*BONUS CHAPTER*

***Bonus Chapter***

*Anna POV*

Tilly looks perfect in her usual oversized top and scuffed up jeans. If I would have had it my way, that girl would be in the most expensive lace dress Onyx could muster up, but that wouldn’t be her. That would be me dressing her and honestly…She looks just as good right now as she would in any dress. It’s not the clothing she is wearing that makes it, but the smile on her lips that I am certain will remain there until the end of our days. 

It wasn’t easy keeping this secret from her, but damn, was it worth it. Onyx looks at her like our wolves look at the moon. She is more than his mate but his everything, and damn it, she deserves it. I think when the Goddess made their union; she knew Tilly would need a little extra from her mate. 

She and Onyx dance as the rest of the party guests leave, heading home just as the sun rises. It was one long ass party, that is for sure, and I am exhausted. Ty’s hand slides into mine, lifting it to his lip and pressing a kiss to the top, shooting sparks through my body. We may be both marked and mated, but I will never grow tired of this feeling. Of knowing it is him every time. 

“Hey beautiful,” He murmurs cupping my cheek.

“Mmm, hi Handsome” I whisper back.

“Are you ready to head back?”

“Yes. So damn ready.” I stifle a yawn and he chuckles, spinning his back to face me and dropping to one knee.

“What are you doing?” I ask him, and he looks at me over his shoulder.

“Offering you a ride,”

I bite back my snarky nature and step up to him, wrapping my arms around his front and looping my feet around his waist. As we walk, I pepper kisses along his neck while he chuckles.

“Damn it, Anna.” He mutters. 

“What?” I tease, rubbing my nose over my mate’s mark on his neck. “Am I making it hard for you to walk?”

“Extremely,” He chuckles.

“No harder than you made Tilly’s life.” I say and I can feel him heave a heavy sigh. 

“How long will you make me suffer for that?” He asks softly, and I can feel his guilt bleeding through our bond. 

We may have mated before Tilly and Onyx, but we didn’t wait for our problems to be resolved. My dumbass acts on instinct rather than thinking things fully through. So while Ty and I are amazing and I know in no uncertain terms that I have loved him since I was young and wanted him since I knew what it meant to want a man. We still have our issues. Tilly being the main one. 

His guilt combined with my extra protective nature of her tend to butt heads. There needs to be a reckoning, a moment where we both reach the cusp of our ability to push it to the side and we just explode and hash it out. It will either fix everything or tear us apart.

Which is why I choose to hide from it and throw jabs. It’s easier. I may be one always up for a fight, but this fight? Scares the shit out of me more than being stuck in that dungeon with Ian all over again.

Ty lowers me down as we enter a lightly wooded area, the sunrise flooding the moss laden ground. He paces away, his hands on his head, before turning to look at me, pained and conflicted. 

“I love you.” He says, but he doesn’t come any closer. “I love you and fuck, Anna. I have loved you ever since you were old enough to catch my attention. And it’s your protective nature toward Tilly that made me love you. You gave her what I couldn’t, what I didn’t know how to because…I wasn’t allowed to have my own mind. As the oldest, there were expectations…I fucked up all the time with Tilly.”

“You were awful to her, Ty.” I tell him, my throat constricting as I watch him pace. We’ve had small conversations about this before. And I am well aware that Tilly has forgiven him. Their relationship is close now. Which should make me happy, please me, but I feel like he got off easy. Mostly, I feel like he needs to understand that apology, accepted or not, what he did, how he acted, was fucked up.

“I know, Anna.” He says, glaring at me. “I don’t expect you to understand because there is no real fucking excuse. But I need you to look at me right now and tell me you see the change. Can’t you see I am trying?”

His chest heaves up and down and I nibble on my lip, conflicted. It’s my stubbornness in our way right now. The fact that Tilly emotionally suffered at his hands is not one I take lightly. But I also know he got little what Tilly needed, either. Beckham and Dylan have always been the favored children. They had expectations of Tyler, and I get that…

“Reject me.” He says, his voice cracking as he looks away, hiding his teary-eyed face from me. “If you can’t love me, if you can’t see past it…I understand. Reject me and I will leave the pack.”

My wolf cries in my head, my stomach churning with fear, and I stride up to him, slapping his cheek.

“How fucking dare you!” I hiss. “How dare you try to take the easy way out? I want you! This! are you kidding me?”

I go to slap him again, but he catches my wrist before he lowers my hand to his chest. His heart is beating against his ribs ferociously.

“Nothing about you is easy, Anna. And I want to fucking fight for this. But I need you to meet me halfway. I need you to either forgive me or let me go. One minute we are fine and wonderful, the next you bring this up and we are fighting again. I’m not giving up, I’m giving in to you. So tell me, Alpha, do you want me?”

The air feels like it’s too thin as I consider what it would be like to let him go. Tilly has made it abundantly clear she doesn’t want to be a problem in our relationship. She has forgiven Ty…So why and I struggling so hard to allow myself to let it all go?

“I…” I start. Ty looks at me, tears in his eyes as he sighs and walks backward, away from me.

“Come find me when you figure it out.” He turns and walks off. I stand there staring at his back when a hand takes mine and I jump, turning to find Tilly with a worried look on her brow.

“Whats wrong?” I ask immediately worried about her.

“Anna.” She sighs, offering me a soft smile. “You don’t need to be my protector anymore.”

I scoff and roll my eyes. “I will always protect you.”

“I am a Luna. This pack is mine and you are an Alpha next week. I am safe, and so are you.” She pulls me into a hug.

“Stop pushing Ty away because all this change is too much for you. You should lean on your mate for strength. Not using me as a scapegoat to hide your fears.”

“Please, I fear nothing.” I tease, and she gives me a stern look.

“I refuse to be the reason you lose your mate, especially when I love my brother and forgave him for everything. If I am the only obstacle, then I officially remove myself.”

I bite my lip and then grin widely before taking off after Ty.

—I want you — I shoot through the mind link.

—Thank the fucking Heavens, because I was not really going to give up—