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My eyes shoot open again. I freeze. Aleks mutters a curse in Polish under his breath.
Ah, well. It was good while it lasted…
With a sigh I can’t quite keep back, I’m already starting to climb off of Aleks before he murmurs, “I’m so sorry. I have to get that.”
“I know. And don’t be sorry. Sometimes Muncie needs you more than I do. You’re the leader now. I understand.”
“Maybe. But that doesn’t mean I don’t need you.”
I force a smile to my lips. “I’ll be here when you get back.”
Aleks grips me gently by the chin, angling my head back so that he can take a kiss before he leaves. His lips are warmer than usual courtesy of the blood I’d shared with him. “I’m holding you to it.”
He would, and that’s exactly why I continue to stay without any bond to keep me tied to him.
Because Luna knows it’s Cadre business, Aleks scoots out of the bed. With my shifter’s eyes, I watch his ass as he glides across the room, snagging his phone before disappearing down the hall. If I strained my ears, I could hear every word of his conversation, but I don’t. Just because I’m a shifter, that doesn’t make me entitled to my vampire’s private conversations.
It wouldn’t matter anyway since I know exactly what he’s going to say when he comes back.
By the time he returns to the room, I’ve already pulled out fresh underwear for Aleks, his favorite tailored slacks, and a sweater; I go with a light brown because it brings out his pale green eyes. I set the clothes out on the edge of the bed before grabbing a nightshirt for myself and climbing under the covers.
His soft green eyes glitter with some unspoken emotion when he sees the clothes. I wait to see if he’ll tell me that they’re unnecessary, but he just reaches for the sweater and tugs it on over his curls.
“Emergency?” I ask. It’s always an emergency.
All Aleks says is, “I’m sorry,” again as he finishes getting dressed.
I fake a yawn. “Told you, baby. Don’t worry about it. Ten minutes was probably a generous estimate. You wore me out.”
His lips quirk just enough to tell me that he isn’t buying it, but he’ll go along with my lie for my sake. “I’m your mate. That’s my job.”
He’s not my mate. Not yet. At best, he’s my intended.
Not like I’m going to point that out. Just like I’m not going to state the obvious: that his real job is as Roman’s replacement in the Cadre building.
I’ve gotten to know him well enough that he doesn’t want to leave me alone in our bed, but he has no choice. His duty to the supes and humans in Muncie must come first.
As if he can sense what I’m thinking—and there are times I would almost swear that Aleks can—he strokes the underside of my jaw, then says, “Remember, I’m only a phone call away, mój ksiezyca. If you decide you do need me more, I’ll be back before you know it. Nothing will keep me from you.”
Nothing except for his duties as the newest leader of the Muncie Cadre...
I kiss him again, hoping he missed out on that last traitorous thought. “I know. Be safe, okay? Kocham cie.”
My Polish accent is atrocious. Between the dictionary Gem gave me and the translation app I installed on my replacement phone, my handle on Aleks’s birth language is getting better and better the more I study. But I’m a California she-wolf. No matter how hard I try to get the Eastern European dialect just right, I’m not there yet.
For Aleks, it’s the thought that counts—which is exactly why I spend my ample free time distracting myself with learning his native tongue.
His expression softens, and any doubt that he doesn’t feel the same fades in the next heartbeat right before he murmurs, “Ah, Elizabeth, my beloved. Ja tez cie kocham.”
I love you, too.
* * *
Beloved.
Long after Aleks has left the apartment and I toss and turn through a couple of hours of fitful sleep, I’m still remembering the way he looked at me and called me his ‘beloved’.
Aside from his pet name for me—ksiezyca, which meansmoonin Polish—Aleks likes to refer to me as his beloved far more than my given name. It’s as if he’s reminded both of us who I’m supposed to be to him. A beloved is a vampire’s mate, whether fated or chosen, and they develop a bond as strong as that between shifters using blood.
