The Wolf Series #3: Between Two Worlds

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Mansel takes my robe for me as the Wolves exit the ceremony hall. We're back at the Main Settlement, and I've just finished up a prayer for the pack.

"You look tired, Prophet," He takes my hand as I stumble out the door. They're the first words he's said to me since we returned from the caves. After I emerged from my room carrying Adrian's scent, I faced the cold shoulder from Mansel for an entire day and a half. "Maybe you should rest."

"I can't sleep," I squint my eyes as the sun pierces through the clouds. The anticipation of Nataniel and Rowan's arrival has had me tossing and turning since we got back from the caves. "What I need is a tea."

He's halfway unlocking the door to the apartment when he stops. I wait for him to speak, but I'm shocked when he suggests, "Do you want to go for a run?"

"A run? As in?"

"As in Shifting and going for a run."

It's like the sun just suddenly turned purple or the tides moved in reverse. I truly am at a loss for words, and all I can do in that moment is blink. Mansel opens the door and waits patiently for me to enter.

As I step slowly into the apartment, I nod, "Will you be joining me?"

"Of course. I wouldn't let you run alone." It's almost his subtle way of confirming what I suspected after I discovered he knew my secret. Mansel has been following me on my Shifts.

"Even here in Diurnal?"

"Aye," His cheeks turn pink as I stiffen, "But not close. I knew that that Alpha would be following you too...I didn't want to pry on anything that I wasn't supposed to."

It's hard to watch him say those words out loud. The relationship between Mansel and I has never been clearly defined—always somewhere in a murky mixture of greys. But one thing had always been abundantly clear to the both of us; nothing was above his oath to The Moon, and little could surmount my love and loyalty to Adrian.

But every now and then, we share moments like this—where the emotion we bare to each other is almost raw. And yet, like every time but a few, we both ignore it and look the other way.

"Get your pair of clothes then," I turn and go to change, "I want to show you the lake."

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The water is refreshing between my toes. The Wolf inside me is sated and panting happily after several laps around the lake's perimeter.

"It's funny. I used to cringe any time I felt her presence within me," My fingers skim over the surface of the water. Mansel is seated beside me in the shallows, and watches my hand intently. "She made me uneasy, and yet so full. And it was only once she was put back to sleep that I realized how used to her I had become. Even in that year prior to me going to France...I got so used to her breath syncing up with mine, and the way she would be the first to snap to attention whenever something went wrong."

"It's a unique experience. A blessing," Mansel scoops the crystal water in his palm. It trickles and drips from his rough hands and joins the ripples around us again. I shut my eyes and listen to the delicate song the currents of the lake play as they wash up and down the shoreline. "I often thought that we are our own mates."

I smile at that absurd but thoughtful insight, "Our Guides are the ones who truly understand us. They breathe our first breath and will see the last thing we do."