Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 53656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
I closed the door behind me, relief barreling down my spine at the sight of her safe and healthy in that chair.
But it didn't stop me from being angry with her.
“Why are you so mad at me?” she asked, and I tilted my head. “I can feel it.”
I furrowed my brow, but shook my head.
She bolted off the chair, stopping within inches of me as she looked up at me. “I saved you. Isn't that proof enough—”
“You didn't save yourself,” I cut her off with a growl, and she blinked up at me with confusion. “I don't know what I'm more mad about,” I continued. “The fact that you didn't save yourself or the fact that you put yourself at risk for me.”
“I would do it again,” she said without of hint of hesitation, and a low growl rumbled in my chest. “Be mad,” she said shrugging. “I don't care. You're alive. And that's all that matters to me.”
“Why? Why would you put your life above my own?”
“Oh, I don't know,” she said sarcastically. “Maybe it's because I'm helplessly in love with you? Maybe it's because I've been in love with you since the day you listened to my past and didn't judge me? The day you fed me and cared for me in a way that nobody else had? Or maybe it's because my love only grew every single night we were together on that mission? Or maybe it was the night this showed up,” she said, and hiked up the loose dress she wore, revealing whorls of black ink on her inner thigh.
I immediately dropped to my knees, stroking my thumb over the mark that I’d memorized centuries ago.
My mark.
Mate. No fucking shit, she was my mate.
I glanced up at her from where I kneeled. “Now I know what I'm more angry about,” I said, slowly standing to tower over her. “You always save yourself,” I demanded. “There's no longer a me without you and there's nothing I wouldn't do if something happened to you. Do you understand?”
She nodded, looking timid and worried in a way I'd never seen before.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Are you upset?” she asked. “Won't you be embarrassed at court, with my history, with who I am, with what blood runs in my veins?”
I slid my fingers through her hair, tilting her head back so she couldn't lose my gaze. “You are my mate,” I said the words final and inarguable. “I don't give a fuck about what anybody else thinks.” I brought my mouth down on hers, kissing her hard and long. “You're mine,” I said against her lips. “And I'm yours. And that's all I want.”
“All you want?” she asked, her eyes fluttering up at me.
A low growl rumbled from my chest as I bent down, tossing her over my shoulder. She squealed, laughing as I hefted her onto my bed, my hands splaying her thighs apart, her dress falling to either side of her hips.
My fangs punched out, and I tore through the fabric, shredding the seams and ripping it clean off of her.
She didn’t argue, didn’t try to slow me down. She reached for me like I reached for her—urgent and greedy. The need to claim sizzled down the bond between us, unrelenting and demanding.
“Mate,” I growled, ripping off my clothes too. It took half a second, and I was between her thighs, nothing between us.
No clothes.
No secrets.
Nothing but soul-wrenching trust and love.
“I love you,” I groaned as I aligned our bodies and sank into her.
She gasped, arching her hips off the bed to meet my thrust. “I love you,” she said. “I love you so fucking much,” she said again, emphasizing each word with a claiming roll of her hips.
Each time we connected awakened something in my soul, destroying it and rebuilding it into something stronger and more powerful than I’d ever felt before. In all my years walking this earth, I’d never felt higher than I did in this moment.
Here, with my mate, I was untouchable. Invincible. The actual Viking god she liked to tease me about.
For her, I’d be anything. Whatever she needed.
As she would for me.
I never knew…I never knew life could be as sweet as this.
“Gods, Talon, do you feel that?” she asked, her words breathless.
“I’m with you,” I growled, locking onto that connection between us that had nothing to do with the shifter bond we’d shared. This was ancient and primal and indisputable.
This was fate.
I brought our bodies flush, drawing her up so I was on my knees and she was atop me, her arms around my neck, our chests pressed together, our mouths crashing together as if we needed each other’s air.
“Cassandra,” I said, our eyes locking, the tips of our noses touching as I pounded into her, holding her with one arm locked around the small of her back, my free hand cupping her face as I held her gaze. “My mate, my love,” I said in my language, unable to distinguish the shift between the two in my carnal state.