Later that evening, after Jane marked me, we went back to the house. Gabriel was still in the study, working on the plans. He didn’t need much rest or sustenance, so he could work for hours at a time without having any physical needs to distract him.

I held my mate’s hand as I called out to him, “Gabriel, do you need to feed tonight?”

He looked up at us and nodded before he rose from the drafting table and walked to the bookcase door entrance to the dark apartment. We followed him inside, and he closed the door after turning on the lights.

I settled on the sofa and pulled Jane into my lap so she could lean on me in case she felt a little tired afterwards.

Gabriel pulled a chair over beside us and asked Jane, “Are you ready?”

She held her arm out to him, wrist up, and smiled, “Help yourself, Gabe.”

He laughed lightly before responding, “I’m going to start the mind manipulation now. The first time a person sees a vampire’s bloodthirsty eyes can be a little frightening. It will help with the pain, too, as we discussed.”

“Alright,” she answered.

After a few seconds, she went nearly limp in my lap with her head resting completely on my shoulder. She was awake and breathing regularly but was very relaxed.

Gabriel looked at me, and I nodded to him. My wolf, Onan, was curled up in his den, ignoring the whole process as if this were just a boring humanoid thing that held no interest to him.

Gabriel’s eyes flashed red as his fangs extended. He lifted Jane’s wrist to his mouth, his eyes on hers, while he bit into her flesh, drinking deeply.

Something began to shift, and I noticed my mate bond with Jane strengthening. As Gabriel continued to feed, it glistened and vibrated with a new feeling of weightiness, as if something were being added.

My senses heightened, and inside of me, Onan lifted his head. If a wolf could smile, he was doing it with his snout in the air, breathing in deeply.

It was then that I noticed a new aroma in the air. When I’d first scented Jane as my mate, she’d smelled of fresh earth and citrus. Now, there was a new depth to the aroma I could only describe as sunshine on a summer day.

I felt mildly disoriented even as I could feel Onan’s happy satisfaction. He wasn’t surprised, but he was extremely pleased.

After several minutes, Gabriel removed his mouth from Jane’s wrist and pierced the tip of his own finger with his fang.

He rubbed his now bleeding finger against her wound, and his blood healed the puncture marks completely as if they had never existed.

Now that he had finished feeding and Jane was healed, we both watched her face as we waited for something. I wasn’t sure what.

She was awake, but her eyes were glazed over as if she were staring at something, not of this world. It looked like someone mind-linking or speaking to their wolf, but that wasn’t possible, was it?

“Jane?” I whispered.

Gabriel put his hand on my arm and shook his head, indicating that I should wait.

We watched her for a long time, maybe an hour, before her glazed look faded. She looked up at me and smiled one of the brightest smiles I’d ever seen on her lips.

She reached out to Gabriel and gripped his hand, saying simply, “Thank you.”

I wanted to ask her what happened as Onan stood up in my mind, tail wagging, and playfully grumbled, “Finally!”

A new voice entered my head through the mind-link. It sounded like Jane but earthier and deeper. It said, “Onan, my love.”

“Welcome back, Kasia,” he replied with a wolfish grin in his gruff voice.

My eyes widened as I met Jane’s eyes. Her joy was almost tangible.

Gabriel laughed beside us, and we looked at him. He was happy. Happier than I had ever seen him.

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“Kasia? Jane, you have a wolf!” I said in a voice of awe.

Instead of speaking out-loud, Gabriel spoke into our minds, “I thought I recognized your voice, Onan. Kasia, you darling pup, I’m so happy to see you again.”

I looked back at Jane, and her radiant face beamed as she said, “I had a wolf all along, Tristan. Kasia has been there all this time. Jessica, your cousin, and my dad’s mate, had a witch curse me to separate us and lock her away.

“Jessica wanted the pack to think I was human, like my mom, so they would treat me as a servant, and she wouldn’t have to see me. She knows how your dad feels about humans,” she frowned briefly.

Many emotions burned in my chest. I was furious with Jessica for doing something so despicable. I was angry at my father for thinking humans were worthless. I was mad at myself for bullying her when we were young because she was different.

But most of all, and most importantly, I felt even more complete than I imagined I could ever feel. I felt whole when I marked Jane, but now I felt...more.

“Why did curse break now?” I asked.

Jane smiled up at Gabriel and said, “You tell him.”

