Page 19 of Forever Mates

“You’re my mate.”

“I know that.”

“The Luna gave you to me.”

“I know,” I say again. “She gave you to me, too.”

Even though they’re just words, the way I claim Ryker in return has him dropping his arms to his side. Before I can guess what’s going to do, he’s crossed the room, heading right for me. Gripping me in a hold that’s eerily like the one the vampire did to me earlier, Ryker lifts me easily, pressing me against the length of his body.

His chin dips. He doesn’t bite me, though. Instead, he buries his face in the curve of my shoulder, his lips finding the four jagged scars that wrap around my throat, past my collarbone, before disappearing beneath my t-shirt.

“Don’t leave me, Gem,” he whispers in a voice that just about breaks my fucking heart. “I sensed you leaving the mountain, then the pain… and I couldn’t get to you.”

That vamp was right. I am a bitch. Here I am, assuming Ryker’s letting the old jealousy about Aleks rule him when it’s so much more than that. If I thought the year I kept away from him was hell, it was nothing short of torture for my mate.

And what did I do? Sneak out and disappear into Muncie, just like I did that long ago May night.

“I won’t.” With his arms wrapped around me, it takes a little work to wiggle mine out of his tight embrace. When I do, I thread my fingers through his hair, keeping him against me. “If it means so much to you, I’ll stay on the mountain.”

For now. I’ll stay on the mountain for now.

I don’t have to say those last two words. Ryker knows. He’ll never try to keep me locked up here, his captive mate on a silver chain, but if it makes his life easier not to worry about me while there’s already so much weighing him down, easing his mind is the least I can do.

He’s my mate. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for him.

* * *

The next morning,my wolf rouses before the rest of me does.

I’m not ready to be awake. After Ryker’s heartfelt confession, I took it upon myself to reassure my mate that he has nothing to worry about. There’s only been one male I’ve ever loved like this, and no matter how jealous he is over my friendship with Aleks, I choose him. I’ll always choose him. He’s my fated mate, the other half of my soul, and if he really asked me to, I’d give up everything for him.

It’s hard for me to reconcile the strong, powerful, calculating Alpha with the male who broke down in my arms last night. From the moment he found me in Muncie, claiming me in front of the crowd in Charlie’s back in June, he’s been cocky and sure that we’d end up together. After all, we’re fated. In theory, that’s how it’s supposed to work.

But, as my mom and Jack Walker proved, the Luna doesn’t always get it right. That’s why a mate has to choose. He could never force me, just like how Walker could never force my mom. We get to choose, and I think that’s what part of Ryker’s problem is. He’s convinced that I only chose him to get back at my bio-dad.

Hopefully, after the night we shared, he believes me when I swear that Walker has nothing to do with how much I wanted to be Ryker’s bonded mate. Sure, I might’ve moved a little faster than I planned because I felt Walker and Shane breathing down my neck, but it doesn’t change anything. I’ve always wanted Ryker, and I finally just let myself have him.

It’s only been a couple of weeks since our Luna Ceremony. The time we were supposed to have to get used to this new stage in our relationship was cut short when Trish went missing. I guess it’s affecting us both in different ways. I’m eager to face Walker and demand he give us our packmate back, while Ryker is trying everything he can to run his pack and keep his alpha mate from running off half-cocked.

‘Cause, you know, it’s not like I have a history of doing that or anything…

We’re in this together. I have to remember that Ryker is my mate. My partner. I have to trust him, just like he has to give me some more freedom. If we can learn to respect each other, we’ll learn to live this new life together.

I mean, I already love him. I claimed him, and he claimed me. The hard part is out of the way. Sure, we’ll have some growing pains as we figure out how two alphas can exist without one trying to dominate the other, but if anyone can do it, me and Ryker can.

Last night, I told him all of that before doing something an alpha rarely does: I apologized to him. I was so intent on sneaking away, I never thought about how it would make Ryker feel if he realized that I was gone. With a promise that I would try not to do that again, I invited him to join me in the shower to help me rinse off the lingering scent of Aleks’s apartment and the vampire blood from my skin.

He did, and once I was clean, he spent the next couple of hours making sure that I was completely coated in his scent. Ryker probably went a little overboard, but considering he was single-mindedly devoted to my pleasure, I really can’t complain about his methods.

Still, when I say hours, I mean hours. A shifter’s stamina is something amazing, and though we stopped halfway through for a late dinner, my mate decided going down on me was the only dessert he was hungry for. I think I passed out after the second time he made me come with his gorgeous mouth, only to wake up when he pulled me on top of his chest, nuzzling his marks gently.

He does that a lot. Almost as if he can’t believe that I’m wearing his marks, whenever we’re alone and he lets down his guard, he inevitably ends up paying them close attention. I always end up melting in his arms when he does which is probably another reason why does it, but I don’t care. In some ways, even I can’t believe that I’ve finally bonded this amazing male to me for life.

My body is well-used. A human would probably be achy from how fierce the two of us mated at one point, but I’m a wolf. As soon as I accept that I’m getting up, I’m feeling the need rushing through me. I’m totally ready to jump my mate again.

Before I reach for him, though, my wolf yips to get my attention. All thoughts of a little morning mating flee from my head as I realize what my wolf has been trying to tell me: an unfamiliar wolf is approaching the Alpha’s cabin.

Another breach? Oh, hell no.

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