Page 43 of The Barren Luna

“Can you believe that the same deer that served you at breakfast is serving you now?” he chuckled.

“Oh, come on, how can you know it’s the same one?” I shot back jokingly, but he looked shy all of a sudden.

“Well,” he took a breath, “I hunted it last week, and I asked the cook to serve it today. That is also how I found the hide so quickly, I knew where I’d put it.”

“Oh,” I furrowed my brow as a slippery thought tickled the back of my mind, but skillfully evaded capture, like an eel or a fish.

“Let me finally address the reason I wanted to talk to you this morning,” David said abruptly and straightened in his seat.

I found myself unconsciously mirroring his movement.

“Yesterday was the last time you were given wolfsbane, and it will completely leave your body in a matter of days. But I need to tell you something first so that you are not blindsided when it does.”

“Oh my God,” my chest immediately felt tight. “Is it my wolf? Is she damaged? Oh my God,” he took my hands in his and that promptly shut me up.

“No, Regina. It’s not your wolf, she’s fine, I can already feel her a tiny bit.”

“You can? Oh God, that’s good to hear. I need to shut up now. Just tell me. Please,” I closed my eyes but he remained silent until I opened them again.

He was looking at the mountain peaks now.

“You’re my mate, Regina,” he said quietly.

For a moment, I had trouble connecting his words to their meaning. I knew all of them individually:

“you” the second-person pronoun

“are” the verb to be, conjugated in second person singular

“my” word denoting possession, belonging to the speaker

“mate” a noun denoting the most important individual in a wolf’s life

“Regina” my name

But for the life of me, I couldn’t decipher what he was trying to tell me by combining these particular words to form that particular sentence. It couldn’t be what it sounded like. Yet he kept looking at me with that warm expression, my smaller hands still enveloped by his large ones, and now he was drawing little circles on my skin with his thumbs. He said I was his mate. David said I was his mate.

“David,” I said, but it came out like a croak. I cleared my throat. “Did you have a mate before?”

He just shook his head, eerily still, like I was the deer he hunted last week and he didn’t want to spook me.

“I’m sorry -,” I started, but stopped when his hold on my hands tightened.

“What are you sorry for?” he seemed genuinely confused.

It was alright, I knew I had a lot to be sorry for, he probably wanted me to clarify. I looked away from him, ashamed.

“I understand why you didn’t tell me before. Who would want a probably barren mate killer for a mate? And I’m not even your second chance mate, I’m your first mate, I’m so sorry,” I said, my sadness leaking through my vocal cords.

He inhaled and then exhaled audibly and exaggeratedly before giving me a beautiful, heartwarming smile.

“Regina, I was completely and utterly in love with you from the moment I laid my eyes on you – a warrior she-wolf ina bloodstained dress who had cunningly killed her captor, an enemy who had the absolute advantage over her, both physically and hierarchically. I was so proud of you in that moment. I probably would have gotten aroused at the sight if I hadn’t been so worried that some of the blood on you was yours. My wolf was going insane,” he shook his head, shuddering like he was reliving the whole thing.

My heart was stuck on the wordsloveandproud. Not to mentionaroused.

“You were put in an inescapable situation, and you saved yourself, Gina. Are you aware of that? As soon as I was sure you were alright, I wanted to take your hand and tell everyone, “Look at my strong, beautiful, savage mate who decapitated an Alpha with a bread knife.” I couldn’t be more honored to have you as my mate,” he said in a serious tone and then leaned over and kissed a tear that had escaped my eye during his speech.

“But – you - ,” I stuttered, not even sure what I was trying to say.

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