I snatch her up, and she squeals, an innocent girlish sound I’ve never heard before.
It devolves into soft giggles as my hands cup her ass.
“Look at that,” I whisper. “One little mate bond and she melts.”
She laughs much too sweetly and presses a kiss to my neck.
“Don’t get used to it,” she says.
“I don’t know…seems like the ‘fuck you’ is gone.”
I lick my thumb and rub the imaginary ink off her forehead, and she swats at me as I demonstrate that it comes away clean.
“Shut up or I’m going on a hunger strike,” she sasses.
I smile. There’s my girl.
She doesn’t fight me as I reel her in, pinning her to my chest.
It feels like standing in the sun after spending years in the dark.
I wonder how long it’s been there, lying dormant, bound by my curse.
Days? Months? Years?
Were we orbiting each other all this time? Circling the drain?
When had my wolf decided she was ours?
A part of me feels guilty not knowing. Sick at the thought that we may have never noticed if not for that night in the grove.
Would I have gone an entire lifetime never being able to breathe?
The possibility makes my stomach churn. But every new sensation feels too sweet to let go. So instead of trying to shrug it off, I let it run its course.
I let the feeling swallow me, and I hold tight to her to keep from drowning in it.
“I’m sorry,” I say, when it starts to ease.
“For what?” she asks.
“For taking so long.”
She smiles that sweet smile, the one that she only gives to me, and shakes her head.
“Just because you couldn’t feel it, doesn’t mean I didn’t. There’s not a day since that night that I haven’t felt loved by you. Whether you believe me or not, it would have been enough. You were always enough.”
“I know, but?—”
“Elliot.” She cuts me off. “Just be quiet and let me love you.”
* * *
THE E…
Wait…You didn’t think I forgot about the Dr. Pepper, did you?
“Dr. Pepper”
