Mate (Bride, #2)

by Ali Hazelwood

“She is my mate,” Koen snarls. “I get to treat her like she’s made of mother-of-pearl. You do not.”

“I have to go, Serena. Before I chain you somewhere for real.” I nod, willing away the full, prickling feeling at the back of my throat. 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.

“Thank you, Serena,” she tells me. Serious, and uncharacteristically heartfelt. “For what?” “For not taking him from us.”

He has held me many times, but never like this—so close, it almost hurts, like he’s trying to swallow me inside his body.

He picks me up, one arm under my knees, and carries me outside to sit us on a chair on his porch. My head fits perfectly under his chin, my legs drape across his thighs, and this is a terrible idea.

“Serena, our first meeting sent you into Heat.”

“So we can just…stay here? In this cabin? And I’ll find some job? And you’ll do your Alpha stuff? And we’ll…we’ll go for runs together? And be boring?” “That sounds like a dream, actually.”

“Such a fucking nuisance.” I wonder why it took me until this very moment to realize that it’s been his way of saying I love you all along.

The fact that every mundane little action feels new and shimmery and magic when she’s around.

She chatters and mumbles to herself and tells him things, all sorts of things, funny and serious, big and small, and the more she talks, the more he wants to do nothing but listen to her.

Alpha instinct doesn’t normally concern itself with external approval, but Serena…she feels like another part of him. His heart, in another body.

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.

“I think,” he pants against her ear, ragged, “you should just start coming on these trips with me.” His hands are trembling. He wants her too much.

He would die for her, and he would kill for her. More importantly, he will live for her. She’ll be the purpose driving every second of his every day.