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“Jax, I don’t need your help.”
Raela turned more fully to them. “Curship?”
“Courtship,” Killian corrected. “It’s when a man tells a woman that he likes her and wants to be with her and her alone.”
“Like the swans?”
Jax snorted but agreed.Like mates,he said.
That pink color returned to Killian’s cheeks. “Yes. Something like that.” Killian dragged a hand across the back of his neck. “With humans, sometimes they bring flowers, or food, or hold hands, or kiss, all before making a promise of marriage, which is where the two people stand in front of other people and promise to be mates.”
Her eyebrows went up as her eyes flashed from Jax to Killian. “You want to be my mate?”
Killian considered this for only a moment before his grin fell back into his lazy sideways smile. “Yes. I want to be your mate.”
“We can be mates.” The answer was easy. Her heart was wholly convinced that she wanted to spend every day with this man, just as she had spent every day with him for the last stretch of time. “Does this mean we are marriage now?”
Shaking his head with amusement, Killian shifted to his knees. “No, we are not married yet. For humans, there is a big gathering. Now, I need to talk to my father, to get out of … a promise … and to bring you out of this forest. It would be unfair to rip you from here and toss you to the wolves without preparation. No offense, Jax.”
An immense amount of offense is taken. Court is not like wolves. Wolves do not act like those horrible creatures.
Killian dragged his fingers across the fur on Jax’s head. “I will talk with my father and return for you, Raela.”
Her heart lightened. He was coming back. “At sunset?”
“At sunset.”
“And then, will you kiss me?” she asked, her heart pounding at the thought.
He grasped her hand to help her stand, then traced the lines of her palm with his finger. Raela was enraptured at the delicate touch. Each stroke raced up her arm to touch her soul. “I will. When you want me to.” He glanced up at her face, studying her with such attention. “May I kiss your hand? Where I come from, men do this with the women they want to court.”
She nodded. In a moment, he brought his lips to the back of her hand and pressed them to her skin. Her heart burst at the warmth and grew hotter as she thought about his lips touching hers. Undoubtedly, her cheeks were as red as Killian’s had been before. Her heart delighted in every moment.
He looked up from her hand with a smile. “Until next time.” He released her and moved toward the edge of the meadow. With a final wave, they disappeared into the dark shadows of the pines.
Raela watched the forest for some time. Her cheeks tingled. Her heart refused to settle back into a normal cadence. The place where he had kissed her hand burned. Mates. No,marriage.Courtship. He was coming back againtonight. They would be together, and he wouldn’t leave her ever again. Would he move into her cottage? She shook her head. It was too short for him. They would need somewhere else, somewhere taller. Would she go with him? To his father’s house?
A thrill of excitement shivered through her. She would finally step out of the forest. She would finally goout—out of the pattern of her life, out to change and to explore. She would finally get to see other people and women and men. She would be with Killian, and they would be together forever. It was everything she had wanted and more.
Her joy was irrepressible. With a giggle she gathered up the notebook, jotting down a few more things before she tucked it into her satchel. She danced slowly through the tall grasses, singing to herself as she brushed the tall dry stems with her fingertips. The wind danced, filling the air around her with seeds and petals.
As she approached the path that led home, she looked back toward the northern pines … where he had disappeared. A yawning hole gnawed at her chest, aching for him. She scolded herself. He would be back. He’d promised.
She pulled aside the bush and moved to step into the oaks when her steps faltered and her smile fell. Auntie Mo and Auntie Toru stood before her alongside the ancient elk. Auntie Mo was bristling, her arms crossed and her face covered in the most disappointed frown that Raela had ever seen. Auntie Toru was biting at her nails and bouncing on her heels while her eyes brimmed with tears.
The air left her lungs in a whoosh as her heart settled into her gut like a stone.
They had seen everything.
Chapter 12
Fractured
Raela
Raelafrozeinplace.Time halted as even the birds withdrew their song. Beyond her aunties, sitting with her subdued cubs, Mother Bear huffed. Mo cast her a glare before stepping forward.
“What in the heavens and earth and seas are you doing? Who is that wolf? Who is that man? Why is he touching you? Why is he in this forest? Did I not forbid you from speaking to or welcoming anyone in the forest this autumn?”
