Mate, my wolf said, quietly this time.
Alice’s hand slid to my waist and drew me closer. And she inhaled again, her lips against my bristly throat. I hadn’t taken time to shave between leaving her house and my meeting with Gerald Hines. I wished now I had.
For nearly an hour, she shivered and just breathed me in while I tried to warm her and keep her from slipping away into unconsciousness again.
Damn it all, I was terrified of losing her. And I would be until she had enough strength to use the powerful healing spell she needed to recover.
I hadn’t been terrified in a very long time. Not since the night I became a werewolf.
No, that wasn’t quite true. I was terrified the next day too, when I woke from endless nightmares and looked up into thegolden eyes of Henry Cartwright, the man who’d be my first and only alpha.
That day, I’d been scared shitless of what I’d become, and of what my life would be like as a shifter.
Henry, who was the alpha of the Tomb Mountain Pack at the time, found me naked, bloody, and alone in the woods, the only survivor of a group of three friends who’d gone camping and been attacked by a pair of violent mated werewolves. Even then, he knew I would be an alpha someday, and a better choice to succeed him than his beta.
He’d also given me the courage to face my future, as well as teaching me my most important lesson about what it meant to be an alpha: it was not only my duty but my very great privilege to protect those in my care.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t long—just a few years—before I was called upon to take my place as his successor and do just that.
Everything I did as an alpha, I did in Henry’s honor. Especially in moments like this.
As Alice shivered and breathed in my scent with her face buried against my neck, I talked so she could hear my voice and know I was here and she was safe.
I talked to her about my favorite albums, especially what I owned on vinyl and what I wished I owned. I speculated what she might have in her own collection, which I’d glimpsed downstairs but hadn’t had a chance to look through. I even defended the song by Starship she’d scoffed at while we were in Hawthorne’s last night, hoping to elicit a chuckle or a response of any kind.
Maybe she was beyond listening, but I knew she could hear me. Whenever I paused, her fingers tightened on my waist or curled against my chest as if to make sure I was still here.
Then, just as I started telling her about my pack, she began to cry. My gut wrenched.
She wept silently, tears rolling down her cheeks in twin trickles that swiftly became a flood and dripped onto my bare chest.
I nuzzled her hair and wrapped her in more comforting warmth and alpha magic.
“Tell me what you need,” I said into her hair. I hated that it still smelled of burned skin and what I now knew was uncontrolled fire magic. “Please, Alice. Tell me what to do.”
Tell me what to dowas not a phrase an alpha uttered very often.
She could have said anything and I would have done my damnedest to make it happen. But she didn’t reply. She just cried until eventually she cried herself to sleep.
At least it was sleep and not unconsciousness, and she wasn’t shivering so badly anymore.
I kept talking, though. I wanted her to hear my voice and know I hadn’t left her alone. I went ahead and told her about my pack, my company, and my family.
I told her I’d like to know what movies she liked and what she did for fun when she wasn’t working. I asked what kind of ice cream she liked and threw out some guesses. My money was on mint chocolate chip.
I promised she and her secrets would always be safe with me. I might have promised that a couple of times.
Eventually, my own eyes started drifting closed. After forcing my way through Natalie’s house wards and allowing Malcolm to drain so much energy and magic from me, and after so little sleep in the past two days, I was so tired that my body felt leaden. But I didn’t want to sleep in case Alice woke up without a clear memory of what had happened or why I was with her.
My wolf rested his head on his paws, his gaze softly golden.Will keep watch, he said.Mate will be safe.
I moved Alice just enough that my head was propped comfortably on a pillow and her neck wasn’t at an odd angle where it rested against my chest. She turned and snuggled closer so her nose pressed to my skin and sighed in her sleep.
I’m here. I willed her to feel my promise as I held her in a way that felt far more comfortable and natural than it had any right to be given what a short time we’d known each other.
I’m here, Alice Worth, and I will be until you’re healed and well again. And then I’d like to be around after that too.
I closed my eyes and gave in to the soft darkness of sleep.
