Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“I love you, Asher Martin. Forever and always.”
Lotta
“What happened here?” I ask in the shower the next morning, my fingertips tracing the jagged marks of a recent trauma.
I woke in Asher’s arms again–pure heaven, if shifters believed in heaven. We made love in the warm sheets, and I told him the story of what happened with his dad. It killed him, but he stayed present. Held me. Listened. Cried.
I promised I wasn’t traumatized. That my only trauma had ever been over hurting him.
Then he carried me here, to the shower, where we made love again. If this is my life now, I love it.
“What?” Asher looks down at his torso and swipes a hand over the healing wounds.
How did I not notice them last night? I was too swept away to even realize my mate was hurt.
“Oh. I got hit by a car yesterday.”
“Asher!”
“No, it was a good thing. I was out of my mind, running up through bear country. Getting hit on the highway knocked the sense back into me. That’s what made me realize I’d screwed up leaving you.”
The part of me that believed I had to muscle through life and do everything on my own relaxes even more. I’m still getting used to the idea that I’ll never be alone again. That someone will always have my back.
“I love you.” I can’t say the words enough. Every time I say them or hear them, a new wick is lit inside me. The flames grow stronger. Brighter.
Asher flashes me that dimpled smile that makes my knees weak as he loops an arm behind my back and pulls me up against him. “Say it again.”
“I love you.”
“One more time.”
“I love you.”
His kiss is soft and giving. “I want to turn the world inside out for you.”
The wings around my heart beat faster.
He turns off the water and pulls open the shower curtain. “And that starts with getting you to your job on time.” He grabs a towel from the rack and wraps me in it. “And while I will hate pretending at school, I can’t fucking wait for every shifter in Wolf Ridge to know you belong to me.”
I laugh. “You’re crazy.”
“Yep. Crazy for you.”
Asher
There’s a fuck-ton of whispering about me when I walk into the school. Which makes sense because I’m sure the entire town heard by now that I threw a guy out of the art studio window.
I had to do the same sneak-of-shame out of Carlotta’s place and drive separately on my motorcycle, which I hated, but that doesn’t dampen my pride. I marked my mate. Lotta belongs to me in the eyes of the pack. Every shifter will know she’s been claimed.
Of course, no one can tell by my scent anything has changed.
Maybe they will by my swagger. By my smile. By the lift of my sternum and the openness of my chest.
My inner pack–Abe, J. J., Markley and Seb–is all over me, crowding around my locker.
“What the fuck, bro?” Abe gives me a friendly shove. “I literally lit up your phone last night. You couldn’t just text me back to let me know you’re still in the fucking pack?”
“Yeah, dude,” Seb says. “Asshole. We even went over to see your mom last night, and she didn’t know anything.”
Right. My poor mom. I did call her after the council meeting to give her the news, so she didn’t suffer all night like my friends.
“You no-showed to school and practice then drove up and threw a guy through a window yesterday. What is going on with you?” J. J. demands.
I grin. “Yeah, sorry. I was, uh, kinda busy.”
“Busy doing what?” Abe demands.
“Marking my mate.”
A slow smile spreads across Abe’s face. “No shit.”
“What mate?” J. J. demands. Abe obviously kept my secret, even after what happened yesterday.
“Carlotta James,” Abe can’t help himself now. He offers me a fist to bump.
“Hottie Lottie,” Markley says.
“Call her that again, and I’ll rip your tongue out,” I say, but I’m too happy to sound like I mean it.
The insane jealousy and possessiveness has been soothed by the knowledge that she’s mine now.
“What, it’s true. You’re lucky, bruh. So lucky. You found your fated mate. Both of you did. While still in high school. What are the fucking chances?” Markley says.
“One in a million.” Abe catches sight of his gorgeous mate walking down the hall, and his grin gets as cocky as mine. He fist-bumps me again. “Gotta go. Congratulations.”
“So you’re not banished or suspended?” J. J. asks when Abe leaves.
“Nope. Just ordered to mark her and keep it a secret from humans.”
“Lucky bastard.”
“Seriously. Lucky as fuck.” Markley sounds jealous. Finding your one true fated mate is something most of us are programmed to believe won’t happen for us. But maybe that’s just council propaganda to make us stay in Wolf Ridge and not go out searching.