Love Bound in Ice: 3 (Werewolf Sentinels) by Marisa Chenery Page A

Ketah knew the best laid plans didn’t always work out. But if this did go off without any problem, there was a good chance they could take out the dark wolves in one confrontation. There couldn’t be too many of them if Tanner was still recruiting lone wolves.
    “Should I be worried about my mate’s safety?” Ketah asked.
    “I think it would be a good idea if you claimed her before the meeting is supposed to take place with Tanner,” Edensaw replied. “We’re not sure what this new pack leader has planned.”
    Ketah sighed. “That’s going to be a bit of a problem. Haven is still keeping me emotionally at arm’s length. She doesn’t trust me not to hurt her. If I push I could send her running.”
    Brice spoke up. “Claim her and she won’t be able to run.”
    He shook his head at the pack leader. “That’s what you told Wachei. Eryn did run and didn’t come back to him until the next day.”
    “But she did.”
    “Yeah, I did,” Eryn said. “But the separation anxiety wasn’t a nice experience to go through, especially when I still hadn’t come to grips with Wachei telling me he was a werewolf. If Ketah does this without Haven trusting him, it could do more damage than good.”
    “And I can tell you from watching Eryn suffer from it that I’d avoid putting your mate through it at all costs,” Carson said from where he sat in one of the armchairs. “I thought my sister was losing her mind. Christ, it was even hard for me to accept. Being almost killed by one of those dark wolves and having to have Wachei bite me to turn me to keep me alive brought it into perspective really quick.”
    Edensaw met Ketah’s gaze. “I suggest you tell her what you are, get it out in the open and see how she reacts.”
    “Preferably somewhere she’ll find very hard to run from,” Wachei added.
    Ketah nodded slowly. He would tell Haven tomorrow. And he knew the place to reveal what he was to her. It would either go terribly bad or he’d be surprised and she’d easily accept what he told her. But he had a feeling it would end up being the first option, especially since he’d be rushing Haven into the new life he wanted with her.
    “I’ll do it tomorrow,” he said. “I only hope once Haven learns what she is to me, how I’d never leave and want an eternity with her, she might take it as a good thing. That was the main reason why she doesn’t trust me. She thinks I’ll leave her for someone younger and prettier. Her father did that to her mother, and Haven had to watch how her mom suffered until she died.”
    “We’ll hope it all goes well,” Cassidy said.
    “And I don’t envy you,” Durlach added. “This is the part I’ll dread when I find my mate, having to tell her the truth of what I am.” Kajakti and Capac quickly agreed with their wolf brother.
    Ketah remained sitting on the carpeted floor as he listened with half an ear to the conversation in the room move on to other things. As his granddaughter, Brice and Marta’s daughter, would have said, Ketah was screwed.
    * * * * *
     
    Haven pulled into the parking lot of the park the next morning and spotted the familiar crossover. Her heart sped up at the thought of seeing Ketah again. After their date ended the night before she’d done a lot of serious thinking about him. It hadn’t taken her long to realize she’d already started to fall for him. Being in his arms as he’d made her come had felt right.
    She also wanted to really believe him when he said he wanted a serious relationship with her. He made her want to take that leap of faith with him, to leave all her trust issues behind that would hold her back from having something good with Ketah.
    Haven got out of her SUV, taking her backpack from the passenger seat with her. She headed for the park’s main building and smiled when she saw Ketah push away from the wall and wait for her to join him. Once she did he took her into his arms and kissed her, just about stealing her breath.
    After