His eyes widen, his face turns red, and the vein on his temple gets so big I think it might pop, but he doesn’t let go.
He’s holding his breath as the pain rockets through him. “Ow,” he finally says. “What was that for?”
“I know what you have planned,” I scream at him, “and I’m not going to submit! I won’t go down easy!”
“You won’t?” he says, looking like I just stabbed him in the heart. “But you’re my mate.”
“I’m not your—what?” Did he just say what I think he said? I’m his mate?
He lets me go and stares down at me with such longing and pain in his eyes that it breaks me. The need to escape is replaced with an intense need to sink into his arms and hold him.
But I don’t. He is a psychopath after all.
“Alyssa, we’re mates,” he says softly. “Don’t you feel it?”
I feel something. Something strong and pleasant radiating through me.
I look up at him with new eyes, open eyes, and see what he sees. Holy shit, he’s right…
My body urges me to go to him. I feel the pull. We stare at each other and the connection between us takes hold. I can feel it building, growing, strengthening with each second I stare into his beautiful brown eyes.
“You’re a shifter?” I ask in a breathless voice.
He nods slowly. “A Kodiak bear shifter. I’ve been desperately waiting for you for a long time, Alyssa.” He reaches out and touches me like he’s touching an angel. “I can’t believe you’re finally here.”
I swallow hard when I feel his warm hand on my cheek. My eyes fall closed and a moan escapes my throat as he tucks a strand of hair behind my ear and then drags the back of his fingers down my neck. A spot under my ear immediately starts tingling. It feels like it’s missing something… His lips? His teeth? No, that would be crazy.
I push the thought away and try to clear my fuzzy brain. “But wait a minute,” I say, snapping back to reality. I take a step back. “What was that talk of killing me on your ranch?”
“What?!” he says with a gasp. He shakes his head, trying to process my words. “The what?”
“Maybe I misunderstood that part.” I bite my bottom lip as I try to replay it in my head. “Dicks In Ranch! What about that? You’re trying to stick your dick in me!”
He laughs and my hands squeeze into fists. How dare he laugh at me.
“Dixon, not dicks in. It’s my last name. Jacob Dixon.”
He pulls out his driver’s license to show me and I can’t help but laugh too. Right. I guess that makes more sense.
“But the bloodbath on the ranch! You and your brothers are going to kill me!”
He shakes his head as he looks at me with sad eyes. “I’m not going to hurt you, Alyssa. You’re my mate. I was born to protect you. The bloodbath is concerning those bikers that left when you arrived. Did you see them?”
I kind of remember something moving in my peripheral vision but I was so focused on getting the hose out and connected that it didn’t really register.
He tells me they’re bad wolf shifters who want his family dead. They’re going to be attacking them in three days.
Just great. I’m mated with a man who has a pack of rabid wolf shifters after him. Just my luck.
But as I stare at his strong jaw and soft lips, I can’t imagine being mated to anyone else. I want him. I choose him.
He stood with me back there when that monster Grey wanted my head and I’ll stand with him. Because that’s what mates do for each other. And that’s what we are.
I swallow hard as I stare up at him. I’ve never wanted anyone so badly. Kissing him is all I can think about.
I clear my throat as I stare into his hungry eyes. “One more question.”
“Anything.”
“You said something about a hotel?”
Chapter Five
Jacob
My Kodiak grumbles as we stand in the elevator and Alyssa’s intoxicating scent fills the small space. He’s already obsessed with her and so am I.
My fingers ache with the need to touch her, my body tingles, my cock throbs. I’m still in shock every time I look over and see her gorgeous face. She’s a total stunner and I’m already in love.
I can’t wait to know every part of her intimately. Not just her body, but her mind too. I want to know what she thinks and how she processes things. I want to know her wants and desires and then spend the rest of my life trying to fulfill them for her. I’ll be her everything. I’ll be the man she deserves.
It should be awkward, standing here while the numbers slowly rise, but it isn’t. Nothing could be more comfortable. Nothing could feel more right.
I reach out and take her in hand in mine, swallowing it with my big palm and long fingers. She looks up at me with pink cheeks and a shy smile. Fuck, she was worth the wait.
Every agonizing second I spent without her was worth what fate had in store for us. She’s twenty-one and wouldn’t have been ready before now. It’s all becoming so clear in my mind. I always cursed the universe and wondered why fate was so cruel as to make me suffer. Now I know that if I had found a mate sooner, it wouldn’t have been her. I’m glad I waited. I’m glad it’s her.
“You said you have brothers?” she says in her soft voice that sends floods of warmth radiating through me.
“Three,” I tell her. “Well, two. Technically. Cameron is the youngest and Easton is the middle brother. Then there’s Roman. He’s our cousin, but our fathers were twins and he’s as much a brother as the other two are.”
“Are they shifters as well?”
I nod my head
