Page 274 of His Sunshine Baby

“I’m just… a bit scared,” I admit.

I hear him sigh shortly after, and he keeps caressing my hair and skin, gently. I try to calm down, letting his smell and skin surround me in a wave of warmth.

“Elena…”

“Hm…?”

“I want you to bite me.”

“Really?” I growl. “Of all times, do you have to be feeling kinky now?”

He laughs.

“No, my sunshine, I meant… bite me, as if to mark me.”

What the fucking hell.

I push him and sit away, completely taken by surprise.

“What did you just say?”

He sighs and sits up, facing me with a very serious expression.

“Elena, I want you to mark me as your mate. Your one, official mate.”

“Nate, I don’t understand.”

“I know you don’t trust me, and it will take a while longer to restore your faith in me because of how I ended things between us, of the mistakes I made before you came back.”

“You mean all the hoes you slept with.”

“Well, yeah,” he replies, a bit nervously. “I know the fact that I had a fated mate bothers you too.”

“I hope you’re going somewhere with this, talking about the other women you slept with and the one bitch that left you.”

I better never cross that one, because I swear I won’t leave her leave in one piece if I do. Nathaniel nods again.

“Sorry, I’ll… Let’s leave that out. Anyway, what I meant to say is… I love you, Elena… Selena. I love you. Not because you bore my child, or because the sex together is great, or because of our past together. I love the woman Selena Whitewood. The strong, independent woman that doesn’t let me get what I want,doesn’t fear anyone, and is the most beautiful person I know. I even love how we fight and bicker, how you get grumpy and will pull away from me when you’re upset, how jealous you get. I love how you’re effortlessly sexy no matter what you do or wear, I love how you’re both so strong and fragile. I love your fierce side, your caring side. I love your body, your skin, the taste of your lips, your amber eyes, your soft hair. But I love even more the woman inside. I’m crazy in love with you. I’ll die if we part again, for whatever reason it is. I have one certainty, Selena. If I live or die in this war, I want it to be with you. With the one woman I chose to be in love with. I want your face to be the last thing I’ll see if I die, and the first I’ll see once it’s over if we win. You’re absolutely everything I want and will be satisfied with. I don’t care who Moon Goddess said I had to be with. I don’t give a damn about fated mates. I want the one woman that I chose myself. My second chance woman, my sunshine.”

I… I’m sobbing already. How can he say such things… like that, just… taking me by surprise and not letting me prepare my heart beforehand?

He takes my hand, my shaking hand, looking at me right in the eyes.

“Selena, I know I want to spend whatever is left of my life with you. I don’t want anyone else, I swear. That’s why I want us to mate. I know a wedding is not something you’ll rely on to trust me. But if you mark me, I’ll be yours alone. I won’t be able to mate with another woman ever. You don’t even have to let me bite you if you want. I don’t care, I can wait. What I want is for you to trust me. I’ll do anything for that.”

“Are you sure?” I ask with a trembling voice. “There is no changing your mind, Nate. Even if I grow old and smelly and very wrinkly.”

“I know.”

“I might get disfigured in the war. Lose a limb or be disabled. You’ll be stuck with me all your life.”

“I’m fine with that.”

Damn it, why does he have to… to take me by surprise all the time? And with those kinds of big words, I don’t even know how to react aside from my crying and my heart going crazy. I can become his mate? For real? His one and only mate? I had never imagined it. My marking on his neck… He had lost his fated mate. Whatever led me to think he wouldn’t want to mate with anyone else? I see so many couples together without ever taking that one, scary step. For werewolves, marking each other is the most binding form of union. A wedding is something that can be ended by divorce. A werewolf’s marking on their partner will never, ever go away no matter what. And he wants me to mark him?

“Selena, please.”

“… Fine,” I stutter, “but I want you to mark me too. I don’t want it to be just one way.”

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