<This is the best day of my life!>
My wolf was so happy I barely recognized her. We're was the snarky mind sister I had dealt with for my entire life?
<Just look at him! I bet he could take down a moose by himself! And if that's not hot, I don't know what is.>
<Well, he does look tough and I do like his grey fur. It's my favourite colour,> I agreed diplomatically.
My wolf and I had very different views on what made a male attractive, so it was good that we were lucky enough to get a mate who fulfilled both of our requirements.
Killing large prey did not even come close to making my top one hundred, but making my wolf happy was pretty high on the list, if for no other reason than she tended to offer less critical commentary when she was in a good mood.
Plus, I did love my wolf and it was nice to see her happy, but I never told her that because she would think she could get away with more if I did. She was a brat like that. Pierce would have his maw full.
We had let our wolves run for probably an hour. Finally I said, <Okay, we need to head back.>
<What? No,> she whined.
<I have a lot of packing to do.>
<We don't need any of that stuff.>
<Yes, we do, because for one, we are not going to walk around naked.>
<You humans and your hang-ups. If you were meant to be covered in wool you would already be growing it.>
I ignored her opinion. <If you don't get his attention and turn back, I'll take over and you'll lose the rest of the run.>
She drew out her response like an annoyed child to demonstrate her extreme displeasure with me. <Fine...>
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When we got back to the house I took back over and slipped inside. I went to my room, shifted, slipped on a housecoat and stealthily snuck out of my room towards the bathroom.
I locked the door behind me and I jumped in the shower. I hurried through my routine. I had a lot to do and in truth I was already dying to see Arthur again. He was so wonderful, I mused, as I began to run through my ever growing mental inventory of his many virtues.
I had a stupid smile on my face as I washed my hair, but I just could not make it go away. It was like my mouth had been flash frozen with all the muscles turning up.
Seriously, it was starting to hurt.
I got out of the shower and wrapped my hair and body in towels. I cracked open the door, peeked outside to find the hall empty. I scurried back to my room.
<Darn, I was hoping he would catch you,> my wolf said silkily.
<Who's side are you on?>
<Ours, obviously.>
I rolled my eyes and got dressed in leggings and a sweater.
The sound of the shower running again met my ears when I stepped out of my room. I ignored my wolf's commentary and took my phone down to the living room to wait.
I sat on the couch and opened my phone. Kayla and five other people had texted me while Arthur and I had been out running.
Kayla [Seriously, am I dreaming or did I actually meet the prince today in ur living room?????]
Me [I don't think it's a dream but it's too good to be true]
Me [He's perfect. We went for a run after you left]
While waiting for Kayla's response, I checked my MuzzleBook app and found that I had two hundred and sixteen notifications, seventy-one messages and had been tagged nine hundred and ninety-nine plus times.
I really wished I had amped up my privacy settings before the previous day. I started going through the settings and setting them all as high as I could.
A few minutes later Arthur came down and found me as I was looking through my notifications. There were a ton of posts from people I barely knew congratulating me on finding my mate or posting about the whole thing. I felt sort of sick.
He smiled at me and all my frustration and anxiety melted away as if it had never been there at all. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Just checking stuff," I said, not wanting to talk about it more. "I should probably get packing now. When are we leaving?"
He paused. "Tomorrow afternoon, if you still are willing," he said.
I smiled at him, since he seemed a bit worried and I did not want that. My poor mate had enough troubles without me making them worse. "Yes, that will work."
"If you can get what you want, we can have it sent on ahead in the morning. Obviously the palace will provide you with anything you could possibly need, but you should bring anything irreplaceable and enough to get by until we get you settled in."
I nodded. "So, do you want to, um, hang out with me while I do it?" He probably had a lot to do, but I found I did not want to be away from him at all now that I had found him.
"Sure," he said, looking so happy it banished any lingering negativity from inside of me. It felt great that I could make him feel that good. It made me want to do anything that would keep that smile on his face.
All in good time, I reminded myself.
He followed me to the basement while I grabbed my suitcase and some old boxes and then helped me carry them to my room. Then I started going through stuff and deciding what I wanted to take along or not. It was hard to decide.
"We can always send someone if you missed anything, Anne," he promised me as I finally shoved the final item in a box. I glanced at him again and was about to ask him if he was hungry when his phone rang.
"Hey, Brandon," he said. I could hear the buzz of his friend's voice on the other end of the phone. "Really, again? Well, if you have to, it's no problem. Okay, yeah good luck. Yeah. Bye."
I glanced at him, wondering if it was out of line to ask him what he had been talking about. I apparently wanted to know everything about him with the passion of an obsessive stalker, but I did not know if it was my place.
