Chapter 2

Maya stared as the tall male wound his way through the crowd, his dark eyes never leaving hers. She felt a bit like prey being the sole focus of his attention, but it wasn't a negative feeling. Instead, that tug inside of her that she'd been feeling off and on since she'd arrived at Council headquarters the previous day seemed to solidify and expand, reaching outward toward Garrett, the last male she had expected to see here or anywhere, to be honest.

He barely stopped in front of her. Instead, he cupped her elbow and hustled her out the French doors to the small stone patio outside. It was a cool early spring evening, and she was not dressed for it, even if shifters ran a little warmer than most races. He ushered her to the side and out of the line of sight of prying eyes and stared down at her, devouring her with hungry eyes.

"It's really you. Maya Wessex." His voice was hoarse, and his fingers flexed on her upper arms where he gripped her still.

"It is. What are you doing here, Garrett?" She tugged her arms against his hold and he released her, as if just realizing he still held her. She wrapped her arms around her and gave a little shiver in the cool night air.

Garrett shrugged off the black evening jacket and draped it around her shoulders, pulling it across her chest. The welcome warmth was immediate, and his scent permeated her senses, sending her wolf into a frenzy.

"I work for the Council. Have been for four years now as an Enforcer. My time is almost up, though. I'll be headed home soon."

Maya's heart leapt in her chest. He was coming home. "Back to the pack?"

He nodded. "I don't know where they'll station me, but I'll be in the area again. Are you still in the Berkshires?"

She nodded. "I'm the second in our den. Isaac is getting on and he's training me to take over for him."

She paused, biting her lip, not sure if she should say anything else. Garrett might work for the Council right now, but at heart he was a member of the Saranac pack, one of Dirigo's enemies. Any information she shared could inadvertently be leverage against her own pack, no matter how innocent the information might sound.

As if interpreting her thoughts, he gave a rueful grin. "I won't report anything we say back to anyone. You'll just have to trust me on that. Like you once did."

She sobered, remembering a time when they would meet and sit by the stream and talk for hours. Granted, they were kids, but they were some of the happiest days of her childhood until they were ripped away.

"What happened, Garrett? That day in the woods?"

He didn't pretend to misunderstand. He turned and walked to the iron railing that bordered the stone patio from the flower garden beyond them.

"We were never meant to be friends. You know that. You're from Dirigo and I'm from Saranac. Our packs were in an uneasy truce. It was a few years before the war with the Tri-State pack and relations were tense. The last thing anyone wanted was for wolves from either side to be friendly."

"You'd think they'd want us to build connections to help reduce tensions," Maya said, though even back then she knew that a friendship between two wolves across pack lines would never have eased the tensions that were building, not with the war that erupted a couple of years later.

A shadow remained in his eyes as he stared into the night, and she sensed he wasn't telling her everything. "Garrett, did something else happen?"

He shook himself, then turned back to her, a bright smile on his face. "It doesn't matter. I just felt bad that I never saw you again until now. Who would have thought we would have to come out to Chicago and Council headquarters to meet again?"

She narrowed her gaze and studied him for a moment, wondering what he wasn't telling her. Then she decided to let it go, since they had only just reconnected. Besides, this pressure in her chest demanded that she move beyond the past and look to the future, to what she had not expected this evening. Their possible mating bond.

"You feel it, don't you?" she asked, the words quiet in the cool night air but seemed to carry a heavy importance. She held her breath, waiting for his response, feeling as if everything was about to change.

"The mating bond? I think I always have. The question is, what do we want to do about it?"

* * *

Garrett prayed Maya forgot all about the last time they were together, and how their friendship was shattered by their families. He remembered the day too well, most of it at least. He and Maya had been by the stream, as usual, and he was talking about his training for his upcoming shift. He was a couple years older than Maya and he was on the verge of shifting, so his pack was preparing him, and others, for the transformation. She was utterly transfixed by the discussion, and a little terrified. Saranac didn't suffer weakness and their training was harsh at times, mostly to weed out weakness. One minute he was explaining how to feel the connection with the inner wolf and the next, chaos ensued.

He was old enough to suspect the connection he felt to her was more than friendship. When he left her every day, he felt an emptiness inside and a yearning to return. His mother had noticed him sneaking away and asked him about it, and he asked her about the mating bond. She had paled and told him to say nothing to anyone.

But somehow, his father had found out and tracked him. What followed was a lot of yelling and then a beating that rendered Garrett without a memory for a few days. Then he was shipped off to his uncle on the western border, where he learned a new meaning to the word pain. But he toughened up. Then he was sent to the Council to finish his education, but now he wondered if they wanted more distance from Maya and a wolf from an enemy pack, especially since they fought on opposite sides in the Tri-State war a few years later.

But the mating bond he had sensed when they were young was stronger now. True bonds were rare, something to be treasured. He never expected to find one, especially after spending the last several years roaming the country for the Council, meeting all kinds of available she-wolves and having his own pack trot out prospective mates to him. His uncle, the pack Beta, didn't have any children and their Alpha only had a daughter. She wasn't his mate and Garrett was the next highest in strength, or he was the last time he was home. So his pack was very interested in his mating prospects.

