Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 1

what he had once given freely.
    The seconds ticked by. After eight years, waiting a few minutes should have been a breeze. But I had to live each of those seconds. I realized I had kept myself unconscious through those eight years. I had closed myself off, protected myself like a wounded animal— the wound an incomplete stump of a bond. But now I was awake and open. I would deal with whatever I had to, for Kyle.
    Would he reject me for all the pain I had caused? What if they were wrong and there was no bond? But there was; the closer Kyle got, the more I could feel him. I knew the moment he would enter the room.
    I looked up at the door from the couch and there he was. The years had been hard on him in one way. His face looked haggard. Why wouldn't it? The bond made it clear how poorly he slept. But he also had matured. His chest had filled out and his hard angled jaw had lost the baby fat. This wasn't some eighteen-year-old kid that stood before me. This was a twenty-six year old man and my eyes drank in the sight of him as my nostrils filled with his scent of leaves and earth. His ginger hair styled neat and trim, framed his face.
    His eyes shifted from blue to solid amber behind his wire rim glasses, and his canine teeth peeked from full kissable lips. He glanced over at his parents and red painted his face.
    "We were just leaving," his father said, pulling his mother from the room with the Alpha following.
    I looked down at my hands as they sprouted brown fur that itched and tickled and my fingers narrowed to claws. Why shouldn't my bear paws come out? It was time to claim my mate.
    I stood and moved toward him. "I'm… I'm so sorry. I was wrong."
    "Yes, you were." His wolf eyes were hard as they stared at me.
    "I can't do this anymore. I need you. Tell me what to do to make this right." I lifted a hand to him, reaching.
    He didn't move closer to me, but he didn't move away either. "Tell me why."
    "Why I left? I didn't understand about wolf mates." I wanted to cringe at the pleading tone in my voice.
    "Being with me was so horrible that you ran?"
    "No. No. Bear law requires us to take a female bear for a mate. I wasn't free to choose."
    "So what's changed?" he asked.
    I looked away, filling my lungs. "I told them no." I looked up at him. "They banished me, but I couldn't be with anyone else. I think I finally understand why."
    "Why?"
    "You're my mate," I said, holding up my hands. "You asked if something changed when bears mated. Our paws emerge. I thought I chose when they came out, but with you, they just did. I didn't know what it meant then, but I think something inside me recognized you."
    "How do I know you're not lying? How do I know you won't change your mind and run again?"
    I shrugged at this. "When the bond is complete, you'll know. When we bond, our minds join."
    Fear flowed across the bond from Kyle. I wasn't surprised. I was asking him to trust just a little bit more. I had to convince him to let me complete the bond so I did the only thing I could think of. I thought of all the loneliness and regret I had suffered and then the joy I experienced when I rediscovered him.
    "Please, give me a chance to prove myself. I was wrong, and I'm sorry. Let me complete the bond and spend the rest of my life making it up to you."
    Kyle looked at me for several moments; a wash of emotions ran over me, fear, anger, and hope. I reached out to him trying to reinforce the hope.
    He took a step towards me, and I moved to meet him. I leaned in and kissed him, slowly and gently. I wanted to crash our mouths together, but I needed to reassure him.
    I ran my tongue along his and explored his canines. Kyle's arms came around me, and he pulled me in tight. I moaned as our bodies met, hard cocks straining through the fabric of our clothes to join.
    Kyle pulled back. "Not here." He grabbed my hand and led me from the room and up the stairs to one of the bedrooms.
    "Are we allowed to be here?" I asked. I knew nothing about wolf packs or how they lived.
    "Yes. Alpha Rupert said we could use the room."
    I reached out and pulled Kyle's shirt up and over his head, exposing his well-muscled chest. He had grown up, and I took a moment to admire the chiseled pecs covered lightly with hair.
    As Kyle removed my shirt, my skin heated; I wanted to shy away. I wasn't fat, but I had none of the muscle definition that he had. I lived life in the city and worked at a desk. My hairy chest was barely defined. I faced Kyle, prepared for