Chapter Three

As Evan and Aletris walked toward Alpha Bernard’s front door after their date, he was smiling, but he wasn’t sure he was really smiling on the inside. Damn Auden, putting soulmate thoughts in his head.

Mentally shaking himself out of the thoughts of finding his soulmate, he gave Tris’s hand a squeeze. They’d decided to mate and were going to the alpha’s for his blessing. If he was in his home pack, he’d have done the same thing with Joss. While a wolf could mate anyone he or she wanted, having the alpha’s blessing was imperative if one wanted to stay in one’s pack and not get kicked out. Tris was adamant that she wanted to remain in Virginia with her home pack, and that was something Evan wasn’t crazy about—but for her, for their future—he was willing to stay.

Evan knocked on the alpha’s front door and heard his answering, “Come in,” booming from somewhere inside. Evan hadn’t ever been inside the large trailer in the center of the woods where the pack’s territory was, located far from the main street and the humans who lived and worked there. Opening the door, Evan followed Tris into the house and to the back where Bernard’s office was.

The male was all alone in the small office that was done up in neutrals with dark wood furniture. He wasn’t mated and had never had kids, instead dedicating his whole adult life to being alpha and nothing else. Lean and tall, he had some visible scars from battles and a hard glare that said he wasn’t ever really in the mood for anything that wasn’t serious.

In four months, Evan didn’t think he’d seen the male crack a smile once.

Alpha Bernard put down the pen he was using and looked at them. “I take it the date went well?”

“It did,” Evan said. He noticed the alpha didn’t suggest they sit and make themselves comfortable, so he didn’t take one of the chairs in front of the desk. “We’ve decided to get mated, and we wanted to get your blessing.”

A tiny smile, just a lift of one corner of his mouth, appeared and he nodded. “That’s fine. You’re staying in our pack.”

It wasn’t a question.

“Yes,” Evan said. “Tris would like to live here, so I’d like to transfer my pack membership here.”

Bernard opened a spiral-bound calendar and ran his finger across the page. When he stopped toward the bottom of the September page, he said, “We can perform the mating ceremony and pack initiation on the night of the full moon. It’s a month away, but that’s plenty of time to get things ready. Will you also be marrying?” His mouth turned down as if he found the idea of marriage distasteful.

“We’d like to, yes.”

“That you’ll have to do on your own. In the meantime, come by tomorrow morning, and we’ll get the ball rolling for the ceremonies.”

“Okay, thank you,” Evan said.

Tris nodded. “Thanks.”

“Congratulations. Shut my office door on your way out.”

They left, closing the door behind them, and hurried from the RV.

“I’m glad that’s over,” Evan said.

“Me too. I was nervous.”

“I was too.” Even though he’d been sure the alpha would approve of their mating, there had been a part of him that wasn’t one hundred percent convinced.

They returned to her uncle’s double-wide trailer, where Tris had lived since she was fifteen when her parents died. At the door, he kissed her—their first real kiss. But it left Evan with more questions than he had answers.

He said goodbye to Tris. “I’ll meet you here at seven, and we can walk over to the alpha’s together.”

“Okay, good night, Evan.”

“Sweet dreams, Tris.”

There was a lump in his stomach that he couldn’t shake as he walked to his trailer.

Damn Auden. Evan was perfectly happy with Tris. She was sweet and kind and pretty. He didn’t love her, but choosing a mate wasn’t about love to start with—it would grow in time. Now that they were able to see each other romantically, he knew his feelings would grow for her and they’d be in love in no time.

That’s what he’d always pictured. But he’d also hoped that the female he chose as his mate would want him as much as he wanted her, that she’d be as anxious to find him as he was her, and they’d just know they were meant to be together.

Which was, he realized, exactly what happened when soulmates met.

Instant connection. Happy wolf. Early love.

He didn’t have that with Tris because she wasn’t his soulmate. He’d said it didn’t matter, but maybe it really did? Maybe he was shortchanging himself by going through with the mating to Tris.

What he wanted to do was call his brother and tell him he was an ass, but he knew if he did that, Auden would want to tell him to lean into those feelings and not go through with the mating. He’d recommend waiting for his soulmate, not mating someone he didn’t love.

So he wasn’t going to call Auden.

In fact, he wasn’t going to do anything but go to bed and then see the alpha in the morning. He and his wolf would be in love with Tris in time, and then everything would be as it should be.

Happily ever after, non-soulmate style.