Page 69 of Rejected Alpha Mate

His declaration of love.

I haven’t been able to tell him how I feel, only because I haven’t found the courage when I’m hiding something else from him. I need it to be perfect.

“I want to take you somewhere,” he says softly, and my heart stops.

It’s like he’s answering my needs with his offer. “Where?”

He shakes his head. “I’m not telling. Not yet. It’s a surprise.”

My brows lift. “A surprise?”

“Yeah.” His lips curve into a soft and private smile. “Just you and me. Somewhere quiet. Somewhere…safe.”

“Safe…” I echo, my heart warming.

“Yes…” he says, stepping closer, his voice dropping into something deeper. “I want one night with you where we don’t talk about war. Or magic. Or death. Just us.”

Just us.

That makes my heart flutter.

I swallow, my voice small as my lips curve into a wary half-smile. “Okay.”

His shoulders drop in relief, eyes softening in a way that steals the rest of the air from my lungs. “Good,” he murmurs, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear. “We’ll leave tomorrow morning. Pack your bathing suit.”

“My bathing suit, huh?” I smirk. “So it’s somewhere we can swim?”

Nicholas’s grin turns mischievous and unbearably endearing. “Nice try, sweetheart, but I’m not ruining the surprise.”

I roll my eyes, but the warmth blooming in my chest is undeniable. For the first time since the battle, I feel the tiniest flicker of hope.

And it feels like it’s all because of him, and I don’t mind that.

Chapter 24 - Nicholas

I glance at Donna, a smile curling my lips even though she stares out the window, the mid-morning sun catching her skin at an angle that makes her appear like a golden goddess. The necklace she wears around her neck—her graduation gift—glows under the sunlight, and a sense of pride swells in my chest.

Then, an intrusive thought enters my mind, and I nearly choke, tearing my gaze away and returning it to the road ahead.

“You alright?” Donna asks, pressing a hand on my thigh. I’m instantly calmer, but then I’m highly aware of her hand, and I realize that this is going to be harder than I thought it would be.

First, I imagined what it would be like to sink my teeth into the flesh covering the scent gland on her neck. Now, there’s blood rushing to my core, awareness heightened by her hand placement. I need to calm down.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” I say, offering her a smile as I thread my fingers through hers, holding her hand on my lap while exercising some sort of self-control to get us to our destination in one piece.

The drive to Terramor has been quiet in the best possible way, allowing me to admire her as she leans her head against the window, the morning sun catching the copper strands in her hair, and me…white-knuckling the steering wheel like an idiot who can’t believe he gets to do this.

Take her somewhere beautiful, somewhere peaceful.

Somewhere that might have held good memories for us if I wasn’t a coward last summer, or two months ago, for that matter.

The gravel road curves into the familiar clearing, and her soft gasp as she looks out ahead is everything I hoped for.

Terramor looks almost dreamlike this early in the day: glass tents raised like gentle mountains spread out through the forest, wooden decks gleaming with dew, strings of warm lights unlit but still sparkling faintly in the shade.

Donna steps out of the truck as soon as I slide into our designated parking bay, and before I can open her door, her mouth parts in astonished silence.

“You kept this place in mind?” she whispers when I step out of the truck and join her at the front.