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“That’s not an exaggeration.” She pressed a hand to her forehead and blinked even as she looked around at the backyard's open space and the trees surrounding it. “I know Annie is doing fine. Better than fine, really, but it’s still been a lot to process. Then—wait a second. How did you know I walk to clear my head?”
Bennett tucked his hands in his pockets and grinned. “I may have told you my biggest secret, but it wasn’t the only one I was hanging onto. I do happen to know, though, that you’d often go out walking around the farms that weren’t too far from your college whenever you’d been cramming for exams or dealing with tough classes.”
“But we’d already—“ She broke off, and realization dawned on her face. “You were the wolf I always used to see!”
“Guilty as charged,” he said with a shrug. “I almost told you before but didn’t find the right time.”
“Huh.” Stephanie’s hands swung at her sides as they stepped onto the trail, and she aimed a sideways glance up at him. “So you were spying on me.”
“I think ‘visiting’ is a better term,” he replied. “We hadn’t been together for a while, and I couldn’t just call you and see how you were doing. Not after the way we’d left things.”
She looked down to step over a tree root, smiling. “I always thought I had some sort of special connection to that wolf, but at the time, I thought I was just being a silly girl who’d spent too much time in a lab.”
“There was probably some of that,” he said. “I was probably even counting on you thinking of it that way. You always were good with animals.”
“And you’re such a beast!” She laughed and poked his arm. “It’s nice to know you were thinking about me, though. I thought about you every now and then, too.”
He hadn’t had the chance to spend time with her like this, when they didn’t have to worry about their safety or what might happen next. It’d been amazing just to see her again, but it felt altogether different under their current circumstances. That didn’t mean he could just relax, though, not when so much still hung in the balance.
Bennett caught her hand and slid his fingers down between hers. “Leaving you was the hardest thing I ever had to do, Stephanie. I know you understand the circumstances, and there’s not much we can do about it now, but I just want you to know that it really did change my life. At the time, I thought I was meant to be with you, and I should’ve fought harder for that.”
Stephanie stopped and turned to him, looking up into his eyes.
After a minute, he couldn’t help but laugh. “What? Haven’t you had enough time to see just how much I’ve aged?”
“It’s not that. And actually, I think you’re even more handsome than you were as a kid.” She reached up and touched his face, her fingers tender. “I was just looking for something.”
His heart thundered and his wolf churned. No longer was he stuck in protective mode, constantly on the watch to make sure no threats could get to her. He could only focus on how it felt to be with her, to feel that connection that had never gone away. In fact, he was sure it had deepened. “Did you find it?”
She was trying to keep her face in check, and her mouth squirmed as she fought her smile from getting wider, but she was losing. “Yeah. I did.”
Bennett clasped her other hand and pulled her close. “Stephanie, I know you have to go back to your regular life now, or at least as regular as it can be after all this. I’m not even sure what normal will mean for me now. The only thing I do know is that I don’t want to lose you again.”
She tipped her head curiously. “Not that I’m not happy to hear you say that, but I’m a bit surprised. After we’d brought Annie to the packhouse, you seemed a bit distant. I’d been thinking there was something between us, but then you pulled back.”
“That’s not what I meant to do, not really.” Bennett turned and continued along the trail, still holding her hand. It was easier to talk when they were moving. “I wanted to support you and help Annie, and I didn’t want to pressure you with talk about our future or exactly what we were to each other. You didn’t need a lover right then. You needed a partner.”
“Wow.” Stephanie’s fingers squeezed his for a moment. “They make movies about guys who say things like that, but they’re always fictional. They’re not usually wolves or vigilantes, though.”
“See, that’s why they’re fictional. They only have some of the details right.” This was so much like what he remembered from their younger days. He and Stephanie didn’t have to be doing anything significant to have a good time. They just had to be together, and they could banter all day. It was nice to see that even though many things had changed, that hadn’t.
“Well, it was sweet of you. And you were right. My mind was completely on Annie, and I wouldn’t have been much good if you wanted to talk about something as simple as my favorite color.”
“Yellow,” he replied automatically. “Or at least it used to be.”
“I can’t believe you remember that.” Her body brushed closely against his as the trail narrowed for a moment, and they climbed slowly through the hills of the Glenwood territory.
“I remember a lot.” They reached a small clearing, one where the pine trees grew close and had dropped their needles into a thick bed on the forest floor. A singular tree grew near the center, and he moved toward it. “I never forgot you, Stephanie. I honestly believe we’re fated to be together, and I want to ask you to be my true mate. But I want to make sure you know what that means.”
She paused as they neared the center tree, her free hand drifting over the rough bark. “It sounds like I still have plenty to learn, but I always was a good student.”
Selene, help him. It would be so easy to just press her up against that tree and show her how he felt about her, but he’d brought her out there to discuss this. Bennett didn’t want to miss his chance. “We’re connected. We’ve already talked about that, how fate has strung us together. I won’t ever truly be complete until I have you by my side, but our traditions call for more than just a faithful relationship.”
Stephanie leaned against the tree. “Tell me.”
How had he spent all these years without the privilege of looking at that beautiful face? Of feeling her luscious body against his? “In our pack, we mark our mates. That means that I would bite you, just here.” Bennett pushed aside her flannel and touched the slope of her shoulder, where it peeked out around her tank top. It was his flannel, actually, and his undershirt that she’d gotten washed at the packhouse, and he experienced the thrill of her being in his clothes all over again.
She looked down at where his finger touched her. “Bite me?”
