Moon Touched (Zodiac Wolves: The Lost Pack #1)(45)

I paused at the edge of the forest as pieces of meat were brought out and set onto the grill for Kaden to cook. The deer, I realized. Kaden hadn’t mentioned a barbecue before, but then again, he seemed to enjoy keeping me on my toes. I wondered if I was invited. There were more shifters from the Ophiuchus here in one place than I had seen yet, and they all seemed to know each other. I felt intensely out of place, unsure if I was allowed to even be here, or if Kaden expected me to go inside.

As I debated, I found myself watching the wolf pups. They wrestled in the grass, growling and baring their teeth at each other. It was still shocking to see them, but they were incredibly cute, and I couldn't help but smile. A group of teens passed close to me, and I heard one of them giving a recount from the hunt. He must have been the one to kill the deer.

The longing to be a part of this, to be one of them, hit me once again. Everything I’d heard about the thirteenth pack had been wrong. They weren’t monsters or bogeymen. They were just another pack and a good one at that. Maybe Kaden was right, and everything I knew about the Sun and Moon Witches was wrong as well.

I turned my head as something caught in my peripheral vision. Clayton was walking toward me holding hands with another male shifter, who was a lot smaller than him. Then again, everyone was smaller than Clayton.

"Come join the party," he said. "You were part of the hunt too, even if you didn't participate."

I ducked my head. "Thanks. I wasn't sure..."

"I remember that feeling, but you'll be one of us soon enough," the other man said.

Clayton gestured to the man beside him. "This is Grant. My mate."

I blinked, my mouth falling open. I’d never seen a gay mated couple before. “You have the mate bond?”

“Of course we do,” Clayton said, standing a bit taller. “Why wouldn’t we?”

I held my hands up. “I'm sorry. That came out wrong. I just didn’t realize it was possible. In the Zodiac Wolves, there aren’t any homosexual mate pairs.”

Grant gave me a sympathetic smile. “I was originally part of the Libra Pack, but I left when I met Clayton and felt the mate bond. It was right after I turned twenty-two and got my wolf, but luckily I hadn't been mated at the Convergence. I went hiking in the woods on a trip, and everything changed for me when I stumbled onto Clayton by accident while he was on patrol.” He squeezed Clayton’s hand, and for the first time, I saw Clayton’s stoic face soften. They looked as in love as any other couple I’d seen mated. It must be true. "They let me join the pack, and the rest is history."

"That's...that's great," I said, and I meant it, though my mind was working double time. Would Grant have been mated to a female mate if he hadn’t left the Zodiac Wolves? Or would he simply not have gotten a mate at all?

A darker thought hit me. Was it possible that the Sun Witches controlled the mate bonds too? They could use it to manipulate the wolves, moving shifters between the packs like chess pawns, if what Kaden had said was true. I didn’t know why they’d ban homosexual pairings, but I remembered someone saying that the reason for the mating bond was for procreation, to keep shifters strong and their blood pure. They’d definitely use it against us, I thought darkly.

Anger filled me. People should be able to love who they wanted to, not be forced to love whoever the spell chose.

And if this was true, then it meant my bond with Jordan might not be real either.

“There you are!” I was pulled out of my thoughts by Stella, who ran up to me, beaming. “Come sit with us while Kaden grills. It’ll take him forever, and you might as well come hang out.”

She pulled me by the wrist to a patch of grass where some of the other female shifters were sitting. I recognized a few in passing, but Stella quickly introduced me to the others. They all worked as teachers and quickly made room for me in the circle.

“The hunt went well?” the pretty blonde named Marla asked, and it took me a moment to realize she was asking me.

I cleared my throat, surprised to be included in the conversation so easily. "I think so. It was amazing to watch,” I added, letting some of the awe overtake me as I thought about the forest once again, the coordination of the pack, and the way that Kaden had directed them all flawlessly.

“I bet you had fun watching Kaden, as well,” said a woman with curly brown hair, who I remembered was named Carly. She grinned at me and waggling her eyebrows. I ducked my head and blushed.

“Ah, I wish the mate bond would activate for me,” Marla said, putting a hand to her chest. “I would kill to be his mate. He’s so strong and handsome.”

Stella made a choking noise, her nose wrinkling. “You do realize you’re talking about my brother, right?”

"And we'd all very much like to be your sister," Carly said with a laugh.

I grinned as I looked between them, shaking my head. For the first time ever, I didn’t feel like an outcast, and this wasn’t even my birth pack. But could this feeling last? What if they found out more about me—that half of me was human, or that my mate was a Leo—and changed their minds about me?

Kaden still stood at the grill, a beer in one hand, and flipping the meat with the other. Jack and another male shifter stood next to him, laughing about something. I watched as Kaden’s lips twitched up at whatever they were saying. He looked relaxed and almost happy, but even from this far away, I could sense the power radiating off of him. The other shifters looked at him for approval and seemed to gravitate around him. There was no way anyone could doubt that he was the boss.