Page 93 of Just One Bite
I’m still rigid as the mark dissolves under her skin.
She’s … I can’t believe she’s—
“Don’t leave,” she says, pulling me.
I’m not even the least bit tired as I bring her onto my chest.
“Never.”
Olivia is my mate. My linked mate. The fucking sky is purple.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Olivia
“I found you,” he whispers in my ear. “Finally.”
A large set of arms is squeezing my head when I open my eyes. Parker’s scent surrounds me. I recognize the coolness of his sheets, and it all comes back—the burning in my body. A filmy haze lingers over my memory, and I’m missing fragments. I attempt to move, and Parker squeezes me, so I crane my head toward the light to see him. His eyes are closed, but he’s holding me hostage in his arms.
“Parker …”
His eyes shoot open, and he breathes deeply through his nose. “Hey, feel okay?”
“I feel better. I think.”
He releases me, with very little room to wiggle free, and his pupils are blown as he sniffs at my hair.
I assess myself more thoroughly. Nothing hurts. Clothes are on.
“Tell me I didn’t strip for you.” I’m half teasing, but Parker is still smelling me. Only, it’s more subtle. There are bags under his eyes, and the whites are bloodshot. His hair is a disheveled mess, and when I move my head over his chest, I realize he never changed out of his jersey.
“No. Clothes stayed on,” he says.
“You look …” Tired. His eyes are a weird in-between shade of his normal blue and the Were yellow, leaving them a murky green.
“I had to protect you. Someone drugged you. Do you remember?”
“Yeah, most of it. We need to …” Parker isn’t letting go of me. “What?”
“I’m sorry … you just smell different. Do you feel different?”
Then it comes back, the memory of Parker’s teeth in my neck. The burning and aching in me instantly calmed, then I was unable to stay awake for another second.
“You marked me.”
“I know. I’m sorry. It was the only way to stop the potion.”
“No … it’s okay. I mean, it’s not exactly like we planned, but this works too. I just don’t feel any different.”
He’s staring at me with a soft, worried expression. It’s strangely docile. My thoughts race, then I remember what I said … what I admitted to.
“This is good. I was hoping it would be the same. That way nothing would change.”
I don’t want the way he feels about me to change because of the mark. I want Parker to still want me in the same way. Just Olivia.
“Yeah. Right.” His eyes stay that weird in-between color, and he turns his head from me.
“Can you see it?”
