Page 30 of Mate
“Not a name we go by.”
“— in the name of Alpha-member confidentiality— ”
“Which doesn’t exist.”
“— I ask you to please not tell Misery that I’m . . . I don’t know, regressing to my Human self? She already has plenty to be nervous about.” I chew on my lower lip for a moment. “Willyou take me in, then? It’ll ease the pressure off the Southwest. And . . . I feel safer when I’m with you.”
His tongue prods at the inside of his cheek. “You do?”
I nod, wondering why it’s the truth. I’m sure Lowe and his seconds are just as capable. They may even have more of an incentive to protect me, since . . . well. Lowe has never felt the need to remind me that the part of him that matters could never be interested in me. “Yeah. I do.”
“Well, that’s too bad. Because I don’t want you to feel safe.”
“You . . . don’t?”
Glaring, he leans toward me, full of something vicious that I cannot name. “I want you to be scared shitless, Serena. I want you so fucking terrified of me, you won’t even dream of not doing what I say. I want you to feel like your soft little throat is in my hands, and I want you to be so afraid that I’ll tear into it that when I tell you to do something for your own fucking safety, you won’t consider saying anything but ‘Yes, Alpha.’?”
The last words are hissed just inches from my face, the puff of his breath hot against my cheek, and the thing is— heisterrifying. Hecouldcarve me open like an overripe pomegranate. And he’s definitely capable of forcing me to do whatever he wants. I’ve seen the way even his seconds look at him, love and trust and respect mixed with circumspection. I’ve heard Lowe and Misery whisper their worries. I am aware that there is an edge of unpredictability to Koen.
And yet the only response I can muster to his threats is a small, apologetic smile.
He didn’t ask for me to be his mate. I didn’t ask to be a hybrid. And yet here we both are.
I cannot help myself. I lift my hand, and with the backs of my fingers I stroke the skin of his cheek. It’s the lightest touch, barely anything. But it sends currents trembling down my arm, clamoring for more.
Koen’s muscles tense, and he flinches from my touch. With a roll of his eyes, he unfolds away from me, and cold seeps back into my bones.
“You’re such a fucking nuisance,” he murmurs, almost softly.
“I know.” I press my lips together. “Thank you again for— ”
“Serena.”
“I know, but I have to say it, and— ”
“Just mulch Saul’s rose beds, and we can be even.” He spins on his heel. Is he leaving?
“Are you going to bed?” I ask after him.
“After I’m done.” He doesn’t specify with what.
“Where will you be sleeping?”
“There are half a dozen beds in this cabin.”
What a nonanswer. And on top ofthank you, he must also not be big intogood night, because he opens the door and—
“Koen?”
He stops. Turns to me with an expression that’s equally patient, insulting, and dismissive. The quintessentialAlpha has shit to dolook.
“Just . . .” I swallow. “The mate thing.”
His face doesn’t move a millimeter. His biological predestination to want sex with me seems to interest him less than the favorite yogurt flavor of the fifteen- to- twenty-one demographic.
“The rest of your pack, do they know?”
He shrugs, one shouldered. Truly, he does not give a shit about the stuff I spend my nights overthinking. “Everyone does.”
