Page 99 of Wolf’s Fated Bride

I twirl my hair around my finger. “Really? I’m your moon. That’s so beautiful.”

Ash takes my hands and kisses them. “I have something very silly to tell you.”

Our faces are inches apart. “I love silly things.”

“Do you?”

It’s almost like he needs reassurance from me. “Most girls love things that boys find silly. Pink totes, sparkling blue wedding dresses, cakes, bows, romance novels.”

Ash sighs. “Here it goes. You ready?”

I nod.

“Surrender the moon to that which owns it.”

I gasp. I lied. I was not ready. “Where did you hear that?”

“I heard it from the woman in the Midlands. She said you would know. She said the moon always knows.”

Tears cloud my vision before they spill down my cheeks. “I read that in a story about fated mates. It…it’s what Bjorn said to Freya before their bond was completed and they became fated mates.”

Ash wipes my tears away with his thumbs. “Don’t cry, Runa. I don’t mean to make you cry.”

“It’s okay. It’s just a story.”

Ash sits back and looks at the flock of seagulls making their final scavenger hunt as the sun sets into the sea. Soft waves wash onto the shore. “Yeah.”

I study his profile. Dark hair, dark trimmed beard. Black shirt, jeans, boots. I fell for him before he even knew who I was. I can be silly with him. “Are you disappointed it’s not real?”

Ash nods.

“I can’t hear you, Alpha.”

Ash smiles. “Yes, Omega, I’m disappointed this kind of bond exists only in your story.”

“Me too. But for what it’s worth… The moon surrenders.”

The world tilts on its axis. Ash whips his head toward me. We stare at each other as a sharp pull between my ribs wrenches something that’s coiled inside me. I gasp, not because it’s painful, but because whatever it was inside me unfurled. I feel as if I’ve taken my very first breath.

Ash inhales sharply.

There is no visible clue. No glowing lights. No fires or storms. But in the space between us, the string that uncoiled from inside me twists around another string that comes from Ash, forming a single bond, a bridge between us that promises we will never drift apart. There are no fireworks; only a profound sense that Ash and I are bonded mates.

“Say something,” I tell him.

Ash blinks. “If… if we found each other among billions in the world, do you think my luck has turned? Do you think I won’t eat alone anymore? That I will have a family coming to sit with me out here for breakfast?”

I curl up in Ash’s lap and kiss him on the cheek. “Yes, I do.”

Ash wraps his arms around me and holds me tightly. “We’re not just a couple. We’re fated mates. I love you, Runa Stormcrest. You are my moon.”

“I love you too, Ash Fireborn. You’re my fire.”

Epilogue

Maren

“Here’s your pointless letter.” I slap the chest of the wolfblood guarding me with the letter he made me write to my sister. My shackles jingle as I shuffle away from him. “When I don’t show up as expected, Runa will worry. She worries with the best of them, so your ruse won’t last long.”