#Chapter 12 Relect My Mate
Selene‘s POV
Garrick disappears in a wisp of smoke and i duck down behind the sofa’s backrest, choking on my sobs. The door slams shut, and I hear the thud of heavy paws against wood floors. The wolf rounds the sectional, shaking off excess water as he prowls toward me
I cower away from Bastien as he approaches, clamping my eyes shut when he’s near enough for me to feel the heat of his breath on my face
I expect growls and pain, instead feel the pillows dip beneath me, and then a huge furry body nudging me away from the backrest and taking its place. I peek one eye open, to make sure I’m actually feeling what I think I am. Bastien‘s wolf has wound himself around my body like a furry blanket, so much larger than me in this form that I’m completely encircled.
He’s still herding me into position, prodding and nuzzling until I relax against him, leaning into his warmth and using his shoulder as a pillow. His fur is damp but I don’t care, the quilt around my body shields me from the cold, and my face is already soaked with tears
When I finally submit fully, Bastien settles his head in my lap and begins to emit a soft rumbling noise. If he were a cat shifter I’d call it a pure, but whatever its name, nothing soothes me more. My panic over the storm begins to recede, and my fears about Arabella and my future trail in their wake.
in the end all I’m left with is my sorrow over losing Bastien. When it too begins to fade I struggle slightly, fighting to hold onto the sender feelings. I don’t want him to lull this away. I want to feel every second of the ache, the evidence of the love I never thought i would feel again, the love that gave me my baby.
But he doesn’t let me hold onto it. He washes it away with everything else, until I’m hovering on that hazy plane between waking and sleep, the storm entirely forgotten.
Bastien’s POV
Ten Years Earlier
The rebels came at dawn, storming the rocky plateau beneath Nova Hall to gain entrance to the city. They poured into the streets of Elysium, breaking off into roving bands of marauders as they hunted fo those they had been paid to call enemy.
The mercenaries had been promised a fierce battle and plentiful spoils to loot, instead they found a deserted metropolis. The Novans were nowhere to be found the mountain refuge was as silent and still as a grave.
through the city‘s serpentine pathways, looking down from our perch high above the valley Pack enforcers and sentinels gathered at the
enough to fight but too mexperienced to truly understand the horrors awaiting me in battle. The pack Beta and Gamma were positioned at our shoulders, my father’s night and left hands: Donavon and Griffin,
betrayal cut me to the bone. My father was harsh when he needed to be, but always loyal always loving The idea that his own brother should move against him was unthinkable.
he was the son of a pack enforcer and the perfect counterbalance to my dominance and aggressen Whele Alden was playful
he was 14, so my father took in Flynn and his younger sister, Arabella. From the time she could walk, Astella went wherever yn did. I used to call her his title shadow she was always
to our canks
today
join us in
121
think she sensed what was going
out where we were, rerouting the attack up the mountain. As their gray bodies disappeared from the streets and into
is never pretty, and that first battle has been scalded into nightmares: Fangs and claws tearing through fur, muscle
He was my first kill – but he would not be my last. I hurtled through the
my youth was little more than a graveyard. Flynn, Aiden and I were circling fallen bodies on a jagged cliff, checking for survivors when it
of the mercenaries we believed to be dead was playing possum, and when my back was turned he lunged. Aiden and I never saw him coming, but Flynn did. My best friend threw himself into the wolf’s path, the
his death,
youth died that day, we would never be
her hospital bed. Whatever happened between them, my little wolf does
different things. Nonetheless her pain was real, and seeing her in such a state brought back every horrible memory of Flynn’s
and keep her safe. It’s my fault she was left alone in the world, and therefore my responsibility to help her find her way in life. Before Selene, I thought about marrying her, despite the fact that she was more like a sister
already planned on supporting her financially, and some part of me imagined that it would make Flynn happy to see us together. I missed him so terribly that I
the window. I knew she was my mate the moment I saw her, and though I
over the years, so much so that she returned to Elysium to lend me a shoulder when I found out about Selene‘s true love. When we first married,
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