The Last Storm (Rogue X Ara #1)

by J.D. Linton

But that night, she chose to be with me, and after a lifetime of being hated, forgotten, and alone, in that moment, I had wanted it so badly. I wanted her. A life. A mate. To be chosen. Wanted. I wanted to be wanted. I wanted her to want me. And when I claimed her, it wasn’t really my claim at all. It was my surrender.

“Well, I’m up now.” He threw the blanket off and stalked to his dresser, pulling out a shirt. “What is it?” “I can’t just come by to enjoy your cheerful disposition?” I offered him a smile as he glowered at me. “Not this early.

“I brought you here for breakfast. Now, it’s my turn.”

“You can be angry. Hell, you should be, but you’ll be angry here. With me. Take it out on me. Take out every ugly, suffocating emotion on me, because I am not letting you go out there to shoulder this alone.” He brought his hands to my cheeks. “You are not alone, Ara.”

“Ara, you could not be more wrong. It is I who shackled you, and it is a regret that haunts me every day. Every day, I see the hurt I caused you, and I wish I could take it back. I wish I would’ve told you and courted you and convinced you to like me with pretty words and false promises, but I can’t, and I know that. But I also know that it is more than this tiny, insignificant mark on your skin that binds me to you. It’s you. All of you. Your strength and resilience. Your determination to endure no matter what fate throws at you. Your love of love and stories and hope. You are entirely the opposite of everything that I am, and I would gladly wear your shackles if it meant I could have you.”