“I know, it’s just…I just found you. I had this crazy fear that this thing between us is too good to be true and was worried something terrible would happen to you.”
Tears glistened in her dark eyes and he almost lost it. She’d been worried about him, not herself.
“It’s real,” he said, gazing right into her eyes. “It’s real and I’m not going anywhere.” Her tremulous smile made him ache inside. Without another word he scooped her up and carried her to the shower. Once he got this blood off them, he was going to show her just how real their connection was.
Epilogue
Two months later
Ella closed the oven door and turned on the timer. One hour to go. Should be perfect timing for when Asher got home. Cooking wasn’t her thing, but luckily Asher loved to. He was always experimenting with recipes. She figured it was because he’d been roaming for so long and now that he had a permanent place he was putting down roots in a big way.
Tonight she wanted to surprise him though. They’d both been working hard the last couple months. It seemed like he dealt with one crisis after another at the hotel and Grant had given her a new position in addition to her accounting job. He considered her his liaison to all the employees at the hotel. Translation: she was his personal assistant who got to deal with the smaller scale stuff at the hotel he simply didn’t have time for. With all his regular pack business, it was a miracle the man ever slept.
It was a lot of responsibility, but she absolutely loved it. With her pride, her duties had been simple and now she realized that was part of the reason she’d been so restless. She’d been craving more out of her job and life. Now, every day was different. Not to mention she came home to Asher every night. That alone made everything perfect.
As she slid her apron off, her cell phone buzzed on the other side of the counter. She smiled when she saw that it was a message from Talia, Grant’s mate. But her smile fell when she read it. Eve is here. I sent her up to your place. Sorry, she looks so sad I couldn’t turn her away!
Anger and pain filtered through Ella. She hadn’t seen her younger sister in over two months. She’d talked to the rest of her family and other pridemates, but not Eve. It had felt too weird to call her after the way they’d left things. She just didn’t know what to say and the truth was, the apology she’d been waiting for had never come. It was hard to let that go.
She texted her friend back: You suck.
Talia: You love me. Call me if you need me!
Despite her annoyance, Ella grinned. Settling into pack life had been made easier because of not only Asher and her new role at the hotel, but because the alpha’s mate had immediately befriended her.
Before she could respond, there was a knock at the front door. Knowing she needed to get this over with, she wiped her damp palms on her jeans and made her way down the hallway. Schooling her expression, she opened the door.
Eve stood there, wringing her hands nervously in front of her. She let them fall when she saw Ella. “Hey.”
“Hey… Is everything okay?” She couldn’t even force herself to smile, but she tried to keep her tone civil.
Her sister nodded. “Can I come in?” she asked hesitantly.
“Uh, sure.” Ella stepped back, motioning with her left hand.
Her sister’s eyes widened when she saw the giant rock on her left hand ring finger. She understood the surprise. The ring was gorgeous. Asher had put it on her two weeks after they’d moved in with each other. He’d said that just because supernaturals could scent him on her, it wasn’t enough. He wanted human men to know she was taken too. Possessive male.
“You’re really mated,” Eve murmured in a shocked tone, but she also half-smiled. “Congratulations, I’m glad you’re happy.”
Ella cleared her throat. “Yeah.” They hadn’t done a ceremony because one wasn’t needed. And that type of thing wasn’t important to Ella. Having Asher’s mark and scent on her was all she needed. Of course he’d still insisted they get married at the courthouse. So possessive, that male. She forced herself not to think about it because she knew she’d get turned on and right now clearly wasn’t the time for that. “So what’s up? Why are you here?” Might as well get to the point.
Her sister wrapped her arms around herself and in that moment looked impossibly young. At twenty-two she was still immature for her age.
Feeling bad, Ella nodded in the direction of the kitchen. “Come on, I’ve got wine.”
Relief filled her sister’s expression. “Sounds good.”
When her sister sat on a stool at the countertop right across from her, Ella pulled out a new bottle of red she knew Eve would like. They’d always had similar taste in pretty much everything. Including men, as it turned out.