Turn of the Moon (Royal Shifters #1)(9)

“Okay, let’s see . . . she took me to eat lunch, and then we went to Blake’s, where I got to ride the horses and watch Tyla train one.” I walked inside and the smell from the kitchen was so heavenly, I moaned.

Ryker chuckled. “I’m glad you had a good day. You hungry?”

“I’m always hungry.” I followed him into the kitchen and sat down at the table. There was food everywhere. “Did you cook this?”

He gestured for me to take the open chair across from him and sat down, cutting a bite of steak. “Yes.”

“It looks amazing.” I dug in and swallowed a bite of my own steak, savoring every minute of it. “Tastes good too.”

“I’ve been on my own for many years, so I had to learn.”

“Where’s your family? Are they not a part of the pack?”

His jaw tensed. “They’re dead.”

“I’m sorry,” I murmured, hating the guarded look in his eyes.

“Me too. I was just a child. It happened shortly after I met you.”

I choked on my food and coughed. “How is that possible? Why don’t I remember ever meeting you?”

He stared at me as he chewed, like he didn’t know how to answer. “I tell you what . . . let’s finish dinner, and then we’ll talk all about it. You’re going to need a drink, or ten.”

I hurried with the rest of my meal. When I was done, he poured me a large glass of wine and ushered me to the couch. His hand brushed my side and the same electric current from before shot through my veins. It took my breath away.

“Don’t worry, the same thing happens to me,” he confessed, sitting beside me.

“Will it always be like that?”

“Not always. Only until we complete the bond. It’s one of nature’s ways of making sure we know who our mate is. What I want to know is, why didn’t your parents tell you about true mates?”

“I don’t know, but that’s a damn good question. Tyla told me a little bit, but she left most of the explaining to you. She mentioned something about old magic.”

Leaning over on his elbows, he looked down at his hands, and then over at mine. I could tell he wanted to touch me, but resisted. “It’s called old magic because no one has seen it recently, except with me and you. There have been a handful of wolves over the past few decades who’ve found their true mates, but it’s not common. The first time I met you, I was ten years old, which would’ve made you around seven. You had gotten lost in the woods and stumbled your way into our territory. You were scared and upset, so I brought you back to my pack and we watched over you for a time.”

I put a hand over my mouth. “You lived in Canada? Can you tell me why I don’t remember this? Surely I would’ve remembered meeting you.”

“That’s what I thought too when I came to your school. When you stayed away from me, I knew something was wrong. Someone must’ve erased your memories.”

“And I don’t remember our second meeting either. None of it makes any sense. I didn’t even know there was another white wolf pack other than mine and the Yukon’s.”

He lifted his gaze to mine. “There’s not. I was part of the Yukon pack, until my family was banished. I never found out why because on the way out of Canada my mother and I were attacked and she was murdered. My father was killed before we even left. I barely escaped, but I crossed the border into the states and was saved by another wolf pack who took me in.”

“And now you’re their alpha.”

He nodded. “And you will be too . . . as my mate. Surely, you have no doubts about that, right? The signs are all there. I think I’ve proved them to you. You can’t deny you feel it, can you?”

“I’m not going to lie, I feel things when you’re around, but I have choices too. I’m not just going to spread my legs because I get all tingly when you touch me.”

His lips spread into a mischievous smile. “Tingly, huh?”

“Get over yourself,” I said, rolling my eyes. “What I do want to know is, how you can hear my thoughts but I can’t hear yours? I don’t like that.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t stay that way for long. As soon as you taste my blood, you’ll be linked to me and be able to hear whatever the hell you want.”

“How did you get a taste of my blood? I don’t remember offering up a vein.”

Sighing, he bit his lip and licked it, as if he could still taste me on his tongue. “When I subdued you in the forest, I had to bite you to calm you down. At that point, I swallowed your blood and the connection opened. Did you not have any friends who were mated in your pack?”

I shook my head, lowering my gaze. “No, all of my friends were human, except Sebastian, the one who was with me the day I left college. Everyone else stayed away from me like they were afraid, or maybe even told to. I’m not sure. I don’t know why my parents didn’t tell me any of this.”

“I’d like to know too. The legend of mates is more like a folktale of sorts, a bedtime story; except everything about it is true. The magic of the wolf binds us to the moon, and also to our other half. Obviously, the first sign of finding your mate is that feeling in your gut which draws you to the other, almost like magnets. It’s stronger in the males. The need to claim can be almost unbearable. That’s why we’re more violent the older we get without a mate. Did you feel me close by?”