Page 75 of The Return
My heart thumped happily.
“As far as I know,” Dad continued, “the mate bond can never be broken. Even in death, the bond still exists. The problem is, if one mate dies, the other will likely follow shortly after, victim of a broken heart. I think that’s probably the only thing I’m jealous of. Not that I want Marta to die, of course. It’s just… we will never have a connection like the two of you share. Every year that passes, your bond will become deeper, richer, more fulfilled. You’ll love and grow and…. Okay, maybe I’m a little bit more jealous than I thought.”
“Don’t be,” Corey said. “I’ve seen you and your wife together. There’s a bond there that always made me happy to see. My parents—both sets—are the ones who gave me my foundation for life. They showed me how rewarding it is to fall in love, to raise a family, and—”
“Wait,” I said, suddenly excited. “You’d consider a family?”
“Of course” came the reply. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Dad beamed the biggest smile I’ve ever seen in my life. “To be honest, we weren’t sure it would happen. An Alpha is supposed to be strong and make powerful pups. We thought Jonas might be the last in line for us.”
“Psh. That’s antiquated thinking. We can adopt or we can have a surrogate.” He moved to me and wrapped his arms around my neck. “It doesn’t matter how we do it—all that does is we’d do it together.”
“So getting you pregnant wouldn’t have been such a bad thing, eh?”
He grinned. “Well, we can always try it the old-fashioned way and keep at it until we get it right.”
Dad shook his head. “And on that note, I’m going to pack up some things to take along with me.”
“Mr. Brodie,” Corey started, then stopped and gazed fondly at my father. “Dad.”
I’d never seen my father with tears in his eyes before, but now they were there, and he didn’t seem to care. He picked Corey up again and held him to his body. “Thank you,” he whispered. “For forgiving me.”
“I told you, I was never really angry with you. I was hurt, yes, but I wasn’t looking at it from any viewpoint but mine. Now that I knowmostof the story, I truly do understand—and appreciate—what you had to do.” He turned he head in my direction. “I wouldn’t ever want anyone to put Jonas down, because then I wouldn’t be able to love him.”
COREY
They camefor me not long after. My mind was screaming for me to refuse to go, to stay with Jonas, but my heart knew it was the right thing to do in order to protect the pack.Mypack.
Jonas wrapped me in a hug, and when Councilor Delray said it was time to go, I had to pry his arms off me and push his nose out of my throat.
“I will find who did this,” he vowed.
“And I swear to you, I will keep Corey safe,” Dad said.
Another round of hugs, and we were whisked to a waiting car. The trip was like something you’d see in a spy movie. We swapped cars and guards at least five times, then everyone but Councilor Delray, who drove the last leg, was blindfolded. It seemed overkill to me, but I followed their instructions. What gave me strength was Dad sat beside me and held my hand.
It seemed weird, but with every mile away from Jonas, my heart seized, as if it was tinfoil being crumpled. I wasn’t sure why, but it physically hurt being away from him. I leaned over and whispered—not that no one else heard, seeing as how they all had a wolf’s hearing—telling Dad how I was feeling.
“That’s one of the problems with the mate bond. When we went away, Jonas experienced that same thing every day. You don’t know how bad I felt taking him away from you, and watching him suffer didn’t help matters at all.” He squeezed my fingers, but stared out the window toward the sun. “The whole time we were up there, I felt I was doing a disservice to my son. You are his mate, and I took him from you. Every night, when Marta and I talked, I told her I was sure I was doing the wrong thing, and every night she would agree with me, but then tell me it had to be done. You didn’t see Jonas with Adam. Even I was afraid of him.”
“You?”
He sighed and let his headthunkagainst the window. “That day, even from his first shift, Jonas was far stronger than I was. If he had attacked me, I couldn’t have stopped him. I needed to use your name to make him think. He would have killed Adam—not that I would have cared, truthfully—but I didn’t want that to stain him or to make the pack fear him. I know more than a few members were surprised he even came back after what happened.”
“He was only a kid. Why would you be afraid of him?”
“A wolf is protective of his mate. If anyone came after Marta, I would go nuts. However, I would retain my mind. Jonas? He was gone, Corey. At that very moment, he was feral, and I feared I’d have to kill him to get him to stop. That’s the power—and the curse—of the true mate bond.”
“But I was okay.”
“I doubt that. You went out every night for a year, trying to find him. Tell me what you were feeling.”
I wish I could say I had to think, but the memories were clear as crystal. “Panic, pain, fear, certainty something was horribly wrong. It’s… not unlike what I’m feeling now.”
“See? Even as a human, you’re feeling the effects too.”
“So you’re saying that Jonas might go feral again?”
