He laughed, as much as a wolf can laugh, as she told him story after story about her days as a trainer for Seeing Eye dogs. She amazed him. To be able to run her own business, live on her own, and train these amazing animals to help take care of others like herself. It was mind blowing. He hoped she could feel the awe he felt for her through the bond, but he wasn’t sure how much she was getting. He could decipher some of her emotions, but sometimes she’d get a look on her face that he couldn’t understand and knew he wasn’t picking up on whatever she was thinking in thatmoment.
Though he’d utterly loathed not being able to touch her, or talk back to her, he absolutely loved being in her presence and listening to her. He imagined that, in some twisted way, Lucian had given them each a gift, or perhaps it was more a gift for their mates. Kale wondered if Heather would have been so forthcoming about herself if he could respond. Would she have talked as much if he’d been able to fill part of the conversation? He didn’t know. What he did know was that, for whatever reason, Kale’s inability to speak to her had given Heather the courage to converse freely with him. And he’d soaked ineveryword.
“Okay, so I’ve been putting this topic off,” she said, drawing his full attention back from his own thoughts. “My pastrelationships.”
His ears perked up, and he couldn’t help but pull back his lips in a silent snarl as he thought about her with othermales.
“I’m getting the distinct impression that you don’t care for this topic, CabbagePatch.”
The snarl dropped as he huffed and rolled his eyes. She’d given him the stupid nickname because Stella and Kara had kept up the vegetable jokes forsolong.
She laughed. “And you care even less for your nickname. Ah, don’t be like that. Getting a nickname in a relationship is a step in the right direction. Like the first time you hold hands or burp in front of eachother.”
Kale rolled over onto his side and resigned himself to the fact that she probably wasn’t going to stop calling him Cabbage Patch. Not that he truly cared. She could call him anything she wanted, as long as she agreed tobehis.
* * *
Nick inched closerto where Kara sat in the tall grass. The breeze was blowing through her hair, and the moon shown down on her lovely face. He, like the other mated wolves, had taken to being in his wolf form when he was around his mate. Kale had mentioned that they could possibly get closer to their mates that way, and he hadn’t had to tell Nick or Ciro twice before they were disrobing and phasing. Nick could also smell her better in his wolf form, though, at times, this just made him ache for herevenmore.
“I know you saw my markings,” she said, breaking the easysilence.
Nick closed his wolf eyes and pictured those markings in his mind’s eye. She hadn’t spoken about the whole incident, and he’d been dying to know what she was thinking. The only thing he was getting from the bond wasconfusion.
“I wish I understood why it made you soangry.”
Her voice was soft and unsure. He wanted to clarify everything for her but he couldn’t, not for another twenty-fourhours.
Kara let out a sigh. “I grew up in the foster care system, and it made me tough. You have to be in order to survive some of the homes where you wind up. I’ve always considered myself independent and able to handle things. But…” She paused and pulled at a blade of grass. “But I feel so out of my depth here. I love the girls. I’ve never had friends like this. I’ve never had anyone that would have my back, ya know?” She glanced over at him but quicklylookedaway.
Nick wanted to growl. He wanted her eyes on him. He wanted her to see in his gaze just what he feltforher.
She gasped and pressed her hand over her heart. “You need to tone that down, Fonzie. It feels like my heart is going to beat out of my chest when you get extremelyemotional.”
Did she seriously just make a reference toHappy Days? And how did she even know about that show at her age? He understood the comparison. Fonzie was a biker. So was Nick. It was better than being compared to Lassie or Rover, or—Great Luna forbid—Teen Wolf. Fonzie he couldhandle.
“I wonder why I can feel some of your emotions, and I have your mark, but we can’t speak to each other through the mental link that we’re supposedtohave.”
Nick knew the reason was likely because gypsy healers historically never bonded with their true mates before they turned eighteen. So the fact that anything was happening between them while she was under eighteen was confusing to himaswell.
Kara continued to rub the place over her heart and, as she did, it tugged the V in her shirt low enough that Nick caught a glimpse of his markings. His own heart sped up, and his wolf rumbled hisapproval.
In the next instant, Kara was sitting beside him with her hand on his back. She was touching him. The spell allowed her to initiate contact, and she was choosing to touch him. He closed his eyes, and he and his wolf basked in her attention andaffection.
“This makes you happy,” she said, giving his fur a playful tug. “Me touching you. It makes you content. I actually feel your wolf calming. I have that effect on you?” She soundedskeptical.
Nick wanted to roar, “Yes.” He wanted her to be sure of his feelings for her. He wanted her to understand that she would never, ever be on her own again. Regardless of whether they could complete the Blood Rites now or a year from now, he would be beside her, right where hebelonged.
“I’ll admit,” she said wryly, “I want what Elle and Sorin have. I want what Sally and Costin have. I want to be looked at that way. I want to be loved with the condition that it’s until death rips us apart. Unconditional love sounds good, but to me, it’s the conditions set out before two people are joined that make it beautiful. In sickness and in health, for richer or poorer. Those are conditions for the love a man and a woman promise each other in my world. For once I would like to see those conditions prevail and two people to actually back up the words they spoke at the altar.” She laughed, but there was no humor in it. “That was probably a lot more than you wanted to know about me. But there it is. I don’t trust easily, Nick. No one has ever given me a reason to trust until I met Peri and her group of crazy supernaturals. I never believed there were men out there like Costin and Lucian. Men who would die for the woman they love, but even more impressive, will live sacrificially for her. Dying is easy. Giving up your own wants and needs for another, that’s the hard stuff. Can you givemethat?”
* * *
Ciro laidin his wolf form in front of the bedroom door of the three gypsy healers. Stella claimed she was taking a nap, though she was actually hiding from him. Each day she’d find some reason to slip away. She had to wash her hair, she had a headache, and, his personal favorite, she’d taken up meditation in her search for the meaning of life. It didn’t bother him. He simply followed and stayed as close to her as hecould.
The Great Luna had made it very clear that Stella would need a patient mate, a mate with self-control and confidence. The confidence was necessary because she was going to, no doubt, shoot him down a hundred times. Some men, even a true mate, might get a bruised ego over it. Ciro had been living a very long time. He knew what it meant to find his true mate, how precious it was. He also knew that she needed him as much as he needed her. His ego did not play into the matter in any way. They were soul mates and incomplete without oneanother.
He heard her moving on the other side of the door and then heardhersigh.
“You’re still out there, aren’t you?” she asked, even though he couldn’t answer. She was able to feel how close he was throughthebond.
