Of course<b>, </bst night wasn’t the only time I felt that strange tug on the mate bond. It had happened a few other times already, and my wolf naively kept thinking that it was Ee back from the dead.


    A ridiculous notion, of course. E was gone, and so was the bond we shared.


    When a mate died<b>, </b>the bond died with them. Everyone knew that. It was one of the fundamentalws of our kind. Mates were connected by the Moon Goddess herself, and when one died, that connection was severed.


    The surviving mate might feel phantom pains for a while–echoes of what used to be. But actual bond sensations? Weeks after the death?


    That didn’t happen.


    Unless something was seriously wrong with me.


    I’d heard stories about Alphas who went mad after losing their mates. Who started seeing their dead partners everywhere, imagining conversations, feeling connections that weren’t there. It was rare, but it happened. The grief and the severed bond could do strange things to a wolf’s mind.


    Was that what was happening to me? Was I losing my grip on reality because I couldn’t ept that E was gone?


    My jaw clenched. That had to be it. There was no other exnation that made sense. Ste wasn’t E. She couldn’t be. Reincarnation wasn’t real, and even if it was, what were the odds that my dead wife woulde back looking almost exactly the same and wind up working in my house as my son’s nanny?


    No. I was just grieving and stressed and probably not sleeping enough, and my mind was ying tricks on me.


    But Goddess, those tricks felt real.


    Soon, I watched as the event organizers began tallying up the final donation totals. Various contestants were called up to the stage to receive recognition for their fundraising efforts. When they called Ste and Anya’s names as one of the top three fundraisers, the room erupted into apuse.


    Ste stepped up onto the stage, and even from across the room, I could see the smile on her face as she epted the award with her friend. Her smile was radiant, like the sun peeking through the clouds on an overcast day.


    The kind of smile E used to give me when she was truly happy.


    And just like that, the sensation hit me again.


    The mate bond red in my chest like a me flickering to life. <fn8355> Chapters first released on find?novel</fn8355>


    My wolf howled, surging forward so hard that I had to grip the table next to me to keep from running to her. For a second, I was absolutely convinced that E was standing on that stage. Not Ste. E.


    My E.


    The woman I loved.


    Goddess, I really was losing my mind, wasn’t I?


    With trembling fingers, I pulled out my phone and scrolled through my contacts until I found Dr. Evelyn’s number. I slipped out


    of the room while the event wrapped up and dialed her office, tapping my foot as I waited.


    “Dr. Evelyn’s office,” her secretary’s voice said on the other end.


    “It’s Alpha Alexander. I need to make an appointment with the doctor,” I said quickly.


    There was a pause and the sound of a keyboard tapping, then: “Alrighty. And what’s your reason for visiting?”


    I hesitated, unsure of what to say. What was my reason for visiting? I felt healthy enough, albeit tired, but… Mentally, I felt like a wreck. But <b>I </b>couldn’t tell the secretary that. How could I even begin to exin that I had begun to see my dead wife’s face in the face of another and feel a mate bond that should have been fully severed?


    Finally, I managed, “I just need to see her.”


    The secretary paused again, but finally made the appointment and ended the call. I loosed a shaky breath as I slipped my phone back into my pocket and turned back toward the event, where E was stepping out into the hall with her friend.


    No…


    Not E.


    She looked at me… And it was Ste. The nanny. Not my dead wife.


    “Goddess help me,” I whispered, looking away before I could stare for too long. “I really have gone insane.”


    X