Page 23 of Hunting for Love

Zander’s smile takes my breath away. “More than anything.”

“Then I will. I’ll bite you and be your mate for real.”

Zander kisses me softly, his excitement and happiness practically palpable in the room around us.

“You keep giving me gifts that I can’t dream of repaying,” he murmurs against my lips.

I swallow thickly. “You’ve given me enough just by being here.” My heart speeds up and my hands begin to shake. “You’re not the only one who’s had to run. I understand.”

“I remember you telling me you ran away from the little town you grew up in,” Zander says softly, both of us sitting down, our hands connected between us. With his hands in mine, I feel strong enough to tell him about my past.

“As you know, there’s something that happened to all of us, something that turned our paths towards the supernatural. There’s a reason we’re all hunters.” Zander nods, squeezing my hands and encouraging me.

“My father was not a good man. He was angry a lot. He gambled a lot. He got our family into a lot of debt and my mother often just turned away, pretending not to notice all the damage he was doing.”

“That sounds awful,” he murmurs as he listens. Zander pulls my hands up to his mouth, kissing the back of them.

“It wasn’t great. But my mother and I made it through the tough times. But one day, he came home and he wasdifferent. I still don’t know exactly what happened, but I have my theories. I think he sold his soul, Zander.”

Zander gasps. “You candothat?”

I shrug, pain lancing through my chest as I remember that night. “He was a monster.”

“Did he hurt you?” I shake my head, but my eyes are sad. “Oh no,” he whispers and I’m struck with how well Zander already knows me.

“My mother,” I confirm. “That was the very first time I killed a monster.”

I wait a moment, my eyes staring down at the floor. I’m not sure I can handle the look of distress or disgust on Zander’s face. This is news that only the other guys of my crew know. I have blood on my hands and I would understand if that was too much for Zander to handle.

“You did what you had to do.”

I tug Zander forward, kissing his forehead. Relief goes through me so strong I feel like I could cry. “I did. I still wonder if there was something I could have done. I had no idea the supernatural was even a thing back then. But now I would have found the person holding his soul. I would have tried everything.”

“You can only do as much as you know, Ronny. You saved yourself. Without that, you wouldn’t have been able to saveus.”

Emotion hits me full force in the chest. I needed to save myself in order to someday save my mate, to save our son. I never regretted that night, but it still felt uneasy and wondering if I’d done the right thing. I still don’t know but now I have people around me that wouldn’t be the same if I wasn’t around.

I fought to find them without even knowing it.

“Thank you for listening. I hope this doesn’t change how you feel about me.”

“How could it,” Zander says, running his nose softly against my own. “You’re amazing, Ronny. And we’re lucky to have you.”

“I’m the lucky one to have you as my mate.”

“Papa?”

We both look over, freezing when we find JJ standing there watching us with wide eyes. Zander holds out his hand and JJ walks over, crawling into Zander’s lap.

“You’re mates?”

Zander looks at me, wincing slightly but I just nod, letting him take the lead on this. It doesn’t really feel like my place to say too much, not unless Zander wants me to. I might be Zander’s true mate, but I don’t want to overstep with JJ.

“Ronny is my true mate,” Zander explains softly. “Lady Fate saw Ronny fit to be my perfect mate, baby.”

“But what about Daddy? Are we ever going to see him again?”

Zander swallows thickly. “No. We won’t ever see your daddy again.”

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