The Mating Bond
The decision to complete the mate bond arrived the way most of their important decisions had—quietly, without pressure, after enough ordinary days had passed that the choice felt like a natural extension of the life they were already living rather than a dramatic leap across a chasm.
It was Lila who spoke it first.
They were on the back porch of the pack house three nights after the final conversation with Kane, the sky clear and the moon waxing toward full. The broken bond had been quieter since that meeting on the neutral ground, its ache reduced to a distant bruise rather than an active wound. The newer bond, by contrast, had grown stronger with every shared morning, every evening walk, every night they fell asleep within reach of each other. It no longer felt like so
