Tarnished(36)

She shook her head. “It was so dark. I can’t even tell you hair color. I could only watch the silhouettes in the light of the moon.” Her body shook.

His body strained against his rage. Pull yourself together. She needs you. This isn’t about you, it’s about her.

“So you thought all matings were like that?”

“Uh-huh. Well, perhaps not that brutal, but clearly not chosen. Until I met you … I didn’t believe in the hype. And I hid from the possibility such a thing would ever happen to me.”

He held her and said nothing. Letting her heart rate decline.

She continued. “And then at the last gathering, two years ago, when that crazy Marcus pulled me into the hall and stuck his tongue in my mouth…” She heaved for a breath on a sob. “I thought I was doomed to the same fate. I bit his tongue. He swore at me as I wriggled from his clutch and fled to the restroom. I sat in the stall, curled up in the corner waiting for over an hour. Either he was going to follow me in and rape me or give up and leave me alone. Either way, my fate seemed unavoidable.”

“Reinforcing your belief in the absurdity of matings.”

“Pretty much. I’m so sorry.” She lifted her gaze again, her face inches from his.

“Oh, baby.” He shook his head and set his forehead on hers. “It’s not your fault. You’ve nothing to be sorry for. We’ll get through this. We’ll get counseling, the counseling you should have had for the last four years. I’m so in love with you it hurts. Even after only two days. I hate what happened to you, but it doesn’t change how I feel about you. It just makes me sad … and a bit angry, I’ll admit.”

She looked into his eyes with tears falling down her face. “You don’t have to do this.” She swallowed. “Take me on like this, I mean. It’s not fair to you, and I may never be quite right. I don’t think I can ever get over what I saw and the fear I have because of it.”

“And you think I could leave you now? You think that little of me?” He stared into her eyes and watched fresh tears trickle from the corners. “Of course you do. You know nothing else. Kenzie, those two incidences are unique and fucked up. Most wolves mate willingly and with the partner they are meant to spend their lives with. Someone they can’t imagine living without. That’s us, baby. You know that in your heart, right?” He set his hand on her chest between her breasts.

She nodded and gulped around a sob. “I know how I feel, but that doesn’t mean it’s fair for me to trap you with my shit-load of problems you didn’t sign up for.”

He released her and got down on one knee in front of her as she shook with sobs. “Mackenzie Davis, I am totally, irrevocably in love with you. I will never leave you. I swear to never force you to do anything against your will, including sleep with me. Will you please do me the honor of being my mate for life? Stay with me. If you leave, it will rip my heart out and destroy my soul.”

She cried now, hard. Her nose ran, and her eyes released streaks of tears onto her cheeks. Crazy, stupid, happy tears that she smiled through as she nodded. “If you’re willing to take on someone as broken as me, I’m all yours,” she murmured through the haze of her sad and happy combination.

He pulled her into his embrace and held her tight. “We will get through this together. Always together. Through good times and bad. I love you, Mackenzie.”

“I love you too,” she murmured onto his slobbery shoulder.

He pulled her back, wiped her face with a corner of the comforter, and kissed her soundly on the lips. “This is forever, Kenzie. I promise.”