Howl: I Met My Mate

CHAPTER 5 THE CHASE

The forest had never felt like this.

In my first life, the woods behind White Moon packhouse were dark and scary. I was wolfless, so I had to stick to the human paths, listening to the other wolves run faster and freer than me.

Now? Now the forest was mine.

Every pine needle, every drop of dew, every rabbit hiding under a root — I could smell it. Hear it. The night was not dark. It was silver and blue and alive.

My paws barely touched the ground. White fur flying, wind in my teeth. My wolf was ecstatic.

Faster! she laughed. Let the little Alpha try to catch a White Wolf!

Behind us, crashing through trees like a bulldozer, was Cade.

He was huge. Even as a human he was big, but as a wolf he was monstrous — a massive black wolf with gold eyes, the biggest Alpha in the North. In my first life I had thought he was beautiful. Terrifying, but beautiful.

Now, hearing him howl my name over and over, desperate and furious, I felt something else.

Power.

For twenty-two years I had chased him. Now he was chasing me.

I leapt over a fallen log and skidded to a stop at the edge of the old Moon Lake. The sacred lake. No wolf was allowed to shift here without permission from the Elders. It was said the Moon Goddess herself drank from it.

My paws were inches from the black water.

Behind me, the black wolf burst through the trees and stopped.

We stared at each other across ten feet of moonlit grass — a white wolf glowing like the moon itself, and a black wolf that looked like the night that held it.

Cade shifted first. It was brutal, fast, bones cracking. One second a giant black wolf, the next a naked, heaving, furious man, kneeling in the dirt.

"Elara, shift back right now," he panted, his golden eyes locked on me. "You don't know what you are doing. A first shift, you can die—"

I shifted.

It was easier this time. The fire was still there, but it was familiar now. White light, pain, then skin instead of fur.

I was standing at the edge of the lake, completely naked, my long dark hair covering my chest, my body glowing faintly with leftover power. The crescent moon mark on my forehead was still there, silver and pulsing.

Cade made a choked sound and ripped his eyes away, grabbing his own discarded pants from where they must have fallen when he shifted. He threw them at me.

"Cover yourself!"

I didn't catch them. I let them fall.

"Why?" I asked, my voice hoarse from the shift, but steady. "You have seen me naked before. In my last life, you saw me every night for a year and never wanted me. Why so shy now, Alpha?"

His head snapped back to me, eyes blazing.

"What are you talking about? Last life? Elara, you are in shock. Your wolf—"

"My wolf has a name," I said.

That stopped him.

My wolf purred inside me. Yes. Tell him.

"Her name is Luna," I whispered. "And she remembers everything you did."

It was a lie and not a lie. My wolf hadn't told me her name yet, but Luna felt right. And she did remember — she remembered the way he had looked at me when I died. Through the bond, she had felt my heartbreak like a knife.

Cade stared at me, his chest heaving, his fists clenched. He was trying so hard not to look at my body. In my first life, he had always been a gentleman. Always controlled.

I was done with controlled.

I took a step toward him. Then another. My bare feet silent on the grass.

"Let me ask you something, Cade Wilder," I said softly, stopping right in front of him, so close I could feel his heat. "If I had shifted like this on our wedding night, would you have marked me then? Would you have actually wanted your wolfless little contract bride if she had been a White Wolf?"

His breath hitched. His eyes dropped to my lips, to my throat, to the glowing mark on my forehead.

"Elara," he whispered, and his voice broke. "You have no idea what you are."

"Then tell me," I said.

He reached out, slowly, like I was a wild animal that would bolt. His large, warm hand cupped my cheek. His thumb brushed the crescent mark.

And the second his skin touched mine —

The lake exploded.

Light shot up from the water, pure moonlight, hitting us both. Cade shouted and tried to pull me away, but we were frozen.

In the light, a woman appeared. Tall, beautiful, made of stars and mist. Her hair was the night sky. Her eyes were two full moons.

The Moon Goddess.

My father had told me she only appears to White Wolves when they are about to choose their destiny.

She looked at me, then at Cade, her hand still holding my face, and she smiled sadly.

My child, her voice was in my head and in the trees and in the water. You died unloved because you loved too much. Now you are reborn unloved, so you may learn to love yourself.

Two paths lie before you, Dormant Luna.

She showed me.

In one flash, I saw Blackstone Castle burning, Rogues everywhere, Cade on his knees, bleeding, reaching for me while Selene laughed behind him. My pack, dead.

In another flash, I saw myself on a throne made of white stone, a crown of silver on my head, alone, powerful, but alone.

If you stay with him, the kingdom will live, but your heart may die again. If you leave him, you will be Alpha of Alphas, but you will rule alone for a hundred years.

Choose, Elara Quinn. Love or Power?

The light vanished. The lake was still again. The Goddess was gone.

I fell to my knees, gasping. Cade caught me, pulling me against his bare chest, his heart hammering against my cheek.

"What did you see?" he begged, holding me tight, all his Alpha control gone. "Elara, what did she show you? Talk to me!"

I looked up at him, tears streaming down my face, my new white-gold eyes glowing.

In my first life, I would have chosen love without thinking.

In this life, I wasn't so sure.

I pushed him away, stood up, and picked up his pants from the ground, finally covering myself.

"She showed me why I was dormant," I whispered. "Because I was waiting to choose."

I turned and started walking back toward the packhouse, leaving him kneeling alone by the sacred lake.

Behind me, Cade whispered my name like a prayer.

"Elara..."

I didn't look back.

If he wanted his Luna, he would have to do more than chase.

He would have to earn the right to stand beside a White Wolf.