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“You left,” he said.

I stared at him in disbelief. “I needed to get home, I told you that. What the hell are you doing in my room? And how did you get in? The house is warded.”

He watched me with a look that was full of accusation, like I was the one in the wrong. “I wish you hadn’t done that,” he said ignoring me.

I couldn’t believe this was happening. “Have you just been standing there watching me sleep? How long have you been here?”

He stepped forward, the light from the lamp finally revealing his handsome face. “A while.”

“You’re nuts, you know that, right?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Okay, so how about telling me why you’re in my room and how you got in?” My belly did this weird flip as something taunted me in the back of my mind, a feeling, a knowing. I didn’t understand it, not fully, it was something I’d been afraid to examine too closely.

“I wanted to check on you,” he said as if it were perfectly normal to come into a female’s room and just stand there watching her sleep. “Willow let me in earlier when I told her the same thing. I guess she assumed you wanted me to stay. She didn’t tell me to leave.”

Oh my god! “Why would she do that?” Willow was just as certifiable as Draven was. I didn’t understand her obsession with trying to find me a mate. After sharing what happened at Shadow Falls, how Draven had shown up and saved me after I sent rats to him for help, she’d obviously gotten the wrong idea.

“She thinks we’re lovers,” Draven said, confirming my own thoughts.

Nia was still at his side, and Draven patted her, his large rough hand running over her fur. My girl loved it. She loved him, I could feel it. And that only proved that he had no intention of harming me. Nia would be losing her mind if he was a threat to me in any way.

It wasn’t just Nia who knew that, though.

No, he wouldn’t hurt me, not now. He’d saved me multiple times. Taken care of me, and I appreciated it, but this still wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter that I was attracted to him. It would never work between us.

“You need to leave,” I said. “I’m indebted to you for all you’ve done. I owe you so much, but you need to stop doing things like this. Stop following me. Whatever you think is happening here, it can’t…it won’t.”

One moment he was across the room, and the next, he was in front of me. “You know what’s happening here, Iris. If you would stop fucking running from me for five minutes and allow yourself to feel it, you’d know exactly why I’m here and why I can’t just walk away.”

I shook my head in denial. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t want to know…”

“You were hurt by a male not worthy of you. I understand why this scares you, better than anyone. I know why you’re afraid, but there is no fighting this. I’ve tried, believe me, but this is happening.”

“No…”

“You’re my mate, Iris.”

I froze, my heart going wild in my chest. “You’re wrong.”

He held my gaze, then slowly, so damn slowly, dipped his head to the space between my shoulder and neck and breathed in deep. “I know your scent. Your voice, the warmth of your skin,” he rasped against my ear. “The sound of your breathing when you sleep soothes me. Your body fits against mine like you were made to be there, because you were, little witch. You were made for me. I know it, my wolf knows it. You are mine, Iris Thornheart, and I’ve come to take you home.”

Draven

Iris looked up at me with alarm. “You can’t be serious.”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t need to. She knew the truth as well as I did, she was just in deep denial. So much for easing her into it.

“You need to go back to your pack and get some help because you’re wrong.”

My pack was behind me in this. I’d done as Asher had suggested and taken it to a vote. Some weren’t happy about it, but she’d been right, my people wanted their alpha happy and whole.

I brushed my thumb over her cheek, everything inside me calling out for her, roaring in my mind, my body. “I’m not wrong. It’s impossible. This isn’t something you can get wrong.”

She pulled away from me and shook her head. “Well, I’m sorry, but I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it.”

My wolf grew agitated, urging me to take her. To just pick her up and take her home to my keep. I was struggling not to listen to it as a panicky feeling rose inside me. I needed her. I needed her to be mine more than my next breath.