“You can scent a lie. You know I’m telling you the truth.”
Declan’s beast stared out at me through his eyes, pinning me with his gaze. I suddenly felt like the prey to his predator.
I took an involuntary step back.
He narrowed his eyes and mirrored my step back with one of his own forward.
“Declan?”
He still wasn’t speaking, only stalking closer to me.
I edged further away, fighting the instinct to run. “You are mine and I am yours. I’m not sharing myself with Inarus or anyone else. What you saw was … ” I didn’t know how to explain. Anchoring my mind with Inarus’ brought us closer. Not in a romantic way but if I was loathed to lose him before, I was doubly so now.
A snarl curled Declan’s upper lip.
The back of my knees hit the bed. I had nowhere else to go.
Declan closed the space between us, towering over me. I reached up and cupped the side of his face, the urge to touch him, comfort him, too strong to ignore.
For a moment he closed his eyes and inhaled a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, some of the gold had receded. He stepped back and my hand dropped between us.
He looked away but I moved with him, refusing to let him shut me out.
He’d already closed off his end of the bond and god that’d hurt.
I tugged on his hand. “Look at me.”
He shook his head as if to say what’s the point?
“Look at me.” Please. I silently begged, pushing my emotions through the bond in the hopes he would recognize them for what they were.
Despite myself, I clenched my teeth and braced myself for his rejection.
Declan’s eyes pierced me and rooted me to the spot. Every one of my senses on high alert.
“You’re mine.” Possession filled his every word. “I will walk through fire for you. I will bleed for you. But—”
I steeled myself.
“If he is who you want …”
A small part of me shattered. “Is that what you think? That I want him? Is that why you’ve closed yourself off to me?”
Declan pulled his hand free of mine. “I would do anything for you, Aria. But I cannot bear to feel you love another.”
A laugh escaped me. Then another. Before I knew it, I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop.
“You’re laughing.” He didn’t sound pleased. He sounded—confused.
“Stop that.”
I couldn’t. Tears pricked the corners of my eyes and I wiped them away with the backs of my hands.
“You think I want him? Like want him want him?” I choked out the words. “All of this is because you think I’m what … rejecting you?”
Declan folded his arms across his chest. The fabric stretched tightly across his muscular shoulders.
“This isn’t funny.”
It wasn’t. I knew it wasn’t but this whole time I’d been wrapped up in my own discomfort and insecurities. I hadn’t given any thought to his. I thought he was going to reject me. He hadn’t brought up the mating ceremony. He hadn’t tried to solidify our bond. Was all of that because he thought I didn’t want it? Want him?
“You’re my mate.”
He nodded his head. “I am.” His expression was still closed off.
That wouldn’t do.
I closed the space between us once more and placed my hand on his chest. He scowled down at me, his emerald green eyes uncertain. I slip my hand up and cupped his stubble-roughened cheeks in the palms of my hands.
His eyes searched mine. For what I wasn’t sure. But I hoped my words gave him what he needed.
“You are my mate. You chose me. And I chose you. In this lifetime and in the next. You are mine. I am yours. No one and nothing will ever change that.”
It took less than three seconds for my words to sink in before he hauled me into his arms and kissed me.
I kissed him back. It was hungry and desperate.
I gasped.
Strong arms lifted me before he laid me on the bed with the utmost care.
His skin was hot beneath my touch.
Declan trailed kisses down the sensitive skin of my neck. He lingered at the spot where my neck and shoulder met and nibbled along the scar left behind from his bite.
I moaned and leaned into him. I wanted him desperately. All of him. His lips. His touch. His cock inside of me. The need to feel every inch of his body bare against mine was becoming too much.
Declan ripped my shirt over my head and tossed it to the side. Our lips crashed together again and I felt the prick of claws along my ribcage before my bra was flung to the floor in pieces.
I sat up on my elbows only to be pushed back before Declan stole my breast into his mouth. He sucked on the right breast while squeezing the left. Every touch was perfect with just the right amount of pressure.
I smelled pine and mint and sucked in a lungful of air as Declan made quick work of removing the remainder or our clothes.
My eyes widened at the sight of him. Broad muscular shoulders tapered down to a narrow waist. His body was glorious.
He crawled back over me, one of his hands skating over the soft, sensitive skin along my waist. I squirmed beneath his touch, a delicious feeling stealing through my body.
I nuzzled Declan’s neck as his hands began to wander lower and lower.
“So beautiful.”
Declan moved his leg between mine, spreading my legs further apart. I slid one leg around his hip and
