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He stiffened and looked away. It shocked her, and she tried to remove herself from his lap. He tightened his grasp. “I’ve already met her,” he whispered. “But she belonged to another. So that was it for me. I would never be happy again.”
“But?” she hedged.
“But then she wasn’t with her husband anymore.”
“With her—” she stopped short. “Wilder?”
“Okay, fine. I might as well say it. It’s you, love. You’re… it. You’re my mate.”
“Oh. Wow.” Amelia pushed off him and stood on shaky legs. “I’m your mate?”
He nodded. “You are.”
“And were you ever going to tell me, or was it going to be this great big secret?”
“I didn’t know how to tell you,” he admitted, looking down and sheepishly at the floor. “I don’t want to pressure you or anything.”
“Wilder, you’re being a dick.”
His head snapped up, hurt in his eyes. “What?”
“You told me to warn you when you’re being a dick. Well. You. Are. A. Dick.”
“Oh.”
“How dare you keep this information from me.”
He frowned in confusion as he stood. “I don’t understand. You’remadI didn’t tell you?”
“Of course, I’m mad. There I sit, talking about fate and about all of these things, meanwhile, youknowit’s fate. You could’ve explained why I felt so close to you. I thought I was going crazy feeling so much for you so soon.”
“You feel for me?”
She rolled her eyes. “You were my first, Wilder. I didn’t want to sleep with you just because you were there and you were hot. I feel things for you. Deep things that are…” She shook her head. “That are really hard to feel when I don’t know if I can trust myself. Or didn’t trust myself. I don’t know when I started to trust myself again. I guess it just happened since we met.”
Wilder looked deflated. “Don’t you see?” He ran his hands through his hair, his cheeks bright red and his eyes flashing with a wolfish. “That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want you to feel like youhadto love me. I don’t want you to…” He sighed and shook his head. “You don’t have to love me because I love you.”
She gasped, and her eyes went wide. “You— You? Love me?” Her hands covered her mouth.
He stilled, and his jaw clenched. “Shit. Amelia, I am…”
She held up a palm to quiet him. To his credit, he fell silent. “Wow. That is a whole other level. I need a second to process that.”
“It’s a shifter thing,” he tried to explain. “You’re my mate, so I just love you. I can’t help it. It would be like asking me to… asking me to…”
“Like asking you not to be grumpy? Or an alpha? Or a CEO?”
Wilder sighed and nodded. “Exactly. It really is a shifter thing.”
“I bet it is.”
“I am sorry. I should’ve told you…”
Amelia sat and shook her head. “No. You shouldn’t have. You wanted to give me space to breathe, and I respect that. It’s still insane that only a week has passed since we met.”
“Time works differently for shifters,” he explained. “Slower but also faster.”
“And you love me,” she tried.
