Page 165 of Tainted Romance

She opened her eyes up. “Did he tell you that?”

I shook my head.

She rolled her eyes. “I told you, didn’t I?”

I nodded my head and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Why do you feel like you have to run?” More importantly, why did she want to leave me? Hadn’t I proven to her I wanted her? I wasn’t turning my back on her. I’m not changing my mind.

Her.

That was all I wanted.

Just her.

‘I’m not going.’Her voice floated into my head, and my eyes widened. She was in my head! Did she hear what I was thinking a second ago? She never reached out for me. I always reached out for her.

Still, I had nothing to hide.

She said she wasn’t leaving, but she sounded so set on the idea this morning with Blake. What really pissed me off was him wanting to run away with her. Stealing my mate. Taking her away from me. I wanted to kill him.

‘No-one is taking me away from you.’Her voice was the only calmness in my head right now.

I still wanted to kill him. Maybe that could be my first order when I take over Alpha. I couldn’t kill him, but I could forbid him from speaking to her.

My word was law, and he would have to follow it. Or leave. Yeah. He could leave. Without my mate.

‘Zane. Stop it.’She was in my head again. I looked down at her. She was smiling. So sweetly.

“You really aren’t leaving?” I said to her. “Because I can’t just wake up one morning and find you gone.”

That would kill me. Literally.

“I already decided this afternoon I wasn’t leaving.” She leaned up and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. “Before your dad came and saw me.”

“What?” Why the hell did he come here!

“Don’t go into panic mode.” She frowned. “Your face is telling me you are panicking.”

“Did he scare you off? Is he the one that made you want to leave?” My father and his stupid fucking rules.

“No, I decided I wasn’t leaving before he came.”

“And what? He threatened you?” I told him Allie was off limits. She was mine. I would handle her progress back into the pack. She wasn’t his concern. “He made you want to go, didn’t he?”

“No. God, you are really jumping to conclusions.” She smiled. “Ryder told him about us.” She frowned. “Not that I’m sure if there is an us.”

“There is an us.” Her and me. That was it. Us. We were a couple. She did realize that, didn’t she? God, I just marked her, she didn’t need me to make it clear she was my girlfriend. Heck, she was a hell of a lot more than a girlfriend.

Me marking her meant I was hers. Her marking me meant she was mine. We were past simply being a couple.

She frowned again. “Still not sure about that, but anyway, Ryder told him, and he also heard I had the day off school so he came around.”

My eyes hardened. “To tell you off? To threaten you? To list all the reasons why we shouldn’t be together?” God, I had heard the reasons. The reasons were the source of my pain. When Allie said she wasn’t fighting it anymore, the reasons were why I didn’t make a move on her.

It was when she had the accident that I realized I didn’t give a fuck what dad thought, or what was best for the pack. All I cared about was her, and it took me too bloody long to figure that out.

“No, to offer his support.”

I frowned at her. That wasn’t possible. I shook my head. “No way.”

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