The word lands in the room and sits there.
I stare at him.
He stares back.
I open my mouth.
Then I do the only reasonable thing a practical woman can do when a naked, half-dead wolf shifter tells her she’s his mate three minutes after waking up for the first time.
I laugh.
It comes out before I can stop it. My laugh turns loud and slightly hysterical, not helped by my lack of sleep and the giddy feeling rippling through my body.
“I’m sorry,” I say, covering my mouth as I giggle. “I’m sorry, that was… I’m not laughing at you, I just…”
He smiles back at me, appearing amused by my reaction.
“It’s just, you’ve been unconscious for five days,” I say. “And we’ve known each other for approximately four minutes. And you know?”
“Yes.”
“For sure?”
“Yup.”
This guy is unreal.
“You’re really telling me that we’re?—”
“Mates,” he says with a firm nod. “That’s right.”
“And you’re not feverish or crazy or brain damaged?”
He shakes his head, grinning that sexy grin at me. “Not even in a little bit.”
I sit back in the chair and look at him. Really look at him. At the steadiness in those extraordinary eyes. At the absolute lack of uncertainty in his face. He’s not performing this. He’s not delirious. He means every word with a quiet, unshakeable certainty that makes something in my chest go very still.
And I think about the intense pull on the water that night. The feeling of heading toward something inevitable. The way I couldn’t leave his side for five days and couldn’t explain why. The way his hand in mine felt like something that was always supposed to be there.
Is he… right?
My hand goes to his. I hold it just like I’ve done every day for the past five days. His fingers close around mine, strong and certain.
Our eyes meet and we stare at each other for a long, quiet, perfect moment where the world outside this cabin doesn’t exist and all that matters is each other.
Until the world barges in on us.
The door crashes open.
I turn with a gasp.
“Valther!”
He’s standing in the doorway, filling the frame while gripping two emerald daggers. He’s breathing hard and his eyes are big and wild.
“Sea Wraiths,” he says. “Port side. Coming fast. A lot of them.”
He disappears as fast as he appeared.
