Chapter 23

The first pre-dawn light was filtering through our bedroom windows by the time the pack swept the final evidence of Justin's visit and death beneath the metaphorical rug. Since my brother-in-law's body couldn't be disposed of quite so easily, we'd instead treated the corpse to a funeral bonfire that roused half-hearted grumbling from shifters who considered the invader not worth the effort. But a single glare from Wolfie had nipped any further complaints in the bud, and our pack had rallied together to send my mate's brother out of our world with traditional shifter fanfare.

Now family and friends were trickling away to their homes while I collapsed on our own doorstep, realizing too late that Wolfie's and my bed had provided the kindling to light his brother's pyre. In other words, the two of us had nowhere to sleep.

No matter. I was so exhausted I could probably curl up on the cold hard boards of our porch steps and be out like a light in seconds.

"Did you mean it?"

I hadn't even heard my mate coming up behind me, his human walk as quiet as any wolf's. And no wonder. Looking down, I saw that Wolfie's feet were still bare, although he'd managed to pull on some jeans in the bare-minimum display of pseudo-human modesty. This bloodling quirk—and the sight of his bare chest—lifted my heart and gave me the energy to finish what I'd started.

Just the day before, I would have asked my mate to elaborate on his question to buy a bit more time before fully committing to an event that I was both dreading and anticipating. But now I merely patted the board beside me and reassured Wolfie with the full force of both human and wolf behind my words as he joined me on the step. "Of course I meant it. You promised me joy, a joining of minds and powers, and a vacation if I agreed to a claiming moon. How could I not mean it?"

Then the animation faded from my voice as I recalled our duties, no lighter now than they'd been the day or the week before. "If you think Haven can get along without us, that is," I backpedaled. "I don't know if your family's pack will try to take revenge...?"

Wolfie's warm hand came down upon skin that had chilled in the early morning air, the gesture warming both my knee and my inner wolf. "With our father dead, Justin was the only sadistic werewolf left in that pack," he reassured me. "It'll take months for them to choose a new alpha. And once the dust settles, no one will dare face us.

"In the meantime," my mate continued, solving any potential crisis before it could even rear its ugly head, "you know as well as I do that Cricket could run this pack on her own if she wanted to."

I had to laugh at Wolfie's assessment. My stepmother was so timid and mousy, fading into the woodwork whenever she felt like it. But she'd proven remarkably capable of keeping her finger on the pulse of the pack, and I had no doubt she'd jump at the chance to parent Ember for the next month as well. She'd probably do a better job with both responsibilities than I ever had.

"So the only question," my mate continued, not sounding quite so confident now as he had seconds earlier, "is whether you and your wolf really want this. Or whether you simply feel obliged in the face of recent events."

He hesitated, then muttered almost under his breath, "I've never asked anyone to join me on a claiming moon before."

"And you still haven't," I replied, standing and offering my hand to pull my mate to his feet. "If you'll remember, I'm the one who asked you. Surely you wouldn't be so rude as to turn a lady down?"

"I wouldn't dream of it," my mate's wolf said immediately. Then he swept me into a kiss rather than giving me one last opportunity to change my mind.

Not that I planned to. Not ever again. Because the idea of merging mind, body, and soul with my mate made the sun rising over the mountaintop seem like the very brightest dawn I'd ever lived through. And I had a feeling our days would only grow brighter and brighter as Wolfie and I embarked upon a lifetime of adventure together.