Midnight Wolf (Shifters Unbound #11)(98)

Dylan had come with Tiger, who’d brought his mate and baby cub, but Dylan assured Angus he wouldn’t pin Tamsin down to question her, at least not today.

“There will be time,” Dylan said after sipping from a bottle of beer Angus handed him. “Will she be joining us?”

Dylan had invited Tamsin to participate in the army he was building to fight the Fae when the time came. Tamsin had promised to think about it.

“She probably will,” Angus said. “But I think she’ll have our cub first.”

He warmed every time he thought of it. What would it be to hold their daughter, born from the true mate of his heart?

Dylan only nodded and left it at that.

The special surprise Angus planned arrived just before the moon ceremony was about to take place. Shifters had been partying and drinking all day, and by the time Tamsin and Angus stepped together into the moonlit clearing, excitement was high.

Half the Shifters assumed animal form, and some in human form had thrown off excess clothing to make shifting easy. Mating frenzy was in the wind, and Shifters were already pairing off in the shadows.

A sun and moon ceremony woke the ferocity in Shifters, the need to be with their mates, or to chase mates if they didn’t have one yet. The younger Shifters just off their Transitions were growling and impatient, the mating frenzy strongest in them.

Spence sought Angus before he began the ceremony. “Tamsin is right,” he said. “I really could use another second. Reg can’t do it all. It’s been long enough since Gavan—the Shifter Bureau shits can let up and allow you to help me again. I’ve already spoken to them.”

Angus blinked in amazement, but he saw the triumphant look Tamsin shot Spence.

He weighed the idea of tracking for Spence again, which meant staying in Shiftertown most of the time, though he’d be sent out on dangerous jobs when needed. He put that against his job at the club—which his boss there had told him he still had if he wanted it. Night after night of boring work, making sure drunk humans and Shifters didn’t hurt one another. But neither would he have to track danger, nor deal with Shifter Bureau, nor be sent out to protect Shiftertown from any threat.

“I’ll think about it,” Angus said. He knew he’d pick being a tracker again, doing what he was made for, but he could let Spence sweat a little.

Spence shrugged, pretending it didn’t matter, and returned to his spot to begin the moon, or Goddess, ceremony, the more important of the two. “My friends,” he began.

He didn’t finish, because the surprise for Tamsin arrived just then. A woman walked around Angus’s house and down the stretch of yards to the open field. She was a Shifter, tall and straight, her short hair, which was pale in the moonlight, sticking out here and there like the tufts of a bobcat.

Tamsin’s body went rigid, her hand falling from Angus’s. Angus reached out to steady her, but Tamsin tore from him and ran to the woman, the circlet of flowers in her hair falling unheeded to the grass.

“Mom!” she shouted, and then the two were in each other’s arms, crying and hugging, holding on tight.

Angus watched without going to them, letting Tamsin greet her mother in an outpouring of love.

After a time, Tamsin led the woman to the clearing, the two arm in arm. Tamsin had retrieved her circlet of flowers and held it loosely as she and her mother stepped into the beam of moonlight. Tamsin’s mother had blue eyes rather than golden, but the shape of them was Tamsin’s, as was her look of sharp assessment.

“Angus, this is my mother, Sheila Calloway. But you knew that. You brought her here.”

Angus gave her a nod. “I did. With Dylan’s help.”

Tamsin bent a glare on him. “And you didn’t tell me!”

“I wanted it to be a surprise.” Angus shrugged. “A mating ceremony present.”

“You . . .” Tamsin smacked the circlet of flowers to his gut. “You shithead. You wonderful, wonderful shithead.”

She threw herself at Angus, who caught her up against him. The mate bond warmed him through, as did her kiss. Moonlight surrounded them, the Mother Goddess blessing their union.

The white light danced and sparkled in Tamsin’s eyes as Angus lowered her to her feet. He helped adjust the circlet of flowers on her bright hair, and in the next moment Spence shouted, “Under the light of the moon, the Mother Goddess—I proclaim you mates!”

The Shifters exploded into insanity, cheering, dancing, howling, roaring. Tamsin went very quiet, touching Angus’s cheek before she kissed his lips.

“I love you, mate of my heart,” she whispered.

“I love you, Tamsin,” Angus said, everything he was in his words.

“Thank you for catching me.” Tamsin sent him a sly look, and then she tore the circlet from her hair and tossed it high, laughing.

The musical sound of her laughter rippled into the night, merged with the mate bond, and wrapped around his heart.