Red sighs. “Okay. You need to tell us if anything changes. Taren is doing her best, but we need your help too.”
“I know.”
He pats my knee before heading to the counter, pulling a few bottles down to mix tonics.
I walk out of the room in a daze. Now what am I supposed to do?
29
ROWEN
Ivy leaps across a log, her tail flicking in the wind.Did you bite Tobias yet?
I avoid looking at her. She’d know if I had.
Why not?
I huff.Do you know how to ask your boyfriend-slash-fated mate if you can bite his throat? If so, I’m all ears.
Ivy tilts her head in a way that would’ve been the biggest eye roll in the history of eye rolls if she was human.He’s obviously crazy about you, Ro. I don’t know what you’re so afraid of.
Sage pounces on a leaf.I’m with Ivy. You need to claim him. That way we’re not drowning in pheromones every morning.
I curl my lips at him.
You know that’s only going to stop once you claim each other, right?
Shut up. It lasted for weeks even after you and Red claimed each other.
Sage snorts a laugh.
I turn away from them.It’ll happen soon. Just… chill out.
The urgency to claim Tobias has been overwhelming—and distracting. Everyone in the pack sees it, yet only a few have been brave enough to comment on it. I need to talk to him about it, and soon.
It’s one thing to tease him with my human teeth when we fuck; it’s another thing entirely to pierce skin and seal him as mine without a conversation about it. Fate might have woven us together, but I refuse to take Tobias’s right to choose away.
We curve toward the northeast corner of the property. The woods are fairly quiet today, and it’s unusually warm for mid-February. The snow is melting and making the earth soggy, which means Mom is in one of her moods. She hates trying to keep up with the paw prints, footprints, and boot prints in the house.
Ivy walks beside me, light on her paws as she scans the trees. When she sees a rabbit, she sprints after it. She and Sage are in fairly good moods, as are the rest of the pack. But me? I’m walking around with lead weights on my heart.
I heard Tobias murmuring again last night. He tried to laugh it off, but the strain was obvious.
Our fated mate bond is getting stronger—soon I’ll feel what he feels. So why won’t he let me in?
If I ask again… will he pull away?
A black bird circles high above, wings glinting like oil against the winter sun. I pause to look at it.
There it is again.
Ivy squints up.The bird?
We’ve seen it a few times.The raven caws and flies in a figure eight.The last time was… I don’t know, a few days ago. Right after our trip to the city.
Sage sits and shakes his fur out.Red has seen it too. Sometimes, there are two of them.
A wolf howls on the horizon, and we all bolt in that direction. Bronson, Raja, and Cliff from the Cedar Ridge pack are near our usual meeting point on the west side of the property. Bronson’s black pelt gleams in the wintersun. His ears flick as soon as he sees us, and he barks a command to the others to sit beside him.
