I bundled some clothes into my basket and met up with Harper and Larkin, who were perusing through the junior's section. Larkin was practically shining as she showed me some of the outfits she'd picked out.
“Those will look so nice,” I said. “And now you won't get weird stares.”
Larkin nodded, and we took our clothes up to the register. I had a feeling Kaden was going to roll his eyes when he saw what it all added up to, but that only made me grin wider as I swiped his card, paying for all of our clothes at once.
Once we walked out, Larkin grabbed hold of my wrist and pulled me to another store—a bookstore. I smiled, remembering Larkin's love of books.
“I might as well check out the thriller section,” Harper said as she held the door open for Stella and Mira.
It was a small, locally-owned bookstore, and the setting was much more intimate than the huge clothing store had been. I followed Larkin to the romance section, with Mira and Stella trailing behind us.
Larkin ran a nonstop commentary as she showed me some of the books she already owned, and then gasped several times as she spotted new ones. To my surprise, Stella stepped up beside us and started giggling with Larkin.
“I love the manchest ones,” she said.
“I know, right?” Larkin said, her eyes glimmering. “They're the best.”
I stepped back with Mira as Stella and Larkin started speaking more in depth about the books. I glanced over at her to see Mira smiling slightly.
"What is it?" I asked.
“They don't have their mates yet. Someday they'll see that romance isn't like what's in the books.”
It was only when I heard the tone in her voice that I realized her smile was a little sad.
I rested my hand on her arm in sympathy. “Once I find a way to get rid of the mate bond between Jordan and me, we'll find a way to remove yours, as well. That way, you can be with your true mate, and then maybe it'll be a little more like what you've read about in the books."
Mira looked at me sharply, her cheeks flushed. “Why would I want the mate bond removed?"
I hesitated, worried I'd overstepped my bounds. “I just thought maybe there was something between you and Wesley. Something more like what Kaden and I have.”
“I had a childhood crush on Wesley. No more, no less.” Her voice shook, and she turned away and walked straight out of the store.
Shit. How had I misread that so completely? I thought that I'd seen something—no, I'd definitely seen something between them when they'd sat by the lake. But Mira wasn't ready to talk about it, and I wasn't sure if she even knew how she felt. There was clearly something more that was going on.
I sighed and checked to make sure that Stella and Larkin were still gushing over the romance books before following Mira out. She hadn't wandered far, leaning against the wall outside of the bookstore.
I leaned against the wall next to her. “I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to stir up trouble. I thought…” I shook my head and trailed off. "But obviously I was wrong."
“I'm also sorry,” Mira said, looking down at her feet. “I shouldn't have gotten upset at you for that. I know you just want the best for me, but that's not Wesley. The thing is…” She took a deep breath, and then finally looked up at me. “I'm pregnant with Aiden's child. I don't want to have the mate bond removed only to find out that I'm supposed to be mated to someone else when we already have this tie between us. What would happen to our baby?”
I drew in a breath. That was the last thing I'd expected to hear today. “I understand,” I said after a few heartbeats of silence. “But how did you get pregnant? The Pisces heat is before the summer Convergence."
Mira flushed again. “I went into heat at the first full moon after the Convergence, just like you did. Since it was outside of the Pisces time frame, the midwives tell me I'm going to have the baby early.” Her eyes were huge in her face, and there was genuine fear in them. “I'm so nervous about that. I know that giving birth early can be bad. I want nothing more than for this baby to be healthy and happy.”
I pulled Mira against my chest. I hated seeing her like this. She was supposed to be always smiling, strong, and carefree, like when we were kids. “Everything is going to be all right."
“Promise?” she asked.
“I promise,” I said. “You're strong, and so is your baby. You're both going to be fine.”
Mira sniffled and pulled back, swiping at her face to clear it of any tears. Then the door opened, and everyone piled out. Unsurprisingly, Larkin had a bag of books that looked to be as full as she could make it.
“I'm hungry,” Stella said as she stopped in front of us. “Anyone else?”
We all nodded, and walked a little bit further down. There was a French takeout restaurant that we'd passed by on the way, wafting incredible smells out of their front door, and we stopped inside to grab some lunch. Once we'd all ordered, I looked outside. I wasn't quite ready to go back to the real world just yet, and it was a beautiful fall day. Cool, crisp, but not raining either.
“Let's go to High Park and have a picnic,” I suggested. It was only a couple blocks to the park, and after that, only a shorter distance to the spot where we practiced magic.
Everyone nodded their agreement, and we took our steaming hot food over to the park. The girls chattered the entire time about things they saw, and then we sat down and began digging into our food.
I was just raising my second bite to my mouth when a twig snapped, much too big and much too close for it to be anything small. All of our heads swiveled toward the sound, and the next moment, a huge blur burst out of the brush. A pale-colored wolf.
We were all up and ready to fight in an instant. Stella, Harper, and I all shifted, our clothes shredding and falling to the ground, while Mira stayed human and stepped in front of Larkin. The pale shifter snarled, crouching down into a defensive position as we all reacted to the situation quickly. This shifter clearly didn't have good intentions and had wanted to catch us off guard.
It wasn't a second too soon. Several other wolves burst into the secluded clearing, snarling and snapping, and one of them let out a loud roar that made me want to run for my life. Leos, I thought wildly, as my companions started running away in a panic. The lion roar of the Leos was hard to resist, but Larkin muttered a few words and threw up a shield around my friends. They stopped and shook their heads, regaining control of themselves.
I was the only one who'd managed to fight off the roar, and I dug my claws into the dirt to steady myself. The Leo wolves surrounded me, my companions too far away now to help, but I snarled and faced the enemy down.
Capture them alive if you can, I told Harper and Stella through our pack bond. If we could get these Leos in custody, they might be able to tell us more of what their pack and the Sun Witches were doing—and no doubt they'd be easier to break than Jordan.
The Leos lunged for me, but I teleported away, unhindered by the lack of moonlight even in my wolf body. A few of them looked confused but then chased after me, but others went for my friends. Including Mira.
The largest wolf leaped for her, fangs bared, and I teleported in front of her just before he sank his canines into her flesh. Pain lanced through my side and I howled, then immediately shifted back and hit the wolf with a moonbeam burst, knocking him back.