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“I love you too, Levi Dupont.”
20
Aurora
“Aurora, let’s court.”
After making love three times, Levi and I finally got out of bed. We’d just taken a shower together and Levi was blow-drying my hair when he said this.
With a quiet smile, I leaned my upper body back, my spine curving in a fluid motion as my head tilted upward so my eyes could meet Levi’s without disrupting his efforts to help me dry my hair. I was squinting slightly because the feeling of his fingers tenderly combing through my hair in the wake of the warm air from the hairdryer was very soothing and made me sleepy.
He cleared his throat. “I didn’t mean to say it that way. I wanted to find a romantic time and place to say it, but I can’t hold it in anymore. I waited so long for this and now I can’t wait anymore. I want you to belong to me. I want to have a claim on you. I’m not a werewolf, so I can’t leave a mating mark on you. The only secure claim I can lay on you is the bond formed from an official mating. I know it’s not a good time for an official mating, but we could start courting, right?”
Now he was talking out of nervousness and it was a wonder to see him like this because he always looked so put together, like the world was spinning exactly how he wanted it to.
“Levi . . . I have three other mates, maybe four other mates. You . . . are you fine with that? I know you got so mad when you found out about me and Caden and . . .”
He sat beside me, cupping my face. “I was just being stupid back then. Who am I kidding? Since the day I saw you and realized you were my true mate, I knew we were meant to be. After caring for you as a child for a while, I thought many times that you deserved better than a loser with a terrible past like mine until our first night together. From then on, we were tied together, and I knew I would rather die than not be with you. So, yes, I want to be with you regardless of how many mates you have.”
I pecked him on his big yet excellently shaped European nose. “Goddess, I love you so, so much.”
“I love you too.” He pressed a kiss on my lips and then we sat there for a few minutes, just breathing the same air with our gazes locked and our foreheads pressed together.
“So?” He asked tentatively.
“Let’s court.” I couldn’t help but agree.
“Great. I have a lot of ideas on places we can visit on our dates and my courting gift was prepared centuries ago. No, that’s an exaggeration. I prepared courting gifts after you turned eighteen.”
I drew back from his embrace a little and dropped a kiss on his nose. “Let’s . . . take it slow. After the pack observer case is solved, we can exchange courting gifts and start officially courting.”
He stared at me with furrowed brows. “Is this because of your parents?”
“Yes. They have said in as many words that they don’t want me to get officially mated early. So while we’re courting now, we’re giving my parents . . . adjustment time. We can still go on dates and exchange gifts.” I reassured him, smoothing out his furrowed brows with my forefingers.
He took a deep breath and released it as if he’d realized how difficult convincing my parents that we were ready to court for an official mating was going to be. “Okay, cool.”
Then, my stomach released a hungry groan, and we broke apart laughing.
“What do you want to eat for breakfast? No . . . brunch?” Levi asked as I stood on the bed and went to stand behind him, pushing my fingers into his wet but rapidly drying auburn locks.
“I’ll just warm up the leftover mac and cheese. Do you still have blood? Do we need to order more from Ni Daonni?” I asked.
“No need. I ordered a large stock and I’m not even halfway done.” He reassured me.
I dropped a kiss on his forehead before turning on the hair dryer.
After his hair was dry, I went to sit by my dressing table to put some hair products into my hair.
“What do we have to do today?” I asked.
“We have to look through scanned copies of the information mined by the Supernatural Council’s IT department about the pack observers suspected to be involved in the case.” He said, picking up his smart watch and looking through it. “We should be done by 4 pm, and then we can order Chinese takeout and watch a movie together. Cool?”
I nodded. “Cool, but not the Chinese takeout from that nasty restaurant. Let’s order something else.”
“Not them. I found another Chinese restaurant and they have much higher reviews.”
* * *
