[Richard]
Gwyn wouldn’t get on the couch until she was clean. I helped her wash up in the shower and she seemed to want to soak in the water after she got the blood and dirt off, so I ran her a bath to warm up in while I went down to get everything ready.
Once she was out and dry, we watched movies and ate all afternoon and into the evening. She laid her head in my lap most of the time but was intent on the movies. I picked a couple that came out in the last few years and she seemed to really like them.
It was about ten o’clock when she started yawning. I tugged on her ear and she sat up to look at me. I smiled at her.
“I think we should get you to bed. If you want, you can come to training tomorrow. There won’t be a lot you can do, but you can run with us and watch.” I told her.
She let out a little ‘boof’ and got off the couch. I stood up and straightened my clothes. As we headed upstairs, I linked my brother.
‘Claude, link me and say you need to talk to me in my office.’ I told him.
‘I need to talk to you in your office, Richard.’
‘Thanks.’
When we got to the stairs leading up to my room, Gwyn paused and tilted her head curiously. I turned to her. She practically glowed in the midst of the darkened hallway, like a little moon come to Earth.
“You haven’t been around other werewolves for a while. When I was having trouble a few years ago, Lucien and Bellamy had me sleep in their bed in our wolf forms. They couldn’t do that with you because you’re an unmated female and Aurora is very possessive of her mate. I don’t have that problem.” I said.
I turned back to the stairs and went up to my room. It was large and had a similar layout as the Beta’s and Alpha’s master, walk-in closet, en suite bathroom, attached nursery, and a little balcony overlooking the gardens. Gwyn entered the room slowly and started sniffing around. I turned on the bedside lamp and went back to turn off the main light.
She wandered through the whole room before coming back to where I stood. I reached out and put my hand on her head. She closed her eyes.
“My brother linked me. He said he needs to speak with me in my office. Go ahead and get some sleep. I’ll be back after I’m done in my office.”
Gwyn whined a little. I didn’t want to leave her alone, but I needed to go. This was important.
“I’m not leaving forever. Maybe an hour. You can stay up and wait for me if you want, but I’d rather you got some sleep. Trust me. I’ll always come back.” I whispered as I scratched behind her ears. She liked to be scratched there and under her chin.
She turned and went to climb on the bed. Gwyn sniffed, then laid on the side I didn’t sleep on. I smiled and nodded before turning and heading back downstairs.
I’d have to sneak into my office. The night wasn’t staffed as heavily as the day, but I didn’t want to risk Alpha Lucien finding out I didn’t follow his instructions. I managed to make it into my office without anyone seeing me.
Closing and locking the door, I went to the closet and opened it. I punched the bag in there as hard as I could. It wasn’t enough and I punched it again and again until I was out of breath.
‘Are you done?’ Niall asked.
‘Yes.’ I replied with a growl.
‘What are we going to do?’
‘We’re going to take care of her and get her to trust us before her human side wakes up.’
‘We should’ve told Jean-Claude. He’s our brother.’
‘You know damned well that Bellamy can hear people link each other if she’s nearby.’
‘You could have linked him after we left the office. He told us as soon as he saw Dillon. This is unfair to our brother.’
‘He’d tell Dillon. Then everyone would know. I’ll tell him before Clover arrives. For now…. Our mate is here, Niall!’
Niall danced around inside of me the same way he had been since we first caught scent of Gwyn at training that morning. I told him we wouldn’t be sure until we saw her. I didn’t want to give it away and get everyone’s hopes up.
When I walked into Lucien’s office this morning and saw her, my heart leapt into my throat. Gwyn was the most beautiful wolf I’d ever seen. But she didn’t react to me. Not really. She just tilted her head.
She didn’t wag her tail or hide. I realized quickly that she didn’t know I was her mate. When Lucien said her human side was dormant, it made sense. She didn’t have the combined magic of her wolf and her human. It was part of the reason we couldn’t find our mates before our wolves manifested.
For some reason, I could tell she was my mate, though. That beautiful scent of lilac blossoms and autumn leaves made me feel better than I ever had. They were two of my favorite scents from their seasons. I was surprised at how well they complemented each other.
“What now?” I sighed. “How do we make her trust us?”
‘We could hunt down the bastard who rejected her and kill him.’ Niall suggested.
“We can’t just kill someone because they rejected their mate.”
‘OUR MATE!’
“She wasn’t ours back then, Niall. Plus, no one knows where she came from. Once a pack wolf rejects their pack, they don’t smell like that pack anymore. She’s white, which means she probably came from a northern pack. Something in Canada or Alaska. It’s only four more days until Clover can come. If she helps Gwyn’s human side come out, then we’d be busy hunting down someone who isn’t worth our time. We have to figure out how to make her trust that we won’t do the same.” I told him.
‘It would help if we knew why he rejected her. We could show her that we were different. Do you think he fell in love with someone else, like Bellamy’s mother did?’
I turned back to the closet and pounded on the bag a few more times. The idea of someone falling in love with someone other than their mate confused me. Thinking of someone doing that to Gwyn pissed me off.
“She wouldn’t have left her pack because of that, Niall. That bastard did something other than fall in love with someone else. Gwyn is noble and brave. She threw herself into danger to save a pup she’d never seen before. Over the last few years, she’s saved so many children.” I said.
