Thank you to imagination101 for the cover picture! It's awesome!

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I heard him coming back to the room. Maybe he was coming back to repent and beg forgiveness for his transgressions, but knowing Mason, that wasn't it. He felt his ultimatum was justified. I couldn't blame him. He'd been beating back the recruits, who dared to hit on me when he wasn't around, for years and I knew he was tired of it.

I was surprised that he was willing to put up with so much for me. I knew what he had been like before I met him, he could probably just as easily return to his bachelor life. When the door opened, I didn't bother looking over. I knew who it was. I scented him as soon as he opened the door.

"We need to talk," he grumbled. In the whole twenty minutes he had been away he'd changed his mind? Sounded like something he would do.

"Did you come to give me more conditions?" My voice sounded hollower than I expected it to be. I was sad and it showed through in my voice.

He sighed and walked over to the bed without saying anything else. He grabbed me by my ankle and dragged me to him. "Sit up," he said gently. There was no order this time. It was just a request. "Please." I knew he added that as an afterthought.

I did as he asked, but I didn't look at him. It wasn't until I sat up that gravity took a hold of any extra moisture in my eyes. I quickly wiped any tears away before they could even fall. He gently grabbed both sides of my face, giving me no options but to look at him.

"I love you."

I couldn't bring myself to say anything back to him. I didn't want to speak. I just wanted him to leave me alone.

He sighed. "Do you know how hard it is to let you walk around the territory knowing that you aren't mated to me? At any second one of those runts could snap and come after you because you're appealing."

"You wouldn't be trying to get rid of me if I were appealing." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"I'm not trying to get rid of you." He shook his head. "You can't be around here unmated. I've let this go on for too long and I can't just let it go anymore."

"I don't want to leave."

"Our mate bond won't be like what Roger did to you. It'll be natural."

I leaned forward and rested my head on his shoulder. "I'm scared."

He wrapped his arms around me and rocked me side to side. "You shouldn't be afraid of this. A mating bond is a good thing. It's not supposed to be scary."

"If I do this, then I want us to try."

I felt him tense up. "It's never been done before." This topic was always going to make him uncomfortable. I just wanted to try.

"Ever?"

He shrugged. "Finn said there was one bloodline that was able to hold off the change long enough to carry to term, but they were all murdered by a rival pack 30 years ago."

"Is it even possible?"

"I don't think so."

I breathed his scent in deep, it made me feel comfortable. He was where I belonged.

"That's my deal regardless."

He groaned. "Fine, but if this can't happen in the next five years, then we're going to stop."

I snuggled against his chest. "Why five? Why not ten?"

He shook his head. "A decade of miscarriages is too much." He was right. I didn't know if I could handle five years of continuous miscarriages. We'd just have to cross that bridge when we came to it.

"Fine." I tightened my grip around his body. I didn't want him slipping away. "Five years," I pulled him onto the bed and pinned him there, "starting now."

Mason's point of view

Lying in bed, staring at the ceiling I couldn't lie and say I wasn't disappointed. We hadn't completed the mating bond.

I actually wanted the bond. I had practically begged her to let me mark her, but she wouldn't let me. She was traumatized and I understood that, it was just hard. It had been so long, I was ready to just move on.

At least she had agreed to it. Now all I needed to do was put a deadline on it. This needed to happen. I needed this to happen.

I didn't want to leave the pack grounds until she was marked as mine. It didn't feel safe leaving here alone, not when I wasn't here to protect her.

I slipped out of bed without her noticing. I put some shorts and followed Grayson's most recent trail. It led me down to the movie room. The Meyer family and the Muse family were watching a movie. It was quite the family photo. It wasn't as rare as it had been a few years ago, but it was amazing to witness.

Looking at these families made me understand Lex's yearning for a baby. She wanted weekend movie nights with a family of her own.

Grayson's eyes met mine and I motioned for him to follow me.

I went to the kitchen so he could use the snack excuse.

"What?" He grumbled looking through the cabinets.

"I need to take Lex with me." I leaned back against the counter.

Grayson sighed. "Are you sure that's a good idea? You know the Clearwater Pack isn't exactly couple-friendly."

