But while I was admiring his hair, he spun away. “I get it. I’m ugly. But you don’t have to stare, do you?” The words were harsh, as if he’d spat them from between clenched teeth.
“What are you talking about? I wasn’t thinking you were ugly at all. I was noticing that your hair has grown out some since we first met. I… like it. It makes you look a little bit less perfect, in a good way.”
His laugh was bitter. “Are you kidding me? Less perfect and you’re happy about that?” He spun back toward me, rage simmering in the depths of his eyes, as if it was ready to burst out and burn the place down around our ears. “If you’re looking for imperfect, well, darling, you’ve got the right mate.” He defiantly turned his face so his scar was pointed right at me.
Ahh.
“Lucien, I’m not sure why you’re so angry. I meant it. I wasn’t staring at your scar. I don’t care about that. I just see you.”
“You don’t care about my scar.”
“Well, not in a bad way. I’m sorry that happened to you, because it was awful and painful. But, no, I don’t care that you have a scar. Everyone has something. Some people’s wounds are just under the surface.”
He stalked around the island, and a spike of fear sent my heart speeding. Lucien boxed me in, his bulkier frame making me feel small as he leaned in close, that burning rage front and center in his gaze as those hands I’d just been admiring slapped onto the counter on either side of me.
His expression was dark, thunderclouds waiting to break. Or just to break me.Lucien
“Don’t fucking lie to me, Olivia. Look at me. Just look at me!”
Later, I would be ashamed for alpha barking at my female. I knew it, but it didn’t stop me from doing it.
“Can you honestly say you want to be mated to a monster who looks like this? I’m hideous. Lying isn’t going to make it go away. If you can’t handle it, you should run now, before it’s too late and my wolf won’t let you go.”
Her fear was palpable, horror and terror in equal measure twisting her pretty little lips and turning her sweet, peachy scent sour. I hated myself for being an ass, even as I felt it was completely necessary. She needed to know who I was.
If she ran screaming now, my wolf would already be fucking miserable.
But if she kept dragging this out for months?
Fuck me.
No. I couldn’t let that happen. If she was going to leave, she needed to just do it. It was a poor excuse for scaring my mate, but I ignored my wolf’s howling and bared my teeth at her, letting the savagery that always boiled below the surface peek out for once.
But after a moment, something shifted in the air between us. The fear left her, even as I stayed frozen, snarling in her face like an uncouth beast. I was prepared for her to run, to slap me, call me a dick. I was prepared for a lot of things.
But not for her to reach up, capture my jaw between her hands, and press a kiss to my cheek.
No, not my cheek.
My scar.
The moment was strange on one level, but so achingly tender. It was as if she’d somehow seen through all my bluster, all the hot anger, and found the core of me underneath.
Fear. Pain. Ugliness. Revenge.
And just… accepted it.
I could feel myself flush, the bone-deep impact of such a simple touch rocking me to my soul.
“Olivia,” I started, then immediately stopped. She hadn’t let me go, hadn’t done anything but rest her forehead against my temple, holding me. But at the same time, she’d given me everything. “I??”
Her fingertip rested on my lips, silencing me with no effort at all.
“I don’t want your wolf to let me go. I don’t think you’re a monster or hideous. I’m incredibly sad that you feel that way, but trauma is a bitch.”
The curse word sounded wrong somehow coming from the sweet little healer’s lips. But she wasn’t finished.
“We’re fated. My wolf has claimed yours as much as your wolf has claimed mine. So if you want me to leave”-her voice shook, and I hated being the cause of it on a visceral level-“then I’m going to need you to come right out and tell me that. Not try to scare me off or be an asshole to drive me away. If you don’t want to pursue our bond, say so. But if you tell me to leave, mean it. Because I’m not coming back. I deserve better than that.”
Her hands trembled on my face, and I knew it cost her everything to pour it all out like that. To challenge an alpha male, and a pissed-off one at that.
In the end, the decision was achingly simple.
Did I want her, even if I was no longer a fit partner? Did I trust her to accept all of me, including my flaws?
Or did I send her away and end this forever?
There was only one answer.
I threaded my fingers into her red-gold locks, the soft silk of them decadent beneath my calloused hands, and brought my lips to hers in a claiming kiss. She tasted like honey and peaches, fruity and sweet and perfect, and I knew then that I’d only ever been kidding myself about letting her go.
Olivia was my little hellcat, and I was never going to be separated from her again.
She was stiff with surprise for only a second, and then she melted into me like the finest chocolate, dissolving on your tongue into pure bliss. Her hands wandered away from my jaw, looping around my neck as she leaned in, pressing our chests together as she took everything I offered and gave it back in equal measure.
I wasn’t thinking as I led her away from the kitchen, guiding her toward the bed with our lips still fused together as if we never wanted to separate.
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