The Mine Between Us

ing a mate bond

e you belong to the forest. Rain on stone if you need him to think of home. Every wolf has a scent they are waitin

om a pack near the Canadian border, and the other was a Council clerk who never figured out who had s

boots full of snowmelt to reach it. The estate was an old Gilded Age thing, all gray stone and tall chimneys, with a wing on the east side that had been bo

steps and let my heart se

of warriors, or at least a Gamma to sniff the new arrival before letting him through the door. Silas came alone, and he came barefoot, his shirt untucked, his

porch," he said. His voice was soft,

ek

like it was a fruit he had

es

up,

moke, the kind of smoke that comes off a hearth in a house that has been lived in a long time. It was a scent I had practiced. I had practiced it with my eyes closed in a

breath

ll for a long moment, and I felt my own wolf rise in my chest, uneasy, because a wolf who is being lied to a

ld," he said final

ed in the main hall for the arrival of their Alpha's mate, and every face turned when Silas led me in. Some of them looked at my hair, which is pale enough to be mistaken for white

k hair pulled back and eyes that were a deep amber, almost brown until the firelight caught them. She did

id. "This is Dek

e been sniffed by a lot of wolves in my life, and I have learned to make my heartbeat slow and steady, my breat

ed at my

like cedar,

like home,"

las and then at me, and her jaw worked once, as if she were chewin

es

t you at t

ot ask a

ou will want to eat. There is stew in the kitchen

t another word, and th

Ashfall and then went quiet when I gave short answers. I learned their names. Elder Yara, a woman wi

eal, Silas

presence, and a steady performance over weeks. But his fingers closed around mine, and something went thro

w me close, one hand flat on the small of my back. His scent was everywhere. He turned his face into my neck and

he said. His voice h

," I

iving it before my mind could object. His hand slid up my back to my shoulder. My fingers found the collar of his shirt. For a few seconds I forgot what I was doing in

ded eyes were close to mine, a

" he said. "Almost as w

ut from under me

melled three of you in my lifetime, and you are the best of them, but the fourth one always slip

f was pressed low in m

the first. The walls are thin. If you try to leave in the night,