"August," Grae whispered, finally rolling to his side and taking her with him where he tucked her into his chest. She humd a response, and he felt it in his bones. He kissed the top of her head and nudged her closer. "You are hungry, my love. I can feel it," he said then. She laughed quietly.
"You can feel that?" she asked, muffled against him.
"Yes," he answered, kissing her again. "I'm going to make you sothing. But that ans I have to get out of this bed."
She grumbled an objection and pulled him closer for him to chuckle. "I don't have to eat. Just stay," she said, tilting her head up to kiss under his chin.
"It won't take long. I promise," he assured her. She growled but let her grip on him ease, and he slipped away toward the closet, pulling so clothes out to dress that gorgeous, divine body of his that was now hers. 'Mine.' The intensity of the thought startled her and comforted her at the sa ti.
Suddenly a new golden aura ca to life before her as her second vision opened to et it. This one was rich and srizing, thrumming around her while also stretching to embrace her mate across the room. It was theirs together. August smiled at the realization and sighed, wrapping herself in the sheet as she watched him and the aura that connected them.
"So I have a dosticated wolf?" she teased.
"You basically hit the jack pot, what can I say?" she spotted his dimple as he bent, pulling flannel pants on. "What sounds good?"
"Whatever is your favorite," she replied.
"That would take a lot of preparation. We need food now," he growled, returning to the bed to kiss her again—his beautiful mate that he could finally feel within him. She slled like him, but her taste was her own, he thought to himself, tasting her again before pulling himself away.
"Goddess, you could not be more beautiful if you were the moon herself," he said softly looking at her wrapped in his bed. Wrapped in his scent. The blush rose to her cheeks again, and he smiled happily seeing it. "I'll make sothing quick. Don't move," and with that, he disappeared through the doorway.
After August had wiggled out of her cocoon of happiness in bed to dress and wander out to the kitchen, Grae was already scooping sothing into a bowl for her. Her body felt weak and satisfied and… weightless. This was her ho. Grae was her ho and her anchor. She felt it like she felt the air passing in and out of her lungs, and her heart suddenly trembled with the love that threatened to break it open.
"I told you not to move," Grae said, stealing her from her thoughts.
"Ah, well I couldn't wait," she replied.
"Did Sylvia give you the purple stone?" Grae gestured toward her neck. He had made steak and rice bowls with cilantro and creamy avocado salsa, and August ate every bit of it only to have Grae return the bowl to her full again.
August nodded. "It starts with an 's.' Sylvia ntioned it being a shield of light."
"Sugilite. I know it," he nodded. "My mom had a ring like it."
"Did you find anything out about your parents today?" August tilted her head curiously, rembering how he had ntioned being given access to their case. "What were their nas? You never ntioned it."
"Derek and Genevieve. Dad called her 'Evie,'" he replied with a small smile—a smile that fell when he thought about the pack house and that room with his parents' file. "I looked through what they gave , but it's hardly compelling that Maggie orchestrated it. It doesn't seem there was much effort put into competing theories. Certainly not enough for murdering every alyko in the pack," he mumbled to himself. And certainly not enough for tracking every alyko in existence.
August could feel the sorrow start to swell in him, and she put down her fork. "What do you think happened?"
"I honestly don't know," he shook his head gently, eting her eyes. "And it's been 10 years now. I'm not sure I'll be able to find out."
"Maybe I can help," she offered.
"How do you an?"
"Maybe there is soone who knows more, and I can do my thing where I read their thoughts," she shrugged.
"No way," he shook his head again. "Not happening. I'd prefer to not know rather than have you experience that. Plus, it's dangerous."
"But your mark… You said it makes safe," she replied.
"It does in the sense that I can feel when you're in danger, and it cents your importance to ," he looked at her again with that depth that sent bolts of electricity through her. "No one will touch you now if they value their life. Threatening you is the sa as threatening —and threatening the future of the pack. The people here have wanted their Alpha and Luna back for so long, your presence with the mark is significant to them all as well. They'll fight for you, too."
Grae knew how true it was—that it was likely the reason Sam had felt the nagging pull to reconsider the scent near the treehouse he couldn't place. And why he had returned in such haste.
As the uninitiated Beta, Sam would feel as strong a responsibility to protect the future Luna as any pack mber would, perhaps second only to Grae himself. In truth, that was part of the reason Grae had openly displayed the affection for August that morning—to hopefully endear her place in Sylvia's and Sam's minds despite the fact that she hadn't received Grae's mark yet.
"But anyone backed into a corner will fight to get out of it. If soone is hiding information about what happened…" he trailed off. "Just let worry about it, okay?"
August pressed her lips together, unhappy that Grae was intent on excluding her from helping with sothing so important to him. Wouldn't it put him in danger, too? If the experience at the outpost taught them anything, it was how much more powerful they were together.
"What do we do now? Aren't the elders going to be upset? About the mark?" August asked.
"Andreas may as well have suggested I no longer breathe, and he knows it," Grae rose from the table with his bowl, walking to retrieve August's as well when he leaned down to add, "you are the very air itself," and kissed her forehead.
"Why did he say it then?" Her eyebrows furrowed as she watched Grae walk to the sink.
"Fear. Doubt. An attempt at control," he sighed. "It will be interesting to see how they react now that their spy Marius is gone. That will likely tell us a lot. Until then, we just behave like we know nothing about it."
"Sam invited us to a bonfire Thursday night," August rembered. "Before all of this happened."
"Right. The full moon," he said quietly. "Then we should go," he turned around and smiled.. "I want everyone to et my beautiful mate."
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