I wake in Cohen’s arms, sore, but smiling. His hands are roaming over my arms and hands. When I turn to look at him over my shoulder, I see him watching me closely. “How do you feel?” he asks, kissing my nose. “Loved,” I say, smiling. That brings a huge smile to his face. “You will always be loved. Any regrets about last night?” I shake my head, no. “You?” “Only one,” he says. I feel my smile start to fade. “That my mark isn’t still on your neck,” he says quickly, seeing my concern. He leans in and kisses the spot, making me shiver. “Kaelen and I loved seeing our mark on you, even if it was only for a short time.” “Soon it will be permanent.” “Not soon enough,” he growls. “Come on, we need shower and get going, but I want to have lunch with you today,” he says, standing and helping me off the bed. When I stand, I can feel the soreness between my thighs and inside me a little more. “Are you okay? Sore?” “A little. Keena will heal me soon, I’m sure. At least once that lazy wo

It’s a hard shift, knowing I need to be here for my mate and my pack and not back home, fighting with my family. But I know that Cohen and I need to be here to protect this pack. Canyon Ridge took the first wave of battle and because of that, we took the hardest hit. Hours later, we’re still checking on our injured, consoling the mates of those who have died, when we get the news that the war is over. Some witch got away, but the wolves that attacked us and the witches that participated in the war have all been killed. I don’t care about them, we’ll burn their bodies. But there are wolves that I knew back home that died protecting their mates and the pack, and I do feel their loss. We heard about Emlyn’s massive power, and from the sprites, we heard about Maeve’s as well. She and her family fought hard against the witches and kept the sprites and other pack members safe. It makes me think that we should consider having a witch in every pack now. The witches haven’t been treated equal

“I ruined dinner,” she cries, her tears running down my chest as I gently begin rocking the swing back and forth. I press my lips against her forehead. “It was your first try. You said so yourself. You’ll get better,” I tell her softly. She shakes her head. “It was supposed to make the pack feel better, comfort food because of everything that has happened. I can feel how sad everyone is and I just wanted to do something nice for them, and I ruined it,” she says and by the end, she’s sobbing again. I hold her while she cries, rocking her gently as the night breeze blows over us. “The pack knows why you did this, Malin. They appreciate your efforts. If they didn’t, trust me, they wouldn’t have tried to eat it,” I tell her. “And you’re so tired," she begins as if I didn't say anything. "You’re taking on so much of the pack’s emotions, taking it all on yourself since I’m not your official Luna yet and now, here you are having to console me too. I bet you wish you were mated to someon

It was great getting to spend time with Uncle Liam. He and my father have been close my entire life, so he’s very familiar with the inner workings of this pack. So, while I know that he’s checking to see if I need anything from an Alpha’s perspective while my father is away, I also know that he’s here to talk to me about his daughter. It doesn’t take him very long to the get to the point. “Malin seems a bit…unsettled.” I sigh. Rather than sit across from him at my desk, I sit beside him in a seating area where we can speak more casually. I sip my bourbon thinking through my response. My mate is working hard to become independent, and I don’t want to undermine that by speaking to her father behind her back. Uncle Liam is a fixer. If something’s wrong, if you need something done, someone checked, someone taken down, he’s your guy. The only subtle part of him comes from Aunt Angel. There’s nothing subtle about Uncle Liam. He’s all Alpha and you get exactly what you see with him. He sip

I wasn’t sure if Malin would remember my birthday, but I should have known that she would. That’s the kind of person she is, the kind who doesn’t forget things like birthdays. The kind of person who will have amazing parties for our pups so that the pack can celebrate them, but also so that our pups know that their parents care enough to remember the important things in life. Tonight, my sweet mate is taking me out to dinner. I couldn’t be more thrilled. A night alone with my mate and we’re going to Ethereal, the only upscale restaurant in our local area. It’s not the upscale restaurant that has me excited, it’s that I’ll be walking in with my mate, and I’ve seen Malin dressed up on rare occasions. She’s the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen on a normal day. Dressed up for dinner, on my birthday? Wowza! I’ll have the most gorgeous woman in the world on my arm tonight and I can’t wait to show her off. Knowing that my mate will look stunning, I do my best to make sure that I look good