She was shining in the darkness, her pale skin bathing in the sparkle of the snow that had covered everything.

"It's real," she said, her breath coming out in a fog.

It was starting again, the sky beginning to cry with feathery white tears falling on us. The scent of frozen earth, fresh snow and that of her—the woman who held my heart in her palm every second of every day—tickled my nose.

Perhaps, it was a dream, just an illusion like the many I'd seen while roaming these woods but the smile still tugged at my lips. It spilled out, a magical feeling inside me that had every fiber of my being rupturing, and I couldn't stop my tears that answered hers.

Feet taking a step toward me, her storm-filled eyes connected with mine, her hand rose in between us to offer her touch that I craved like a man who'd lived a lifetime without another's caress.

Everything of her that I could take, I longed to take as I longed to breathe—needed.

"I have something to tell you, Regan," she spoke in a voice that was as soft as a wind's kiss against skin, a kiss that swept you off of your feet and lifted you up to the clouds.

She was my wind. She was the storm in my world that shook and broke and swept everything away.

And she was the force to give me a new one—a world with her right at its center.

"Give me your hand," she urged.

I was afraid, so afraid that she'd slip right through my fingers when I clasped my hand over hers, that this dream would break as soon as I touched her.

I hesitated. I didn't want to break the illusion. I wanted this one to last.

"Please, Regan. Just give me your hand." The storm turned soft, her shock dissipating as she gently coerced me to do as she bid.

Like a child, frightened to the bone, I reached for her hand. I let my hand hover there, barely brushing fingers against hers as I braced myself for the inevitable.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," she shouted, losing her nerve, and grasped my hand in a tight grip.

A soft sigh escaped my lips when she didn't fade out in front of my eyes, but I held on, surrendering to what the illusion offered.

Being able to hold onto her was going farther than any of these figments ever went, but I didn't care as long as she stayed right there, hand clasped against mine.

Slowly, as if starting to second-guess her decision, Scarlet guided my hand underneath layers of cloth to rest on top of her belly, skin on skin.

Her gray eyes, even softer than a second ago, almost vulnerable, sucked me inside when she looked up at me once more and said, "Can you feel it, Regan?"

I wasn't quite sure what it was I was supposed to feel. All I could feel was her pulse underneath my palm and then a second one joined hers, resonating against my palm like the softest drum. A heartbeat only a wolf could feel in the early stages of—

I drew in a breath, taking my hand away when realization suddenly hit home.

"You... you're..."

She nodded. "There's life growing inside of me, Regan."

The ground beneath me suddenly shaky, I stumbled to my knees. I trembled. I sobbed. "This can't..." I rambled. "This can't be..."

Words even I couldn't understand, kneeling at her feet as I tried to wrap my head around just what kind of a cruel joke the Moon was pulling on me this time.

"Regan?" The note of wariness in her voice was unmistakable when she spoke and, as I looked up, I saw her backtracking a step from me with a pained expression on her face.

"This can't... be?" she drawled out, her voice thick with disappointment. "What the hell, Regan? Is that all you have to say to me? I thought that you'll be happy to return to me and you just..." Another step. The snow crunched beneath her boots.

"You just go and tell me this can't be," she gulped and kicked the snow toward me, the cotton-soft texture landing on my face and my shreds of clothing as particles of it glinted in the air around us.

Wiping the tears off my face, wishing I could kiss hers away instead of breaking the illusion like I should, I scrambled to my feet.

"Scarlet, you must understand—"

"Understand what, Regan?" she shouted, marching toward me to stop right in front of where I stood. "That the only reason you ever wanted me was because of the bond and that now that it's broken, you've changed your mind? Is that it? Or do you want me to understand exactly what kind of a fucked up asshole you are because I can assure you—I can't possibly be more aware of that?"

I raised my hand to cup her face. "I'm sorry that I have to do this, Scarlet," I told her as gently as I could.

She arched a brow. "Really?"

"I truly am, but this isn't real. You're not real, Scarlet. You must—"

She punched me and...

It hurt.

"That real enough for you?"

I didn't even bother to hold my jaw and massage the pain away as it dawned on me.

"It's real," I mumbled.

"Yes, it's all real," she shouted, eyes glaring daggers at me. "I'm real and we're fucking done. Moron!" she snapped, swirled back intent to walk away.

