Page 67 of Binding His Fated Mates

I had wondered if I was real, ever since waking as a wolf and understanding what had happened. But now, at this moment, I couldn’t bring myself to question it anymore.

Instead, I decided to simply let myself feel and be present in this perfect, shining moment. I didn’t know what came next and it didn’t matter. I closed my eyes in the warm afternoon light, settled my head down on Daniel’s other shoulder, and let that be enough.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN || DANIEL

The cabin was too quiet without the twins. In the past week, I’d already gotten hopelessly used to the background hum of Hunter and Lee around me at all times. Without them, the cabin seemed too cold, too empty, and way too quiet.

Lee was coordinating tonight’s hunt with Reed and Harris, along with most of the rest of the pack. And Hunter was working the day shift at the bar. Lindsey, who operated her own tiny veterinary clinic in Crescent Springs, had needed to deal with an emergency—a frantic dog owner in town had called to tell Lindsey her pup had chewed up a bag of dish pods and showed signs of poisoning. Hunter took over the bar so that Lindsey could go save the pooch.

Which left me here, alone. I probably could’ve gone with Lee, but my job was pretty simple and Harris and Reed couldn’t really advise me on any spellcasting tactics. I already knew I’d stay close to the pack—to Lee and Hunter especially—and then use my magic to paralyze the Mara, so that the rest of the pack could destroy them. Barring that, I’d use my light spell to drive the monsters away. I didn’t need anyone to go over how to do that with me.

It should have felt like a luxury. I had room to stretch and plenty of silence to think. I could even take a nap if I wanted. Hunter and Lee had been keeping me plenty busy in the bedroom and I was deliciously sore. Not that I was complaining, of course. But a little extra shut-eye wouldn’t have gone amiss. Especially since we were going to hunt down the Mara later.

But when I tried to sleep, I found that I’d already gotten way too used to the specific arrangement of us, with my body securely between theirs, Hunter’s arm across my waist, Lee’s hand over my heart, our breathing perfectly in sync. Sleeping alone felt weird now.

Besides that, my mind wouldn’t shut off. I kept turning the sympathetic manifestations over, worrying the problem like a dog with a bone.

We’d gathered as a full pack after just over a week of quarantine. Reed and Harris were right. The chaotic magic rippling through the pack already seemed to be more or less gone.

That was… strange.

That wasn’t how the journals described it at all. Things had lessened over time, organically, diminishing in intensity and trailing off. They hadn’t just stopped suddenly, as if someone had pumped the brakes on uncontrollable surges of wild magic.

Or as if it suddenly went somewhere else.

But that was a ridiculous thought, wasn’t it? Where else could it have gone? Apart from the members of the pack who’d left during Jeremy’s reign—all of whom were still mystically bound to the pack—there was nowhere else for the magic to go. We were a closed circuit, magically speaking.

Maybe it was different for a pack of werewolves. We were far less magical, by definition, than a coven of witches. Maybe Lee was right and that was all this was. Maybe I was worrying too much, overthinking a blessing into a curse.

Thinking of him, and Hunter fast on his heels, a fresh wave of longing rolled through me.

After twenty minutes, I gave up trying to sleep. Instead, I found myself pacing, restless.

The cabin was cluttered with the research materials we had borrowed but hadn’t returned yet. Practically every area in the cabin—except the kitchen—was now piled with crumbling leather-bound tomes with sticky notes sticking out of them at all angles. There were even piles of books on either end of the couch—the neatly stacked books Lee had gone through, and the smaller, haphazardly stacked collection of journals Hunter had been reading.

Half-heartedly, I wondered if I ought to clean. But there was no point. We still needed the texts, which meant that it would be a wasted effort. Besides, I had no idea which texts the twins had and hadn’t gone through yet. If I cleaned, I’d likely screw that up.

No, right now I needed to do something else. Preferably something mindless to distract myself.

I made myself a cup of tea to settle my nerves. It was Lipton’s, the only thing the twins had in the house, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. I grabbed the top blanket off the bed and threw it over my shoulders and sat down on the couch, at Hunter’s end. Feeling cozy, wrapped in the scent of the twins, I scrolled through the TV options before landing on a mindless reality show featuring couples trying to decide if they wanted to stay together.

I watched ten minutes of it, but it only made me miss the twins more.

Codependent much, Daniel? They’re coming back.

And I’d gone two years with them hating me. I could go an afternoon with them not hating me and off doing other things.

Right?

As if they’d heard me, my phone chimed. I picked it up and saw that Hunter had messaged me with: Bar is too quiet. Going out of my mind. Miss you.

I smiled, feeling warm all over. Hunter had never texted me before. He hadn’t needed to.

While I was typing a reply to him, my phone chimed again.

It was Lee this time, four messages, one after the other.

We’re probably going to be here until dark.