Arthur's POV
I sat on a couch in my mate's home, with my arm around her delicate shoulders. Any amount of contact between us pleased me. I could not quite keep the smile off my face.
Her house was, of course, rather small, and I imagined ordinary, but I had never spent enough time in such a place to have a frame of reference. The entire house could fit in any number of rooms in the palace where I had grown up.
Still, I liked it. It had a homey feel, and best of all it smelled like her. My wolf had never been so contented in my life. He would be happy to live here.
Of course, my apartments at the palace would smell like her soon enough.
"That woman is a plague, I swear," her friend Kayla said, vibrating with her agitation. She was rather a bit too energetic, but she clearly cared for my mate so I liked her instantly. And she could only be favourably compared to the lunas of the court.
Anne’s friend Rory seemed to temper Kayla a bit, but that wasn’t the reason I was glad he was already mated. Unmated childhood friends of the opposite sex almost always came back to bite mates in the tail later. It was obvious upon meeting the male that he was completely devoted to Kayla, as mates should be, so I was able to relax.
I had always had a rather traditional view of mates. My parents were deeply in love, and it was good to see that Anne came from a similar background. Her clear willingness to be my partner was a priceless treasure, and I could not be more grateful. Especially when I remembered most of the females rushing around the court.
Every day, all day was exhausting drama.
I was pleased that my beautiful mate would not willingly be sucked into that nonsense. I already imagined that she might temper the storm, just a bit. Watching her grow into her potential would be amazing.
She was speaking with her friend and while she tolerated Kayla's silliness, she simply rode the wave without getting too wet.
She was ideal.
{Yes, our mate is exceptional,} my wolf agreed.
{You're back,} I commented dryly.
{Yes, I still can't find her yet.} He growled, disgruntled, as his patience was getting close to the end. He would be much happier when he found Maria and they could run together beyond our dreams. Until he did, it would be constant complaints and criticisms.
{I'm sure you'll find her soon,} I said soothingly. He was a powerful wolf.
{You make it sound so easy, because your simple four-dimensional human mind cannot comprehend the vastness of the realm of wolves. If you would just mark her it would be infinitely easier for us both.}
{She won't be happy if we push her. You know that as well as I do.}
{You think she won't be happy and you're correct, because happiness is too mild a word. She'll be ecstatic.}
I frowned. {You'll scare her away from us.}
{You know nothing of female wolves. How do you think she's feeling? She can't find me either. It's only you humans who are over-complicating matters.}
{It won’t be for long.}
{I want to see her as a wolf at least. Then at least I’ll recognize more than just her scent. We should go for a run together.}
{Maybe. And only if she wants.}
{She will.}
My wolf's confidence rubbed off on me. Everything would work out in the end.
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We hung out for a couple of hours with her friends and it was quite pleasant. Perhaps she had a point about how there were more reasonable people in the world, but they simply did not congregate at the top of the packs where I might readily see them.
It may just be that there was some facet of werewolf nature that craved power, and those most severely afflicted fought the hardest to get it.
Or perhaps it was our human nature at work within us. We were part primate after all. Monkeys react to improving social status like drug addicts searching for their next hit. I doubted we were much better.
I don't know what that said about me since I was one step away from the top of the entire teetering structure.
"We should get going, Kayla," Rory commented. I liked how blasé he was, as it was like a breath of fresh air after all the aggressive alphas I dealt with day after day. There were tolerable exceptions like Brandon, but they were few and far between.
It would be convenient if I could promote Rory to the status of alpha. Unfortunately things did not work like that.
Perhaps maintaining a system in which leaders largely were decided upon by their ability to effectively inflict violence on the other candidates was not the best way to maintain a peaceful kingdom. Flawed though my kingdom was, it was nearly impossible to amend the system. If I tried to change things the alphas would almost certainly lead a civil war that would likely devolve further into violent anarchy. Such chaos was certain to harm the weakest members of our society.
It seemed an irresolvable problem.
I was brought out of my musings by Anne's friend's upbeat voice.
"Yeah, we should get going. You two just found each other and I'll bet you want some time alone," Kayla said suggestively with a wink.
