“Whenever you are ready. Tonight. Tomorrow. Next week. I can wait.”
“What if I’m never ready?”
Pain flashed across his face, but he forced a smile. “Then I will love you anyway. Bond or no bond. Heat or no heat. You are mine, Gwendolyn Woods. And I am yours. That will not change.”
I believed him. Through the bond, I knew he meant every word.
“Tonight,” I heard myself say. “I’ll do it tonight.”
His eyes flashed red. Bright and hungry and full of love. “You are certain?”
“No. But I’m doing it anyway.” I pressed my hands to his chest, feeling his heart racing under my palms. “Because you’re right. My body has chosen you. I’m done fighting it, done being scared, done pretending this isn’t exactly what I want.”
He kissed me then. Deep and claiming and full of promise.
When he pulled back, his smile was devastating. “You will not regret this, little mate. I swear it.”
“You better be right, wolfboy. Because if I end up in heat and miserable, I’m blaming you.”
“I will accept full responsibility.” He nuzzled into my neck, right where he’d bitten me. Where I could still feel the mark. “And I will ensure your heat is nothing but pleasurable. That is a promise.”
Heat flooded through me at his words. At the images they conjured.
“Stop that,” I muttered. “We’re in the store. We have customers coming in-”
The bell above the door chimed.
I pulled away from Mal, smoothing my hair and trying to look professional. Trying to ignore the knowing smirk on his face.
Tonight. I’d complete the bond tonight.
And then? Then I’d figure out what the hell it meant to be mated to a werewolf king who casually talked about pups and our store and our home as if we’d been married for years instead of days.
One crisis at a time.
First, I had to survive biting my boyfriend. Mate. Husband? Whatever he was.
God, my life had gotten so weird.
But as I caught Mal’s eye across the store and felt the warmth of the bond between us, I couldn’t quite bring myself to regret it.
Weird was good. Weird was mine.
And I was keeping it.
16
— • —
Wen
I closed the front door softly, turning the lock with hands that wouldn’t stop shaking. This was it. Tonight I was going to bite a werewolf and complete the bond that would help manage the heat I was apparently already going into because he’d bitten me first.
No pressure or anything.
Behind me, I could hear Mal moving through the store. Putting away scattered cushions from the reading nook. Straightening books that customers had left on tables. The mundane sounds of closing up shop, except nothing about tonight was mundane.
I took my time with the curtains. Drew each one closed with careful precision. Checked the locks on the windows. Anything to delay the inevitable moment when I’d have to turn around and face what we were about to do.