"What are you thinking?" he asked me. I felt my face heat up that I had apparently been staring at him.
But how could I not? Seriously, those cheeks, those lips, those eyes...
"Uh, nothing. I was just curious. Actually, before your phone rang I was wondering if you're hungry?"
He smiled, "Yeah, I am."
I was a terrible hostess, apparently. When my friends were over I just told them to help themselves, but even if he was my mate he was still the prince so I should probably be treating him better or something.
I hurried out of the room to cover my discomfort.
There was no one in the kitchen and I was pretty sure we were alone in the house, except maybe for Ellen, but even if she was home she would probably not leave her room. "Sandwich okay?" I asked him.
"Of course," he agreed. "Shall I help?"
"Yeah, sure." I grabbed a bunch of ingredients from the fridge and slammed them on the counter in my haste.
"Relax, Anne. What's bothering you?"
I almost said nothing, but then I remembered that we were going to attempt the novel technique of communication. "I'm just feeling a bit... I don't know..." I squeezed out the last word in a voice so low he might not have even been able to hear if it were not for his excellent wolf hearing, "Inadequate." I winced at how pitiful I sounded.
He wrapped his arms around me from behind and rested his chin on my neck. "I think you're perfectly adequate. If it makes you feel any better, my mother came from humble beginnings as well."
"Really?"
"Really. The story is not as well known though, because it happened before smart phone cameras and virulent social media were everywhere. I'll tell you soon, because you're the one who will be privy to all my secrets."
I leaned back and let him support me. I already felt like it would be hard to function if I ever lost him and that was a terrifying thought. Mate bonds might be a gift, but that gift was a two edged blade. I swallowed. There was nothing I could do now but try to make things work out of the best.
"That was Brandon on the phone. Serenity was acting up again so he asked permission to head back to his territory early."
I wondered what she had done, but I did not ask. I understood he would tell me, but I found I did not really want to know just yet. All the alpha/luna drama could wait until we arrived at the capital.
The sandwich fixings were right in front of me, although I was reluctant to make him let me go. Still, I said, "Sandwiches?"
He released me, much to my chagrin. "Yes. So are there any sandwich tricks you should teach me, or is it as straightforward as it appears to my untrained eye?"
I smiled at him. "You've never made a sandwich?"
"I've probably spent more time in a kitchen with you already than in the rest of my life combined, if you want the truth," he said solemnly.
With another smile I showed the prince all the tricks I knew of making a great sandwich.
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We spent the rest of the evening with my family, since I would be parting from them so soon. Truthfully, I only wanted Arthur's presence, but I knew I would miss them when I was gone so I spent every second I could with them. My wolf was unusually quiet, which I assumed was due to her dedication to searching for Arthur's wolf.
My head felt oddly quiet without her periodic commentary. It was a nice break yet rather strange.
Before bed, Arthur kissed me until my mind was absolutely blank of anything but how incredibly attractive he was, which was rather helpful for falling asleep once I finally managed to calm down a bit.
From the first moment I woke the next morning I oscillated between excitement and nervousness. I felt wonderful when Arthur was in my direct vicinity and terrible whenever he was not.
He was like a drug and I was quickly becoming addicted, if I was not already.
Perhaps that explained all the mate issues in the world, maybe they were all just dependent on the mate bond and doing whatever necessary to get their next fix.
I forced myself to stop worrying and think everything through rationally.
I was Arthur's mate and he was mine. Fighting it would only make things worse and I already knew I would never want to, even if my lack of control was alarming.
And certainly the mate bond was maximizing all my feelings, but even without it, Arthur was clearly a wonderful man. He was kind, reasonable, and although I was certain the mate bond was warping my perception a bit, he was seriously good looking. His cheekbones, nose, height and muscle mass could probably be measured to quantitatively prove that he was a fantastic example of male physical perfection.
It was actually entirely logical for me to fall in love with him and convenient our bond would push me in that direction. I felt quite comforted by my thoughts.
Perhaps I should suggest he mark me soon. It would please our wolves, it would be convenient for communication, and it was pretty much inevitable so there was not much to be gained from putting it off.
I would tell him I was ready as soon as we got settled in at the palace. If this was the direction we were going, there was no point in not switching from the brake to the accelerator.
If Arthur and Anne were 65km into a 300km trip at 70km/hr and Anne hit the gas and they accelerated to 90km/hr, but then after 10km a drama hound came running out onto the road and they had to slam on the breaks down to 30km/hr, could they still get to the royal palace before Anne's sanity ran out?
The answer was irrelevant. I knew I wanted to get to our destination and the drama hounds had best just stay off the road, or they would become drama roadkill.
I still felt a bit stressed out, so I went looking for Arthur.
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