Mate (Bride, #2)

by Ali Hazelwood

His seconds like her, they have from the very start. Traitors.

Look at her. Just—look at her.

Her laughter adjusts the spin of his atoms.

He wants to be with her for each marveled intake of breath.

“If I come back and something has happened to you, Serena, I’m going to be so fucking pissed.” I bite the inside of my lips. “That sounds like a you problem.”

I think that in a parsley-shaped world, he and I would have had some fun.

He easily resigned himself to a lifetime without her, but… Simply put, he is unwilling to contemplate a universe in which she no longer exists.

“We?” “We.” My eyebrow lifts. “Uh-oh. Celibacy Threat Alert.”

“You’re not going to—fuck it.”

I scoot closer. Conspiratorial. “Do you ever consider going full dictator? I’m talking thirty-foot bronze Koen statue. Koen stamps. Koen as every child’s middle name. Senior prom theme: Koen. Mandatory Koen parades with Koen floats every week.”

“I know that you took an oath. And I know that this is doomed. But…Koen. There is very little that I wouldn’t do for you, if you were to ask me.”

“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.”

“I think…this is going to hurt, Koen.” “After, yeah. But not yet.” “Not yet.”