Lily
Blinking away the daze of her revelation, Lily shook herself. Elijah’s words swam unbidden in her head, shining light through the fog of uncertainty she carried.
He understood. Perhaps… perhaps Atticus had been a stepping-stone. He had sent her on her journey – to find Elijah. Her second chance mate. Her true mate.
An Alpha that understood the suffering that came with fighting. And, even with the full moon approaching, Lily found that the pit inside her had lessened, had eased. There was still worry, but it was not the gnawing, ever-present ache she’d become accustomed to.
“Come on,” she said, grinning up at him. Linking their hands once more, she nodded to the doorway. “I thought you said we had somewhere to be.”
* * *
Elijah had walked quickly with her through the centre of the pack grounds, trying to make up for the frequent pauses Lily had insisted they’d made. Nerves had wriggled like snakes in her belly, but the reassuring glances and squeezes of her hand Elijah had given her had turned the snakes into butterflies for short spells. That, combined with the natural beauty of the Sea Pine pack’s territory, had made her almost calm by the time they’d arrived.
Pine trees were dotted across the grounds, like flecks of paint flicked from a brush. Curving pathways lit by hanging lanterns traipsed past the pack house, which Lily remembered vaguely from the darkness of the night before, and led them through a market square filled with empty stalls. Having never seen such a thing until Entra, Lily had lingered there longer than anywhere else on the winding walk to Elijah’s surprise.
“Where is everyone?” she’d asked, her gaze roving greedily over the wooden structures, some covered with thick sheets of linen to protect them from the rain. Others had left some of their wares out – something Lily was sure nobody in Blood Moon would have dared to do, had a market existed there.
“Waiting for us,” Elijah had replied, mirth coating his tone.
He’d made sure to point out the medic and the training grounds, as well as the direction of the coast and the forest from where they stood. He’d promised Lily endless time to explore, with him as her guide, and they’d picked up the pace once more. Excitement had fought against her nerves, and before Lily had a chance to let it churn back into worry, they’d arrived.
“Are we here?” Lily asked, turning to gaze up at Elijah. There was nobody in sight – only a small circle of grass tucked behind some rustic wooden cabins, sheltered by pines that stretched up into the bright blue sky.
He squeezed her hand. “Almost. But I promised that–“
A woman strode between the trees with alarming confidence and poise. “You must be Lily,” she said, her hazel eyes assessing her keenly. Lily wanted to shrink under her gaze, but instead she stood tall. The woman flicked a stray strand of golden, wavy hair behind her shoulder, and then she inclined her head. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”
Lily glanced at Elijah in askance. He had told her about his pack, but the words had come between peppered kisses that had trailed down her cheek, her jaw, her neck…
Steeling herself in an attempt to ignore the pull of the bond, she turned back to the woman. “The pleasure is mine,” she said, surprised by the smoothness of her voice.
“This is Ithia,” Elijah interjected. Lily noted the loose line of his shoulders, the brightness in his eyes. As she surmised that this was someone close to him, he confirmed it. “She is my Beta. I promised her and Caslein that they would be the first to meet you.”
Pleasantly surprised that his Beta was a female – something unheard of in the backwards Blood Moon pack – Lily bowed in kind. “Then it seems the honour is indeed entirely mine, Beta Ithia.”
“Please.” Ithia smiled as she waved a gracious hand through the warm spring air. “Let us be done with such formality.” Something caught her eye, and she shook her head fondly. “Besides–“
“Besides what?”
Ithia and Elijah groaned as one, though there was no malice in it. Elijah caught Lily’s elbow and whispered in her ear, “This is my Gamma, Caslein.” But before he could say any more, Caslein bounded over and pulled Lily into a rib-cracking hug.
“Hi,” she laughed, patting his back awkwardly.
“Besides,” Ithia finished wryly, “Caslein’s arrival will make any attempts at formality useless.”
Catching Lily’s shoulders, Caslein held her at arm’s length. “Let me look at you.” Lily noticed a tightness around his eyes that did not match his otherwise upbeat appearance. She felt raw, exposed, as his pale yellow eyes roved across her face. Rather than focusing on what he might think of her, Lily instead chose to analyse him.
“Are you mates?” she blurted, glancing at Ithia. They seemed well-matched from her first impressions of them both: one sensible, the other playful. As though they would each balance the other out.
But Ithia and Caslein both snorted. “No,” Ithia said, while Caslein just laughed.
“I can’t believe you’d insult me like that,” he eventually choked out, letting his hands drop from Lily’s shoulders. Ithia smacked his arm.
“I’m too good for you, and you know it.”
Elijah bit back a grin. “Stop it, you two. I thought we were going to keep the bickering to a minimum today?”
Caslein crossed his arms over his chest. The movement made his biceps ripple, but for once seeing such strength did not make Lily anxious. She doubted someone Elijah trusted enough to be his Gamma would use his brawn for anything other than protection. If anything, she felt… safe.
“It’s not my fault Ith insists on winding me up.”
Ithia rolled her eyes. “Come on.” She hooked her arm through Lily’s and offered her a quick, reassuring smile. “They’re waiting to light the grills.”
“The grills?” Lily repeated, allowing herself to be towed along through the same gap Ithia and Caslein had appeared through. The word sparked something in her memory, but everything before the mate bond felt hazy – as though it had happened to someone else. It would wear off eventually, she knew from her schooling and from her parents, but for a time the bond made everything glossy, as though kissed by sunshine – even the memories she knew she couldn’t forget, no matter how much she might want to.
“I believe I promised you a barbeque,” Elijah said, coming up alongside her as the path widened out. Ithia patted her arm and let it drop, stepping back to allow them one last moment alone together.
“I believe you did,” Lily said teasingly. “I hope you haven’t oversold it to me.”
“I wouldn’t dare.”
As they came into a wide, dappled meadow, Lily gripped Elijah’s hand. A fire burned brightly in its centre, surrounded by felled logs upon which a myriad of people sat. Some held large wooden tankards and drank greedily from them; others milled around the meadow, adjusting bunting or vases of wildflowers, talking to friends or jostling with their siblings.
Everywhere Lily looked she saw love.
A cheer rose as they entered the meadow. Hollows filled with logs were lit, and metal grates were placed over them. Crates filled with vegetables were placed heavily by their sides, and the smell of butter and fresh bread rose with the smoke of the fire and the grills.
And cutting through it all was Elijah’s citrus-and-basil and woodsmoke scent, as familiar to her now as breathing. He stood beside her, and together they entered, greeting families with broad smiles and bright eyes. Lily met wolves young and old, and did her best to put faces to names, linking children to parents and mates to one another. These were to be her people, now. Her pack.
They drank great gulps of mead and ate grilled corn and pepper and asparagus, all the while talking: smoothing over the rougher details of their journey and embellishing the dull to crowds of wide-eyed revellers, and recounting the moment they had both accepted the mate bond.
At times, Elijah gripped her hand tighter than usual. It must be hard for him, Lily reasoned – he’d had a mate once before, one that he’d introduced to people, perhaps even as his Luna, and she’d left.
Settling against his warm side as the sun dropped low in the sky, surrounded by merry singing and endless chatter, Lily wondered how anyone could ever want to leave such bliss behind.