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But what if it isn’t?
Dropping my hands, I look up at him. I almost ask him that question. I’m so close… and then I say, “When are you leaving?”
Don’t go. I wish I could say those words, too. They got stuck in my throat as I wait for his answer.
When he gives it, I’m not surprised.
“After the night of the Luna. I’ll return to Hickory then.”
So soon? That’s the day after tomorrow.
“We’re not having the Luna Ceremony,” I tell West. “If that’s why you want to leave already… Rafael agreed to wait until next month.”
West’s soft chuckle has an edge of paint to it. “You might not become bonded mates this full moon, but you know as well as I do what moon fever’s like. If he’s your mate, your wolf will need her male. One way or another, you’ll finally have to make your choice. And when you go to him… when you go to his bed… you won’t have to tell me you reject me. I’ll already know.”
He’s not wrong. And even if I could resist Rafael, what if he can’t resist me? An Alpha who finally has his promised female on his territory?
The Luna chose him for me. She’ll want us to mate, and when I do, I’ll lose West forever.
Unless I make a different choice.
* * *
At my urging,West promised that he wouldn’t tell Rafael about our history. He swore that he was here to watch over me until the night of the Luna, and then he would go.
Rafael is eager to please his new mate. Instead of refusing to let West stay in Darkwoods, he offers West the use of one of Gravetail’s guest cabins. Proving that he’s just as astute as I think he is, he makes sure to put West up in a cabin on the far side of his territory, but he allows him to stay.
I just wish I could understand why West is insisting on waiting until I’m truly out of his reach forever.
I don’t know why he’s torturing himself. Is this an update to how often he would disappear into the trees and take out his frustrations on the towering hickory? Wearing his claws down to nubs, splitting open his knuckles, slashing and snarling until he can’t get control of himself again?
A new type of pain, is that it?
He’s hurting, but even knowing he’s in Darkwoods helps my wolf. I don’t get to see him again after Rafael arranged for us to be separated. The rest of that night, my intended took me on a tour of his territory before escorting me back to the small cabin I spent the afternoon waiting in. After the Luna Ceremony, I’ll move into the Alpha cabin. Until then, this one is mine.
I dreaded him leaving if only because I thought he would expect a kiss goodbye. I didn’t even get a backward glance after he bid me to sleep well.
With West’s sandalwood scent lingering in the space, that’s almost impossible.
The next day, Trevor returns to bring me to the Alpha cabin again. Turns out, my suspicions were right. Gravetail doesn’t have an Omega of their own, though there were one or two younger pups in the pack who could grow up and take the position. Me being Rafael’s fated mate was seen as a gift from the Luna, and I spent that day, then part of the next meeting with any packmate in need of an omega wolf’s company.
I’m glad for the distraction. The closer it gets to sunset, when the full moon will come out and the Gravetail packmates will enjoy the Luna’s presence, the more worried I get. Rafael has been a perfect gentleman since we met, despite the looming moon fever heating my blood up from the inside it. When I catch myself squirming in the chair he gave me, I have to admit that West is right.
My body needs sex. I need a male. By the end of tonight, I’ll be throwing back my head, keening for a male to mount me, and I won’t be choosy. My heart’s mate or my fated mate, either one will do. My wolf recognizes that she has a bond with both males and, though I have no intention of finalizing either one tonight, she’ll want to rut.
That’s moon fever for you. Before, I could handle it myself. Not with West and Rafael near, and especially not after being intimate with West so close to the full moon.
The only thing I can think to do is barricade myself in my cabin. And maybe that would’ve worked if Rafael hadn’t invited me to have dinner with him in the den after the last of his packmates leave.
Even then, I might have been able to resist my need. I have no lust for Rafael. Handsome as he is, there’s no spark. No desire. I won’t be comfortable, but if Rafael didn’t push—and everything I’ve learned about him since we met made me think that he won’t—we can make it through the worst of the moon fever by distracting ourselves with food.
Shifters are known for their fondness for three things: feeding, fucking, and fighting. I don’t want to fuck Rafael. As an omega, I won’t fight him. But feeding? I can eat. Besides, if he’s eventually going to be my mate, I’ll have to let him feed me eventually.
I just… I never thought he would invite West to join us.
CHAPTER15
LUNA
