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“Until you give me a full answer, yes,” she answered firmly, and I sighed, knowing I wouldn’t be able to get out of there until I gave her the answers she wanted.
“Because our conversation seemed moot after what I saw,” I answered, turning away from her so she wouldn’t see me breaking.
“What does that mean?”
“Evie, please,” I begged her.
“Please, answer me, Cory,” she asked quietly. I felt a tear leave my eyes and I took a deep breath and decided to give her the truth she was asking for.
“I was going to ask you to choose me,” I said.
“Choose you? What do you mean?”
“I wanted to know—” I swallowed. “I wanted to know if you’d be willing to... if you would... take me as a chosen mate,” I said.
“Because you love me?” she asked.
“Because I’ve been in love with you since we were kids,” I corrected miserably. “That is all of the truth. I have nothing left. Can you get us some help now, please?”
There was silence on her end, and I didn’t dare to look her way. I felt her hand on my arm, but I still couldn’t look at her.
“Cory, will you please look at me?” she asked softly. I shook my head, feeling more tears leave my eyes. I wasn’t ready for her to let me down easy. Nothing about this would be easy for me.
“Cory,” she said, coming around, her face looking up at mine. “I love you, too.”
I must have gotten a concussion because I couldn’t have heard what I thought she said.
“What?”
“I love you, Cory,” she replied. Instantly, I stood up straight and grabbed her, forcing her back and caging her to the wall.
“Don’t play with me, Everly,” I warned.
“I love you, Cory,” she repeated without an ounce of hesitation in her voice. Finally, her words sank in, and hope bloomed until it burst inside me and filled my broken heart and healed it.
I crashed my lips against hers, and she responded instantly. I tried to wrap her in my arms, but the damn silver cuffs wouldn’t let me. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and I grabbed onto her legs as she pulled herself up and wrapped them around me. She moaned, and I used the moment to explore her mouth with my tongue. She tasted so sweet, the taste of her making me groan. I’d been dreaming of this moment for so long, and it was so much more than I ever expected. So much more than the other times because this time, I knew she felt the same way I did. I pulled back when we needed to breathe, and I rested my head against her.
“Why couldn’t you have been my mate?” I lamented out loud.
“I’m not?” she asked.
“No. We would have known by now,” I replied, wondering why she was asking this. Putting the thought aside, I kissed her again just to confirm to myself that I wasn’t dreaming.
“How?” she asked when we came up for air again.
“What do you mean, how?” I asked, pulling back and looking at her. “We’ve done a lot of full moons together.”
“I’ve been away for a long time, Cory,” she said.
“You were here for my alpha ceremony. I saw you,” I said. Evie bit her lip, and my eyes narrowed.
“I drove for over twenty hours to get home. After you were handed the title, I went home to sleep,” she said.
“But—” I said and stopped. My disbelief was strong right now as I began to understand what she was trying to tell me. “You’ve been home for many of them, Evie. I’ve seen you. You’ve been to some of them.” She looked away at my words, and I gently grabbed her chin and moved it to look up at me. “Haven’t you?”
“I... I didn’t think we would be mates; that there was any reality in which the Moon Goddess would pair an alpha like you with someone like me, and I couldn’t bear to watch you find your mate...” She looked away for a moment before looking up at me. “I left every full moon right before the moon peaked.”
I dropped her legs and set her down, taking a step back from her, speechless, while I processed her words.
