I say, “When I first started shifting, I was small. Real young. And I didn’t have much control over my wolf, which was obviously small, too. Took a while before I could shift on demand, but an alpha could always get me to shift on command. Control came with time, with frequent shifting. Pops would take me out daily so I could practice.”
“Oh.”
“So, your wolf was telling you to mate me so she could meet us both.”
“Yeah,” she says softly, more tears in her eyes.
I kiss her and purr some more.
She snuggles in for a minute, then pulls back. “Shit. Sorry. My wolf ate your dinner.”
I laugh. “And bit me.”
“My wolf,” she beams dreamily before straightening up. “I could make you something,” she offers.
“No thanks.” I raise my hands. “Don’t need food poisoning ruining our mating night.”
“Hey!”
She acts disgruntled and gives me a playful shove.
I laugh. “She wanted that striploin somethin’ fierce. Wanted no part of yours since it was well done. You want, I can whip us up something.”
“I’m not sure. Maybe I ate enough.”
“She ate the bulk of that strip; a whole lot of meat for a pup so tiny.”
“How about I clean this up while you make yourself something? If I get hungry, I can get something after. I will have some of that honeymoon mead, though.”
“I say we clean up together and then you hang out with me and drink some honeymooning mead while I make something, then if you decide you’re hungry, you can eat with me.”
“Okay,” she agrees. “Be right back. Need the little she-wolf’s room.” She beams a huge smile as I chuckle and grabs a robe to put on before leaving the room. I examine the take-out containers. The sides are still here, untouched, so I’ll warm them up.
48
BAILEY
I have the goofiest smile on my face as I examine my mate mark in the mirror. Not only do I have Jason’s teeth prints on my skin after giving him my virginity, after becoming his lifelong mate… I also have a wolf.
I have a wolf! Nerdy, clumsy little half-blood Bailey Blackwood has an actual wolf!
I could bawl some more right now. I have Jase. I have a mate mark. My introduction to sex was better than I could’ve ever hoped for.
Like… seriously… if you’re going to wait twenty-five years and fill your life with spicy romance novels, it’s best to make sure that when you finally give it away, it goes to someone who knows what they’re doing. And though I have no frame of reference not having been with anybody but Jase, I do believe his skills in the sex department are stellar. I’m a lucky girl to get the guy of my dreams and have everything be as dreamy as it was.
But to find out tonight that I have a wolf, too? It’s the cherry on top and I couldn’t be any happier.
And strangely, it’s as if I’ve got perfect vision. My glasses make me feel woozy, but when I remove them, everything looks like it does when I have them on! Did Jase’s knot give me twenty-twenty vision and a wolf of my very own?
Okay, maybe shifting fixed my less than perfect eyes. Oh! This might mean I can heal with shifting!
No wonder my wolf was trying to communicate me whenever I pushed away my emotions.
I examine and brush my mate mark with my fingertips and…oh wow! Now my nipples instantly harden. And how I felt when he purred? Wow. I never thought I’d get to experience that for myself. It’s better than I imagined.
When Dr. Blakely mentioned using medication to wake a latent wolf, I was equal parts excited and terrified, worrying it would confirm what I’ve suspected for more than a decade – that I’m wolfless.
I’ve spent countless hours digging for signs of half-blooded shifters meeting their wolves after adolescence and found nothing.