We’d finally decided to create a general gathering place big enough to house all of the pack once the winter season had broken and spring was upon us. We’d been working all year on this project and were nearly done just as summer was starting to shift to fall.
The Black Wolf community was made up of hundreds of acres of wooded land with cabins scattered through the property. We had a main “village center” where we would have the longhouse for gatherings, matings, celebrations, and anything else where the pack could congregate together. We also had trading stalls where pack members created things to trade, sell, and barter with others in the pack. Tapestries, wooden figurines, garden-grown fruits and vegetables, and hand-carved furniture.
We were a self-sustaining community for the most part, and I'd also been content with that—until I wasn’t. Until I yearned for my mate and thought the only way I'd ever find her was to leave.
“Hey, Felix,” I said once it was just the two of us in the woodworking shed.
He glanced over his shoulder before turning and facing me, a rag in his hands as he cleaned them off.
“Have you ever thought about leaving?”
His dark brows pulled low. “What do you mean? Like for a trip?”
I shook my head. “Like to find your mate.”
His body tensed. I saw the muscles contract at my question. He glanced down, staring at his hands as he ran the red rag over them. “This is my home. The pack is my life.” He glanced up at me. “The pack is our home, Tucker.”
I nodded. It was now, but it hadn't felt that way before Mia had become my mate. I didn't tell him that, but the look in his eyes told me Felix already knew. Why wouldn't he? We didn’t become interested in the opposite sex for the hell of it. And me watching Mia as intently as I had been for a while now was obvious as hell.
We were silent for a long moment, Felix watching me intently.
“When did you find out?” he asked slowly.
Now it was my turn to look away. I ran a hand over my jaw, the scruff underneath scratching along my palm. I stared out the large window at the cabin, needing to see Mia again like I needed to breathe.
“The moment she turned nineteen.”
Felix was so silent that I glanced at him again. I stared at the male I’d known my whole life. We’d been close as hell as pups, more like brothers than friends. Despite Felix—and every other male in the pack for that matter—being a big fucker, he had an easygoing personality. He let shit roll off his back, never took anything seriously, and was always smiling. But how did he not feel that bone-deep need to find his female?
Or did he, but he just hid it better than most?
I ran a hand over the back of my neck and shrugged. “It doesn't matter how he’ll react. He can’t change the truth. She’s mine.” I said those last two words with a growl in my voice. My wolf was very pleased by this fact, knowing Mia was ours.
“Yeah, I know. And he’ll know, but he won’t make it easy.”
No, I didn't suspect he would.
“He’s protective of Mia,” Felix said seriously, softly. “Ever since she was born and Fawn passed away.”
A long moment of silence passed as that memory consumed the space between us. When Aidan found his mate in a fellow Black Wolf pack member, it had been a huge celebration. As Aidan was the son of the Alpha, his future had already been carved out. He couldn’t have left to find his mate even if he wanted, not with the obligations and responsibilities he’d inherit. So it was pure luck, maybe fate, that he found his female within the same pack.
They’d been so happy together. Inseparable.
And then she’d gotten pregnant, and there had been more celebrating.
But when Fawn died after giving birth, and for a very long time, Aidan had been broken. The only reason he hadn’t followed his mate in death was because he had a little girl who needed him. So to say he was protective of Mia was a big fucking understatement.
But there was no one who would protect Mia, who would put her above all else, like I would. Her mate. I was born to worship her, to keep her safe and make sure she was happy. And I’d ensure Aidan knew that.
I may have a big fight on my hands where he was concerned, but he couldn’t deny or keep me from her. A fated mate was sacred and held above all others.
“If he wants a war, I’ll deliver.” I stared at Felix. “I won’t give her up, not even if it means going against the Alpha.”
2
Mia
I was trying to listen to what my dad was saying, but I was too focused on the feeling of being watched.