Mate Me in Moonlight

Chapter 133

POV: Adeline

A month later, almost to the day, I heard the howl at the border.

I was in the garden—my garden now, finally taking shape after weeks of planning and planting. Dirt under my fingernails, sun on my back, the simple satisfaction of watching things grow. The herbs were thriving. The vegetables were coming in. Small green promises of future harvest.

But the howl stopped me mid-motion, my hands frozen in the soil.

Freya's howl. I'd know it anywhere.

I was running before I consciously decided to move. Through the garden, past the main house, down the path toward the eastern border. My heart pounded—part excitement, part anxiety. Was she okay? Had things worked out? Was she staying or just visiting before leaving permanently?

Then I saw her.

Standing at the border marker, pack on her back, grinning like the sun itself. Alive. Whole. Glowing.

We collided in a hug that nearly knocked us both over. I grabbed her tight, breathing in the familiar scent of her—pine and smoke and home, though underneath there was something new. Marcus's scent, woven into hers like a promise.

"You're back," I said into her shoulder.

"I'm back." She squeezed harder. "I'm staying. He's coming here. It's—I never thought—"

I pulled back to look at her face. She was radiant. There was no other word for it. Her eyes were bright, her smile wider than I'd ever seen, her entire being practically vibrating with happiness.

"I told you," I said, grinning so hard my face hurt.

"I know, I know, you told me." She laughed, shaking her head. "You were so smug about the mate bond and I was so skeptical and now look at me. I'm that wolf. The one who can't stop talking about her mate."

"Tell me everything."

We walked back toward the territory together, and Freya talked. About Marcus's pack—good wolves, strong traditions, but smaller than Willow Ridge. About how they'd welcomed her cautiously at first, then with genuine warmth when they saw how their Beta looked at her. About exploring his territory and meeting his family and slowly realizing this wasn't just attraction or proximity or the novelty of the mate bond.

It was real.

"He's coming here?" I asked.

"In a week." Freya's smile somehow got wider. "His Alpha's giving him a choice—stay there as Beta, or come here and start new. Marcus chose here. Chose me. Chose..." She gestured to the territory spreading around us. "This."

"That's a big choice. Leaving his pack, his position—"

"I know." Her voice went soft. "I offered to go there. To be the one who left. But he said he'd been Beta for five years and he was ready for something different. And his second is more than capable of stepping up." She looked at me, suddenly vulnerable. "Is it okay? Him coming here? I know we should have asked Aiden first, but—"

"It's more than okay," I interrupted. "We can always use good wolves. And if he's your mate—" I squeezed her arm. "Then he's family."

Her eyes got suspiciously bright. "Thank you."

"You don't need to thank me for being happy that you're happy."

"Still." She wiped at her eyes. "This whole month, I kept thinking about you. About how you found Aiden after everything you'd been through. How you didn't let the rejections make you give up on the possibility of love. I kept thinking—if Adeline could survive five rejections and still open her heart, I can take a chance on one mate bond."

My throat tightened. "You deserve this."

"So do you," she said firmly. "Look at us. Both mated. Both happy. Both building futures we never thought we'd have."

I thought about a year ago. About who I'd been when I first stumbled into Willow Ridge—broken, desperate, running from my fifth rejection. About who Freya had been—strong but alone, throwing herself into service because she had nothing else.

Now we both had mates. Both had futures. Both had love that had seemed impossible until it wasn't.

"Now we're both fools in love," I said.

Freya grinned. "Best kind of fool."

We walked through the territory, and I showed her what had changed in the month she'd been gone. The completed eastern cabins. The new training grounds. My garden, which made her laugh with delight because of course I'd started growing things.

"Very domestic," she teased. "What's next, taking up knitting?"

"Don't tempt me."

She laughed, that familiar sarcastic warmth I'd missed so much. Having her back felt like a piece of myself I hadn't known was missing had been returned.

"I met someone," she said suddenly, turning serious. "At Marcus's pack. An elder wolf who'd lost her mate twenty years ago."

I waited.

"She told me something. She said the mate bond doesn't make you whole—it gives you a partner to be whole with. That the difference matters."

"She's right," I said softly, thinking of Aiden. How he hadn't fixed me. How I'd done that work myself. But how having him beside me had made the healing possible in a way it might not have been alone.

"I spent so long thinking I didn't need anyone," Freya continued. "That being strong meant being independent. But that's not strength. That's just fear wearing a different face."

"When did you get so wise?"

"I've been spending time with you. It was bound to happen eventually."

I shoved her lightly. She shoved back. We were grinning like idiots.

"Marcus is going to love it here," I said with certainty. "And we're going to love having him."

"You haven't even met him properly."

"I met him enough to know he looks at you like you're his whole world. That's all I need to know."

Freya's smile went soft. "He does, doesn't he?"

"He does."

We reached the main house, where I could see Aiden on the porch, clearly having heard our approach. He raised a hand in greeting, his smile warm and welcoming.

Home. Pack. Family.

The circle was widening. Love was multiplying. What had started as just me and Aiden—two broken wolves finding healing together—had grown to include Freya and now Marcus. Soon there would be others. Pups, maybe. New pack members. An ever-expanding web of connection and care.

That's what packs were supposed to be. Not just survival units. Not just defensive structures. But families built through choice and love and the stubborn refusal to be alone.

"I'm glad you're back," I said.

"Me too." Freya bumped my shoulder. "Now let's go tell Aiden we're getting a new pack member and I need help building a cabin for me and my mate."

"Demanding already."

"That's what best friends are for."

We walked up to the main house together, and I thought: this is what we fought for. Not just peace. Not just safety. But this—the ability to build families. To find love. To expand the circle until it included everyone who needed a home.

Freya was back. Marcus was coming. The pack was growing.

And I'd never been happier.