"Wait, Scarlet... I'm... I didn't mean... I—"

"I don't want to listen to you," she called over her shoulder without even giving me a look back. "Just go back to wherever the hell you came from and never come back. I don't need you and you clearly don't need me so let's just stop and go our separate ways, okay?"

It was not okay. I couldn't do what she asked now that I'd finally found my way back to her after roaming the woods for weeks. There was no way in hell I was letting her go.

I ran after her.

I reached a hand to grab her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks.

"You see, I'm afraid I can't do that, love," I whispered in her ear, feeling her back stiffen against me as my other hand weaved around her belly where my son grew inside.

I hoped it was a son so he could protect his sister while growing up.

"Not before I've made my request," I added.

She pushed my hand away and turned to face me.

"Is it the weeks away or me breaking our bond that changed you, Regan?" Fresh tears glinted in her eyes ready to overflow. "Or did you never truly love me that you're doing this now?"

It hurt me to hear her say this, to know that she could lose her faith in me in just an instant; I deserved this.

And I didn't know if it was desperation to keep her from leaving me or something else that made me, didn't know if there was still that invisible force pulling me toward her, fate or just my love but, like gravity drew a planet to its sun, I was drawn to her.

Bound to follow my orbit in a circle around her.

I had to. I needed to.

"Both," I told her, trying to keep my voice even, my face unshowing of what was inside of me. It was the first moment after the bond broke that I was glad that it did.

She couldn't feel what I felt and I could see clearly.

"Both?"

"Both the time away and you breaking the bond changed me, Scarlet," I elaborated.

"What about my second question? Did you ever love me, Regan?" she repeated.

I smiled. "My request first."

She sighed, watching me warily. "What do you want?"

I inched closer to her. Her quick laborious breaths became pants, filtering in between us as we stood face to face separated by inches of that charged air.

She was trembling. Nervous. Affected. Falling.

And so was I.

"Someday you're going to find the right man for you and walk down the aisle toward him," I started, a turbulent heart pounding inside my chest.

"Yeah, so?"

"Can I be there and—"

"I don't think it will be appropriate for you—"

"No, it's not that."  I shook my head.

She squinted her eyes at me. "Then what is it?" 

"Could it be me you walk toward on that day, Scarlet?" I said.

Holding my breath.

"Wait, what? Did you just... Wait, you need a mate, Regan. And the pack needs a bond."

Sneaking a hand into my shirt's pocket, hoping it was still there, dropping on one knee in front of her, I closed my fingers around it. "The pack doesn't need me with a mate to have their bond and I don't need one, Scarlet. All I need is you."

I held it in front of her, the ring that had remained with the shreds of clothing that had survived the shift back and forth.

I'd kept that ring on me for more than a month. Even during these weeks while losing myself in the woods, this was the only thing I never lost—the hope to see her again and, finally, say the words that had been on the tip of my tongue for so long.

Burning.

"Will you marry me, Scarlet?"

"Why? We don't have the bond now."

"Must I have a reason to love you, Scarlet?" I countered the question with my own then shook my head. "No, don't answer that. Just tell me. Will you allow me to love you, be the man you lean on and the father of this child?"

Silence trickled for minutes long. We stared at each other. Tears streaked free on her face.

"Yes." A whisper. "Yes, I will." Louder. "Oh, god, yes." A shout.

Her eyes looking at me in that way, her hands reaching for me to rest on my cheeks in that way, her body pressed against mine to mold to it in that way, her lips falling against mine... it was this moment we'd both waited for.

Holding me precious, holding her mine.

This was the moment of completion when drowned in each other and neither one of us wanted—needed to resurface.

She kissed me.

Hungrily. Fiercely. Fervently.

All doubts washed away.

We aligned.

#Alright, peeps!

I couldn't wait to release this so... here we go. 

I hope you are happy, jumping around, crying, whatever rocks your boat :)

And shame on me, I'm tearing up again.

So... I guess we have just the epilogue to read and then the bonus chapters if anyone of you would like to drop in once in a while :)

More (hopefully) good books are to follow so stay tuned. 

The epilogue is scheduled for 14th February (that is if I don't get a bunch of work on me... again)

Love, 

Alsey