Bonded Beyond Trickery (Trick or Treat Monsters)

CHAPTER 9

TILLY

The delicious ache in my body has a smile spreading across my face. Holy shit. The ache in my limbs and the dull roaring reminder of how hard, how sinfully my mate took me yesterday, should not feel as good as it does.

“I could have healed us, but I like it,” my wolf purrs.

I giggle softly and whisper conspiratorially to her, “I like it, too.”

My wolf sighs as she stretches in my mind. There’s a dreamy quality to her growl, “Do you think we can mate again? Can we mate every day?”

“We may be that lucky. It felt like Whitaker was insatiable,” I sound giddy.

Hell, I feel giddy.

Copying my wolf, I stretch on the bed and the pull where my neck and shoulder meet has me wincing. I jolt up in bed remembering that not only did I mate with the other half of my soul, but we sealed our bond with bites.

“We are forever bound together,” reverence pours from my wolf.

Yes. Yes, we are.

I want to get up and look at my mating mark, but with a glance to the other side of the bed I realize that I’m alone. The realization has a pit opening up in my gut.

Does he regret what happened? Would he take it back if he could?

While I know that our past, the feelings of hurt, aren’t all resolved—how could they be so quickly—I did think that we got a little closer to letting the shit go to focus on the future.

“Open yourself up to the bond,” my wolf suggests.

Easier suggested than done. It’s not like I’ve ever had a mate bond before.

Sinking back into the bed, I close my eyes and focus on Whitaker. I visualize a wall in my mind falling away along with a thread that connects my soul to my mate.

“Little wolf,” Whitaker’s voice is gentle in my mind.

“Hi,” I whisper back to him, not even considering that with the bond comes our own personal mind link.

I don’t like feeling shy, but with him, especially with what happened yesterday, it’s unavoidable. Knowing it wasn’t just my first time, that Whitaker waited for me, has my thighs clenching. It’s a shame that I woke up alone.

Whitaker purrs, a sensuality in his tone that has me panting, “Did you burst into my mind to distract me with naughty thoughts?”

“N-no,” I stammer, “I wasn’t sure where you were, and my wolf suggest that I use the bond. I forgot about the mind link though.” I clear my throat and try and shake off the lust coursing through my veins. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you. I’m new to this whole bond thing.”

“I am too, Tilly,” the amusement in his voice has me breathing a sigh of relief. “I didn’t want to leave our bed this morning.”

Our. He called it our bed. Why does that make me want to dance and jump for joy at the same time?

I try not to pout. I really do, promise. “Then why did you?”

“I needed to go to the first training session of the day.” I almost ask him why he didn’t wake me up since we talked about when I can join training. “You were sleeping so peacefully, little wolf,” there’s a growl in his voice that sends a shiver up my spine because it means that his wolf is at the surface, “and I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Oh, okay. That makes sense.” When I shift in the bed, that ache reminds me to move a little slower. “I’ll see you later?”

“Of course, Tilly,” he assures me.

As our connection fizzles out, I take a moment to tap into his emotions. While I don’t want to spy on him, he hasn’t blocked me out of his emotions and I’m curious. It will help me navigate the beginnings of our bond in light of how we began.

There’s a hint of anger pulsing in our bond, but it’s tempered with a lot of hope and the need to forgive and move forward. I can work with those emotions.

It’s going to take some time. Even though we’ve bitten each other and cemented our bond, which doesn’t mean everything is magically forgotten and forgiven. It is a pretty good indication of a bright future, all things considered, since Whitaker wanted to bite me.

The emotional link between us doesn’t only go one way. If he wanted to tap into my side of the bond, he’ll feel my emotions. He’ll be able to ascertain the regrets I feel over how everything went down, even though I felt like I was making the right decision for me at the time.

I’m not sure if I would make a different decision, but the fact that I took my mate’s chance away to be the wolf I need him to be, to support me and put me first, stings. I hadn’t thought of it in those terms and having Whitaker point out how I underestimated him and made my own assumptions was like a slap to the face.

One I needed.

Since I’m not sure if my luggage ever made it out of my car yesterday, I climb out of bed and grab Whitaker’s shirt from the floor. I blush when I remember the way we stayed in bed for hours. It was more than us connecting physically though.

We talked and not only about the pack, but about our childhoods. The way Whitaker talks about growing up in Silver Howler has me excited to meet more of the pack.

Hopefully they’re nicer than the she-wolf who approached us yesterday. I’ll admit, I could see the cruel, calculated glint in her eyes when she made her presence known. I knew right away that she was going to try and cause trouble.

Knowing that didn’t stop the pain that speared me when she tried to insinuate that Whitaker had spent time with her. Not only time and not just in the past. She tried to make to make it seem like they were intimate the night before, the same night when our mate bond was revealed.

I believe my mate that nothing like that happened, that he waited for me. But, the reality is that if he hadn’t waited and if he had chosen to have another in his bed after finding out he’s mated with me, what could I have really done? Would I have been able to say anything?

I don’t know, but I’m damn glad that I don’t have to worry about it.

Warmth fills me at the memory of being with my mate and knowing it was the first time for both of us. What a gift. Our bond might be granted by the Goddess, but we honored our bond by waiting for each other.

I’m so damn glad I did.

I make my way out of the bedroom in the Alpha’s suite. I didn’t get a full tour last night. I didn’t see much more than the bedroom and the attached bathroom.

My wolf howls with joy, and I can only giggle at her in response. If her fur was any more puffed up, she would need a groomer. She chuffs, not amused by my joke, but she’ll get over it. She’s not really mad and we both know it.

How can anyone be mad when floating on the bliss that is finally being connected to one’s mate?

