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“We’ve been blood-bonded since then?” I whisper.
He nods, not even a lick of shame on his handsome face. “I bonded you to me, and I was hoping you would bond yourself to me during the next full moon. But then—”
Then the Wicked Wolf came and challenged Aleks for me. While Walker acted as a distraction, his cruel Beta took Roman as his political prisoner. Roman sacrificed himself for his people, and then Christian shot both me and Aleks.
The silver bullet had pierced my heart. I nearly died. I spent the first full moon in the hospital, and when Aleks avoided me for the second, I figured he didn’t want to even attempt the Luna Ceremony. I mean, I couldn’t—not with the Luna gone quiet from my life—but it hurt that he never offered to make our relationship permanent in any way.
I had no idea that he already had.
“Those shifters who nearly breached Muncie were a wake-up call. I could lose you. I told you already. Ican’t. I needed to make you mine in all ways as soon as I could, but then you left.” His eyes have never left my face, but I notice that they’re suddenly glinting in the weak electric light. Holy shit. Those aretears. “Was it me? What could I have done to keep you, ksiezyca? Tell me. I’ll do it. I never had the chance to love Julie. And Gem… she was safe because I always knew her heart belonged to Wolfson. But you… you were mine from the moment I laid eyes on you in California.”
His tears do something to the pit of my stomach. I was lost at his confession, but those tears… I need a distraction before I crawl onto Aleks’s lap, beg forgiveness, and never leave.
“That was almost a year ago, Aleks. After the Western Pack disbanded, I didn’t see you again for more than five months when I finally moved into Gem’s townhouse.”
“You didn’t see me, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t there. Watching you. Guarding you. Making sure no one ever hurt you again.”
From the moment I took over Gem’s house, I woke up to Aleks’s scent and his boot prints out in the snow. But there was still a five month gap, unless—
“That… that was you.” When I could’ve sworn I recognized the icy aura during those lonely nights on my own and I convinced myself that I missed my fate mate so much I began hallucinating he was near. Only I’m beginning to think they weren’t hallucinations after all… “Wasn’t it?”
His eyes are still glinting, but his lips curve ever so. “I told you, my beloved. I will always follow you.”
We move at the same time, Aleks rising up from the floor while I hop off of the chair, throwing my arms around his neck. Over the last few months, I’ve kissed him countless times, but there’s an urgency and an emotion to this one that zips straight to my soul. Our teeth clash, his fang nipping my bottom lip, blood mingling as I stroke his tongue with mine.
The ferocity of the kiss gentles after a few seconds, but it becomes something stronger. Something deeper. I tug Aleks’s curls, pushing against his hard chest, eager to hold him tight as if afraid he’ll change his mind.
I’m clinging to him, so it’s Aleks who is the one to pull back first. My wolf yips—and, okay, maybe I do, too—but he doesn’t go anywhere. On a sigh, he tucks my head under his chin, wrapping his arms around me, simply holding me close. Because I need his touch almost as much as he obviously needs mine, I circle his waist while laying my cheek against his shoulder.
We stay like that for a few moments, just reveling in each other’s presence. I breathe in his scent, my wolf eager to take in the licorice-like overtones and bask in it. I don’t know how I thought I could leave him. Even though my intentions were good, they were a mistake.
Aleks is mine. Now, forever, and always. I’m his, too.
Whatever happens next, we’ll handle it together. Whether it’s the rebels in Muncie or the Alpha collective who are probably ticked off I ignored their summons, as long as I’m with him, it’ll be okay.
My vampire obviously feels the same way. Once he finally lets go again, Aleks immediately reaches into his pocket. He pulls out a fist. Slowly, he unfolds his fingers until he’s showing me the golden chain with the white fang nestled in his palm.
“You’re my beloved, mój ksiezyca. My moon. The other half of my soul. I gave you my heart even before I gave you my fang. You’re everything to me, Elizabeth. Won’t you take this back?”
How can I say no?
If I take that fang back, I’m accepting everything Aleks told me. That we both have our baggage, just like we both have our pasts, but so long as we have a future to look forward to together, everything is going to be alright.
Swooping my hair over my shoulder, I give my back to Aleks so that he can loop the fang around my neck and clasp it.
“Elizabeth?”
“Put it on me,” I tell him. “I never should’ve taken it off.”
Because Iamhis beloved. His blood-bonded mate. Deep down, I think I knew that all along. I just couldn’t admit it because my insecurities and my trauma made it so that I couldn’t believe that an amazing male like Aleks would willingly want to tie himself to me. It was easier for me to throw up a shield, loving him from behind it. I’ve been hurt so much before. If Aleks rejected me, I don’t think I’d ever recover.
But he didn’t reject me. Long before I even went all in with him myself, he took me as his mate.
And as soon as the Luna listens to my prayers again, when I can ask my goddess for her blessing to make Aleks’s my forever mate, I’m going to do the same for him.
Finally, murmurs the Luna.
CHAPTER12
