The Hunt

Chapter Two

Thank you to imagination101 for the cover picture! It's awesome!

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I heard him coming back to the room. Maybe he was coming back to repent and beg forgiveness for his transgressions, but knowing Mason, that wasn't it. He felt his ultimatum was justified. I couldn't blame him. He'd been beating back the recruits, who dared to hit on me when he wasn't around, for years and I knew he was tired of it.

I was surprised that he was willing to put up with so much for me. I knew what he had been like before I met him, he could probably just as easily return to his bachelor life. When the door opened, I didn't bother looking over. I knew who it was. I scented him as soon as he opened the door.

"We need to talk," he grumbled. In the whole twenty minutes he had been away he'd changed his mind? Sounded like something he would do.

"Did you come to give me more conditions?" My voice sounded hollower than I expected it to be. I was sad and it showed through in my voice.

He sighed and walked over to the bed without saying anything else. He grabbed me by my ankle and dragged me to him. "Sit up," he said gently. There was no order this time. It was just a request. "Please." I knew he added that as an afterthought.

I did as he asked, but I didn't look at him. It wasn't until I sat up that gravity took a hold of any extra moisture in my eyes. I quickly wiped any tears away before they could even fall. He gently grabbed both sides of my face, giving me no options but to look at him.

"I love you."

I couldn't bring myself to say anything back to him. I didn't want to speak. I just wanted him to leave me alone.

He sighed. "Do you know how hard it is to let you walk around the territory knowing that you aren't mated to me? At any second one of those runts could snap and come after you because you're appealing."

"You wouldn't be trying to get rid of me if I were appealing." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"I'm not trying to get rid of you." He shook his head. "You can't be around here unmated. I've let this go on for too long and I can't just let it go anymore."

"I don't want to leave."

"Our mate bond won't be like what Roger did to you. It'll be natural."

I leaned forward and rested my head on his shoulder. "I'm scared."

He wrapped his arms around me and rocked me side to side. "You shouldn't be afraid of this. A mating bond is a good thing. It's not supposed to be scary."

"If I do this, then I want us to try."

I felt him tense up. "It's never been done before." This topic was always going to make him uncomfortable. I just wanted to try.

"Ever?"

He shrugged. "Finn said there was one bloodline that was able to hold off the change long enough to carry to term, but they were all murdered by a rival pack 30 years ago."

"Is it even possible?"

"I don't think so."

I breathed his scent in deep, it made me feel comfortable. He was where I belonged.

"That's my deal regardless."

He groaned. "Fine, but if this can't happen in the next five years, then we're going to stop."

I snuggled against his chest. "Why five? Why not ten?"

He shook his head. "A decade of miscarriages is too much." He was right. I didn't know if I could handle five years of continuous miscarriages. We'd just have to cross that bridge when we came to it.