Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 222(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 222(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
Leah felt like she had no individuality. It was almost frowned upon. Aside from her interest in painting, she didn’t have many hobbies. No one did. Khloe was musical, so she played the piano, but in both cases, no one really cared much about their skill level.
If Leah had her way, she would paint all day most days. It was freeing. She went into her head and escaped the world through the brush in her hand. Would her mate care that she enjoyed painting? Would he permit her to keep the hobby? Or would he squelch her artistic side and force her to behave in some proper way expected of the mates of Alpha Protectors?
She knew her submission would be expected. It was expected of everyone in their pack. Her mother had taught her to cook and clean from a very young age. Most females in their pack were homemakers. They managed their houses and raised their offspring. It was, once again, tradition.
What a stupid tradition.
Renewed frustration consumed Leah as she pictured herself arguing with her mate over her desire to paint. Would he want her to get pregnant right away and focus on their family?
Gross. She shuddered. The thought of being pregnant made her want to vomit. She didn’t even relish the thought of what she would have to do to put that infant in her body in the first place.
Leah was aware that many women her age were already mated and pregnant. They all seemed ecstatic as though they were carrying the best gift in the universe inside their bodies.
Sheesh. No, thank you.
Babies cried. They needed attention around the clock. They had to eat in the middle of the night. They had to be changed and held and played with. Exhausting.
And yet…most likely by this time next year, Leah would be just like her peers, gigantic and waddling around with a small human inside her.
Why was she letting all these thoughts consume her? She was near tears for the millionth time. Lately, she’d cried a lot. She hadn’t been able to stop herself. She would wake up in the middle of the night sad, nervous, frustrated, and angry with the world.
Why was life so unfair?
“It’s time to take your position, Leah,” her father stated.
She glanced at the spot on the floor in front of her parents. A pillow was placed in the center of the ceremonial room. She was expected to kneel on it and bow her head.
Even during the ceremony itself she would not see her intended mate. She would stare at his shoes while his father spoke the ritual words that would bind them for eternity.
Leah took a deep breath and shuffled toward her destiny.
Eternity was a long time.
Chapter Five
Elias stepped into the government building with his parents and followed them toward the center where the round room of his doom was located.
They were a few minutes late, which was considered rude and unacceptable, but he was struggling to care. No one would comment. That would be even ruder.
Resigned, he lifted his head and took a deep breath, thinking to fortify himself. Instead, he stopped dead in his tracks in the middle of the hallway. His vision swam, and he felt like he might faint, so he reached out with a hand and planted his palm on the wall to ground himself.
His parents stopped moving and turned around.
“Elias?” his mother said, worry in her voice.
His father chuckled, the bastard.
Elias lifted a finger to stop the questions. He needed a moment.
Holy fuck.
He’d been told how powerful the connection would be, all-consuming, but he’d had no way of fully grasping what everyone meant. They’d expressed that, too. His friends and his brother, and even his father, had laughed when they’d tried to explain this feeling, informing him he could not understand until it happened.
And here he was. It was happening.
He let out a slow breath and drew in another, simply because he needed oxygen to survive. Breathing made things worse, though. His knees weakened. Every inhale drew her into his body as if she were physically entering him.
Thousands of thoughts raced through his mind, one on top of the next. He was an asshole for ever thinking he could have ignored this bond. He hadn’t put forth any effort at all to prepare for his intended mate as though she would mean nothing to him.
He’d seen her as an inconvenience, someone who would move into his private space, touch his things, speak when he liked to be alone with his thoughts.
Never had he grasped how instantaneously he would put her at the top of his priority list and never look back. That’s how he felt, and he hadn’t even seen her yet. He could scent her from the hallway, for fuck’s sake.
How much more powerful would this feel when he stepped into the room, when he touched her, when he held her, when he set his mark upon her?