AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“My wolf,” I murmur, cupping his cheeks. “You’re home.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
With everything that has been going on, I haven’t been keeping track of the days. The day after I spend all night running with my men through the woods, White comes to me.
“You know what tonight is, don’t you?” he asks cagily.
“Erm . . . Saturday?”
“Mating hunt,” he replies, and a slow grin curls his lips. “I think it’s a good idea to go ahead with it. They need something positive to look forward to. Besides, I have a feeling you would like the ceremony to take place this time, no?”
I stare at him, unsure, and he sighs, crouching at my side. “If you aren’t ready, do not force it, but I have known you all your life, Quinn, and I have never seen you this happy. Those men, despite what they were before, are here. They gave up their lives and humanity for you, and now they spend their days helping you lead. You love them. What’s so scary about mating?”
“It makes it real,” I admit. “It makes it binding, and then if I lose them?—”
“What if you don’t?” he retorts. “What if you lose them now? You were destroyed when you lost Jai, mating bond or not.” He stands. “Think about it.”
He walks to the door of the room I’ve claimed as an office until the pack house is built, and I stand. “Go ahead with the ceremony.”
He turns, grinning at me. “Good choice, Alpha. I look forward to the outcome of the hunt.”
“As do I,” I reply shakily, nerves filling me.
I have been through this many times before, but never with someone I want to catch me. Usually, I’m outrunning them, lasting until sunrise.
Tonight, I want to be caught.
I want to be mated.
I want to be theirs.
Dom has kidnapped my men—not really, but as soon as news of the ceremony spread, they were gone. I don’t even get to speak to them to see if it’s what they want or to give them a way out, but I suppose it’s too late now.
I feel a nervous, excited energy all day that won’t go away, distracting me when I work, until Marie finally kicks me out of the kitchen, saying I’m hindering her and to go prepare. I don’t miss the happy gleam in her eyes. She wants this for me. Despite the grief she feels every day, she wants me to mate with them.
Jang would, too, because I chose them. I need them, and, more than that, I let them in. I trust them, I turn to them, and moreover, I expect them at my side. I cannot go back to life without them. This ceremony is just proof of what we already know.
I am theirs, and they are mine.
Or at least I hope so.
They have to catch me first.
As the sun sets, I stand before the pack. There are five of us females running tonight, and they are all excited. Some already have their eyes on wolves, and some are just eager to see where this will lead.
I stand before them all, searching the crowd for my men, but I don’t see them, and worry fills me. “They will be here,” Dom promises from my side. “Just focus on running, Quinny, and make them work for it. You are the alpha, after all, and they are hunters. Let them hunt, wolf.”
My grin is almost evil as I turn back to the crowd. Usually, Jang does this part, and I have never noticed his absence as much as I do now as I step forward. He should be here. He should witness my mating. He should preside over it, but I know he’s here in spirit, so I swallow down my grief, knowing tonight is one of celebration and hope.
“Tonight, we will run,” I call. “Unmated males are welcome to hunt us. If you catch us and we accept, we are yours, otherwise better luck next time. Jang had a whole speech, but I’m not my father, so I’ll just say this. I have been running since I was eighteen, and tonight will be no different . . .” I search the crowd. “So catch me if you can.” I turn and leap into the air, changing so I land on all four paws.
I look back, waiting, as the other females change and hurry past me into the forest just as the moon shines through the clearing, and then I see my mates, standing in the shadows. Three sets of eyes are on me, and they are already in wolf form as they slink out of the shadows and through the crowd.
I grin and run faster than I ever have because I won’t make this easy on them.
If they want me, then they need to prove it.
Tonight, the hunters hunt their wolf, and if they catch me, then they can have me forever.