How would they feel about him mating a Dirigo wolf?

Yeah, he wasn't looking forward to that conversation.

But his wolf didn't give a damn about what his father, his uncle, or anyone in his pack thought. All his wolf cared about was that Maya was his mate and he needed to claim her before any other male stole her. He could scent another male on her and it was driving him wild, making him crazy with the need to stake his claim.

He knew only one thing. He couldn't remain this close to her without acting on it, seeing if the connection was as powerful as he felt.

He turned to find her standing right next to him on the small patio. He moved their positions to cage her against the iron railing, crowding her so he could feel her long frame against his. He cupped her cheek in one hand, and rubbed his thumb over her full lower lip while she stared at him, her eyes wide and uncertain.

Slowly, carefully, his gaze never leaving hers, he slowly stepped closer to her, his heart pounding in his chest. Her breath caught in her throat, a slight hitch he heard, but she didn't back away. When he was close enough to Maya that he could almost feel the warmth of her skin, he leaned in and kissed her. It was as if time had stopped.

The kiss was like a firework, need exploding in him, lighting up the darkness inside, warming the cold places he hadn't known were dormant. He drew her closer, as if making her a part of him, and deepened the kiss. Maya met him as an equal, a fierce she-wolf claiming her mate, her tongue tangling with his, her arms twining around his neck and pulling him to her.

He slid a hand over her back and down over the curve of her ass, settling her on the top of the railing. He moved between her legs, the folds of the dress giving him just enough room to wedge himself between her thighs, pulling her up against the firm ridge of his painful erection. Her hands slipped to his shoulders and kept him close even as he broke the kiss, trailing kisses down her neck to the throbbing pulse point at the base of her throat, where he sucked hard, then nipped her lightly, not a mating bite but enough to show her his wolf.

Her nails scored his neck, reminding him that she was a she-wolf, not content to remain passive for long, and his wolf howled inside, eager to see who was more dominant, eager to explore their mate more fully.

He nipped that soft place between her neck and shoulder where one day he would place a mating mark, provided she'd allow it, and she moaned, her head falling to the side, exposing more of her neck. The display of submission and trust only inflamed his wolf higher, and he captured her lips again, eager for another taste of her.

A throat clearing behind them made Maya jump and stiffen. He snarled and glared over his shoulder, blocking her from the view of the other male wolf he had scented. Caleb stood on the patio with them, the door closed behind him. How had he snuck out there without Garrett hearing?

"You might want to take this somewhere more private, Garrett. The Council would frown on public fucking on their patio. Also, I just saw your Alpha arrive and I really don't think you'd want him to see this."

Any raging desire deflated at the thought of his Alpha coming anywhere near Maya, mostly because if his Alpha was there, so was his Uncle Linc, the pack Beta, since those two were almost inseparable. And Garrett wasn't ready to share the news about Maya with anyone yet.

Reluctantly, he stepped back from Maya and straightened his suit while she did the same to her dress and hair. "Thanks, Caleb. Have they seen us?"

Caleb regarded them with an amused smirk. "Not yet. But I wouldn't go back in, not looking or smelling like you do. Either of you. I'll make your excuses to Charles and everyone else. I wouldn't advise going back in."

"But my Alpha and Luna," Maya protested.

"They're fine. I'll tell them you had a headache. But you'd better leave now or someone will figure it out."

The last thing Garrett wanted was anyone seeing them, especially when they were still figuring out what this was and what they were going to do about. He was sure it was a mating bond but technically they could reject it if they wanted to. He and Maya had to talk about it, only the last thing his wolf wanted was to talk, not right now. He was still clouded by a haze of lust and rage that another male was close to his mate. It was taking everything in him not to physically attack Caleb.

He fisted his hands at his side and sucked in deep breaths of the cool night air, trying to settle his raging hormone. Caleb seemed to understand and remained pressed against the door, as far from both of them as he could on the small patio. "Maya, you'd both better leave before Garrett does something stupid and exposes both of you before you're ready."

She turned and her eyes widened as she took in the way his gaze was fixated on Caleb, the way his lip curled in a soundless snarl, the tension radiating off his body. She pressed herself against him, taking his arm in hers in an attempt to soothe him. "Let's go, Garrett. You'll have to show me where to go. I'm not familiar with this place."

After a solid minute of staring, where Caleb visibly looked away, difficult for another dominant male, Garrett tore his gaze away. "We'll have to hop the railing. We're on the first floor so it's purely decorative, but there's no gate."

"That's seems stupid and pointless," she muttered, then lifted her skirts. "You'll have to lift me. This gown isn't conducive to hopping fences."

His eyes gleamed. "You could always take it off."

She arched an eyebrow. "In front of Caleb and anyone else who might look out from the party?"

He growled again and lifted her over the fence in a quick motion before she could prepare herself. She yelped at the sudden movement, but then he leapt over the other side and took her hand. "Caleb, thanks for the warning. Stay the fuck away."

"You got it. Happy evening!"

"Fuck off."