Chapter 29: Better Than a Text Message

Amelia

It feels so much better to have told somebody else. To have Luna Darlene know, and to understand, and to be willing to support what we are trying to do. And to know that I’m not crazy. Especially to know that I’m not messing up the process by insisting that we delay it.

I can hardly wait to tell Dominic about all of this. I wonder for the millionth time what he is doing right now.

Darlene is watching me, a little smile on her lips, and I realize her eyes are on my throat again. Where my hand is. I jerk my fingers away.

“Please don’t stop on my account,” she says. “I know that it is bringing you comfort. It is the same after the true mark is given as well, but once that happens, it is more like the sensation of togetherness permeates your entire body, your mind, your soul.”

I am sure my eyes are wide as I stare at her. Back go my fingers. “So,” I ask, then hesitate. But she nods at me, to encourage me to finish my question. “So after you are marked, do you feel each other even more?”

“Yes, although I am not sure exactly what you are feeling right now. I don’t know of anyone else who performed this, sort of, interim mark I guess. Nobody else I’ve ever spoken to about it has had the strength to resist fully marking each other.” She gestures to my throat, then touches her own. “When I am apart from Ross, touching his mark does make me feel closer to him, but I never feel truly separated. I always have an awareness of him.”

“Really? Can you tell what he’s thinking? Or doing?”

“Not exactly,” she says, her eyes gazing past me as though she is considering this very deeply. “If we mind-link, I hear his thoughts, but otherwise it is more like I feel his emotions.” She closes her eyes. “Right now, for instance, I can tell that he is very interested in whatever he is doing. It feels like something intriguing has happened.”

That worries me. “Do you think they’ve found the rogues?” I hope they aren’t in trouble. Or in danger.

“No, no, I would know if he was alarmed or if there was something wrong.” She smiles softly, more to herself than to me. “It’s really comforting, to have this constant level of access to each other.”

“Is it because you are Alpha and Luna?” I ask, not daring to hope that such a connection would be possible for Dominic and I.

She tilts her head as though she is considering. “It’s possible that it is stronger for us than for others, but I think that all fated mates have some level of connection like this.” She looks at me, very kindly. “I am sure it will happen for you too. Especially since you have a special mating, meeting on your 18th birthday.”

I feel tears threatening again, at the joyous thought of never feeling truly separated from Dominic, but I brush them away. I’ve humiliated myself enough for one day.

She sees me getting emotional, and in an apparent effort to distract me says, “Well, if you’re finished with lunch, I have one thing I want to do before we get back to work.”

I nod, not speaking since I don’t trust my voice at the moment.

She grins, gets up, and walks over to the kitchenette where she had placed the bag that was delivered by the kitchen staff. She pulls out the item that she had kept in there, and I see it is a pastry box. With a smile, she comes back and sets it on the table, opens the box, and I look within.

It is a small cake, with “Happy Birthday” written in pink icing across the top.

My hands go up to my mouth. “Oh my god!” I say, and stare at her in amazement.

“I wanted to make sure we didn’t let your birthday go by without celebrating!” she says, with a grin. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to sing happy birthday to you, though. I can’t carry a tune in a bucket. I’ll spare you that at least!”

“Thank you!” I say, and the tears that I had tried to suppress stubbornly come anyway, but they are such happy tears.

“You’re welcome for not singing!” she laughs, and I laugh too, and we get back to work while enjoying slabs of delicious chocolate cake. I brought my notes up here with me, so we don’t bother going back down into the conference room.

A few hours later, we have moved over to the sofa, and are sitting on either end of it, our shoes off and our feet tucked underneath us, like we are best girlfriends. I have papers spread all around, on the coffee table, on the floor, on the end table, and she is offering more suggestions about the celebration. One of the lists that I am making is about all of the errands that I realize I will need to do tomorrow. It will be Christmas Eve, so stores will still be open, and I have a lot of orders that I need to place with different vendors. It will only be a week before the celebration, so the more time I can give them the better.

Assuming that the timing is approved. We still have yet to hear back from the leaders.

Just as I am thinking about it, Darlene falls silent in the middle of a sentence, and gets a distant look in her eyes. Oh! Could she possibly be mind-linking with her mate right now?

I wait, staring at her in silence, my pen still held to my notebook where I had been adding to a list.

After a couple of minutes, her eyes refocus on her surroundings, and she looks over at me with a smile. “Ross just told me that Kanen and Janine approve of having the mating celebration on New Year’s Eve, so our plans are right on target. Apparently they’ve made some progress on learning where the rogues have been living, and tonight we’ll have a joint pack meeting so that they can tell everybody what they are planning.”

I stare at her in awe, while she picks back up the notebook that she’s been keeping notes of her own in. I don’t move for a minute, and she looks back up at me. “What?”

I say, “I just, I think it must be so amazing to be able to just talk with him like that.”

She smiles. “Better than a text message, I’ll tell you that. Especially since he said that they don’t have any cell service where they’re at.”

She laughs, and I chuckle a little, but don’t join in appreciating her joke as much as she probably expected. She stops laughing and looks at me sympathetically.

“Soon, Amelia, you’ll be able to do the same thing. Very soon.”

I can’t wait. Well, actually, I can, and I will, as long as it takes. But just a few more days.

“They’re on the way back,” she adds kindly. “You’ll see Dominic again soon.”