“Stanzie, you just wait. Everything will be different now that I’m with Jason. I feel like I’ve got a second chance, and this time I’m going to do it right.”
Somehow the scent of Chloe combined with Escape worked with Lauren’s chemistry. Either that or my throat was too clogged with tears to really smell.
“Come on, I’ll help you with your make up, okay?” I took Lauren by the hand and led her to the vanity. I wanted her to look especially beautiful tonight.
Chapter 2
The room glowed with candlelight. Golden light shimmered against the soft cream paneling and danced in circles across the ceiling.
Six people stood in the front of the room before Kathy Manning, who was dressed in her ceremonial Councilor’s robe of dark blue trimmed with white.
As the highest-ranked Regional Councilor in attendance, she would perform the bonding ceremony.
Her serene expression gave no clue to her actual feelings. It had to hurt to be the one to preside over her ex-lover’s bonding ceremony to someone else he’d just met two months previously. Someone he couldn’t keep his eyes off.
Jason Allerton was smitten, there was no escaping that fact. How I hadn’t seen it before tonight, I wasn’t sure. Perhaps he hadn’t allowed himself to look at Lauren the way he did tonight.
They were the center duo, facing one another hand in hand, and simply drank each other in as the candlelight enveloped them in a soft, amber glow.
The other duos were younger—first-time bonding for both of them—but Lauren and Jason were the ones who drew our gazes.
The families and packs of the duos stood behind them as witnesses, and beyond us were several round tables with pristine white tablecloths and summer floral centerpieces. The sweet fragrance of tiger lilies perfumed the room.
I’d managed to hop in the shower, wash my hair, throw on my new red dress and black spike pumps. My hair had even cooperated with the curling iron, although I was pretty sure all the curl would fall out halfway through dinner. It didn’t matter.
When I took a deep breath, I must have made a wistful sound because my cousin Faith, who stood beside me, moved closer so her shoulder brushed mine. She took my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
I hadn’t seen her in two months, and during that time her pregnancy had started to show. She had a definite baby bump beneath the wine-colored Empire maternity gown draping her body. She placed my hand across her abdomen, and I felt a tiny, fluttering movement. Had that been a kick?
“My God,” I whispered and turned to her in excited shock.
“I know.” Her whole face glowed. She was beautiful. “Grandmother Carolyn says it’s twins, Stanzie. Can you believe it?”
“Twins!” I pressed my forehead to hers and grinned. “You are so lucky, Faith.”
“Scott wants two boys, but I think one of each would be nice.” The babies, or at least one of them, fluttered beneath my hand again, and Faith went still so I could feel it better.
“Alpha female, surely the Pack prospers because of you.” The words were traditional, but I’d never said them before. They felt strangely right to say to my cousin who was Alpha of my birth pack.
“Someday I’ll say the same to you.” She seemed convinced, but I wasn’t. Hard to be Alpha without a bond mate.
I twined my fingers with hers as Kathy began the ceremony.
Halfway through I started to cry, thoughts of Murphy and Lauren and Jason tangled together in my head, impossible to sort out and laced with a bittersweet ache that tingled through my whole body.
Scott Charest—my cousin’s bond mate, Kathy Manning’s Advisor, and my friend—wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close. Faith kept hold of my hand. Alan Perrault, another friend from Mayflower, moved close behind me, his body warm against mine, his breath soft in my ear.
I remembered us in bed together, the first step of his wolf’s initiation, and leaned back against him as Lauren fastened her new bond pendant around her throat and Jason Allerton did the same with his.
* * * *
After the ceremony we feasted on baked stuffed shrimp and Maine lobster. I sat at the table with Jason and Lauren, Faith, Scott, Shane, Samantha and Todd.
Todd was Faith’s father and Shane and Samantha were his bond mates.
The rest of Mayflower ate at nearby tables. No one from Silverlake was present, and I wondered if that bothered Jason.
He and I sat on either side of Lauren, but we didn’t talk. He and my mother were very wrapped up in each other, but he made the effort to chat with Faith, who sat on his other side.
Lauren had chosen the baked stuffed shrimp for an entrée, as had Jason, but I saw how she cast wistful looks at my lobster.
I put one of my lobster claws on her plate, took half a baked stuffed shrimp in return, and her face lit up.
“I couldn’t decide what to order,” she confided in my ear with a little laugh. “So I ordered what Jason did, but when the lobsters arrived, I realized I should have ordered that instead.”
“Always order something different than what Jason does,” I suggested. “Then you can share, and you won’t be disappointed. That’s what I always did when Murphy and I went out to dinner.”
I bit my lip as I remembered the many restaurants we’d visited on our road trip from Texas to Massachusetts. We’d gotten to know each other as bond mates during that time.
We’d made a thirty-hour drive last nearly four weeks. If we liked a city or town, we’d stayed there for as long as we liked.
We’d remained nearly a week in New Orleans. It was there we’d figured out the rhythms of each other’s bodies and the sex became intense. The third day there we hadn’t even gotten out of bed until after sunset, and then only because we were starving.
It was there, too, we’d vowed to share our food and always order something different so we could try more than one thing. From appetizers to desserts, we never had the same thing, and we shared it all.
“I wish you’d work things out with him,” Lauren whispered as she dipped a succulent piece of lobster claw into the melted butter on my plate. I moved it to her plate because I never put butter on my lobster. I loved the taste of it plain.
“Who?” I pretended ignorance and she sighed.
“I know you’re thinking about him. You just said his name. Murphy, your bond mate. You always get that same starry-eyed, wistful look on your face when you think about him.”
“Wren.” I wished I’d ordered wine with my meal but I hadn’t because I was still slightly hungover.
“I know you don’t like to talk about him, but I think it’s a shame. It must be really hard to see all the duos and triads together tonight and be alone.”
I winced, the ache inside me so raw it hurt.
“I’m fine,” I gave her a bright smile that didn’t fool her. “Anyway, tonight is about you. You and Jason and the other two duos who bonded tonight. You better drag him on the dance floor because I want to see if he can keep up with you.”
Lauren giggled and the whole table looked indulgently at her. Sometimes I couldn’t believe this perfectly stunning woman was my mother. She seemed so unearthly, and I was so very grounded and real. It was as if a fairy had given birth to a peasant girl.
My appetite gone, I gave Lauren the other lobster claw and excused myself to go to the bar for a drink. Hangover be damned.
* * * *
Once