7. A Home in the Heart

7

A Home in the Heart

REBIN

“ I t’s you,” Annalise whispered as we lay together, our bodies entwined. For some reason, tears streamed down her face, and mine. “It’s really you.”

While I held her, she whispered a story from her youth, back when she was almost a child herself, at eighteen. A visit to another pack, her first away from the Mountain packlands, that ended in death and, eventually, war.

“It’s you,” she repeated, moving a finger slowly down my profile, her eyes bright.

I was confused, but my wolf wasn’t.I let myself feel him inside me. He was quiet, but not sleeping as he’d done for so long.

That wasn’t what had my breath catching in my throat. It was the sheer strength of him.

Until today, I’d felt relatively young, and fairly inexperienced. But my wolf’s mind was wide and endless like the sky itself. Mighty as the sea, and deep as a glacier.

Old, my wolf mused, his voice a thrum of power. Our sweet young mate thinks she is old. Well, she is. We are.

We are old?

We are.

That was all he would say, but I caught a vision of two wolves running together, both with white coats. Then another, one red and small, one massive and silver-black. Another flash, and again there were two tawny gold wolves, curled around two babies, though the male was twice the size of his mate, and the infants were not much larger than his paws.

We are, my wolf repeated, though I am far older than she. Remind her of that. Guard her well, brother. Love her well.

I felt him withdraw from my waking mind the way a tide pulls back from a shore.

“What is it, Rebin?”

My own eyes were wide now as I shared his words with Annalise. Those lush lips parted slightly, and I couldn’t resist pressing a kiss to them.

She pulled back first. “I don’t understand. How is it possible? Your wolf… He’s older than me?”

“Far older is what he said,” I answered. “He feels strong. I’m—” I broke off, unsure how to express what I was feeling. Insecurity, fear… and a touch of awe.

Why did my wolf feel so different? If he was powerful, what had kept him from me for so long? Why did his voice echo with the same thunder I’d only ever heard in Alpha Samuel’s commands?

For all I knew, this was how every shifter felt when they met their wolf side. I’d been isolated from the pack for years, and before then, my former friends hadn’t spoken of their wolves in front of me, not wanting to rub salt in the wound of my failure.

“Rebin?” From the way she tensed, I could tell Annalise had picked up on my turbulent emotions. But when I focused on our bond, her own were every bit as wild. I felt a surge of what felt like wonder mixed with shock as she leaned across my chest, capturing my mouth.

I was grateful for the distraction, as the banked fire of our passion roared into flames again. The mystery of my wolf could wait. Exploring the mysteries of my mate’s perfection was far more enticing.

I rolled her to her back and worked my way down her body, wondering at the miracle that she was. Her brown skin almost glowed against the white sheets, and grew brighter as I explored her body once more, though my thoughts never fully quieted.

Eventually, we both slept, and woke again. This time, she spoke first. “Maybe… No. It’s crazy.”

I smiled as she turned to me. “What? Me loving you so much already?”

She covered her cheeks with her hands. “No, the… You love me? Really?”

“Really.” I stroked her curls gently.

“I… I love you, too. Isn’t it too soon?”

“Not for true mates,” I assured her. “It’s not crazy at all.”

She lifted her head. “But the other thing, what I told you about the male I saw all those years ago, and what your wolf said. Maybe we lived other lives. It feels like that to me. Like I’ve known you for so long, that you’re not a stranger to me at all. Is that weird?”

Other lives. Could it be possible? “Is it weird that I feel like I’ve loved you since before I was born?”

She blinked and opened her mouth to answer, but I shook my head. Someone was approaching, coming to the door. Someone powerful.

I stood, wrapping a sheet around me. My wolf, who had not retreated all that far, rose to the surface as I opened the door, ready to protect my mate. We lost her once in this life already, he growled. We will not lose her again.

Alpha Samuel stood at the door, and when he gazed at my face, my wolf stared back. We met his gaze head on, holding it without any effort at all.

“Well, well, young Rebin,” he said, as a sharp-toothed smile flashed on his usually stern face. His own wolf rose to meet mine, challenging him. “It is good to meet your wolf at last.” It almost sounded like a question.

Would it be good? Was my wolf a threat? What happened next?

My wolf spoke through my lips, and the power that I’d felt in him before seeped into every word. “Ah, young Samuel. Thank you for all you and your pack have done to give comfort to my mate in her loneliness. You are a good Alpha.”

His words were simple, but they fell on my Alpha like a mountain of praise. His jaw opened wide, and he blinked furiously into the silence.

To my shock, after what felt like an eternity but must have only been a moment, Alpha Samuel bowed his head. A small dip, but it was there. “Thank you,” he whispered, and stepped back.

“Alpha?”

My mate’s hand on my back was comforting, but when Alpha Samuel and I both answered, “Yes?” to her question, there was a tense, awkward moment.

Then Alpha Samuel let out a laugh, shook himself, and offered Annalise a key. “This is for you.”

Taking it, she looked down at it, curious. “What is it for?”

He stepped back again, and we both stared out at the area by the lake.Hundreds of shifters were there, most of them carrying babies or holding the hands of toddlers, though some were weedy teenagers. All of them were smiling at my mate. Some were crying happy tears.

“You’ve carved a toy for every pup that has been born into our pack for twenty years,” Alpha Samuel began.

His mother, who was standing a few yards back, called out, “Twenty-five, Samuel.”

“I stand corrected. Twenty-five years. All that time, you’ve given your talents to this pack, and your heart, and asked for nothing in return.”

“I asked for cornbread,” Annalise muttered, obviously embarrassed.

To his credit, the Alpha did not laugh, though his eyes sparkled. “Of course you did. And you don’t owe us anything. But… we missed you, Annalise. You’re family. You’re pack.”