I bobbed my head once. "I can't leave her here."

"You know she's safe," Grayson reasoned. "She's not going to be in any kind of danger here, but if she went with you, you could be laying trouble at her feet."

I looked down at my bare feet. "I just can't." I looked up at my brother; I knew this is what I needed to do to get my mission done without risking injury. If I was in a rush to get back here I'd be sloppy. "I need to have eyes on her."

Grayson pulled out a few things from the pantry. "Fine, but if you run into shit, you send her home. You alpha-order her if you have to. You can't let anything happen to her, not after everything she's been through."

I nodded in agreement. "You know I will."

He took his findings and went out of the room. "I'll call the alpha in the morning and let him know you're bringing her with you. Maybe he'll clear out a few sluts."

With a smirk he was gone. It wasn't a secret that the Clearwater Pack was known for women with low moral standards.

I quietly made my way back to my room without making any noise. I had to pack our bags without her waking up. If I let her pack she'd be at it all night. I didn't plan to spend the rest of the night watching her pack up her bag for our little trip. She'd just complain the whole time anyway.

Once the bags were packed I hopped into bed and woke her up. Trying to get her pregnant was going to be a great excuse to take advantage of her whenever I wanted. She wouldn't protest if I locked her in with me a few times a day.

Lexi's point of view

I left Mason in bed. The sun was starting to rise and I knew he'd be starving when he woke up. We had been in that bedroom all night, hardly sleeping, and hadn't eaten anything. My stomach grumbled at the idea of food.

I followed my nose to the kitchen where Amanda was cooking up a storm. Her eyes whipped towards mine, I wasn't comfortable under that knowing gaze of hers. They all probably knew what I had agreed to. Knowing them, they were taking bets on what would happen first or when any of it would happen.

"You must be hungry," she teased.

I opened my mouth to respond, but I heard a teenager coming towards the kitchen. The light and quick steps told me it was Willow. She peaked in the kitchen like she had expected to sneak up on us. When her golden head and caramel eyes peeked in, she saw us looking at her.

There was no keeping food away from this girl.

"You're supposed to be asleep Willow," her mother chastised. "You have school in a few hours."

She nodded. "I know, but I could smell your cooking. I'm hungry."

Amanda smiled at her daughter. "You're always hungry."

Willow's thin frame walked past me, to the stack of pancakes. She took one and smothered it in jelly before rolling it up and taking a huge bite.

Willow was always hungry but she had always been in shape. There wasn't an ounce of fat that wasn't needed on her body. She ate more than the teenage boys and she was quickly catching up to them in strength and agility.

Brian had determined that she had some traits of a werewolf without actually being one. It made him nervous. We'd all heard of wolves that were born with the ability to shift, they were usually very dangerous. But since she had just turned 17, we weren't as worried about that. He decided that she just carried special genes.

It was amazing how fast the kids had grown. When I first made this place my home they were short little innocent things. Now the boys were taller than my 5-foot-9-inch frame and Willow wasn't far behind.

Willow sat on the counter, waiting for the next pancake to come off the griddle. She usually took every third one made to make sure that the stack would slowly rise for the rest of the group.

She sighed and looked over at my neck. "I thought Uncle Mace was supposed to mark you."

Amanda whipped her daughter on her arm with the spatula she was using. "That's private Willow. You know you're not supposed to be eavesdropping."

Willow rolled her eyes. "I'd only get in trouble if I got caught." She took one of the steaming pancakes off the pile. "Dad was talking about it with Uncle G." She talked about the mating like it was something normal, like someday she'd have her own werewolf husband. She smiled at me, "So when are you guys going to do it." Her eyes were wide. She wanted to know the information before anyone else. Usually she got the information.

She knew how to work everyone in this house. It was cute when she was little, but now that she's a teenager she had to use different tactics. There was no denying that Willow was gorgeous, with her long blonde hair and pretty eyes but she was more than any boy could handle.

"It'll happen when it's supposed to happen." Amanda shook her head at her daughter. "It's not something you grill people about. It's a private matter."

