Page 38 of Awakening His Mate

He flinches, and I hate that I’m having to hurt him like this. “I wish we would kill them all.”

“I know. Me too. Our best chance of surviving this is together. The Order is building an army? Well, maybe that’s what we should be doing too.”

He shakes his head, anger playing across his face. “I can protect you.”

I smile at him, rolling to my toes so I can press a kiss to his mouth. For a moment, he’s stiff against me, but then his fingers tangle in my hair, holding me where he wants me.

My pulse throbs in time with a different, more pleasant pulsing between my legs. His nose moves to the column of my throat, easing some of my uncertainty about us. The way he rubs along my skin, marking me with his scent, tells me everything I need to know.

“I missed you.”

My heart surges. “I missed you too. It was so awful having you close by but not being able to tell you anything. I wasn’t sure if…”

I break off, scared to vocalize my fear.

“If what?” he asks as he trails kisses down to my shoulder.

“If you would still want me.”

Jackson’s head snaps up so fast that it would be comical if I wasn’t so scared of his answer. “Is that a joke?”

“No. We barely know each other, Jacks. Even before I got… zombified.”

I try to step back to give him breathing space, but his fingers wrap around my nape, holding me in place.

“I want you. I’ve wanted you from the moment I first saw you.” His forehead presses against mine, and my wolf lets out a content whimper. “You’re mine, and you’ve always been mine. I can’t explain it, Dove, but the connection I feel to you is so strong that I will burn everything to ashes to keep you safe.”

My stomach tips, like a ship in stormy waters. I want to crawl inside him, connect our wolves and bodies in every way imaginable.

“But we’re not mates,” I say, my voice soft. The likelihood of us coming across our fated mates is one in a million, but it’s also possible. If that happened, whatever this is between us would die instantly.

Jackson’s face contorts into an irritated grimace. “I don’t give a fuck about some stupid ancient magic trick that claims to know who belongs to who.”

I don’t want to care about it either, but there’s no escaping it. “It’s not a magic trick. Look at Cade and Halle, Sawyer and Roux. They tried to fight their bonds, but they couldn’t. Magic that brings pairs together isn’t something that can be dismissed because you love someone.”

Shit. I just said I love him. I’m not sure if he realizes it too, but he swallows, his throat bobbing as he does. “I don’t care. I’m not giving you up.”

“I don’t want that either. I want to be with you, but for that to happen, we have to be safe in the world we live in.”

“Others can fight that fight, Dove. We don’t need to.”

“No, we don’t need to, but we should. I want us to have a real life together. I want to make things safe for our friends, for Tessa and Abel’s pup. For…” I pause, not sure if I should say what I want to, but when his eyes meet mine, I find the strength to forge on. “For any pups we might have in the future.”

His eyes close, and turmoil ripples over his face. “You want pups?”

“I want everything with you. That’s why we have to fight, so that the generation after us can live without fear. None of this is right, but we have the chance to make a difference, Jackson. I want to make a difference.”

His jaw ticks, and I can tell he doesn’t like my response.

And then a sharp stab of pain lances through my brain so quickly that it makes me stumble into him.

Fuck.

As strange as it sounds, it feels as if I’ve been stabbed with an electric shock. I hear him calling my name as I drive us to our knees.

An image presses through my mind, like a movie reel at double speed. I’m not sure where we are, but we’re outside. Jackson is crouched in front of me, his hands cupping my face, and he’s speaking urgently, though I can’t hear the words. Something catches his attention behind us, and he pulls me behind him. Terror clutches me as four figures melt out of the shadows, a white-haired man among them.

“Dove? Dove, can you hear me?” The voice sounds as if it is coming to me from underwater, but I cling to it, letting it be the rope that guides me out of this vision.

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