“And, you are beautiful,” Jacob added gently.“You have always been beautiful.Libby, Willow, it doesn’t matter to us what name you go by.You are our mate and what we feel for you transcends time.”
Willow swallowed and he was slightly distracted by the movement it caused in her throat.He longed to press open-mouthed kisses against the sensitive skin there, but figured that was probably way too soon.
Willow nodded and settled back against the couch.“Tell me about her.Your Libby.How did you meet?”
What followed was as wonderful a conversation as it was strange.To sit there, staring at their mate, knowing that she was in fact their Libby, but was a different woman, was difficult.All the same, they told her about how they had met and how the attraction had been instantaneous, the bond slamming into the both of them in that very same moment.When she asked about the mating bond, they answered as honestly and openly as they could.
“Did we ever—you know—” a blaze of color swept Willow’s cheeks once more and Jacob grinned.
“Did we ever—what, sweet?”Jacob knew exactly what she was asking but desperately wanted to tease her in this sweet moment.
“Did we ever—” Willow moved her hands back and forth together like she was clapping, but they never touched “—you know.Together.”
“Did we ever clap our hands silently?”Liam asked dryly, joining in with the teasing.“Together?”
“All the time,” Jacob deadpanned and grinned as their mate threw her head back and roared with laughter.The sight of her bewitched him, man and wolf and enslaved both of them forever.
“Fuck, you guys suck,” Willow wiped the tears of laughter from her face, still giggling.“Fine, let me say this straight.Did we ever consummate our mating in that life?”
Memories of the carnal, sweet, etched-in-his-mind-forever night the three of them had spent together swept over him.
“Yes, sweet,” his voice sounded deeper than before.“We did.We celebrated our mating and our love one evening after a pretty awful day of war.Fighting, bleeding, grieving.Everything that comes with the violence of that time.”The mood in the room dropped and Jacob regretted what he had shared.“I am sorry, sweet, I should have—”
Willow moved forward quickly and laid her soft fingers against his mouth.“Shh, you do not need to apologize for anything you tell me in truth.I want to know, I-I need to know.”
Jacob pursed his lips to leave a kiss against her fingers, then reached to pull them away from his lips, but held her fingers in his hand, gently.“We will always tell you the truth, sweet.That is what it means to be mated.”
He kept his eyes on Willow, but caught the movement as Liam reached forward and grabbed her free hand, lifting it to his own lips.Jacob felt the power of the bond swell within them as the connection between the three of them strengthened at the touch.From the way Willow’s eyes widened, Jacob knew that she had felt it too.
“It was the best night of our lives,” Liam murmured, and Willow’s gaze slid from his to meet his brother’s.“We had only known each other a short while, but with the uncertainties of war, the stress of not knowing if we would survive the day and the intensity of the attraction between us, we allowed ourselves that moment in time, to cement our bond.”
Willow took a deep shuddering breath and Jacob’s heart ached at the tender look on her face.“I am thankful that you were—we were able to take that moment.I might not remember it, but I am glad that we had it.”
Jacob started to feel a strange wrenching within him, and he frowned.“What is this?”
“The sun is rising.”Ursula’s voice was sad and soft, and he turned to see her standing in the doorway.“It’s time for you to return, but you will be back when the sun sets this evening.”
The feeling began to intensify.It wasn’t painful, but it sure as hell wasn’t pleasant.Knowing that they were leaving their mate alone and without their protection, made it damn near unbearable.Not enough time, not enough time in this world.It would never be enough.
“Willow.”His voice sounded distant, and the world began to disappear from the edges, turning black.The last thing he saw was his mate reaching out to him and Liam, as silent tears slid down her beautiful face.
****
Willow sat at Ursula’skitchen table, staring out at the world.She had always loved the hustle and bustle of New York streets.The sights and sounds comforted her and there was always something to see and do.But today, the city appeared entirely too busy.And way too bright.She stared up at the sun, shining mockingly high in the sky and wished for the millionth time for the damn thing to move quicker.
“That was a pretty big sigh,” Ursula said as she took the seat across from Willow and set a steaming cup of coffee in front of her.“Is that the result of only a couple of hours’ sleep, or are you thinking heavy thoughts?”
Willow took a sip of the hot, strong brew.“A bit of one, a whole lot of the other.”The four hours of sleep she had managed after watching Liam and Jacob literally vanish into a stream of what looked like black liquid flowing toward her had been shocking, but she was still dealing with all the emotional turmoil she had faced in the hours leading up to that.She had cried when they were gone, cried when she lifted her shirt and saw her stunning tattoo back across her body, and cried over everything she had heard that night until she fell asleep on Ursula’s couch.
“You wanna share those thoughts?”Ursula asked as she took a sip of her own coffee.“It might help to talk it through.”
Willow wrapped her hands around her cup and pulled her legs up onto her chair.“When I came here yesterday and Christ knows it’s hard to believe all this happened in one day, but when I came here, my life was—well, normal.I worked, I slept, I ate, I played with my cat.”A sharp ache speared her chest at the thought of Hugo and the end he must have faced.Her voice shook.“And now, here I sit, in a woman’s kitchen that is practically a stranger to me but might actually now be the closest friend I have ever had.I know about weird and wonderful, magical things in this world that would have seemed fanciful and a complete crock twenty-four hours ago.And I...”Willow took a quick, shuddering breath “...I miss them.”
She looked over at Ursula who stared at her with an expression of understanding, sympathy and pain.And for some reason, that completely normal, empathic response to her situation pissed her off.She slammed her now mostly empty coffee mug on the table and both feet back to the floor.
“How the hell is it possible for me to be missing two men?And let me just say that again, two men—” she was practically yelling now that her mad was well and truly on “—because that’s just about every woman’s dream.It certainly is mine and I never even knew!But I miss two men that I don’t know and who I have only just met, so why the hell does it feel like I am missing most of myself?”
Ursula reached across the table and laid a hand over hers.“Because, Willow, you are.Liam and Jacob are a part of you.They have always been and always will be.You should have had a life with them then.Back in 1813.It would have been a hard life, but it would have been one that the three of you shared.But because of a jealous, power-hungry, jerkwad of a warlock who couldn’t take no for an answer, that life was robbed from you.It was robbed from all three of you.”