Anne blushed, and it was endearingly cute. You know you are going to adore your mate before you meet her, but you do not really understand what it is going to be until you finally experience it. I could not have chosen better if I had tried to pick for myself.
It proved the old wisdom true: Respect the mate bonds.
My parents had always maintained the rule that I should stay away from unattached females as much as possible, and I had never cared enough about anyone I met to defy them. It was not as if I could not see that many of the ladies around were stunningly gorgeous as my eyes are in perfect working order.
But with each attractive woman who had flaunted herself in front of me, there had always been something missing somewhere deep below the surface of even the most beautiful werewolf.
Now the source of their inadequacy was blazingly obvious. They had all failed to be Anne.
She was still a bit unsure of everything, but every hour we were together she relaxed a bit more. Initially I had feared it was me she objected to, but then I understood she was just afraid of being hurt in the insanity of our world. It made even more sense after meeting her sister.
But, in spite of her misgivings, she had approached me. I had not even noticed she was there, my helmet and the direction of the wind had worked against me to make me completely oblivious to her proximity.
I had dreamed last night that she had simply walked right by me and disappeared. I rode off with a feeling that I had missed the most important thing in my life and woke in a cold sweat.
I had been so relieved to see the walls of her parents' small guest room in that moment.
Anne wiggled out of my grasp and stood up, along with her friends. I did not attempt to stop her even though I didn’t want to let her go.
"I'm really going to miss you," Kayla said, hugging my mate.
"I'm going to miss you, too," Anne responded. I did not like the wistful note in her voice.
"They are welcome to come visit, Anne. And I imagine you'll want them there for our we—" I caught myself before the ding since I recalled from the conversation with her father that she clearly wanted a proper proposal. Once we got back to the palace I would get her a ring and take care of all that, but for now, "Welcoming celebration."
If she noticed my near slip up she did not make an issue of it. I would have to get my mother to set such a party up. It was a good idea either way, a less formal occasion to begin to find her footing.
She gave me an impromptu hug and I felt like all was right in the world, except of course I wanted more as much as my wolf did. Her smiling lips reminded me of how I kissed her the previous night. She was sweet in every way I could imagine.
{Well, you're doing well, I see,} my wolf observed with satisfaction.
{Did you expect anything less?}
Anne and her friend were still speaking of my suggestion. "Seeing the capital like that would be amazing," Kayla gushed.
Rory smiled at his mate.
"Once I get settled in, and I know when everything is I'll let you know," Anne promised.
Kayla made a high pitched sort of squeal. I tried not to flinch at the grating sound. How did she not hurt her own ears?
Rory still looked at her with an adoring expression.
{Perhaps she has already ruined his hearing,} my wolf suggested.
I kept my smile inside, and I watched as she embraced her friends. I did not love when she hugged him, but I ignored the twinge because I knew there was clearly nothing to it.
{I don't like it,} my wolf commented. {I haven't even found her in the realm of wolves yet and he gets to touch her?}
{They're nothing more than friends,} I ignored my own displeasure in an attempt to reassure my wolf.
{You better rub up against her until she only smells like us.}
{I don't think I should do that.}
"See you soon," my mate said, distracting both me and my wolf from our debate. I put my hand on her back, and she leaned into it.
Her friends left. Through the closing door a bunch of reporters and gawkers aimlessly stood, but now that they were well off of private property there wasn’t much more I could do about them without just cause. I had wanted to ease her into my world gently, but it seemed nothing could ever be so easy.
Good thing I already knew she was tough enough to endure the problems that would surely come our way.
I said goodbye to her friends and she glanced at me with those beautiful green gems of hers, set in her delicate face and framed by her sweeping long brown hair.
{At least let me talk to her,} my wolf begged.
{Do you promise to behave?}
I had noticed how relieved and grateful she was when I let her have time and make her own decisions and I wanted more of that. I definitely did not want my wolf getting all overbearing and scaring her off.
{Fine, if that's what it will take to get you to agree. I don't know why you don't trust me.}
{Maybe because I hear what you say to me?}
{I'm only saying what you're surely thinking. I can feel your emotions, human,} he shot back.
Well, he was not entirely wrong, but I did not entirely trust him not to do any number of things. Surely she would understand, but...
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