Page 89 of Claimed By My Fiancé's Brother

The world came back to me in pieces.

The most tantalizing scent of cinnamon and spice. The taste of chlorine on my tongue. The feeling of firm, soft lips on mine. My lips tingled, my body coming to life beneath him.

Turning to the side, I coughed up the water I hadn’t even known I’d swallowed.

My savior stroked my back and gently pulled my hair away from my face, his touch evoking an emotion deep within me that had me sucking in a shocked breath at the sudden influx of words from my wolf.

It couldn’t be.It couldn’t be.

I straightened, my insides a scrambled mess as I turned to face what had to be the handsomest man I’d ever seen.

It wasn’t just the way his clothes clung to his impressive build, his ink-black hair falling over his forehead, the long dark lashes that framed blue eyes that seemed too hypnotic to be real, or the perfect symmetry of his jawline that took my breath away.

It was my wolf’s response to him.

Mate. Mate. Mate, Lara announced eagerly.

I tried to make my lips work, but the stranger got the word out first.

“Mate.”

If I had any presence of mind, I might have noted the tightness in his jaw as he said that word, or the frostiness in his ocean-blue eyes.

I didn’t.

I was still dumbstruck. Entranced.

So I leaned in, unable to stop inhaling his scent, which had me so giddy I couldn’t think straight. I reached out to trace a finger across the edge of his jawline.

He smelled so good that it was only instinctive for me to close the distance between us and press my nose to the skin of his nape, my gums tingling at the thought of sinking my canines into him and marking him as mine forever.

Mine.

I found my soul mate. Mytruemate.

For my entire life, I’d been lost. Now I would finally have someone at my side, someone I could love and who could love me the way I’d always hungered for.

Forever.

“Mate.” The word left me as a guttural moan.

My mate let out a curse under his breath, a shudder running through him as he slid his fingers through my hair, tugging me back so our gazes met.

His eyes were dark with desire, mirroring my own emotions.

He leaned in?—

“Where did she go?” Elena’s high-pitched voice reached us. “The alpha will have both our heads if her meeting with Dylan Hawthorne falls through!”

I tensed in my mate’s arms, fighting off a chill as my predicament brought me back to reality.

Father would never let this work. He would make me reject my mate. This deal with the Nightshade Pack was too important for him to let my happiness disrupt it.

My mate gathered me into his arms, moving so fast my mind couldn’t process it until we were behind a massive pillar, hiding us from Elena and my bodyguard.

I heard them approach the pool and went still. Very still.

My body was pressed against my mate’s, my head buried in his chest as one of his hands cradled the back of my head while the other gripped my waist. I shivered, and not because of my sopping wet clothes.

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