Page 19 of My Pucking Mate

“Hell yeah, Boss. Let’s go get her!” He’s out of the room before I have time to ask more questions.

“The rest of you stay here; do damage control. I don’t care about my image; take care of your Luna,” I say, glancing around the room.

They each give me a short nod in return.

Grabbing some clean clothes, I head into the bathroom, connected to my bedroom, for a hot shower. I need to wash that game from my body before I see her again—really see her.

Turning the water on to warm up when a thought hits me, “DAMMIT,” I roar out loud, realizing I didn’t get to finish my surprise for her. I’ll have to rearrange that for another game. Maybe it’s better this way. I can surprise her after we’ve properly met and had the chance to get to know one another a bit.

Stepping into the scalding water, I tip my head back and sigh. My body feels almost completely healed, but my soul is sore for her and what she went through. My wolf is whining and snarlingaround like this is all my fault.We’re going to go see her. We're going to take care of her.

That seems to calm him a bit, allowing me to finish washing away any remnants of the game and the hit. I don’t want our first official meeting to be tainted by anything. Just the thought of her perfect body and gorgeous face sends blood running straight to the wrong end of my body. It’s not the time for this. I switch the water to ice-cold and give my body a moment to cool off.

Cooled enough, I dry myself and dress to meet her. The one person in the universe with the power to bring me to my knees, but just as the thought crosses my mind, Imogen’s face flashes into view.

My heart crumbles, and for a moment, I worry that I can’t handle this again.What if something happens? What if it feels like betraying her?But it’s not like that. But if she's truly my mate, then they share the same soul. The Moon Goddess sent her back to me. Will she regain old memories? At the same time that I don’t want that for her, what if she could tell me who took her from me the first time? Either way, souls aside, Imogen would want me to be happy. She would be hurt by the way I have lived for the last five hundred years. I'm ashamed that it took her reincarnation for me to come to this realization.

Packing those thoughts away for now, I focus on my mate. The little human with silver hair who has invaded my every thought since I met her. I have to see her. I have to hear her name come from her lips. I have to make her mine.

As I walk into the open living space of our home, Benny hops off the couch, also dressed in clean clothes.

“So, how do we find her?” I ask, realizing I should have thought of that before.

“Well, I can’t show you because it has her name on it, but”—he puts his hand in his pocket, pulling out her press pass and dangling it in front of me—“I might have had Slate hack the university systems to get all her information, including her dorm, and brought a guardian from the pack to look over her.” I can tell he’s partially proud of himself and partially worried I’ll be pissed. My initial reaction is to be pissed because he didn’t tell me. But instead of reacting, I give it another moment of consideration and realize he did the right thing.

“Thank you, Benny. Let’s go get my girl.”

17

I’m startled awake by a knock on the door. Zoey is in her bed snoring, so it’s not her.

Whoever it is knocks again, “I’m coming!” I whisper shout, “Will you please shut up? It’s the middle of the night!”

Checking my watch for the time, it’s not as late as I initially thought, though it’s still after eleven o’clock. It feels later after the night I had, I guess.

I crack the door open, and all the air gets pulled straight from my lungs. My body is instantly on fire, and it feels like electricity is pinging off the walls.WHAT IS THIS?!

His large body seems to take up all the space in the narrow hallway. “R-roman,” I stutter like an idiot before reality hits me. “Oh my god, how are you standing here? You were hit so hard! Are you okay?” I’m whisper-yelling again because I’m in shockbut aware enough that I don’t want to be the jerk that wakes her roommate and a whole dorm hall.

With all the thoughts bouncing around my head and coming out of my mouth I just now notice he hasn’t even moved.Is he breathing?He’s just staring at me looking torn. Somewhere between drowning in painful memories, but also like when an animal sees fresh meat.

That’s when I realize I’m standing in front of him in my pajamas. Pajamas you don’t even wear to run to Walmart. Pajamas you don’t wear for your first real encounter with the man you can’t get off your mind. They’re my comfiest pajamas, but they only consist of silk white shorts and a cropped camisole.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I was asleep when you knocked, and I wasn’t thinking.” I feel my whole body turn red with embarrassment as I spin around to grab my fluffy pink robe off the back of the door.

I notice a similarly embarrassed Benny elbow Roman a little as I cover myself up.

Roman is still just staring at me. He looks so out of place in my boring dorm hallway. I mean the man is the size of a truck! They both are. Then you add in the beauty of these two men, and no one stands a chance.

Roman is all hard edges where Benny seems smoother and more relaxed. Since he’s staring, I decide to stare a little too. Starting with his sandy blonde-brown hair, forehead wrinkled in thought, and jeez, even his muscles have muscles. He's just wearing a pair of well-loved jeans and a white T-shirt that hugs all of those muscles, leaving little to the imagination. While all of him is gorgeous, my entire body goes on alert when I stare into his eyes. I’ve never seen more captivating eyes. Not even in all the creatures we photographed around the world. One is ashocking cerulean blue, while the other is as green as the first blades of grass in the spring.

I don’t know how long we stand there just staring at each other until Benny makes a small coughing sound.

I’m not sure whether it's from the intensity of his stare, or being caught staring myself, but it's all a little much, so I lower my head and begin to fidget when I ask, “Roman are you okay? What's going on? It's almost midnight.”

A hand broaches my line of sight and I watch as it very slowly approaches my face. The moment he makes contact it feels like the world stops.

My body is no longer mine. There’s a tingling where we’re connected and it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever felt.WHAT IS THIS?!With his index finger curled under my chin, he slowly tips my face up so I’m staring into his eyes again. I swear my heart is going to stop, and that was before he started talking.

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