Lost Creek Hollow baby please come home.

Harlyn had always determined that in her entire life, she would only ever be with one man.  That man would be her mate, her co-alpha, and the father of every child she would ever bear.  Were she to lose him too soon, she would never take another.  She had devoted herself long before she'd ever even met him, and she'd held true to her personal standards every day of her life - having trysts with only women when her carnal cravings arose and never allowing a single man to touch her, nor ever letting them believe that they could.

It was Mordecai who had changed that.  He had caused her to deviate when she had chosen to follow him instead of the path she'd always walked.  All signs now seemed to be pointing them both towards that goal again, but what were they really?  Alphas yes, but mates?  He had never returned the confession she'd made to him before they'd left the Plateau, and she did often wonder if there was a reason for that.  But he'd followed her here.  He'd stood to lead by her side.  There was obvious affection between them, and yet they now seemed.. stuck.

Harlyn felt the ministrations on her flank and tried to realize that she only felt so pessimistic towards her relationship with Mordecai because of how she wanted this moment with another to move forward.  This moment, which wouldn't last more than a handful of minutes, was so inexplicably difficult to resist that she willed herself to believe it would do no harm to everything else she held dear to lose herself in it.  Harlyn was not an impulsive woman, but she was passionate.  She pressed herself back against Luke's chest.