Mate (Bride, #2)

by Ali Hazelwood

He didn’t think she could be more perfect. Then she offered him her bite.

can—” “No, Serena. You can’t. But I can. I want you to tell me what you need, and I want the privilege of giving it to you. I want you to use me.” A kiss on my collarbone. “If you think there is anything I would like more than seeing my mate through her Heat, you are fucking wrong. If this is all I get, I’m going to make the most of it. Okay?”

Oh. My. God

“Serena.” I hear the blurry edge of his smile. A quiet sigh. “I would throw away my pack, my life, and my entire world for you. Which is the exact reason I cannot have you.”

He is afraid—not only of what might happen to her, but also of what he might do to the world in retaliation.

“I would do it all over again,” he murmurs at last, eyes never letting go of mine. “Even knowing what it did to you. And for that, I’m sorrier than I’ll ever be.”

“Serena.” He shakes his head. “When I say that I would do it all over again, I also mean that I would go through what he did all over again. If it brought me to you.”

This is it, then. What he was born for.

“In a matter of days, you’re going to leave, and I’ll spend the rest of my life as your fucking servant. Whatever you ask me for, you’ll have. But here you are. Defenseless. Mine for a short time.”

“You are my mate. I would have wanted you no matter what. I will want you no matter what. But you are also…” He licks his lips. “If someone had given me a piece of paper and asked me to list everything I liked, everything I dreamed of, everything that I was sure would make me happy, you would have been the final product of it.”

“There could never be disappointment, because there were never any comparisons, or expectations, or hopes, or standards to meet. There’s only…” He casts a glance around the room, searching. Then his eyes settle on me. “There is only you, Serena.”

“Unbelievable, how fucking unreal you feel, soft and wet and warm and every good thing in the world, baby.”

“Good. C’mon, killer, you can do it. Take it like— Good.”

He never says that he loves me, but it’s written all over my skin.

“You are the heart of this pack, Koen.” He nods. Even as he says, “And you are mine, Serena.”

Watch Koen spin around and put some distance between us. But he stops. Takes a deep, shoulder-heaving breath. Turns again and marches back to me, taking my face in his palms and pressing our lips together. It’s a simple, bruising, marking kiss. My fingers grip his wrists, and he smells like we never left his cabin. We’re still in our nest, measuring each other’s breathing. Marveling at how quickly we fall into rhythm. “Whatever you need, you have to come to me. It’s a fucking order.” His voice is strained. “I don’t care where you are. I don’t care what it is. I want you to promise me that for anything you—”

So pretty, he thinks that if she were the last thing he saw, he wouldn’t mind. Not at all.

“We might never know, since your biology is different from a full Were’s. I don’t care very much, because…” “Because?” “Because you’re perfect.”

To him, it feels like an adventure. This. Them. Waking up every morning wondering if he’ll survive the intensity of his feelings for her. Seems unlikely, and yet. He always makes it to the night.

Yeah, of course he’ll never leave again. He’ll do her one better: they’ll stay in his cabin forever. Brick up all entrances. Sounds like a pretty fucking good deal.