Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 58962 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58962 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Mark’s lips quirked. “It is confusing. Your thoughts can create tension in your body, for sure. That’s when you have to really check in. Like right now–try this: tell me how it feels in your body when I ask, are you safe with Roy?”
Tears speared my eyes. “Relief,” I said. I dabbed the corner of my eye.
If I felt relief, why was I crying?
Oh, right, because I’d pushed away the best thing that had ever happened to me out of fear.
Mark stared quiet. Patient.
“I’ve been an idiot.”
He grinned. “You asked if I thought Roy’s body count was a red flag. If he was some kind of serial killer or murdered people when he got angry. I don’t. Alpha wolves have an instinct to protect anyone weaker than them.”
“Like the Afghani woman.”
“And you,” he added. “Roy is a Marine, and his training combined with that wolf instinct make him lethal in dangerous situations. I consider that an asset. It might be because I’m also a shifter, but I’d say I want someone like him having my back.”
I did, too.
“I also know that a wolf who has found his mate will do everything in his will to make her happy, provide for her, and protect her from harm. I mean everything. I knew before you even did a gut check that you are and always will be safe with Roy. In fact, being with Roy is the safest place you could ever be because you’re his mate. Marked, too. But I understand about things going too fast. Falling that fast for a human can be scary, but a shifter like Roy? No wonder you freaked.”
I sighed, relieved that he was clearing up my thoughts.
“Roy freaked, too. He rushed you to go to Montana without you having enough time to understand our ways. He knows that was a mistake.”
The remaining weight that had been suffocating me lifted. I could breathe again. Hope was expanding. Taking flight.
“You talked to him?” I sniffed, willing the tears away.
Mark nodded. “He’s been to my cabin to run every night.”
“What?” I shot to my feet. “He’s still here? In Denver?”
Mark stood, too, looking surprised. “Well, yeah. You didn’t know that? I don’t think he’s capable of leaving you behind. As your mate, it’s his job to take care of you, even if you don’t want him around.”
It made sense now. Imagining that I’d seen Roy. The loft.
He’d been here the whole time. Watching over me. Taking care of me.
“Oh my God.” My whole body reverberated with something powerful. Love, maybe? Or the sense of honor that I could mean so much to another person.
I knew, suddenly, what my gut had been telling me for the past ten days: how much Roy meant to me. It didn’t matter how long we’d known each other. What we had was real, and I shouldn’t have thrown it away. Or been scared of it.
I needed to go to him. Right now.
My gut seemed to celebrate that decision. Happiness fluttered in my chest. An effervescence fizzed all around me. “I need his number,” I said, excited. “You have it, right? Where is he staying? At your cabin?”
Mark chuckled as he pulled his phone out and jotted the number on a sticky note. “No, he’s been staying at the Four Seasons. He wanted to stay closer to you, I think.”
He’s been in the same place all along?
I snatched the piece of paper from him and dashed out the door. “Thanks! I’ll come back later to sign the paperwork!”
“Yeah. No. You go. Your mate is waiting.”
37
ROY
* * *
I stood beneath the hot spray in the huge bathroom. I’d just returned from a night of running up at Mark’s cabin, trying to cut the edge, that sharp feeling of loss that didn’t seem to go away. No matter how far I ran, I couldn’t escape the agony of being apart from my mate.
I let my head fall forward as I braced one hand on the tile wall, the spray pelting my tired muscles.
“Fuck,” I muttered to myself, the sound echoing off the steam shower walls.
It was getting harder and harder not to go to Brooke. My wolf needed our mate’s scent. I needed it, too. I wanted to get my face between her thighs and coat my skin in her cream. Burn that sweet scent in my nostrils. Get the honey taste on my tongue.
My dick pulsed to life at the thought of her. I was constantly hard because I couldn’t stop thinking about her. The silky feel of her hair, the smoothness of her skin. The way her nipples pebbled against my tongue when I sucked on those little tips.
“Fuck,” I groaned again, taking a grip of the base and stroking up from root to tip. It wasn’t tight or hot like her pussy. It didn’t clamp or milk the cum from my balls like she did.