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“No,” he corrected her quickly. “You’ve been trying hard to find the right path for yourself despite growing up around people who didn’t love and care for you, despite your father treating you like a villain in some fairytale. I appreciate your apology, but I can also understand exactly where you were coming from.”
Sarah blinked up at him and rubbed her lips together. “Thank you for that. I guess I’ve had a hard time. I didn’t think anyone really understood me.”
“Maybe not,” he confirmed. “Not in the way that you need to be understood, anyway, and that’s what I need to apologize for. I’ve had my own burdens, but things have been much more normal for me, more stable. I thought I was trying to see things from your perspective, but I don’t think I truly did until now.”
She bent her head toward her clasped hands. “It’s kind of funny, isn’t it?”
“Hm?”
“That we can finally come to this point together, but not until after we’ve decided to split.” Her words filled the room and then fell into a thick and heavy silence.
He’d been right. He’d been fooling himself. This was the last chance he might ever have. “I don’t want to.”
Sarah’s head snapped up. “You don’t?”
“No.” His breath came quickly and his heart pounded, but he dared to step forward and take one of her hands in his own. “Sarah, I love you. I’ve wanted to be with you since the day we met, and I can’t imagine walking out the front door and not leaving with you. I want to be a family with you, Hunter, and Ava. I want to know that even if we argue—because I’m sure we will—we’ll figure out how to make it work.”
She stood now, her fingers tightening in his. “And then we get to make up afterward.”
He smiled as their lips met, and Max could feel himself falling for her all over again. She was new to him, yet she held a comforting familiarity. That was exactly how he’d felt when he’d first met her all those years ago. That was how fate worked, after all. It bonded them before they came to this earth so they’d always be able to find each other.
He abandoned himself to the velvet of her mouth, the way her lips melted into his. He delved his tongue inside, and her own tangled with it. Max felt his body tightening, his wolf reacting. There had never been any doubt that he wanted her, but this was so much more than that. A low moan reverberated up from her lungs and into his mouth, setting him alight with desire.
Sarah pulled back just enough to break their contact. “I’ve been thinking about something.”
At some point during their kiss, he’d wrapped his arms around her. Now he traced his fingers along the curve of her backside, keeping her close. “What’s that?”
“I’ve been wrong about a lot of things.” Her breath whispered against his lips.
He shook his head and leaned in closer. “We’ve already been through all of that.”
“I never liked the idea of being marked.”
Max paused in pursuit of the next kiss.
“I thought it was barbaric, dated. Something that really wasn’t necessary to prove that two people were mated.” She lifted a hand and traced her fingers from his temple, down his cheek, and along his jawline as her eyes searched his. “I can see now that it’s so much more than that.”
He pressed his lips in a gentle kiss against hers. “What are you saying?”
She closed her eyes and angled her body even more toward his. “We’ve been apart for so long, Max. We’ve always known that we were fated, but I want it to be more than that. We have the chance not just to be together, but to experience that connection in the way it was meant to be. I love having your pack around us, supporting our family. I love the idea of everyone knowing we’re together, a bond without question. I loveyou, and I want everyone to know just how much I do.”
His eyes drifted down to that curve of flesh just below her neck, the one that had been tempting him for so long. Max couldn’t explain the inherent longing he had to put his mouth there, but now it was stronger than ever. “Are you sure?”
She tipped her head to the side, giving him access. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
A sharp pain seared his gums as his canines descended. Anticipation built inside him as he bent his head, inhaling the sweetness of her scent. Grazing his lips across her skin, he pulled her tightly toward him and sank his teeth into her flesh.
Sarah gasped, but she clung to him as he left his mark. The gasp turned into a long, breathy moan as she sagged in his embrace.
Max pulled back and kissed the fresh wound. “You doing okay?”
“Yeah.” She trembled against him, her breath ragged. “That was incredible.”
“It didn’t hurt?” His wolf surged within him, longing to complete their ritual, but he didn’t want her to be in pain.
Sarah swallowed as she looked up at him. She still clung to his back, but there was a strength in her fingers that hadn’t been there before. “It did, but not the way I expected.” The corner of her mouth quirked up. “I kind of liked it, actually.”
With a growl of desire, he covered her mouth with his and plunged his tongue into her depths. He wanted to touch and taste every part of her, to know that she belonged to him down to her very soul. Even more, he wanted to feel that he belonged to her. His need overflowed within him as he cupped her backside, his hips thrusting forward so she could feel the hardness in his jeans.
