Page 10 of Broken Mate

“What?”

“Just moved in. We’re neighbors.”

He studied her but Anais couldn’t meet his gaze. What was she going to do? He couldn’t be saddled with a woman like her. A defective wolf. She might get better, or she might not.

“Down the hallway on the right is the kitchen. Downstairs is a gym. We have a recreation room, a mini theater, and lots of privacy.”

He smiled, but when she couldn’t return it, turned to her aunt.

“Ruby,” he said, “can you give us another moment?”

“Sure,” her aunt said. “I’ll just go and get the, uh, well, whatever I’m going to get.”

She turned and practically ran away, leaving her all alone with her mate. The one man she’d been waiting all her life for. Only now, he arrived too late.

“Please look at me, Anais.”

It wasn’t a request. Her gaze slid over his perfect features, his beautiful smile. Thick dark hair. Piercing brown eyes. A neatly trimmed beard shaded the lower half of his face, but it didn’t detract from his handsomeness. Quite the opposite, in fact. It gave him a wild, untamed look.

“You said you know what we are to one another. We’re fated mates.”

With her heart in her throat, she nodded.

“Then talk to me, Anais. What’s going through your mind?”

“I never thought I’d find you,” she said, thick tears threatening to choke her up. “As a child, I always hoped, but you know the odds.”

“I do.”

“When my father ordered me to marry to broker peace, I agreed because I thought I’d never find you.”

“But you did.”

“I found you too late.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Just look at me, Ledger.” She didn’t gesture to her body, but she knew he understood. “You don’t want to be stuck with someone like me.”

“Someone like you?” He tilted his head. “I don’t understand.”

“Don’t be dense.” She blew out a huff. “I’m crippled, Ledger. I’m broken.”

“Don’t say that about yourself, you hear me? Don’t ever put yourself down. You will get better, but even if you don’t, I will still want you.”

“Stop,” she said, shaking her head. “What you did out there in the car, you know, lifting me? You might have to do that for the rest of our lives.”

“All right,” he said. “So, I’ll do that for of our livestogether.”

“I wouldn’t be able to carry a child.”

“If that’s the price I pay for having you, I happily give up unconceived children.”

She shook her head. “I won’t let you.”

“You won’t let me? Anais, listen. Fated mates are forever. You know this. I will never forsake you. I will never step out on you. I will never want someone else.”

“You don’t understand!” she yelled. “God! Why are you making this so much harder than it has to be? Fine. If you won’t say the words, then I will. I, Anais MacKenzie Arnauld, rej—”

---