Page 24 of Beneath His Alpha's Wings
I laughed. “Sort of, yeah. And you're supposed to get their permission before you turn someoneandthe permission of the person you're turning. I didn't do either.”
“And that was it? Even if you met your true mate?”
I nodded.
Lucas growled. “Couldn't they make an exception for you?”
“I'm a warden.”
“So?”
“So,” I said. “Some of the people I go after as part of my job are the ones who have turned more than one person. It's kind of hypocritical, at best, if I managed to weasel my way into a getting a second turn, and then go around catching shifters for the same thing.” I cleared my throat a couple of times. “Besides, it was a lesson of sorts. A punishment even. I got an entire family killed and may have thrown away my only turn because I was stupid and impulsive. If I got a second turn, it wouldn’t make the lesson stick quite so much.” I couldn't resist a smile. “That’s how I ended up with Nitesh too. They wanted me to take responsibility for him. Of course, that ended up not being much of a punishment. Damned if I don't love him to death.” I squeezed his hand. “I never dreamed I’d find a true mate who was already turned. But I wish it had happened in a different way for you.”
“I don’t mind,” he said. “It was worth it to find you.” Lucas leaned forward and kissed me gently. “Have I said yet that I love you, Kessel? Because I do.”
We kissed for quite some time. At last I realized we had been sitting on the floor for well over an hour now. I stood and stretched, marveling that I wasn’t at all sore after the full moon. Except for that one spot… I rubbed my collar bone and saw Lucas watching me.
“Does it ever stop hurting?” he asked, rubbing his own. “I mean, if that’s the only downside…”
“Oh, it will. After we claim each other.” I helped him to his feet. Then I’m told…” I gently ran a finger over the spot on him, eliciting a surprised gasp of pleasure.
“How does that work?”
“We shift, then we bite each other. Right on that spot. It sort of forms a magical bond between us.”
“We aren’t already bonded?”
“The bond is there but it's not written in stone. You could… you could still decide you don't want to be with me,” I said. The idea of it hurt.
“What would happen to you?” he asked.
“You know,” I said, as it occurred to me. “I don't actually know. If you were human and you rejected me, the Alpha Parliament would erase our memories.”
“They can do that?!” he yelped.
I nodded. “That's kind of what I assumed would happen when I met my true mate, if you were human…” I smiled at the thought that I would never have to worry about that again. In the back of my mind, there was always the possibility that I had already met my true mate. And since I wouldn't have been allowed to change him, that the Parliament went ahead and erased my memory anyway. And I’d never have known…
“But that's only if you're human,” I said quickly, in case he was nervous about it. “It’s mainly so you can’t tell anyone about us. Since we're both shifters, I guess we just… kind of go our separate ways. Not that I know if we could. I think the pull of the true mate bond is pretty strong. Honestly,” I said weakly. “I'm not sure if youcouldreject me even if you wanted to. I don't know if your bear would let you.”
“Honestly,” Lucas said with a small smile. “I don't want to reject you anyway.”
I broke into a wide, somewhat relieved grin. “That's good to hear.” We both laughed, and I took his hand, warm and soft. His fingers tightened on mine.
Chapter Seven
Kessel
I woke up to an uncomfortable cramp in my stomach. What the hell? I sat up and realized Lucas wasn’t in the room.
“Lucas?”
I could see the light coming from under the bathroom door and quickly went in. Lucas was sitting on the closed toilet, hunched over and I knew.
“It’s happening, isn’t it?” I asked as I perched on the rim of the tub and began gently rubbing his back.
“Maybe an hour,” he confessed. “I’m trying to figure out if it’s the real deal.”
“I’ll call Avery.” I would not panic. I wouldnotpanic. My omega was about to deliver our baby—for he was ours in every single way that mattered—and I had no idea what to do about it.
