Chapter 988

"You're a boy, Mark," Pippa says, soft and sad. He raises his head enough to see her looking down at her baby, tears clinging to her lashes, threatening to fall. “I – I already have one child, I don't need another. I'm sorry - I'm being cruel but..." she takes a deep breath and raises her eyes to his, her mouth trembling a little. "I don't accept this bond, Mark. I - I can't. It's too hard - I have an Alpha I very much like, and he...I need to concentrate on that relationship before it all collapses before me. I'm sorry. I...I'm very sorry to cause you pain, but no."

She turns sharply, moving swiftly out of the alcove and back down the hall towards her room, her head tucked low as she goes.

Mark watches her until he can't see her anymore, his heart aching to see her go, his wolf howling for her to come back. But even as his wolf howls and nips and scratches him internally, urging him to go after her, Mark keeps his place.

After all, he knows better than to press a lady when she says no.

And it's not that he's given up... he just...needs time to think. After all, not accepting the bond is not precisely the same as a rejection, is it? Even if it is not a fantastic start.

No, Mark sighs, thinking that even if it pains him, it may be best to just give Pippa what she needs and asks for right now, even if that is for him to step away and give her space. Because she is his mate, and what she needs is now, incontrovertibly, his top priority.

Mark's wolf grumbles, discontent as he pushes up from the wall and begins to walk away in the other direction, his head hanging low. But he clenches a fist as he goes, ready, for the first time, for some big changes in his life.

I groan a little, nuzzling closer to Jackson's bare skin, wanting desperately to go back to sleep. Because I'm tired - and I was having just the best dream, which was mostly just a rehashing of what happened after Jackson laid me back on that couch in the little dining room, and slipped his hands down over my hips...

I smile, remembering it, sighing happily and turning my face over on his chest, wanting to go back to all of that...

But my eyes fly open when I realize that my wolf is standing very still in my soul. Just...staring.

At it.

What, she whispers, her eyes wide. What...the hell is that...

I gasp, sitting up straight, instantly awake and starting to pant with fear because...

Because what the hell is that!? That... that new blue line in my soul...leading off to...

Oh my god.

Oh my god.

It's...it's a fucking bond...

My mind begins to race as my wolf tosses her nose back and howls in fear, turning hastily away from the new bond, her feet scrabbling for purchase in my soul as she sprints away from it sprints far away -

getting as far as she can as fast as possible

Because how the fuck did this happen!?

I smack my hand across my mouth, horrified. A new bond, a new...mate!? Fucking - how!?

My mind instantly flashes through memories -

Jesse waking up in the middle of the night wreathed in shadows -

Because Midnight found him in the night, but he couldn't see her, but it developednoveldrama

A bond, a mating bond became apparent between them even if he hadn't seen her yet -

My head spins around, looking frantically -

But Jackson is still beneath me, thankfully sleeping peacefully through my panic. I slam down on the bond between us, not wanting him to wake, because this is going to kill him -

And Marigold, there, in her little tiny bed in the corner – my little girl sob against my hand, because

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I can't handle this -

So many changes, so fast! And now another fucking bond - another fucking

mate!? And a shadowed one, like Midnight!?

What the hell is my grandmother trying to do to me here!?