Mated To The Alpha: A Standalone Wolf Shifter Romance, стр. 10
Emma just nodded, her mind full of new revelations.
"Come girls, I'll show you to your cabin. I'll be gone before you wake, but you will be well taken care of here. I may be back on occasion, to visit and to check in. Or not. I may give you this year without my presence at all, we shall see. But I will be back just under a year from today, on your birthday, to get you both. The pack can contact me, if needed."
The girls excused themselves from Elam with smiles and see-you-tomorrows, and they followed Henry to the small guest cabin they were to share for the next year.
The cabin was well stocked for visitors, with a shared kitchen and living room in the middle and a bedroom and bathroom on each side, one for each of them.
Henry showed them how to make old-school coffee come morning, light the kerosene lanterns, reminded them of the fire danger if they were misused, and also showed them how to use the piped-in water in the sinks, showers and toilets. He then hugged them, said goodbye, and left them for his own room in a different cabin.
The girls, tired from their hike and all of the overwhelming new information, each picked a bedroom, promising to talk about all of this after a good night’s sleep.
Emma took her backpack from the couch someone had left them on, retired to the room that was to be hers for the next year, and washed off the day as best she could. She didn't bother with the pajamas she packed, she just pulled on a pair of panties, pulled back the covers on the surprisingly soft bed, and was lost to dreams until morning.
Kate, on the other hand, tossed and turned for an hour.
She had changed into a nightgown, gone to bed, and finally fallen into a light sleep, but she was greeted there with vivid dreams of Galen.
6
After hearing his mother complain, yet again, about outsiders coming here, Galen wished he had waved her off when she’d signaled her want to speak with him.
He’d been headed to claim the human, Kate, for his own, when his mother had flagged him down. He knew his place in the pack, and therefore had stopped to speak with Ziva before heading to Kate by the fire. But he quickly wished he hadn't, not when all she wanted to do was rehash the past.
"Emma is not an outsider, Mother. She’s Reine's daughter. She has Alpha blood."
"That means less than nothing to me. Reine left. She forfeits any position her spawn would have held."
"Her spawn, Mother? Really?"
"I see lust in your eyes, son. Tell me you are not blinded by Reine's cub? By traitor's blood?"
"Emma? No."
Galen was thrown some, by her sudden change of subject, but he regained his mental footing quickly.
"No. It is the human, Kate, that my wolf cries out for. I have already spoken to Thomas. If she will have me, Kate will be my mate, and will stand beside me for always."
"Your wolf chooses the human? Of everyone here?"
He heard the sigh in her voice so he chose his next words accordingly.
"I cannot help who my wolf chooses, mother. You, of all people, should understand this. Father chose you, and you are human."
Ziva nodded, saying, "She has a drop of wolf's blood. Not enough to shift, nowhere near enough, but she has some."
"How do you know? You can't smell it."
A cloud passed over her eyes, but was quickly gone.
"Your father approved?"
"He knows one does not choose these things rationally. The wolf's blood decides. He gave his blessing, yes."
"Then so it shall be."
But by the time Ziva had released him, Kate was gone. He asked around, and was told that Kate and Emma had gone to their cabin, for the night.
He did not wish to ruin their first night with his talk of claiming, or of mates, so instead of heading toward their dark cabin, he shifted into his wolf form and went for a run in the woods.
Galen felt most at home in his wolf form. His sense of smell heightened, his body became bigger and immensely more powerful, and he could run like the wind.
He picked up speed as his muscles loosened and his frustration started to burn off.
He had shadowed the group of three, Henry, Emma and Kate, as they closed in on the last few miles of the den earlier today. He’d been taken with Kate the second his wolf had scented her. He'd heard her say something about being afraid of zebras and monkeys, and had the sudden, unexplainable urge to wipe all of the zebras and monkeys from the face of the earth, for her.
She'd bent over at one point, to tie her hiking boot, and it had taken all of his self-restraint not to mount her then, to take her there, and make her his, before she'd even realized he existed.
She would be his, he knew it deep in his core. He was just irritated that family business had kept him from staking his claim.
He ran for many miles, the moonlight glinting off of his fur as he did an impromptu patrol of a small part of the borders of the pack's land as he tried to burn off his frustration of finally scenting his mate and being unable to actually have her.
After a long while, he turned back toward his pack, his all-out running slowing somewhat to a steady pace as he got nearer to home. He had been letting his mind wander as he ran, clearing it for sleep, when he felt Kate's presence.
He knew that once he had claimed her, and they had mated, that the link between them would be established and would over time grow stronger, but he was quite shocked to feel her calling out to him as he neared the cabins.
His wolf felt her first, and he slowed his running even more, to concentrate on her. He