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“That’s not a bad thing, Tuli,” he told me, kissing my head and tapping my legs.
“I know. I just want him to be as happy as you make me,” I said, wrapping my legs around him so he could carry me over to the shower. “I thought, if it happened and she accepts him, maybe we could try her out to be the pups’ guard once they grow up a little. That way, their assignments would let them travel together with us,” I told him of the plan I’d been formulating for a few days.
“Hmm, point her out to me when we go to breakfast. If she’s a good warrior, I think that’s brilliant,” he agreed.
Chapter forty-six
Gillian
Therewassomethingdifferentabout tonight. Not the usual anticipation of a full moon run with new she-wolves. I had only one thought in my mind. Could Camila be my mate?
Otto and I had been fighting to control ourselves all week. Never had we been so tempted. We’d always been able to control our urges around women. Mom always taught us how sacred and important the mate bond was. Even though we were almost twenty-seven now, we never relented. We waited for our mate because whoever she was would be worth it.
Camila was different. She evoked so much in us. I tried to explain it away. She was gorgeous, kind and funny. Her soft voice with that thick accent sent shivers down my body. Just thinking about it was giving me a semi.
We got close.So close,I thought as I remembered the way we found ourselves in my room yesterday after the attack, letting our bodies say what our mouths couldn’t.
I couldn’t do that to her, though. She had a mate, and I knew she saved herself for him, the same as I did. If we were not her mate… I didn’t want to think about that possibility. I was falling hard for her rich sun-kissed skin, chocolate eyes and joyful personality. She was selfless and reckless. She was the old gamma’s daughter, and though she hadn’t trained to fight, she refused to hide when Huitzilopochtli threatened her pack.
The need to protect her had been too great for Otto to ignore, and we tried to protect her with our body. Something that had not gone unnoticed by her.
I never wanted someone as much as I wanted her. From the moment I saw her that first night she approached me, shy yet bold, asking for a dance. I could not get her out of my fucking head. I grew up hearing stories from Mom about how mates could feel the pull even when it wasn’t the full moon, and I wanted to believe this was it. But it had also been almost eight years worth of monthly disappointments, and there was that small voice in my head telling me I was setting myself up for another.
We could always ask her to be our chosen mate.Otto had been telling me all week.
We can’t do that to her,I argued for the seventieth time this week. And what if what happened to Alpha Alexander happens to us?
Otto whined in my head. No, we couldn’t do that. All we could do right now was pray. Pray that this was the last full moon we would look up at the moon and pray for our mate. I knew she was nervous, too, and that was a small consolation. I hadn’t even had the heart to ask her if she’d be willing to leave Mexico for Arizona if we were mates. Planning for a future that might never be was too much torture to put into words.
I walked into the records room around noon. I didn't see Camila at breakfast today, but it was my turn to help, and above everything, I cared about Celeste and Markus.
“Where do you want me to start?” I asked Evergreen. He turned to look at me and pointed at a stack.
“Those are all the same index. I pulled them for you.” I rolled my eyes. One fucking bad index, and suddenly I was an incompetent nincompoop that couldn’t be trusted. Whatever, I wasn’t in the mood, and this would make work easier. We worked in silence for an hour, and it was the slowest hour I'd ever experienced. Usually, I didn’t mind the silence, but today, it was all I could do not to scream. I needed something to distract me from the upcoming full moon.
“You think we’ll be done before Sunday?” I asked. Sunday was only two days from now, and it still felt like we had a mountain of journals to finish scanning. How this man managed to keep his sanity, I didn’t know. He was in here fifteen hours a day, every day since he got here.
“We should be done tomorrow at this pace,” he answered and continued to scan. I sighed, so much for a conversation. He wasn’t usually this dry and grumpy. He was dedicated and passionate about his work, and even slightly immature when he wasn’t on the clock.
I think he was going through tech withdrawal. Aside from a TV, an old computer in the common room, and the slightly more modern computer from the alpha’s office that he was currently using for the project, that was it for technology. In all the time I’d known him, I’d never seen him without multiple tech devices on him or around him. I think the only thing keeping him sane was his need to finish the job. Yesterday, Markus told him he might need to stay back a couple of days with a few warriors to finish the job, and Evergreen looked as if his puppy had been threatened.
The door opened, and Celeste walked in with a plate of food. She was wearing a dress several people had complimented at breakfast and Markus mentioned it had belonged to her mother. It was lacy and white; her tiny bump was growing rapidly, and the dress suited the small bump on her body.
Celeste was definitely glowing today. I knew pregnant women said that morning sickness was usually the reason for the glow, but Markus said her morning sickness stopped since she'd been here, so it wasn't that. The extra spice in all the food seemed to soothe the pups, and her happiness was shining through like a glow stick from within her.
With everything going on, I kept forgetting to thank her for making me use that language app. My broken Spanish and Camila’s only slightly broken English had helped break the ice. That, and whatever she’d told Camila that first night. Since we arrived, my Spanish vocabulary had almost doubled.
“Can you go help, Markus? He and Diego have to grab some items for tonight and get the barbacoa out of the ground. Then, in the afternoon, we need you around to welcome the other packs. Diego asked us to meet everyone officially. I’ll take over for you.” Celeste placed a plate on Evergreen’s desk and turned back to me, with a weird smile and a twinkle in her eye. “We made empanadas with some leftover meat from dinner last night. Make sure you grab a few on the way out. Easy hand food.”
“Yes, Luna,” I said, happy to be out of here. The overthinking was killing me.
“You can’t keep missing meals, Evergreen. I didn’t see you at breakfast again.” I heard her scold as I closed the door behind me. I chuckled. Evergreen had gotten food while they were romping around before breakfast, and I could only imagine her face when Evergreen told her so.
Everyone saw the remnants of the prank Celeste pulled on Markus, and could guess what happened when he’d shut himself in the room with her after he carried her back to the room caveman style. I walked past Gabriel on his way to the records room, nodding at him in acknowledgment. Then I met Alpha Diego, Markus, Zack and Mateo at the door.
“Where are we off to?” I asked.
“Diego wanted to show us to one of the properties that belong to Celeste. I confirmed with the lawyers that they have the deed among the documents we found in the safety deposit box. Then his mom asked that we get some more ingredients for today’s full moon celebration. It seems a dozen extra wolves have drained her reserves for the full moon dinner a little more than she realized,” Markus said, his eyes narrowing at me with a smile. He was excited about something, but he didn’t seem to want to share. He and Celeste were acting a little weird all week, and I wasn’t sure if it was some sort of “pregnant couple” thing or planning to murder me and bury me out here.
