Page 54 of Owning His Mate

“Half naked?”

He snorts. “Not trying to kill me.”

I match his snort with my own. “Who says I’m not going to do that?” I lean my head against his shoulder, fixing the blanket around us. “How did you end up here?”

I feel Kye stiffen, and I lift my head to peer up at him, wondering what wound I have opened. His eyes are tight and dark, and the tension coming through our bond hurts me like a physical ache.

“Sorry,” I say immediately. “I shouldn’t have pried.”

He shakes his head. “No, it’s fine. You’re my mate. There are no secrets between us, but this story is not one I like to relive.”

“You don’t have to tell me. Just knowing that something bad happened is enough.”

“I don’t want there to be any walls between us, Apryle.”

“Okay.”

He sucks in a breath before licking his lips as if trying to prepare himself for what he is about to unlock from whatever box he has kept it in. “I was born into a vargr pack. There were thirteen of us altogether—cousins, aunts, and uncles.”

I trace circles over his chest, trying to soothe him as I feel his pain. “That sounds wonderful,” I say.

“It was… until it wasn’t. I was coming up to my nineteenth birthday. My cousin was about to come of age and go through his first moon ceremony. As we were preparing, they attacked.”

His voice is tight, as if he is having to push the words through corded throat muscles. “The Order?”

He nods. “We tried to keep our pack hidden. My grandparents always talked about the dangers of being discovered. I don’t know how they found us.”

“They just seem to have ways,” I offer. “No matter what you did, they would have found you eventually.”

His eyes are unfocused as he stares at nothing.

“They killed everyone who was no longer capable of having a heat cycle. My parents, my grandparents. Most of my aunts and uncles. Two of my cousins died trying to defend the others, but I was bound and put in the back of a van with another of my cousins. I could tell he was terrified. I was too, but I was trying to be brave for his sake. I wasn’t sure where they were taking us, but as we lay bound on the bottom of the van, I knew we were screwed.”

He falls silent, and I have to resist the urge to fill it with conversation. Kye isn’t the kind of wolf who talks withoutpurpose, so I give him the moment he needs to collect himself, and eventually he speaks again.

“Callum and his group intercepted us. We were saved, but the Order recaptured my cousin later on. I wanted to go back for him, but Callum stopped me. We were outnumbered, and it would have been worse if we’d tried to extract him then. I hoped we’d find him fast, but it’s been years, and we are no closer.”

My heart breaks for him and all that he has been through. This isn’t how life should be.

I press a kiss to the side of his face, savoring the feel of him. The blood spattering him is masked by own scent and I like it. “We’ll find him. We’ll find everyone that the Order took. I promise you.”

His eyes meet mine, and for a moment we both get lost in each other’s stormy orbs. “We have to destroy them completely,” Kye says.

From his tone I can tell he’s not joking, that he seriously and truthfully means what he is saying.

“We will,” I assure him. “There is no world in which our kind will be safe with these stupid assholes still around.”

He trails his fingers over my face, his eyes mapping every inch of me as he does.

“I know I scare you. Sometimes I scare myself, but I promise you, Apryle, I will never hurt you and I will never leave you.”

I was not expecting him to say that, and my stomach fills with heat and warmth, like a hug enveloping me. “I’m sorry I was so difficult when we first mated. I was scared.”

“I don’t care about the past. The only thing that matters to me is that you are mine and that you trust me to take care of you now.”

“Just as well, because my wolf side is really broken, Kye. She’s buried deep inside me, so deep that sometimes I don’t feel her presence for a long time.”

“You’re perfect,” he murmurs as he nuzzles his nose into the crook of my neck.

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