At that moment, a child called out, “Mama! Ith that Aunt Annalithe? The one who made my wolf ball?”

A tiny boy darted up next to the Alpha, holding a wooden ball that had been carved so the exterior looked like a forest with vines and trees, but inside were three small, perfectly formed wolves, rattling softly as he moved the toy. The wooden ball had been stained a gorgeous honey color, and had the name George carved into one of the branches.

“Aunt Annalithe?” he lisped.

She mouthed the word aunt , her eyes darting to the child’s mother. “Laura. This is little Georgie?” The mother nodded with a smile, and Annalise peered back down at the boy. “You called me Aunt?”

“Yeth, you’re the betht. Thank you for my ball, I love it tho much.” He jumped forward, pressed a wet kiss to her hand, and ran back to his mother. I grabbed my mate’s trembling arm, feeling the depth of joy and surprise in the bond.

Alpha Samuel’s eyes gleamed. “They all call you Aunt, sweet Annalise. Every young mother and father looks forward to the day when their child gets their toy from their long-lost aunt. But we want you to know… you don’t need to be lost. You have a place in the heart of this pack, as well as your wilderness. Both of you. So this cabin is yours. For the two of you, from now on. If you could find it in your heart to spend even a few more days near the Den?—”

He was cut off as she rushed past me and hugged him, her arms wrapping around him as he stood in shock. “Thank you,” she murmured, letting him go only after Ida came and pried her son free.

Thank you, I mouthed as he walked quietly away.

Alpha, he mouthed back, with a respectful nod.

I had never imagined the two-month period that was usually spent in isolation would be so noisy. But Annalise had a reputation she had never known about in this pack, something between a fairy and Santa Claus, and every shifter under the age of twenty-six had stopped by with a small gift, and a story about their toy. They all brought their toys as well—everything from balls like Georgie’s, to clever wooden sliding puzzles, to lifelike dolls with moveable joints—and I was amazed at the skill and ingenuity my mate possessed. One or two had broken over the years, and she repaired them, talking quietly to the children as they watched her work her magic.

She was magical, and as the days passed, she grew more and more comfortable around the pack, even sitting with some of the other women and sharing tea in the afternoons. I watched her constantly, noting how kind and patient she was. Unlike many of the younger shifters I’d known growing up, my mate was a listener, her calming energy spreading to those around her. It reached a point where the pack’s mothers would bring their fretful toddlers or teething babies near just so they would rest.

The evenings were our own, though, and we locked the pack out and learned each other’s bodies as if there might be a test given at the end of the two months… which was only a few short days from now.

“What do you want to do next?” she mused one night as I oiled her curls. I’d loved learning how to care for her beautiful hair, and I’d talked Ida into teaching me to do fancy braids. I wasn’t that good at it yet; I didn’t have my mate’s skill with my hands, though she teased me that I could carve a wooden ball with my tongue, after all the exercise it had gotten over the past several weeks.

“What do you mean, next?” I replied, stroking her shoulders with the backs of my nails, running my fingers over the mating mark just to make her shiver. “I could see if you can come just from me touching your breasts again?—”

“No, you… you horndog!”

“You mean hornwolf,” I growled, nipping at her neck.

She twisted in my arms. “I meant us. Do you want to live in Wyoming, and try to repair something with your parents?” I was already shaking my head halfway through the suggestion. “Okay, would you want to live at my place? It’s not really big enough for both of us. I sleep on a cot, and live wild mostly…”

She sounded uncomfortable. She’d been having trouble sleeping the last few nights, waking up feeling vaguely ill, and I knew why. She obviously had no idea, though. “I’d like to stay here,” I said slowly. “At least for a while.”

She hummed. “How long of a while?”

“I would think at least five months, love. Probably a few more, depending on how you feel after the pup comes.”

“The… pup? ” Her voice became a squeak as she froze, not even blinking. Possibly not even breathing.

“Your scent changed a few weeks ago, silver girl. Breathe.” When she didn’t, I let my wolf out a little bit. “Breathe, mate.”

She obeyed, and after she’d breathed a few times, whispered, “It’s not possible.”

“I assure you, it is. You know shifters don’t have reproductive cycles like humans. All you had to do was go into your?—”

She swatted my arm. “My fertility cycle, I know. That’s what I’m telling you, I haven’t had one of those in yea—oh, shit. ”

I curled my lips under to keep from smiling. Female shifters experienced cycles of hypersexual need, the only sign that they were fertile. And given how often I’d woken over the past eight weeks to her crawling over my body, half-asleep herself, but whimpering with desire, I had a feeling she’d been cycling while we were in our honeymoon cabin. Shifter gestation was six months, and she had to be a month into her pregnancy already.

“I’m too old to be a mother,” she said, her eyes filled with fear. “Can my body even handle a pregnancy? I’ve never heard of any female my age having a child. Not where she and the baby both survived.”

The thought of losing her was one of the only things that could force my wolf to the surface without a shift, and it did now. His voice echoed on the walls of the cabin. “You are healthy and strong. You will bear us pups that will strengthen the pack. Don’t be afraid, little soul. I will keep you safe, as always.”

She sighed, pretending to be annoyed with him, and me, but I felt how his reassurance sank into her soul. “Fine,” she grumbled at last, turning back around so I could finish her hair. A moment passed, and she mumbled, “I hope it has your eyes.”

“And your lips,” I added, pressing a kiss to her ear.

“And your hair.”

“And your talent.”

Of course, they did. All three of the girls who were born five months later, on the night of a full moon, with the pack gathered close by, and a playful wind carrying the babies’ sweet cries to every corner of our packlands.