Shock and Awe

"It's okay. I was fighting telling you anything straightforward. I would have been pissed at me too."

"I do feel a connection with you, I have since we met at Iron Wolf."

"Really?" He leans and kisses the top of my head.

"I made up a shitty excuse to come back upstairs so that I could see you again. Not sure why I did it at the time, but now I do. It must be because I'm your mate."

"You said you forgot something right?" He says and I chuckle. "Yeah, when I hadn't brought anything up with me when I came up to see you for the first time. I'm sure Tobias knew I was lying." Nate chuckles.

"Oh, he did. But he knew what you were to me, so he played along."

I smack his chest playfully. "No way. That's so embarrassing."

"Does your pack know?" I look up at him and he nods. "They do, but I had asked them to give you space for me to tell you. Kane guessed it once I came to Red Moon and Evie just found out the night you were attacked."

"How?" I ask, sitting up in his lap a bit more.

"I gave you my blood when you arrived. It helped you get strong enough so Nadine could patch you up."

"Blood doesn't help unless we're mates. That's how I recovered faster than normal."

"Correct."

"I wish I could feel a bond with you." Nate caresses my face as I look up at him and he smiles. "You will, I have no doubt of that. First thing is we're going to get those cuffs off you."

"They're spelled." I state sadly.

"I know. I have a good friend in the witch covens. She's already agreed to come by to look and see if we can remove them. Might take some work, but she's willing to try."

"Seriously?!" I exclaim, backing off of him and sitting back on my knees as I look at him in disbelief. "They could come off?" He nods. "More than likely, and then we can work from there."

"Nathaniel..." I trail off.

"Yes, mate?" My body tingles at his words.

"I love you." His eyes widen but then soften immediately after. He leans towards me, grasping the back of my neck.

"I love you too, my little songbird." He pulls me in and kisses me softly and I wrap my arms around his neck.

We break away and he looks at me with admiration.

"So."

"So what?" I question and he laughs. "Should we be moving all your stuff from your room up here?" I chuckle and nod. "Yes. Very much so."

(The Next Day)

Nathaniel's POV

The ease I feel at having her know is surreal. I know why I hesitated, but her knowing means I don't have to hold back now. We're only going to get stronger. No more secrets.

"Where should this box go?" Tobias asks as he exits the elevator. We're currently moving Ivy's stuff upstairs to our room. Ivy walks in front of me and looks inside it. "That's books. Those can go in the bedroom." She doesn't have much from her time here since we haven't gotten hers, Kane's, or Evie's belongings from Red Moon. We will eventually but decided against it for now.

"You got it Luna Queen." Tobias addresses her with her title and I see her stiffen, but then turn around to look at me. "Still getting used to that." She sighs and I open my arms and she walks straight into them. I kiss the top of her head. "It'll come with time, princess."

"I know."

"I'm glad I know now, mate." Ivy says, emphasizing our bond title, and I chuckle.

"That means we must accept them soon. The bonds."

"Yes, songbird."

"Not sure how that will go with me being wolfless. I can't mark."

"There are other ways to accept the bonds. Wolves have human mates sometimes. They accept them temporarily another way and then once they turn or shift, then they mark like us wolves would. We will figure it out my love. I promise."

"I know we will. Together."

"No doubt."

My mate, my love, my Luna queen, we will figure it all out.