Yesterday, as we hid away, Whitaker had some pack members bring us dinner and we ate in bed like it was a luxury picnic. It was perfect.

To my utter surprise, it didn’t seem like he was all that worried about pack work or being behind on anything. I didn’t feel like his attention was split between me and his responsibilities.

I’m not sure if that’s a mate thing or if he’s that confident in the abilities of the rest of his leadership.

Since dinner was delivered, I’m not expecting much when I step into the kitchen, but I’m surprised to find not only a very clean space, filled with top-of-the-line appliances. When I open the fridge, it’s fully stocked.

The rumble from my stomach, a reminder of how hungry I am, has me moving. The space is perfect, and it feels like I’ve been cooking in it for forever. I should feel out of place, like a stranger in a strange land, but I don’t. I feel at home.

If this is where I live for the rest of my life, growing our family and helping to lead the pack, I can do so happily. My mind wanders over the future that is possible here as I ponder what the best way for me to help the pack could be. I don’t want to just be a pretty face.

I want to train and, maybe, strengthen their warriors since I grew up and learned under my father, brother, and the warriors of the Golden Summit pack. We are allied packs, so I’m not concerned about sharing secrets. Even if we were allies before, we would be now.

Matings tend to do that.

I also want to strengthen the business that the pack engages in. The pack is self-sustaining in so many ways, including a shopping area outside of the pack’s gates to allow business to be more than just pack wolves. I want to make those businesses as strong as they can be.

If the people in the pack are happy and fulfilled, it makes the pack stronger.

There is more to being strong than having the fiercest warrior. There is strength of character. There is trust that can’t be unbroken. There is loyalty that is never questioned or tested.

I want all of the pack to be strong, to feel like they have purpose, and to feel like their voice is being heard.

A Luna’s role is to ensure the pack’s health, and I plan to be a very well-rounded Luna.

When I start plating breakfast, so lost in my thoughts and the regularity of cooking, which I can almost do with my eyes closed, my nerves start to get the best of me. I have a plate for Whitaker, but I don’t want to bother him again to see when he’ll be back.

Maybe he would rather eat with the pack?

Just when I’m about to run away and hide somewhere, the door to the suite opens and Whitaker’s voice rings out, “Tilly? Are you still here?”

I’m frozen for a moment, unsure of what to do and if I should answer.

“He’ll be able to smell the breakfast you’ve cooked,” my wolf points out with a snicker.

Fucking hell.

I consider slinking away, but before I can, he walks into the kitchen and freezes. I wring my hands together, part of me hoping that the floor opens and swallows me whole. Surprise, surprise. It doesn’t.

There’s curiosity in his voice and something else I can’t quite discern, “You cooked breakfast?”

“Um,” I start, feeling my entire being falter with the way my mate is staring at me, “yes? If you would rather go down to the dining hall and have breakfast with the pack, then that’s fine as well. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to find the kitchen fully stocked. I thought that maybe it would be nice for us to have breakfast together? Just us?”

Fuck. I’m babbling. My wolf huffs out an amused breath in my mind, but I ignore her.

Whitaker’s lips curve into a small grin which grows the longer I fidget in front of him. With a few long strides, he’s standing right in front of me. I almost jump out of my skin when he wraps an arm around my waist and hauls me against his chest.

“Thank you,” his voice is a deep rumble that shoots straight through my body and my nipples hardening.

It becomes very obvious, very quickly that the only thing I’m wearing is my mate’s shirt. I feel my cheeks heating because I should have taken the time to get dressed. Not that I know where my clothes are.

Whitaker sucks in a sharp breath and when I look up at him, he’s staring down at me. “You’re wearing my shirt,” it’s a statement, not a question, but I still find myself nodding. “It looks good on you,” he growls, lust swirling in his eyes.

“Sorry?” I wince, but Whitaker just grins down at me. “I wasn’t sure if my bags made it out of my car. I didn’t bring them in and then,” I pause, searching for the right words, “things kind of got away from me.”

Whitaker smirks and before I can knee him in the balls or pull away from him, he leans down and kisses my lips softly and sweetly. Its’ such a soft caress that it shouldn’t make me feel like fire licks along my skin, but it does.

“We’ll get it taken care of,” he promises. His eyes sweep back down my body and darken. “Until then, feel free to wear my clothes.”

I shake my head and find myself giggling as he leads us over to the island in the kitchen. When we’re sitting on the stools there, I pull our plates closer. The silence between us as we eat isn’t stuffy or uncomfortable.

I’ve noticed this before when he was giving me a tour. There’s a comfort in the silence between us. I hope it helps to give Whitaker the peace that he needs and deserved. The pressure on the shoulders of an Alpha is immense and I want to be his peace.

When the food is gone and we’re both sitting there quiet, the comfort of being with my mate, finally, must get the better of me. The words slip out of my mouth without thinking them through first.

“When will we be doing the Luna ceremony?”

Whitaker freezes and it feels like a knife to the chest. The pure fucking panic and uncertainty written on my mate’s face tells me everything I need to know.

I could examine our bond to get a read on him, but I don’t. I can’t.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

“How about,” he barely gets the words out and clears his throat, “not this full moon but next month’s.” I can’t look into his eyes as I nod. “You deserve a beautiful ceremony and we’re too close to this month’s full moon to do it right,” he tries to soften the blow, but his words don’t quite ring true.

“Of course,” I whisper.

Yeah, my words don’t quite ring true either.

But, considering I’m the one who hide who I was for years, maybe I shouldn’t expect anything more. I won’t let this stop me from finding my place in the pack though and I’m certainly not running away.

I’m supposed to be here. In this pack. At my mate’s side.

I’ll fight for my future.