Page 162 of Mate
“Two and three-quarters,” Koen mutters.
Maddie ignores him. “Is that why he checks his phone every two minutes?”
“Yes,” Lowe says, just as Koen grunts morosely, “I have aTetrisaddiction.”
“It’s complicated,” Lowe continues. “Being away from one’s mate. On many levels. And the fresher the mating, the more unpleasant the distance.” He looks like he knows from personal experience.
“Does it get better with time?” Maddie asks.
Lowe winces. “Not as far as I know.Although. . .”
“Don’t you fucking dare say it,” Koen growls.
Once again, Lowe dares. “There are things he could do that would make it more bearable.”
“And he isn’t doing them because . . . ?”
“Your guess is as good as mi— ”
Koen chucks his phone at Lowe and is proud of how squarely he hits his mouth.
So— yeah. Fine. He’ll need to bite Serena. Then there’ll be a tangible sign of the mating, this whole business will be complete, and the instinctual, feral part of him will be soothed. He’ll feel less like his world could explode for lack of her, less like absconding with her and tucking her in the trunk of a tree and keeping her as his precious, beautiful secret. Hewillbite her— the alternative is inconceivable— but first he’ll give her time. Space. A chance to settle.
Just be fucking patient, he snarls at himself.You’re not the center of the fucking world.Sheis.
But it feels like torture when he returns to her after three days (and three hours and twenty minutes) away. Serena’s with Twinkles, waiting for Koen on the cabin’s porch, but sprints toward him before he even slows down the car. He’s terrified he’ll run her over, so he parks right in the middle of the driveway, gets out of the vehicle, and lets her softening body slam against his when she throws herself into his arms.
She stretches up for a kiss, two, a million, but she’s too little and maybe too eager and clearly hasn’t planned this out, so he has to pick her up and slide his hands down to squeeze her thighs as she wraps her legs around him.
“Can you,” she says between kisses, “never”— kiss— “leave again?” Kiss. “Like, ever?” Kiss.
The only response he can manage is a groan. He breathes her in, nose buried into the gland at the base of her neck. Yeah, of course he’ll never leave again. He’ll do her one better: they’ll stay in his cabin forever. Brick up all entrances. Sounds like a pretty fucking good deal.
He’d love to be a gentleman for once— carry her inside, give her the snacks he brought back from Human territory for her, ask how her week at work went, tell her that he missed her and— God, the banality of it sounds outrageously enticing. Problem is, it doesn’t go like that. Koen can rarely stay on task when it comes to Serena, which is his fault, his weakness, yeah, sure, but it doesn’t help that her scent is phenomenal, or that she no longer smells as intenselyhisas when he left. Not to mention, he apparentlydoesrequire sex in quantities and frequencies that are . . . humbling. And he won’t be able to let go of her until he’s certain that she’s unharmed and whole, because that’s the bottom line: he doesn’t really trust the world to treat her right if he’s not around. She’s simply too beautiful.
Koen wishes he could help himself, but that’s not the case. She’s pliable in his arms, and the couch is enticingly horizontal,and at least he manages to kick the door shut behind him before laying her down and pulling at her shirt so hard that— “Fuck”— the neckline tears. He should be sorry, but now he has full access to her tits, and maybe the universe is a good, just place after all.
“I think,” he pants against her ear, ragged, “you should just start coming on these trips with me.” His hands are trembling. He wants her too much.
“I missed you,” she says instead of yes, licking the gland under his jaw, and he doesn’t bother telling her that he missed her back, because it feels so fucking redundant when he’s trying to inhale her.
“Serena,” he mouths against her temple. It really is terrible mate behavior, fucking his partner before even saying hello, but she’s squirming underneath him, and the friction is unfuckingbelievable, and he can’t control himself. Maybe she can’t, either, andthatis when it happens.
The most life-changing event he’ll ever experience.
It almost feels like a miscalculation on her part. Because one moment she’s kissing and sucking his gland, and the next her teeth sink into the skin of his neck.
The pleasure is as stupefying as it is annihilating. He doesn’t come in his pants, but it’s a close thing. The only reason he’s able to stop himself is that the world grinds to a halt. For several seconds, it doesn’t spin. Koen and Serena stay like that, still, tethered by her bite, for long moments. And then . . .
Then she pulls away. She licks her lips, and he discovers that they are dark.
With his goddamnblood.
This time hedoescome a little bit.
For a few seconds, Serena’s eyes are full wolf. Then they transition back to human, still that beautiful, rich brown he fell for, and she’s with him once again, present, aware, and—
She blinks. “Holy shit. Did I . . . ?”
