Page 31 of Keep My Alpha

Saying I was proud of him feels stupid and small. It doesn’t even come close. My chest hurt listening to him read about hands building little worlds, knowing he meant mine, knowing he still doesn’t know, knowing I’m too chickenshit to tell him.

“Yeah?” His fingers curl into the front of my shirt, twisting the fabric.

“Yeah. You were...” I shake my head. “You were something.”

He kisses me.

Slower this time. Softer. His mouth is warm and tastes like cheap gallery wine and the green tea he’s always drinking, and he kisses me like he’s trying to learn the shape of my lips. I let him. One hand on his jaw, the other at the small of his back, pulling him close until there’s no space left between us.

His cardigan goes first. I slide it off his shoulders, and it pools on the floor. He’s already working on my buttons, fingers quick and a little shaky. My shirt joins his. Then I’m looking at his bare chest in the lamplight, the curve of his collarbones, the dark trail of hair below his navel, the way his ribs move with every breath, and I have to sit on the edge of the bed before my legs make the decision for me.

“Wren?”

“Give me a second.”

He steps between my knees. His fingers push through my hair, gentle, and I press my forehead to his sternum and breathe.

“You okay?” he asks.

“You’ve got a freckle under your collarbone I’ve been thinking about since the gallery,” I say against his skin. Zero filter. Just gone. “Left side. I need a second with that.”

His laugh is a shaky puff of air. “You’re kind of killing me.”

“Good. Mutual.”

Our other clothes come off slower. I pull his jeans down, kissing his hipbone, the inside of his thigh, the soft skin just over his knee. He steps out of them and stands there completely naked, flushed from his chest to his ears. I want to carve this. I want to get a block of cherrywood and keep this moment forever.

When he reaches for my belt, I let him. His fingers fumble with the buckle, and he laughs once, nervous, before getting it. I lift my hips so he can pull my jeans off. Then we’re both stripped bare.

“Wren.” His voice drops. Careful. “Can we talk about something?”

My pulse kicks hard. He can probably feel it through his palm on my shoulder.

“You’re my mate, aren’t you?”

Oh God. I was not expecting this. I don’t know why I wasn’t. Soren isn’t dumb, and what’s happening here is obvious. No matter how careful I’ve been, no matter how slow I’ve been trying to take it, there’s no denying it. I know it-have known for a long time. I don’t know why I didn’t think Soren would realize it either.

Maybe because he says it so confidently. No mess, no fuss. Like it just is.

Mate. My mate.

“Yeah.”

He nods. He fingers a blanket, not quite looking at me. “And I know what mates do. They… bite, right? A mating bite.”

Is this really happening? I feel like we’ve gone from zero to sixty in no time at all. Maybe I’m dreaming.

“I know it’s permanent. I know once you do it... that’s it.”

“That’s it,” I say, throat tight. “No going back. For me or for me. If I mark you, Soren, you’re stuck with me. And I’m—“ I stop. The lie is right there, the one I tell myself on a loop. Not enough. Just the guy who fixes things. “I need you to be sure.”

His hands come up to my face. Both of them. He cups my jaw, thumbs stroking my cheekbones, and makes me look at him.

“I have been waiting for something exactly like you for my entire life,” he says, his voice thick. “And I was so scared it wouldn’t come that I almost talked myself out of believing in it. But you’re here. You’re real. And I don’t want to go back.” His eyes are bright, wet. “I want you to bite me. I want it to be permanent. I want—“ His voice cracks. “I want to stop being afraid that wanting this so much is the thing that ruins it.”

Every excuse I’ve ever made for keeping my distance collapses.

I kiss him. Deep and slow and sure, pulling him into my lap so he’s straddling me. His weight settles against me, bare chest to mine. His cock is hard between us, mine pressed against his thigh. His slick is already starting, warm and wet where our skin meets.