Chapter 11: The Bond

We did not drive back that night.

Snow came down at dusk, hard and sideways, and Brigid shut the door on it and said nobody was leaving a hill with a hunter on the road.

She gave Ewan the settle by the stove.

She gave me the loft, up a ladder, with a quilt and a candle.

Then she went to bed at eight o'clock with her good ear on the pillow, and she shut her door loudly.

I lay under the quilt and listened to the wind.

I could hear him down there.

He wasn't moving much, but I knew how he breathed now, the long slow pull of a man trying to sleep and failing.

My whole skin was awake.

I had cried in his arms that afternoon, and he had not asked for a thing.

I thought about the alley and his hand on my hip.

I thought about his mouth.

At eleven I gave up.

I climbed down the ladder in my sleep shirt with the quilt around my shoulders.

The stove had burned low and orange.

Ewan sat up on the settle at once.

He was in his shirt and trousers, his hair on end, a book open and unread on his knee.

"Thea. Is something wrong?"

"Yes."

He stood.

"The hunter?"

"No." I stopped at the foot of the ladder. "I made a rule."

He went very still.

"I said no claim and no mark, and no talk of mates until I brought it up."

"I remember."

"I'm bringing it up."

I watched his face.

It didn't change much. A muscle moved at the corner of his jaw.

"You're sure."

"You've known since the hall," I said. "You said nothing about that either."

"I wasn't going to say it first."

"Say it now."

"Mate," Ewan said, and his voice was rough. "You're my mate. I've known since you walked up to the stone."

My wolf went wild in my chest.

I crossed the floor.

I put my hands flat against his chest, and I felt his heart hit my palm.

"Your rule, little wolf," he said, very low. "You said not until you asked."

"I'm asking."

"For what?"

"All of it."

He closed his eyes for a breath.

Then he put his hand in my hair and kissed me.

It was nothing like the alley. It was slow and deep and completely sure of itself, and I opened my mouth under his and heard myself moan.

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