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right after he claimed her. She would need the rest—she was a human, and the claiming would knock her on her ass for a bit as her body changed to be a match for Maddox’s—and he was secretly proud of himself for boning her into unconsciousness.
A few minutes later, though, he heard her murmur his name.
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“I just wanted to ask you something.”
“Anything.”
Her hand slid across his belly. To his slight disappointment, it didn’t travel south, but drifted upward instead. She laid her hand over his heart. “You have a tattoo. When I saw the date, I was so confused. I thought it was the date of my accident. I… I remember a little. You didn’t use to have it.”
His heart gave a joyful beat when she said that she remembered a little. Holding onto the thread of hope that her recent memories were the catalyst for their bonding, Maddox leaned over, pressing a kiss to the top of her damp hair.
“When you were in the hospital… when they told me you died, they gave me a choice. Cage, no memories of you, or death. I couldn’t live without you, and I couldn’t live without my memories of you, but the pack… Colt… I couldn’t die, either. Maybe it’s because I knew you were still alive, even if our bond was gone. I spent three years in the Cage, missing you. Loving you. One of the other guys gave me the tat. Of course I picked that day.”
She was quiet again. Maddox almost thought he had put her to sleep with his story when she whispered, “Why’s that?”
“That day… it was the best day of my life. The worst, too, ‘cause I thought you had left me. But the best because, even if it was only for a few hours, you were my wife.”
Maddox wrapped his arm around her, tugging her into his embrace. They fit like a glove.
“Now it’s the second best day,” he told her.
“What’s the first?” she asked shyly.
Did she not know?
“Tonight, when you finally became my true mate.”
29
For the first time in years, Evangeline slept peacefully.
She didn’t have a single dream, and when she woke up the next morning, wrapped in Maddox’s arms and his musky, manly scent, she knew exactly why.
Why would she dream up a fantasy man who lurked in the shadows of her consciousness when she had the real thing right there with her?
Her lover.
Her husband.
Her mate.
Maddox was still sleeping. Man slept like the dead. His senses were extraordinary, though. If he so much as caught a hint that she might be in danger, or that she might need him, she did not doubt that he would be up without a second’s hesitation. She’d seen him do it a thousand times before—
Evangeline went giddy. Because that certainty didn’t come from her last few days with Maddox. It came from a year’s courtship where she met and fell in love with an alpha wolf shifter named Maddox Wolfe.
Evangeline Wolfe.
She was Evangeline Wolfe.
She blinked. Only yesterday, that realization would have had her testing her ankle as she tried to run away from him—run away from the feelings that he brought about in her. Now, though?
It was a whole new day.
Day—
Trying her best not to wake him, Evangeline slipped out from under his arm, creeping toward the edge of the massive king-sized bed. Inch by inch, she went at a snail’s pace, careful not to catch Maddox’s attention. A single memory—more vivid than the others—was running through her clear head. She held onto it, determined not to let it slip away.
