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“Why don’t you want her knowing you claimed me?” Aubree asked, making him smile at how easily she could see into him. Especially if she’d never experienced it with her family before now.
“She’ll know you’re mine before we leave today,” he said, pulling her eyes open wider. “I’m not waiting even another day to have you home. I need to get you home before that asshole thinks of coming to look for you and finds us here together. If he saw, you like this…I’d kill him and that would be too easy for him.”
“When are we leaving?” she asked, giving him a smile, and he stole it with a soft kiss before answering her.
“After you tell me what you didn’t want to earlier. I want to know everything before we leave this room, little doe.”
He tightened his hold on her when she sighed, one hand sliding protectively up to the back of her head, while his other wrapped around her waist, keeping her close as he sat up, cradling her over his lap.
“Nothing is going to change my mind about us, it wouldn’t have before, but it most certainly won’t now. I’ve waited far too long for you, my sweet mate, to begin to let you go now. Especially because of some asshole like Joshua Morrow. Tell me, Aubree, let me take it on, so you can put every bit of it that hurts you in the past.”
For a few moments he didn’t think she was going to but as the words started, his anger grew, and he knew for certain, death was too simple a punishment for the bastard.
“My mom always kept me close, especially after my dad died. It was some random attack at the factory. He processed rye into flour, worked long hours but I always knew when he was home because he smelled softly of rye. You do too,” she added giving him a soft smile. “I knew the first night that your scent was familiar, and then it hit me that it was like my dad, but you also smell like juniper to me. My wolf and I would go searching for it when we were out in the woods. It was our favorite scent and when we found some, my mom would make it into a crown with flowers for me. After he died, we were inseparable except for when I went to school. She was never sick, not a single day of her life, not even after Dad died. She told me once when one of the other omegas got sick after her mate was killed that she missed him with her whole heart, but I was her strength, and as long as she had me, she could go on.”
“What happened to her?” he asked, his brows furling at the look on her face.
“I don’t know. I got home from school and found her in our room. She was cold and Mom was never cold. Dr. Tina wanted to run some tests, to see what happened but he wouldn’t let her,” Aubree said, making his body tense. “At first, I didn’t think anything of it, but then a couple months later, just before I turned fifteen, we had a moon run with visitors. I was laughing with some of the teenagers that were with them, and he got so angry. That night, he ordered me to his office and told me I couldn’t go on the run, when I asked why, he said the boys were looking at me like they wanted me, but I belonged to him. He…”
“What, little doe?” he said gently when she paused.
“I didn’t remember it until recently, but he said that he’d done far too much to ensure I’d be his for him to let anyone else get close to me. That was the last time I was outside. After that, I couldn’t even go over to the school building. He probably wouldn’t have even let me go to the medical building if it wasn’t directly attached to the packhouse. I had to have one of the women that used to be a teacher finish my schooling here, couldn’t go near any of the boys even close to my age. If he found me talking to any other male, he’d get so angry he’d take his belt to me.
“It was just after he forbade me from going outside that I had the first panic attack. One of my friends, he was in the same grade as I was, came looking for me, thinking I was too sick to be in school. I was so relieved to see someone other than that teacher who wasn’t happy about having to tutor me, was rude and wouldn’t even explain things I didn’t immediately understand. We were just talking and for one minute it didn’t feel like my life was over, but he saw us and lost it. He ordered Matt out of the packhouse and slammed the door shut, took off his belt and took it to me until Luke came in stopping him.
“A few months later, I mentioned to one of the other girls in the nursery that I hadn’t seen Matt’s mom recently and she said they were kicked out of the pack,” Aubree said, her eyes glittering with tears, and he swore under his breath, gathering her close. “I don’t know if that’s true or if…”
“Shh, little doe. I will find out for you, I promise,” he said, holding her until she calmed. Taking all of her pain, her worries into himself. He pressed soft kisses all over her face until she was smiling, laughing softly before she buried her face in his neck and he breathed her in, letting it calm him, but not the fury at the man that hurt what was his.
Aubree let out a soft squeal when he lifted her, moving them into the bathroom and on into the shower. He wanted her covered in his scent, but he wasn’t about to risk that maniac coming after his mate because she was coated in him. He could cover her with it again once they were home. He’d enjoy that immensely.
“Stop it or we’re going to want you to follow through on those thoughts right now, big guy,” she said, her smile too gorgeous to not steal.
He took his time, drying her himself, before moving them back to the bedroom, grabbing clothes from the bag he spotted on the sofa. “You’ll need to tell us how to get to your room to get the rest of your things, little doe. I don’t want you near it now.”
“This is everything that’s mine,” she said, her cheek flushing, and he pulled her into him, claiming her lips once more.
“I’m going to spoil you when we get home, give you everything you’ve ever wanted.”
“Promise?” she said, her eyes glittering, and he nodded, putting a new smile on her lips that sent his brow upward.
“What’s that smug look about, little doe?”
“Thinking of all the babies that means I get to have,” she told him, sending a flash of white through his vision as images of her round with their child hit him hard with longing.
“How many is that?” he asked, lifting her up for another kiss, knowing they needed to get moving before someone came looking for them. It was after ten by now. He’d missed at least an hour of the summit, but nothing mattered to him beyond getting her out safely.
“Eight or nine,” she said nearly causing his knees to buckle. “Eight at least. I like even numbers.”
“Mates better not count there,” he growled, and he swore her grin would be his undoing one day.
“I have two mates…you and your wolf,” she said before he could begin to grumble.
“Cute, just like you, little doe,” he stated before settling her onto the bed as he dug into her bag. He pulled out underwear and a dress, nearly growling when she told him the dress didn’t need a bra, until she showed him the built-in support of the spaghetti strap style top that was underneath the sheer blouse of it.
It was one he hadn’t seen her in yet and the instant it settled around her, he was sitting back on his heels, staring up at her. “You are more gorgeous than I deserve but I’m never letting you go, sweetness.”
“Good, then I won’t have to get angry with you,” she teased, giving him a soft kiss before he dressed to keep himself from taking her back down onto the bed again.