Crossing to the couch, I sat heavily. My mate was waiting for me in my bed, but I couldn’t do anything about that and I had to make sure my wolf wouldn’t either. I didn’t want to scare her away. She was beautiful and perfect. I just knew she’d be the best Gamma female we’d ever had.
She loved children. I wondered how many pups she wanted. We needed to have at least two. I hoped she didn’t want as many as Bellamy. I couldn’t handle ten. Maybe four, like Dillon and Claude.
I laid back and raised my hands up. They were still practically tingling from holding on to Gwyn all day. It took every bit of concentration I had to focus on the movies instead of on the feeling of her fur and the weight of her head in my lap.
There was no way she didn’t feel something. No one just rested their head in a stranger’s lap. I had to nurture that feeling.
“How do you make someone fall in love with you?” I whispered.
‘Not by leaving them alone in your bed while you go to your office and talk to yourself. Come on. I want to sleep with our mate. She’s all by herself. What if she gets scared?’
“She’s been alone for four years, Niall. I don’t think she’s going to be afraid in our room if she managed to sleep in strange, dark forests for the last four years.” I scoffed. “Plus, she’s surrounded by our scent. Even if she doesn’t realize she’s our mate, our scent will comfort her.”
I pulled out my phone and searched for how to make someone fall in love with you. The results were more aimed at humans. Maintaining eye contact could make Gwyn nervous. There was a good one with things like being vulnerable, learning their interests, and being kind. I looked up how to gain a person’s trust.
Most of those answers were similar to the other ones. Being open and honest, following through on what you say, showing past struggles you’ve worked through, and talking about your feelings.
Would it work? I wished even more that I knew what happened to her before she came here. I wondered if waiting until right before Clover came would be a good idea. Would that ruin any trust I built? If I was keeping this from her, would it make all the openness seem fake?
With a groan, I put my phone on my chest. Maybe I should call Kay. She was far enough away from this to give me good advice and she wouldn’t tell anyone if I asked her not to.
“I need help. I can’t do this alone, but I can’t tell anyone.” I sighed.
My phone started ringing a few moments later. I picked it up and looked at the caller ID. I shouldn’t have been talking out loud. I answered the phone.
“Hi, Jen.”
“You need help and I can’t sleep. I’m piecing this together, because I only heard your side of the conversation. You found your mate, but she was rejected by her first mate and didn’t recognize you were her mate. Now you need to know how to make her love you.” Jen replied.
“She’s stuck in her wolf form. Her human side is dormant.” I told her.
Jen was an air witch. I met her a little over three years ago. She works at a tea and magical component shop in the human town called ‘Sit a Spell’. It’s owned by Clover, the Ursa of the local bear sleuth and a triple affinity witch.
One of Jen’s specialties was a seer specialty. The air told her things. She was funny and a little spacy at times, but spent the last few years working diligently on pre-building a coven of witches.
Her mate, Valor, was sent on a journey by the goddess. He was supposed to learn a whole lot of magic and how the goddess wanted his new coven run. Val was supposed to come back home in May, but he never showed up.
Not knowing where he was weighed on Jen. Not even his sire, a vampire ancestor who Val and his sisters considered their father, could find him. Marius, Val’s sire, had the ability to find any of his descendants but couldn’t find Val anywhere.
Both Val and Jen were considered friends of the pack and of the collective. We were all worried about him and about her. They didn’t have each other for long before he had to leave and couldn’t take her with him.
“Hmm. That’s hard. You can’t talk to her with the mindlink-y thing or you wouldn’t be worrying as much. I mean you can talk to her, but she can’t talk to you. And Clover is out of town, so she can’t help.” She muttered.
“Yeah. And I can’t tell anyone. Please don’t tell Bellamy or anyone who might tell her. I don’t want everyone applying pressure on Gwyn. She’s been through enough and I’m worried she might run if there’s too much pressure. I just want her to love me as much as I love her, Jen.” I sighed.
“I understand. I’ll make you a potion. It won’t be perfect, but it will help you understand her. Can you come by the shop tomorrow? Or do we need to do this more covertly? I can come up to the packhouse to see if Bellamy’s heard anything in the afternoon. I’ll bring the potion and meet you somewhere.”
“In my office. Can you come to my office after you meet with Bellamy? I’ll have Gwyn here with me. Please?” I asked.
“Sure thing, Richard. I’m happy to help. Anything to take my mind off….” Jen said quietly.
“He’ll come home, Jen. Val’s trying to get back home to you. He won’t leave you behind. As much as Val is a witch, he’s still got werewolf blood and we don’t leave our mates alone if we can avoid it.” I told her.
“Yeah. I know. Anything else I can do?”
“Can you… no…. I know your ability can’t go back years. I want to know what he did to her. I want to show her I’m not the same.” I replied. “Don’t worry. I’ll get her to tell me once she’s human and trusts me.”
“Do you know her human name?” Jen asked.
“Only her first name. Heather.” I told her.
“Alright, I’ll keep an ear out for the names Heather and Gwyn coming from werewolf packs. It might not work. I might only get someone wondering about her. It might not even come from her pack. Heather is a pretty common name.”
“I appreciate it, Jen. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah. See you then.” She replied and hung up.
I wished I could do more for her than tell her that I knew Val was going to be alright. The goddess would watch over him. He was just a little late getting home.