Gabriel grinned, “It was the feeding. Blood from a person with a curse or a spell placed on them tastes extra rich to a vampire. I knew right away it was a blood curse, so I fed until her blood tasted normal. Essentially, I sucked the curse out of her.”

“I’m sorry I took a little more than a pint, but you shouldn’t feel too lightheaded. It wasn’t much more, and I closed the wound with my blood so you should be fully recovered by now. Especially now that you have access to your wolf’s accelerated healing,” he explained.

I still had one more question, and Gabriel knew what it was.

“Your wolves are quite a bit older than the two of you. I’ve seen it a handful of times over the centuries. Most of your kind get a new wolf when they’re born, but sometimes, for reasons known only to the Moon Goddess at the time, she reincarnates wolves to new people. Typically, this can only be done when the person hosting the wolf is a descendant of the previous host.”

“Why us?” I asked.

Gabriel shrugged lightly, “Usually, it’s a big purpose, which means something important is coming in your lifetimes that you must do. Your wolves are still you; they’ve just lived more lives.”

“You knew the previous wolves that hosted Onan and Kasia?” I asked in astonishment.

“I should say so,” Gabriel chuckled happily, “Kasia was my granddaughter, and Onan was her true mate.”

Jane was smiling happily up at Gabriel, “I guess we are related after all.”

“It seems so,” he replied with a grin.

“Your granddaughter was a wolf?” I asked.

Gabriel continued to pull out exciting new information from his bag of tricks almost daily. He nodded and his eyes glazed over with a faraway look as he explained.

“My daughter mated a wolf, and their daughter, Gwendolyn, had Kasia for her wolf. This was before I was a vampire. I was just a regular human back then. When Kasia would come out for runs, I would run into the woods with her, and we would play.”

“I witnessed her and Onan finding each other for the first time in those woods. That was more than 1,100 years ago. And she, Kasia, witnessed a vampire woman turning me in those same woods.”

Gabriel continued, “And now the two of you need to get into the forest right away. Kasia hasn’t had a run in a very long time, and Onan is impatient to see her again in the flesh.”

Gabriel walked over to the bookcase door and opened it, leading us out of the front door and into the woods about a hundred yards away. He jogged into the forest a few feet and waited with his back to us.

Jane and I stripped and shifted. Usually, a wolf’s first shift was awkward and painful, but she shifted with ease, and I figured it must have something to do with the fact that our wolves were older.

I receded into Onan’s mind as he took over and stretched his long legs. The moment he saw Kasia take over, he ran to her and flung himself against her, the two of them rolling around on the forest floor for a bit before they curled up together and nuzzled each other.

My gaze roamed over Jane’s wolf with Onan’s eyes. She was a snow-white wolf with deep brown eyes, very much like Jane’s. This seemed an impossible combination to me, but who was I to argue with visible evidence? She simply existed this way, and she was beautiful.

It didn’t escape my notice that the two of us were both larger-than-average wolves. Maybe it had something to do with our wolves being ancient.

Gabriel stood waiting nearby, looking up into the tree canopy in the dark. The sun was setting now, and it was darker in the trees.

A random thought crossed my mind that this was one of several times I’d seen Gabriel go into the sun. I guessed that being so ancient and powerful had its perks. He once described it as moderately uncomfortable, but I knew it would burn lesser vampires to ash.

After a time, Kasia got up and loped over to Gabriel to nudge against his leg. He crouched down beside her and put both hands around her face, bending down to put his forehead against hers. They sat there that way, eyes closed, speaking into each other’s minds for about ten minutes before they both looked over at me.

Gabriel said to Onan, “Let’s run!”

Gabriel and Kasia took off running at full speed, and Onan grumbled, “Bloody cheaters,” though he was laughing as he chased them into the forest.

We ran with Gabriel for nearly two hours before I scented the multitude of wolves crossing into our territory. The families and children in our pack were arriving.

Onan let out a howl, calling Kasia and Gabriel to return with him to the house.

When we reached the place where we had left our clothes on the ground, our wolves receded, and Jane and I dressed quickly.

I mind-linked Avery just as we made it home so she could get the bonfire going in the pasture behind the big house and call the ranch hands to dinner.

By the time the vehicles started pulling up in front of the mansion, Jane and I, along with Avery, Angelica, Diane, and Emma, were standing in front of it, ready to welcome them home.