So I focus on Kieran again as I sit. He’s taller than he was two years ago, even taller than his father now, with incredibly broad shoulders and massively muscled forearms. His hair is dark and thick, combed back from his face in rugged waves. The ice blue of his eyes isn’t visible, since he’s facing his father and speaking to him in a low voice, but I’ll never forget them.
Every girl in Pack Jade has had a crush on the alpha’s son. Including me. After the past two years, I wasn’t sure what I would feel when I saw him again. He’s been away on his father’s orders, studying the other packs and getting to know his fellow future alphas. Now… now he’s returned in time for the coming Lunar New Year.
And as he finally turns around so I can see his face, there’s no doubting how I feel at all. My crush on him is as big as it ever was, maybe even bigger.
“She’ll shift in time, you’ll see.”
“That’s a stupid thing to say. The madness doesn’t work that way. It’s not her fault her alpha was like that.”
“My father took her in for a reason. Are you questioning his choices? His leadership?”
For him, those moments were fleeting and forgettable. For me, they were everything.
Thinking about it now, I feel a stirring of… something inside me. Some other thing that lives beneath my skin. Something that wants and loves and hates, like me.
Almost as if there’s a wolf inside me, and she’s calling his name.
Around me, the pack is settling in, mate with mate, children with their parents. The elders have found their seats, and Alpha Cade is heading toward the podium. Almost everyone in the pack is here—all except the few, like Carrie, who aren’t elders yet aren’t young, the sick and infirm, and the few loners who live on the fringes.
When Kieran finally sees me, he goes still. I freeze in place too as a sudden feeling jolts through me, as sharp and intense as an electric current. All I can see is him, as if no one else is here with us. There are no former friends, no rumors or whispers, nothing but the pounding of my heart in my chest.
As our gazes hold, I stop breathing. I feel as if I’ve been struck by lightning—or hit with a strong spell. My toes curl in my tennis shoes, and the baby hairs at the fringes of my braid stand on end. Every beat of my heart is a nervous flutter, and several emotions course through me all at once, stronger than I’ve ever felt them before.
Joy. Incandescent and full, no fragile thing. Warmth and belonging, as if I’mhome, finally home. Elation, love, infatuation, desire… all of them, just beneath the surface of my skin. There’s a rushing noise in my ears, as if my heart is beating so fast it might almost burst.
For a moment, I could almost swear thatshehowls inside me.
Everything goes quiet all around us as my vision narrows down to him, only him, but my ears pick up other things. Murmurs of surprise and worry. Words that carry me forward, up the stairs, onto the stage, without anyone stopping me.
Fated mates, they whisper.The mate bond… that Onyx girl and the alpha’s son.
Some part of me knew what this was the moment it happened, but the words of the shifters around me confirm it: Kieran and I are mates. This feeling inside me, like a live wiresparking with power for the first time, is the mate bond snapping into place. More than a crush, more than love or marriage, it’s a connection that fate itself created. The kind of thing that changes everything—the kind of thing that no one can deny.
This is it, I realize, feeling my wolf stir inside me.I’m going to be able to shift after this.
My wolf must have been waiting for this moment, waiting for my mate to arrive. He’ll take me in his arms and tell me he always knew that they were wrong about me. We’ll kiss, and he’ll bite my bared neck, sealing the bond into place.
I’ll never be alone again. Never have to doubt my home, my place, my belonging in the pack. No matter what anyone says,thiswill be where I belong. Standing next to him, side by side, claimed for all to see.
Equals. Mates. Forever.
I only realize that I’ve gotten so close to Kieran when I have to stop and tilt my head back to look into his eyes. I’m not short, but almost no one is as tall as him, and definitely no one is as massive as him. He carries his future as an alpha on broad, powerful shoulders, his strength undeniable.
I’m waiting for him to say something. They all are, I realize. The whole pack is holding its breath. It’s only as I inhale his scent that I realize I’ve barely breathed as well—I catch pine and cinnamon, and feel a deep, impossible longing.
Something whines within me. Her. She was waiting for this. He’s going to take me as his mate, then I’ll finally be able to shift. Just like he always knew I could, just like…
For a several heartbeats, Kieran just stares at me, his steel-blue eyes searching my face as if he’s memorizing every detail. The intensity in his gaze makes my breath catch. Then, without breaking eye contact, he reaches up slowly, deliberately, and cups my face in his large hands.
“Aurora,” he whispers, my name passing over his lips like a prayer.
His calloused thumbs stroke gently across my cheekbones, and I unconsciously lean into his touch, craving more of it. His work-roughened palms warm my skin as he looks at me like I’m the most precious thing in the entire world.
“I’ve waited so long,” he murmurs, his words so quiet that I doubt anyone but me can hear them. His thumb traces the line of my lower lip as his gaze follows the movement, and my jaw falls open a little on a shaky exhale.
My heart is thudding so hard that he must be able to hear it, and when he starts to lean down toward me, I lift my chin to meet him halfway. Our breaths mingle in the small space between us, filling the air with anticipation, and when his eyes close, mine do the same.
This is it. Our beginning.The rest of our lives will start with this perfect, fated kiss that will seal everything into place.
