Rejected Mate's Ascension

Chapter 8. No, I Don't Want to Meet Your Mother!

"You caved in, and it's your new guiding wolf then? When did it happen?" Harold asked me.

That's right, Harold hadn't met her. "Three years this June." When he was balls deep in Scarlett, maybe hatching their plan to take the pack from Blake. How could one of the biggest events of my life compete with that?

Harold folded one of his arms under his large lupine head to better watch us. The other was slung over his guiding wolf still. I couldn't escape the sense of unity with the four of us huddling so close in the wilderness. Just a tiny pack making our way through the world with our Alpha...

"I'm glad you sought another wolf out," he rumbled. "After things didn't work out with the first one."

"After she abandoned me," I corrected him dryly. The school that accepted me was on the East Coast. Eventually, I found my way back, but by then the accord was broken.

"Well..." I was glad Harold didn't add some platitude or blamed me, and just trailed off.

My new she-wolf's breath warmed my neck and cheek. Warmth spread across my chest as well. "I didn't seek her out," I whispered. "Just...lucked out that among the wolves pups also don't think their mothers are always right."

"I'm glad," Harold repeated. "And I'm glad she's on the trail with us."

A nervous chuckle escaped my lips. "Guess she doesn't take her chances with me." Deep down, I couldn't blame my first guiding wolf for moving on to another werewolf. Because wasn't that why I moved across the country, to break ties, old and forming?

"Or she senses how much you offer to a companion. I sure do," Harold said.

My guiding wolf produced a soft whine, either agreeing with his sentiment, or questioning my intention toward this nice man. "Ah...whatever the case, I'm glad you let her into the camp without questioning."

Harolds sat up. "Jules, don't take it the wrong way, but I would have welcomed any wild wolf willing to make this journey with us and start a pack in California. The population there grew in the past twenty years, but we need to work harder, not just take credit for natural migration like Beaumont. When I'm Alpha—"

He cut himself off with a bark-cough. "Guess I'll have to rehearse this speech, so I don't sound like an excitable boy."

"I like it as is," I said. "It's coming from the heart." And I had no idea he felt so strongly about the wild wolf conservation in California. Since when?

"Well, don't look so surprised." He grumbled, glanced at the sky where the blue overtook the pink and gold of the dawn, and shifted to his human form.

This time Harold emerged fully clothed, to an absurd pang of regret in some really deep corner of my soul. He was gorgeous, but we grew up together, so I was used to it. In my profession, human and werewolf bodies were anatomy, not a subject of obsession. I shook my head in consternation. I would have wagged my finger too if I had a mirror...

My inner meandering probably made me appear unfocused and sleepy to Harold, because he touched my shoulder. "Get ready for the road, Jules. I'll help you pack the camp."

If I hadn't completely awakened already, the jolt that went through me with his touch would have woken me up. But it also confused me, because we were fake mates and I wasn't in heat, so I shouldn't have any physical reactions to Harold.

Was the Moon Goddess messing with my head to prove her power over me? At any rate, I stood there slack-jawed, and the minutes dragged as Harold ably rolled my mat and bag, folded my tent...damn him, he whistled while he was at it! "Jules?"