Page 27 of The Alpha's Temptation

If he wanted me out of his hair, he should’ve let me die in that arena. But he hadn’t. He’d dragged me out of there and protected me multiple times since then. But… I had gone through heat so many times, and he still didn’t want to mark me.

And now? Now I was being punished for it.

I had to go through heat.Again. This time worse.

And he didn’t.

“This would be so much easier if someone marked me.Anyone.”

A ferocious growl left his mouth. “Don’t say that.”

“It’s true,” I murmured. “If you won’t… someone will eventually.”

“Livia,” he snarled. “You know that I can’t.”

“If you’re not gonna mark me, you should reject me so this heat will be over with.”

He snapped his head toward me, saliva dripping from his canines, his eyes a golden fire. “Don’t you ever fucking say that again.”

“I mean it,” I pushed. “Reject me or mark me.”

The heat coursed through my body, making me sweat all over. I grasped onto the tree harder, my knees trembling and my eyes burning. “Please. I need something,” I pleaded. “What can I do?”

“It will pass by dawn.”

“I can’t wait that long. It hurts. Badly. It feels like my skin is too tight, like it’s burning.”

He took another step closer, then another until I stared up at him through glossy eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he growled.

“Like what?”

He drew his tongue across his canines, another growl leaving his mouth. “Like you want my hands everywhere.”

“I fucking need it,” I breathed.

“If I touch you while you’re in heat, I won’t be able to stop.”

“Then don’t stop,” I murmured, grabbing his hands. “Please.”

His eyes shifted between brown and gold, finally settling on brown. “Breathe,” he murmured softly, the word drifting into my ear. He closed his eyes. “Breathe for me, Livia. Slowly. It will pass, and I will mark you when the time is right.”

“It will never be right for you,” I said, unable to breathe steadily.

“Yes, it will,” he said, his hand twitching as if he wanted to touch me. “Every fucking instinct that I have is screaming at me to help you. But you know that I can’t do that. You’re in heat right now, and when I take you… it’s going to be when you have all your senses, when this war is over, when we’re both safe.”

CHAPTER 19

CAELAN

When we arrived home,the pack was worse than I thought it would be. Several of my pack members had been killed overnight by paid rogues and the Whispering Pines Pack, even some at the border, which allowed others to sneak in and kill more.

I ran my tongue across my canines and balled my hands into tight fists, trying to keep my cool at my desk. Highly ranked wolves and some of the elders, who had told me before I left that I would find somebody there that I would have to mate, filled my office.

My fingers tapped the desk, my rage burning inside me. I fuckingloathedtalking to them. They were all set in the old ways, and that’s not how the world worked anymore. But it didn’t matter. We had a problem. A big fucking problem.

My gaze found Livia, sitting opposite me on the couch in my office. Marcus stood at my desk, along with a couple of other wolves, debating back and forth and back and forth about what we should do. Livia looked at me, and I glanced back at her, my nostrils flaring.

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