Page 31 of Rejected Forced Mate
"Oh, don't worry about her!" Summer chirped. "We're two peas in a pod. We'll be just fine."
"I'm sure," Noah grumbled, narrowing his eyes, "Go, then."
I had a feeling that I would be getting an earful the next time I saw Noah, but at least I would have some time to cool off and get my bearings.
"We'll see you later, Alpha!" Summer said cheerfully.
He watched us until we were out of sight, his dark, stormy gaze following me until the last possible moment.
"Wow, Sage," Summer said as soon as we were on the road.
"Don't," I mumbled, burying my face in my hands. "Don't say a single thing." "But—"
"Not one word."
"You've got it." Summer was obviously trying not to laugh, but I could hear the humor in her voice.
Each step away from Noah made it easier to breathe, but the ache I felt for him only grew. It wasn't painful yet, but the message from my body was clear—my heat was back for round two.
Chapter 15 - Noah
It was the perfect evening for a hunt, and I had been looking forward to it all day. A run in wolf form would be the perfect way to blow off steam.
At least, that's what I had thought.
The pack hunt had only begun an hour ago, but I was already feeling antsy and distracted. I was supposed to be the leader of the hunt, but there was no way to keep my head in the game. We hadn't caught a single thing, and I didn't care. All I wanted was to see Sage, and it was driving me mad.
She'd looked so beautiful that afternoon, her cheeks rosy and her lips full. She'd smelled amazing, too, and the way she'd leaned toward me, her eyes glazed and her lips parted, had nearly driven me insane. I wanted to push her against the nearest surface and kiss her senseless, heedless to the fact a good amount of my pack and my cousin had all been standing right there.
I hadn't dared voice it out loud, but I was almost positive her heat was nearly on her once more. It pulled me in more powerfully than any spell she might cast ever could, and letting her walk away with Summer had really tested my patience. Surely I had proved last time that I was
capable of giving her relief without pushing things too far. Why would she rather suffer than let me take her pain away?
She was haunting me as my paws thundered over the forest floor, my pack all around me, every one of us fixated on the scent of a deer in the distance. Sage's laugh, the way her auburn hair caught the sunlight, and the stubborn look on her face when I tried to push back about her leaving...it all caused me to lose track of the scent trail again and again.
It was pointless. I veered off from the group, letting Cal take the lead and loping back towards town. For the moment, I was more of a hindrance than anything else. Surely she would be home by now, done with her trip with Summer. I appreciated my cousin spending time with Sage and making her more comfortable in the territory, but I was ready to be alone with my mate once more.
The house was quiet when I returned home, but I could still scent Sage faintly. Instead of wasting time calling my cousin and trying to zero in on where my wife was, I reached inside myself for our mate bond and tugged on it gently. It responded instantly to me, and I could follow the glowing connection of it to Sage. She didn't seem to be too far away, and from what I could tell, she was nowhere near the center of town anymore.
Excited at the prospect of having her alone, I followed our connection, taking a shortcut through the woods until the trail led me straight to the outskirts of the territory, where the farms were.
There were quite a few of them, and each one was owned by a pack member who specialized in providing for the rest of the group. Most were self-sufficient, and the crops and animals they raised were usually sold in the surrounding towns. Lately, that had all gone south, and the farmers had been working night and day to make ends meet. The fact that they were barely able to feed themselves wasn't lost on the pack.
It was a sobering thought, but not enough to shake me out of my fixation on finding Sage. I'd been dealing with the failing land for years, but I'd only had my mate with me for a few weeks.
I felt her magic humming in the air before I saw her, walking slowly through the center of one of the brown, dead fields, her hands outstretched. She'd put her hair up, but a riotof unruly curls had escaped and curled around her face, and the knees of her jeans were brown with dirt as if she'd been kneeling. My mate's fingers glowed with golden magic as she walked, and when that magic came into contact with the wilted plants, the leaves perked up, reinvigorated.
Sage was a healer, but I'd never considered that her powers would work on something other than people. She raised the plants from near death, and as she walked, they almost seemed to lean towards her as if she were the sun itself.
Sage was facing away from me, and I had a chance to watch her work. The sight of her in her element, the way the sun hit her hair and her skin, made my breath catch in my throat. She was stunning.
I approached her carefully, knowing that the sound of my footsteps would give me away. As the Alpha, my power was strongest and most easily detected, so it was hard to sneak up on someone, especially when that someone was a witch and my mate. But she was concentrating hard, and it gave me the edge I needed to go undetected for a little longer.
I'd only been able to see her in action a handful of times, and each time was like seeing her for the first time. Every part of her was graceful and powerful, and I loved watching the way her muscles moved beneath her skin, her expression serious and intent.
How could anyone ever view someone like her as an abomination? Sage was a miracle.
I was so mesmerized by her that I lost track of just how close she was getting to the pack borders, and my mate was only a few feet away from triggering a trap when my brain finally switched back on enough to realize it.
