More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
This exact reason was why I read, to escape into stories of adventure and lust and soul-consuming passion—everything lacking in my real life. I lived through books, and they mended me for a time, but once they were finished, the hole in my soul returned, the emptiness in my chest that comes with crashing back to reality, reminded of duty and responsibility, rules and confinement.
As soon as the door closed, it opened again. I froze as a woman entered. When she glanced up, she looked straight at me and I felt everything at once. The pull. The lust. The blinding, overwhelming need. The bond. I was staring at the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, and she was my mate. I knew it in my soul as we locked eyes.
Suddenly, he gripped my hair, wrapping the strands around his fist, and ripped my head back, exposing my neck. I froze, barely daring to breathe, as he brought his face down and leisurely ran his lips along my neck. “Yes, I guess it did.”
“I know you feel it, this hunger that’s eating at us. My fire burns to be inside you, Ara,”
“You’re mine, just as I am yours. The feeling pulling you towards me? That’s our mate bond.”
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.
“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.”
“What a pair we are,” I mumbled, lying my head back down on my elbow. “Indeed. What a broken pair.”
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered, her eyes following their movement. “Yes, quite beautiful,” I whispered back, my eyes never leaving her.
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.”
“If I’m fated to live a life of longing for someone who will never return my affection, I’m glad to long for someone so…worthy.”
