My Lycan Mate of Suicide Forest

Music Recommendation for this chapter: Ocie Elliott "Without You"

"Dance with me," Graeme took her hand and raised it to his shoulder, bringing her nearer to him with a hand on her waist. And then she was consumed by those dark, intense eyes of his and the warmth that cloaked her.

August saw Indigo trade her violin for a guitar and then the band started a slower song. Like all the others, this song was one she had not heard played before. These were not melodies that were familiar to anyone living outside this pack. They were unique to this place and to these people, and in that way they were like a living soundtrack for their lives which were special and hidden and sacred.

August wasn't sure if it was the chords she felt piercing and vibrating her chest or if it was this connection with the male in front of her and the way his entire being sang to hers that made her body light from within. With one hand on her waist and one hand holding her own, Graeme guided her. Other mated couples were dancing around them as well, each pair in their own little universe. Each existing solely for the other.

Indigo's voice started, rich and resonant and breathy in places, lilting along with the chords. "I want to know you," she sang and gazed out over the heads of those dancing as the light from the chandeliers sparkled in her eyes, "you want to know me."

The male in the band joined her, his voice the perfect companion to hers. "I want to hold you, honey," he sang between the plucking of strings, "You want to hold me."

"They're mates," August smiled and closed her eyes, feeling their lyrics. She could hear it in their voices, in the way they rose and fell and danced with each other. They were speaking to each other.

"Can't you see," Indigo's voice joined her mate's in the chorus, and without watching them, August could feel the way the male's head angled toward Indigo's to catch her eyes as they sang, "I need you."

"This music," August spoke softly to Graeme, seeing the music behind her eyes now—the golden waves that passed over them all in this room. "Do you feel that?" she asked him.

He watched her light up in his arms with her eyes closed listening, and he bowed closer to her warmth.

"Close your eyes," she whispered to have him obey, "I'm not talking about just us and how we react to the music. Listen to how their voices start and run along the length of their throat, vibrating in a way that's unique to each of them. If you listen, you can actually see them just by how the sound moves along their bodies. Can you see it... even in this area?" she asked, taking her hand from him and running it along his nose and cheeks. "You can feel it coming through them."

Without warning, he suddenly felt or heard or saw what she was describing--just not with his eyes. He was somehow seeing it, feeling it, with his body. The voices of the singers lit, vibrating against the membranes in their throats and mouths and even up into the rest of their physical being, which somehow shaped the sounds of their voices that were then shared in waves on the air.

Was this what the Veiled was like for August? Was he feeling it through her? It was like an entirely new sense that was illuminated through his connection with her, as if she were sharing it with him. He could feel their mate bond as deep and profound as always, but now it was like it was branching out, connecting to the bodies around them in a rhythm that united them all.

"And the guitar strings," she continued explaining this sensation, "how each string is its own but also more than that when united with the others in each chord…. just like us—our bodies swaying with it feeling it move through us, extending out into the room and everyone in it in waves, moving through everyone and rippling back, uniting us all," she sighed, breathless and mesmerized by the feeling she was trying to communicate to him.

Indigo's voice lilted with the male's in harmony: "Can't you see? I need you…"

Graeme felt the music run up his legs and over his knees before the abrupt stop of a high note hit him in the chest, and he clutched August tighter, bowing closer to her as the darkness lit behind his eyes with the golden music she was describing. Softer notes from Indigo's guitar continued playing like a palimpsest in the background that danced across his shoulders and neck before lifting away from him to whirl in the air like a wing taking flight. It was beautiful—this Veiled vision his mate was able to share with him.

"It's like the negative space, the distance, that appears to be between all of us is an illusion," he spoke deep and quiet for only her to hear, "We are the strings and it just takes the right chord to feel us all moving together."

"You feel it," August smiled, her eyes still closed as Graeme's opened to study her now in amazement, seeing her in an entirely new way. She was a portal to this intimate connection with his pack. He looked at her now, he felt her, and in so doing he could feel them all. She was more of a Luna than he ever knew it was possible for anyone to be.

And safely enfolded within her was a life they had created together—one that further united them all.

His bottom lip dropped with the full force of this revelation. He knew all of these things before, but he had not felt them this deeply. He had not seen what she could see or felt the chords that connected every member of his pack the way she could feel them.

"August," he whispered.

His voice sounded different, like it was choked with emotion, and she opened her eyes to meet his. They stopped dancing. The music continued, but between the two of them time had ceased.

Graeme reached to lift the mask from her face, removing his own as well, and for several moments all that she was aware of was the breath shared between them softly lifting her chest and causing her lips to tremble at the well of tears in her mate's eyes. This was the pulse of existence between them. They were at the center of it.

And then he slowly closed the distance between them—so slowly, her breath caught anticipating his lips on hers that when she finally felt them, it was like an explosion of sensation. And like an explosion, the kiss that began slow and then deepened rushed with shared force through the bodies of everyone in the pack.. They all felt it, all heads turning in their vicinity to behold the Alpha and Luna at their center.