She smiled sweetly at her mother. "I know. I'm just curious. Everyone knows Uncle Mace is dying for the mating to happen. I understand the wait though." She pulled at her mother's collar, revealing Brian's mark on his wife. Willow's face scrunched up. "It looked like it's painful."

To this day Willow still didn't know what happened seven years ago. A deranged old werewolf tried to kidnap her; it wasn't because he wanted a daughter. He thought they had a connection. I threw myself in the mix and came out traumatized. No one would ever tell Willow what happened. If it hadn't happened, I probably would have been mated to Mason years ago.

"The mark doesn't hurt Willow." Amanda laughed beside her daughter. "In fact, it keeps things hot between your father and me."

She screamed bloody murder and covered her ears with her hands. "Gross mom! I don't need to hear that."

Amanda smiled widely and opened her mouth to say something equally traumatizing, but Willow ran out of the room before Amanda could say anything. Amanda knew how to clear a room of children.

Amanda winked at me. "Sometimes she asks too many questions that I'm not ready for her to know the answer to yet."

"She's a smart and curious girl."

She nodded and turned back to what she was doing. "That's what worries me sometimes."

Mason walked into the kitchen, half asleep and half dressed. "What's Will yelling for?"

Amanda peeked at him then smiled at me. "She's just hungry."

He grumbled before taking my hand and leading me out of the kitchen. "I need to tell you something."

"Sounds like the beginning of bad news."

He just shrugged as he led me to the study. With the teenagers sneaking around, anything private needed to be said behind closed doors. They were so sneaky.

"I need you to come with me for a week or so."

I shrugged. "That news needed to be said in the study?"

He shook his head. "This isn't a fun trip we're taking. It's werewolf business. I'm being sent away to take care of a situation for Finn. But I can't leave you here, unmated and unprotected."

"You know I'm perfectly safe here." There was something more to this. Was not mating with him really making him so paranoid about my safety? "Children were raised here. There is a city full of humans twenty miles away," I reasoned. Mason was so tightly wound these days.

"Theoretically I know that, but I just can't bring myself to leave you here. If things get dangerous and I can't protect you myself, then you will come home immediately so I can take care of it without having to worry about you."

"If we were mated would this be easier on you? Would you trust me to be safe here?"

He shrugged. "I can't say for sure."

I didn't want Mason to be distracted while he was out looking for someone for Finn. I wanted him to focus. If I had to be there to ease his worries over me, I'd go with him.

I nodded once. "When do we have to leave?"

He looked down at his feet for a moment. "In a few hours."

I lifted his head with my finger. "Hours?" He nodded with a cringe. "You couldn't have mentioned it earlier?"

He looked like he was trapped in a corner about to be eaten. Some day he might put himself there again. "Grayson told me about it yesterday. Nothing was very smooth yesterday. It just didn't feel like a good time to bring it up."

"How am I supposed to pack for a couple of weeks and get ready in a couple of hours?"

He smiled proudly. "I already packed for us."

That wasn't comforting. I did all the packing. Mason was liable to forget underwear if he's allowed to pack. I wasn't going to go to some weird place without my underwear safely packed.

His smiled dropped at the look on my face. "I remembered everything!"

I nodded and smiled. "I'm sure you did, baby. I'm just going to double check."

He rolled his eyes, but followed me up the stairs. We'd just have to grab a quick bite when we were on our way.

When I went through my bags, I was impressed. He had remembered everything that I usually liked to pack. All I'd have to do is pack a few toiletries and I'd be ready to go.

By the time we were both dressed and ready to go, everyone in the house was awake.

We had breakfast with them before Grayson dropped Mason and me off at the airport.

Getting on a plane wasn't a big deal anymore. They used to scare the living daylights out of me, but I had gotten over that a few years into being a werewolf. We visited the head alpha's house at least once a year. It was usually a game for us, but I wasn't feeling like playing it with him today. I just wanted him to keep his hands off of me.

I waited for Mason on the plane since I knew that Grayson probably had something to tell to his brother before he left. I wasn't left waiting long.

Once Mason was on board, we took off. I wasn't told where we were going; I just knew I had to be there for Mason.