaking that Bethany was kind of worried there would be a vampire apocalypse before she got the answers from him, but after several long minutes, he finally spoke.
“When a wolf finds his true mate, he has found the one woman he will spend his life living for or dying for—the only woman. She holds the other half of the male’s soul, and he holds hers. We mate for life, literally. If a mated pair has completed the Bonding Rites, then their fates are tied. If one dies, so does the other. We cannot live without our mate.”
That last sentence was said as if Bethany had asked him to live without air. And maybe she had.
Chapter 6
“How does someone survive in the dark once they’ve been shown how beautiful it is in the light?” ~Costin
Three days missing.
Costin was a mess. There was no other way to put it. Before Sally, he’d been getting by, living behind the smile and the jokes, but deep down the darkness was creeping further and further into his soul. Then she’d come, and like the first rays of the sun in the morning, she’d lit him up from the inside out. Sally had replaced all of the loneliness and pain. She’d brought him the hope that comes with having a true mate. And just as quickly as she’d appeared in his life, quicker actually, she’d been ripped away.
“Can we go outside, Daddy?” Titus asked. It was midafternoon and he knew the little boy had to be getting restless. He’d gotten to play and walk around the mansion, but he’d been cooped up inside, and Costin knew that fresh air would do them both some good.
“Sure, buddy. We can go out.”
Peri had been kind enough to bring Titus some clothes and a jacket, shoes, and socks. Though Spring was upon them, in the morning the air was still cool enough to warrant a light jacket. Costin helped Titus pull on his jacket and slip on his shoes before taking his hand and walking them out of the large house.
“There’s a lot of steps to take before you can get to a door to go outside,” the little boy pointed out.
Costin smiled. “Yes, there are a lot of steps to take.”
“Will we always live here?” Titus asked.
Costin thought about it. He’d always planned to stay in the pack mansion, though not everyone in the pack lived there. But he guessed that could change, if Sally wanted. Although even if they didn’t live in the pack mansion, they would need to live close since she was healer to the Serbia pack.
“It depends on what Mommy wants,” Costin told him.
“I think she will want to stay.”
