Page 14 of What's Rogue Got To Do With It

I hadn’t wanted to leave Larkin, but I’d used the last of the gas for filling the generator, and once it was gone, we wouldn’t have any electricity. I had no choice but to run into town and refill the reserves.

He was doing so much better. The medicine had done everything the pharmacist had hoped it would. That didn’t mean I wasn’t worried about my mate. Of course I was. I had a feeling worry kind of came with the whole mate package.

But as it turned out, it seemed like what he truly needed was for me to be away so his wolf could come out. It wasn’t that Larkin wanted to be alone or that he didn’t trust me, but sometimes our beasts do what they’re going to do and having their mate seemed to be the catalyst he needed.

Larkin’s wolf was stunning. Absolutely, positively stunning. And I could’ve watched him all day long. But my fox had other ideas. He wanted to meet him too.

I sort of always thought when I met my mate, our first shift would be hunting and we’d team together for our first hunt andfell larger game of some sort. Maybe a deer, possibly a boar, all depending on who my mate’s beast was.

But that was back when I had a den. And after my father’s challenge, the notion of having a mate was gone. My chance was over. I was marked as unmateable.

Only fate didn’t give a shit about my rogue mark. They sent Larkin anyway and in a way I couldn’t possibly deny him. Maybe if I’d walked past him in a market, I might’ve been strong enough to ignore his scent and give him a chance at a better life— one without me. But we didn’t meet at a store, we crossed paths when his life depended on me.

Well played, fate. Well played.

As I fell asleep on the bed beside him, our animals nestled together, I couldn’t help but be grateful. I didn’t know what would happen from here, but I knew two things for sure— I couldn’t mark him as mine and I wasn’t going to be able to let him go.

When I woke in the morning, I was no longer in my fur, but I was warm. Warm and safe. My mate’s arm was wrapped around me, his leg between mine, holding me to him. Our beasts must have both shifted in our sleep.

I couldn’t think of a more beautiful or perfect way to wake up.

“You’re awake,” his warm breath hit my shoulder.

“Yeah. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“You didn’t.” His cheek rubbed against my back. “I just heard your breathing change. Been awake a while.”

“How come you didn’t let me know?”

His erection was pressing against my back. “You were tired and trust me, I wasn’t sad to be like this.”

I turned in his arms so I could face him. He looked so much better—not perfect, but you could really see how the wolf in him helped heal him even further than the medication had.

“You’re so beautiful.” I cupped his cheek. “So completely beautiful.”

“You… thank you for helping me.”

He’d thanked me before, but this time, it felt like it had more weight… probably because he was so much further along in his healing process.

“I couldn’t leave you there. It was hard enough leaving you to get gas.” While I was there I even bought new gas cans to fill, in an attempt to avoid town for as long as possible.

He chuckled. “It was hard for me not to follow you.” He leaned in close, pressed his forehead to mine. “Would you mind if I?—”

Before he could answer, his lips were centimeters from mine. “Say I can.”

I did better than that, closing the short distance and brushing my lips against his once, twice, three times and then we kissed. A real kiss. Deep and filled with affection, but also heat that was close to the surface.

I pulled back, but not too much. There were things to say, things that couldn’t wait as much as I wanted to get back to kissing the sexy man in front of me. “We have to have a conversation. I’m rogue. I can’t mark you.”

He gave a single, tiny nod—one that was barely discernible if I hadn’t been paying attention.

“And you can’t mark me.” I had to be firm.

This time, he looked at me before reluctantly answering, “Okay. But can we still...?”

“I think, as long as we know the rules?—”

He slammed his lips to mine, kissing me hard with a deeper passion than he had before. And this time, the kiss didn’t break. We just kept kissing, our hard erections pressed between us.

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