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My heart sunk. “You have to give me something. Anything.”
Dason shifted until he was sitting up, the sheets pooling around his waist to expose his bare chest. He bent a knee and rested his arm on it while propping himself up with the other. I sat up as well and curled my legs under me. Night vision was another one of my enhanced superpowers, and I used it to appreciate how sexy my mate was in the moonlight.
I was in bed with a powerful man. An alpha. A man who, at his core, carried wounds just as I did. How long would it take him to let me in?
However long, he was worth the wait.
“I want you, Lorn.” Dason’s rough voice prickled over my skin, sending a shiver up my spine with his declaration. “I decided that before the pack party. I think I’ve always wanted you, I was just too fucked up from something that happened in my childhood to really let you in. Someday, when the timing is better, I’ll tell you about it.”
“I know you have a problem with the age gap between us. Does it have something to do with that?” I guessed. My hunger pains were steadily growing, but I held them off.
“Yes and no. It’s not our difference in age, but being sure of what you want for the future, and making sure that won’t change or shift.”
“You’re worried I’ll regret mating you?” My tone rose with each word.
“Because I’m older than you, I want things that you may not be ready for,” Dason replied, speaking into the shadows as he gazed into the room. “It would kill me if you agreed now and then regretted the decision once we’d already built a life together. Trust me, it’s devastating for everyone involved.”
“That’s a fair concern,” I admitted, realizing there was more to that story he wasn’t ready to share, “but you’ve never, not once, asked me what I want for the future. How do you know we don’t want the same things? It was unfair of you to judge me based on my age alone.”
Dason rubbed the back of his neck. “I know. I’m sorry it took me so long to realize that if it meant losing you, my dream for the future wasn’t worth holding onto. All I can do is apologize and hope we can repair the damage between us.”
“We’re not damaged.” I went to my knees in front of him and cupped his face so he was looking at me. “There’s no irreparable damage, but you need to start trusting me. Bond or no bond, you’re my mate and my alpha, but I think you’ve gotten too used to keeping everything close to the vest. If we move forward from here, and I hope we do, you have to learn to open up to me. Things between us can’t keep getting to breaking points before we lay our shit bare.”
“Chayton said something similar,” Dason murmured, that rough note back in his voice. “About trusting you with our future.”
“There’s a reason he’s your beta.” I smiled, but there was a chance it came out more like a grimace as my veins began to burn. “He calls you on your shit.”
“Apparently, so do you.”
“That’s one thing you can always look forward to with me.” I sat back on my heels and wrapped my arms around my middle as my stomach tried to rip itself open. “I don’t hold back much.”
Dason shifted toward me and lightly grabbed my upper arms. “Except you are. You’re fucking shaking, and the pain you’re in is clear on your face. You need to eat.”
“You know what that means for you…”
“I do, and I’m still right in front of you, offering. I’m your alpha. I’m always going to take care of you.”
The temptation to feel Dason so close to me again was almost greater than my thirst for his blood, but a rejection sat heavily on my tongue. There had to be another way to fulfill my thirst and survive. Blood bags or animal blood. Anything but forcing Dason to feel false arousal and chance taking too much from him.
“Your venom doesn’t scare me, Lorn. And neither does your control.” His thumbs stroked over my biceps. Perhaps the pack bond had lasting effects, because Dason picked up on the direction of my thoughts as easily as breathing. “Are you worried you’re going to make me feel something I don’t want to feel for you?”
“We haven’t even kissed.” My whisper caressed the night like a confession.
“An oversight I plan to rectify.” Dason’s nose grazed my temple as he leaned closer. “Will it help you to know that I wanted you before the venom? Before I’d even admitted it to myself, I ached for you. Watching you with Chayton and Axel, witnessing what you share with them, has only served to awaken my jealousy. Not because I don’t want to share you with my pack, but because they had something I couldn’t allow myself to have. Even Jolon and Syler share more with you than I do. There’s an easy chemistry between you three.”
“And Kota?” I inquired breathily.
“Kota needs to forgive himself and get out of his own way so he can find happiness. He’s still punishing himself for things he can’t change.” Dason lingered near my ear. “But the question is, can you forgive me for being an ass?”
Did I forgive him?
The answer was easy.
“I forgive you, Dase, as long as you promise that things are going to be different. You can’t push me away anymore.”
“I’m done fighting.” His teeth nipped my earlobe and I gasped. “Do you trust me?”
I didn’t need to think about it. “With my life.”
