Page 53 of Watch Me Burn

Relaxing his hands, he runs his fingers through his hair. “Your scent… your voice. All of it. It drives me absolutelyinsane.” His eyes turn molten. “I’m trying to be good. I’m trying to not to let me alpha wolf dominate you. But it’s so Alpha damn hard when all I want to do is touch you. Taste you. A kiss will never be enough. I want it all. I wanteverything.”

He’s fast. Like, fuckingfast. His shifter speed has him near the woods, then suddenly in front of me before I can blink.

I don’t think I realized how big Conall is until right this very moment when he has me boxed in. I stumble backward, the back of my legs hitting the big rock behind me. I fall, landing on my ass.

He stalks closer until he can throw out his hands, bracing one on each side of my hips.

He bows his head over mine, our foreheads touching. “I want to be the only one.”

Can I promise him that?

Is that what he wants from me?

Fated mates mate for life. Wolves mate for life.

Can I give him forever?

I’m into him. There. I’ve admitted it. I like Conall, and if I’m finally being honest with myself, I’ve been dying to kiss him since the day his grumpy ass followed me out of the commissary, carrying the bottle of conditioner he bought specifically for me because I didn’t see it on the shelves, and his shifter ears overheard me griping to myself about it.

Now that’s I’ve had a taste myself, I’m a sure fucking thing. If Conall was a guy I met in Queens or in Clarity, and there wasn’t the whole idea of promising him forever after a booty call, I’d be dragging him up to my bedroom right now and deflowering my growling virgin.

Shit. I’m digging the idea of being the only one for him way more than I should, but there’s one problem: Conall can tellwhen I’m lying. If I’m anything less than one hundred percent certain that I can give him what he’s asking for, I can’t say ‘yes’.

He doesn’t expect me to.

“You don’t have to say anything now. It’s why I kept it to myself. I’m a wolf shifter, Red. I’ve always known that my goddess would guide me to the one female meant for me. But you’re not a shifter. Luna, you spent most of your life as a human. You don’t understand the power of a mate bond. That ain’t a knock against you, either. There are plenty of human mates. But if I wanted to keep you… I needed you to choose me. Not because a goddess told you, too, but because you saw me as a worthy male.”

Conall is nothing if not worthy. So he’s got a bit of a temper. So do I, and it’s probably worse than his. So he snarls and he growls and he’s overprotective. It’s better than being treated as if I was disposable.

That’s happened to me more times than I want to admit.

I stay quiet, thinking. Taking my silence as an answer only he understands, Conall pulls back again.

“Nothing has to change. We’ll find the fire opal, if that’s what you want.”

That’s the problem.

Suddenly, I don’t knowwhatI want.

CHAPTER 17

REJECTION

Open communication between potential romantic partners is a beautiful thing. I don’t have that much experience with it, granted, but things seemed to change for the better after Conall admitted what it seems like the whole stinking village knew: I’m his fated mate.

Even Elise admitted with a sheepish shrug that she figured as much. It was because of the way he couldn’t keep himself from following me around like a lovesick puppy dog, and how he had been leaving animal carcasses on our porch almost immediately after we came to stay.

She knew he was doing it. Just like I’ve figured out she’s getting as much blood out of the dead animals as she can to keep from getting too thirsty. I’m not sure why she’s keeping that a secret—and I’m guessing that she’s going hunting in the woods whenever I can’t find her in the village—but I do understand why she couldn’t tell me about her suspicions about Conall and me.

It’s a supe thing. Mates are precious, and they’re private. Until Conall made his move, she accepted it wasn’t her business. She did her best, teasing me if only to help me realize how I’vebeen inexplicably drawn to the wolf from the stars, but other than that, it was up to the mates to work it out for themselves.

Which I would have no problem doing… if it wasn’t for the fact that, ever since I discovered I’m his mate, Conall has been avoiding me like I’m the plague.

No breakfasts at the canteen. No boot prints outside the back of the house as if he was out there, watching over me at night. He might be sneaking down to the cave without me, but we haven’t taken a trip out of Dyea together in days.

Trying not to look too eager, I stroll around the village, perfectly aware that the rest of the supes are wondering what’s going on with the ‘human’ and the leader of the pack—oh, I’m sorry.Security. I don’t see Conall anywhere, and I’m not so desperate that I bang on his door and demand for him to talk to me.

At least not at first.

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