Page 70 of The Beta's Heart

“You know who it is, right? There’s only one person it could be!” She clasped her hands under her chin and bounced up and down on her tippy toes.

Again, I nodded, my palms suddenly moist and my chest aching with the want to see him.

“They’re here!” I heard Ash shout from somewhere behind me.

I was glad that Posy had the good sense to grab my elbow and clear a path to the front of the crowd. The way my brain was working right now, I couldn’t pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel.

“Happy birthday!” everyone shouted around me, but all I could do was stare at the boy in front of me, too scared to move in case that ended the dream I was caught up in.

Then Tyler James held out his arms, and I ran into them, tears streaming down my cheeks, only to gasp as I felt the mate sparks for the first time, tickling my skin everywhere it touched his.

“I’m so, so happy it’s you,” he breathed as he squashed me tightly against him, and I had the inane thought,Good! He knows how to give a proper hug!

“Me, too!” I whispered. “I didn’t dare to evenwishfor this in case I jinxed it.”

“Same.” He nuzzled his nose in my hair, probably breathing in my mate scent, which made me wonder what it was, but Posy started talking before I could ask him.

“Tyler? Why don’t you take Peri for a walk while we finish up with the grilling?”

My mate nodded, then his blue, blue gaze dropped down to me, and I gave him my best smile as he led me away.

Still struggling to process that Tyler Quinn James was reallymine, I couldn’t talk, and he seemed to be in the same situation because we were about halfway down the driveway before either of us spoke.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m still in shock.”

“Trust me, I am, too,” I giggled, then said what I’d been wanting to say to him for a long time now. “I wish I would have talked to you more at school. I wanted to, but I had to appease the mean girls.”

“Wait. What? Youwantedto talk to me at school?”

“Of course, but if I did, the mean girls would target me.” Why was he looking so confused? Did he not knowwhythey would do that? To help him out, I explained, “You’re gorgeous and mysterious, and they’ve marked you as off limits to the rest of us peasants. Haven’t you noticed how no girls approach you other than Korine, Heidia, and Olivia?”

He blinked, then frowned.

“What do you mean ‘gorgeous and mysterious’? Are you sure they’re talking aboutme?”

“Um, one-hundred percent. And you are both of those things. Gorgeous speaks for itself, and you’re mysterious because you don’t interact with girls or let them get close to you.” I cocked my head to the side as I frowned up at him. “You didn’t realize any of this, did you? Why did you think girls avoided you?”

“I live in a freaking orphanage, Per. I don’t have the money to buy the right clothes or shoes, and I’m… not ‘gorgeous’ or whatever.”

“If you don’t know how good-looking you are, I can’t explain it to you,” I scoffed, wanting to roll my eyes, but minded my manners. Our bond was less than thirty minutes old; I couldn’t risk scaring him away yet! “And clothes and shoes don’t make a difference. At least not to me.”

I smiled at him again, and he seemed to go breathless. Good. I’d been struggling with that since he came around the corner of the alpha house!

“Ty?”

“Yeah?”

“What do I smell like to you? You smell like lilacs to me.”

This time, I was more aware and remembered to put my hand over my mouth when I giggled, but he gently wrapped his long fingers around my wrist and pulled my hand away, then linked our fingers.

“Don’t cover your smile, Sunshine. It’s so beautiful.”

My heart. Was never. Going to. Recover from. Those words.

All I could do was thank him and explain how I’d been self-conscious ever since Cole had teased me when I was ten or eleven. He’d said my cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk’s when I smiled and,since my face was naturally round and I wasn’t exactly thin, my cheekswerechubby and smilingdidmake them puff out.

Before I could stop my word vomit, he did it for me, laying his free hand over my lips, and those mate sparks shivered over my skin.

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