Page 25 of Monster's Heart

“But I have none. You get that, right? I can’t do anything, and I won’t be a help to you. Oh, um, not that you are proposing or anything. If marriage is even something your kind does. Fuck. I am messing this all up,” she blurted.

Even worse, she ended her panic attack with some sort of apology.

What the hell did I do wrong?

I had no idea, but I wanted to fix it. I needed to fix it. Her moonbeam eyes pinned me with the hopelessness I saw swimming in them, and I growled. She should never feel that way.

Not ever.

“Hey, what is it you think happened here tonight?” I asked, sitting up and taking her with me.

I grabbed her shoulders and made her face me, needing to look at her while we had this strange discussion. Amrin was my mate, but I hadn’t exactly told her that.

In fact, I hadn’t told her anything.

Fuck.

No wonder she was acting like this was all some short term thing.

“I-I mean, I don’t know. Um, we had sex,” she said, face flaming an adorable shade of pink.

“We did, indeed, my pretty little butterfly, but it was more than that,” I explained, carefully.

“Sten? W-what are you saying?” Amrin whispered my name, and it sounded like a question to my ears.

I cupped her cheeks, brushing back the start tears rolling down her face.

“Why?”

But she just shrugged, making no attempt to cover up or stop me as I gripped her waist and pulled her naked body onto my lap. I needed to feel her skin, her weight against me, so I cuddled her close, sniffing that part where her neck and shoulder met.

Fuck.

She smelled divine. Warm vanilla and jasmine mixed with my own male musk. It was heady, smelling myself on her. I liked it. And I wanted her to carry that scent always.

Sex was not enough to bond mated pairs. There was a whole ceremony, words that needed speaking beneath the light of the moon. I’d already decided on tomorrow night, during the Spring Equinox festival, but I had yet to tell her.

Truth was, I hadn’t told her a whole helluva lot yet.

I wiped another tear from her cheek, lifting it to my lips, and swallowing it down. She melted into me, wrapping her arms around my neck as I rocked us both, rubbing her skin, and trying to ignore the fact I was hard again and wanting to sink into her diving heat.

“Hush, Luna. Don’t cry. I promise, it’s nothing bad.”

“I’m not crying, I’m just leaking my emotions all over the place,” she said, hiccupping a little.

“I understand, it’s overwhelming. If I’d known you were a virgin—”

“No, please. Don’t say anything, please. It was perfect,” she said, moonbeam eyes locked on mine, and I knew she meant it.

“I think it was perfect, too.”

“You do? But I didn’t know anything,” she said, eyes wide.

“You knew me. Your body did. It accepted mine when I took yours. You don’t know the gift you gave me, Luna. You don’t know how it feels to know I am the only man who’s ever had you,” I growled, kissing her once more, helpless to do anything but.

“I’m glad it was you, too,” she whispered against my lips.

“It will only ever be me,” I told her, vibrating with the need to claim this sweet woman.

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