Chapter 35

“She wanted to get married, and I wanted to in the worst way, but I was a wolf and she was a human, and I knew we couldn’t. I lied to her and told her I was already married to a woman who was an anti-Vietnam War activist who’d been protesting the war in Washington for the last few months. I told her I’d take care of her and the baby. She refused to talk to me from that moment on. I notified Tender Mercies of the possible birth of a Wolf/Human mating, although I fully expected she would keep the child and raise it by herself. I was at a pack leader conference about two weeks before you were due. For some reason, she went into labor early.

“It was a bad breech birth, and she died. I sometimes wondered if she didn’t die of a broken heart as much as the birth. I knew she loved me too. Tender Mercies had been monitoring her situation and took you for adoption. I swear I was ready to raise you myself, I loved her that much, but they never told me where you’d gone. Maybe they knew ho