I stand on the bottom step of the estate house looking down the driveway. I know I’m early, but even after five years as Luna of Silvercrest Pack, I still get excited when my friends come visit.
My hand goes to my collarbone, looking for a mark that is no longer there. Sometimes, I feel the need to check.
The curse is still gone.
A small, wistful smile plays on my lips as I look around. Lucas kept his word. The mating ceremony in which he publicly claimed me was one of the grandest ever to be seen. He spared no expense. We waited a year because we had lost so many soldiers, but when he finally arranged it, it blew me away.
I walked toward him in white silk, wearing his mother’s pendant. We danced the night away. We made love for a week before I threw him out, my body unable to take any more.
The wind off the lawn is sharp at the back of my neck. I tug my cardigan tighter, keeping my eyes on the line of trees where the road comes through.
A small body barrels past my legs. “Mama, watch.”
Theo is three. He has my eyes, but otherwise, he is an exact copy of his father, right down to the serious frown on his face. Right now, he has a long stick in one fist and is brandishing it at a lavender bush with the focused outrage of a man defending his territory from a personal enemy.
“I’m watching, baby,” I assure him.
He stabs the lavender. The bush survives.
“Got it!” he announces.
“My brave boy,” I tell him.
He runs off to murder another shrub.
A door opens behind me. I know the sound of his boots coming down these steps better than I know my own pulse. The bond pulls warmly in my chest before his hand even finds my hip.
“Sienna.” His voice is low at my ear.
Lucas’s arm slides around my waist from behind, drawing me back into him. The wool of his sweater is soft under my cheek. His mouth presses to the side of my throat where the mating mark sits.
“Hi,” I murmur back.
He huffs a small laugh into my skin. “You smell like the garden.”
“Theo dragged me out at seven this morning. He wanted to see if the snails had moved.”
“Had they?”
I grin. “What do you think?”
I feel him smile against my neck. He does not lift his head for a moment. His chin settles on my shoulder, his arms tightening, and we watch our son threaten the lavender again.
“Can you believe we’re standing here like this?” I ask suddenly.
I feel his warm breath on my skin as he replies. “I still consider every day with you a gift, Sienna. I sometime wonder how things would have worked out if I hadn’t marked you.”
“You would have ended up mating Lydia.”
The mention of her makes him stiffen, and I sigh. Even after all this time, what she did still hurts him.
Lucas did grieve his friend, the one he spent his entire childhood with. A part of me believes that Lydia did care for him in a way, but her priorities were different. I have told my mate not to let her later actions taint his earlier memories of her. But it’s still hard for him at times.
“I would have stayed single,” he says quietly. “I was already madly in love with you. I would have watched you mate Ethan.”
The irritation in his voice makes me laugh. “You’re so petty. Ethan is mated now, by the way. And he’s head over heels for her. So, get over it.”
My mate’s voice turns petulant. “He liked you once. That’s enough for me to hate him.”
