Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 92460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry.” I offer her my condolences and gently kiss her on the lips.
I hold her closer. “I had given up.”
“I had given up, too,” Idalis admits with a quiet laugh. “I thought I was content here until you came.” A simper slips onto her full lips. “Until you came, my fated wolf.” She caresses my jaw. “Even my cards didn’t see you coming.”
A candle burns to life nearby, lending us enough light that I can see her eyes spark with a delight I’d not seen yet. She is perfect. Soft. Lush. Like I imagined my mate would be, only better, because I had never imagined a woman like Idalis.
I pull her up from the pillow and run my fingers through her hair, then hold her face in my hands. There is one part of the future that I find I cannot ignore, no matter how much I want to. I would rather ignore it as long as possible, but this moment demands honesty.
“I will have to leave you,” I murmur. “To fight in the war.”
Idalis’s smile falters. “That is what my coven did. They believed some of us must fight in the war. We all did. But none of them returned with me. I watched them all die in the fire on the battlefield.”
Without knowing what to say, I can only hold her tighter. The tragedy of war keeps my throat tight, and my words choke me.
Idalis looks into my eyes in the faint candlelight. “What if I said I didn’t want you to go?”
Chapter Thirteen
Idalis
Ryker looks deeply into my eyes, as if he is letting my words sink in slowly. I feel selfish even asking. I know he must. I only wish it were not so soon. I’ve only just met the love of my life, and I don’t think I could bear to part from him.
His fingers are still in my hair when he kisses me again, slower than before. It’s a very tender kiss in comparison to the wild way he has taken me for the past stretch of time. Has it been hours? It seems as if it must have taken at least that long, though it also seems like no time at all.
I sink into the kiss, my heart aching from the question I have asked.
What if I said I did not want you to go?
What if? What if? What would happen if I meant it with all my heart? What would happen if he agreed to stay here instead of returning to his post as a soldier? In his kiss, I feel a world of possibilities open before me. It is like finding new moons in the sky that I have looked at for all these years. Like maybe it’s possible.
It came upon me so fast—the thought that I might want him here with me. It’s something I never thought I would admit to anyone in the world. There was never any reason to think I would have anyone again, because the risk to my heart is too great. I have lost so much. I know how reckless it is to give up my heart once again.
Yet I cannot help it. There is an undeniable pull to him.
If Ryker were to leave and I were to remain silent—if he left without knowing how much I wanted him—then I know I would regret my silence for the rest of my life.
I had to ask. And I am done regretting. I’ve spent years regretting that I did not perish with my coven and trying to cover that regret of staying back to aid a fallen soldier with the thought that I loved solitude.
In some ways, yes, I did love being alone. Having time to heal and mourn and allow my powers to be felt by all who needed it. The peace I found in my fields and with my gardens was real. It simply wasn’t…complete.
Ryker groans softly against my lips, and another wave of hope comes over me. It’s matched with a wave of desire that should be impossible, given how much we have already had each other.
But then—I’ve heard that mates who are fated to be together have periods of time like this, when they can crave each other for hours. Days, even. Getting lost in the depths of pleasure and desire with one another.
I feel as if I have craved Ryker all my life.
And perhaps that is why I have survived. Perhaps that is why I have lived. It’s such a simple thing, to have a craving satisfied. To taste something so sweet.
I’m not satisfied quite yet.
As my fingers curl and I fist the sheets beside us, I know I need more of Ryker.
He pushes me down onto the pillows, covering me with just as much hunger as he had before, his cock hard and the rest of his muscles bunching with his need.