I couldn't look away from his eyes. They were warm, and filled with so much appreciation I could barely resist him. Or maybe I did not even want to try to resist him.
There was no way for me to properly understand what it was between us. It did not make sense that he was my mate because I already had a mate, but he was something, and that something was important. My wolf believed that he was for me, and wasn't that good enough?
Our lips came together, and his tongue swept into my mouth, properly continuing what we had started the night before. My wolf was thrilled, this was our mate, and he was possessing my mouth, heat pooling in me.
If he had not stopped I probably would have let him take me in the middle of the field. His brown eyes searched mine as he tilted his head back, and I smiled reassuringly. He was thoughtful, and handsome, and mine.
"I think you are my second chance," I told him.
His smile grew. "Really?"
"My wolf is convinced you're the one for me. And who am I to argue with her?" I took his hand, and we began to walk back towards his cabin.
"Are you ready to move in with me?" he asked. "I know it's soon, but..."
It wasn't really that fast by werewolf standards. If anything, we were going slowly. Most people didn't see the point in taking their time when fate was at the wheel, although we were far more complicated. "It's fine. I think I will, if that's what you want." My reasons for not moving in with him in the first place seemed much shakier as I got to know him.
"Is there any question of that?"
"I guess not," I said, and giggled a bit. He'd been clearly pleased that I'd been sleeping there the last few nights anyway.
"I'll help you move your stuff over here. You can have your own room, for as long as you want it."
I just smiled. I'd take the room, but I doubted I'd be sleeping in it. Really, at this point it was just a question of how long we could hold out with our impatient wolves hounding us.
When I thought about it, we should probably make sure our first time was before I went into heat. Normally they only came a few times a year, and only after a female wolf met her mate, so who knew what my biology was doing considering the tangled mess of my mate-bonds?
He pushed open the door to his cabin and I went inside. I stole the shower adjoining his room. I almost wanted to invite him to come with me, but I was pretty sure what that would lead to. Just because my wolf was panting after him didn't mean I needed to deliberately rush things.
Once I was done, I left the room and made my way out to the living room to wait, since I could hear the shower in the main bathroom running. His hair was still wet when he emerged, sadly wearing clothing he must have grabbed before getting in. If I were honest I was a bit disappointed not to have seen him come out wrapped in only a towel.
"You hungry?" he asked.
I was, so I helped him make breakfast in the kitchen. While we ate, we talked about general things, and I sneakily checked him out. He tended to wear t-shirts around his house, but he filled them out very nicely.
He caught me leering and heat flooded my cheeks.
He laughed at me. "Like what you see, Kylie?"
"Yes." What was the point in denying it?
"Mmm. I do, too, you know. You're exactly my type."
"Well, that's good, since we're whatever we are."
"Yes, we are whatever this is."
A thought suddenly struck me. "You know, I have an idea of what might be between us."
His curious attention was fixed on me. "What are you thinking?"
"So, when I was with Alpha Gavriel, one of his pack members told me a bit about his past. There was an accident when he was young, and apparently he was injured, and never the same afterwards."
"That doesn't excuse what he did to you or your pack."
"I know that. Don't worry, I'm not yearning for him or anything. Honestly, I never really cared for him and my wolf's fully fixated on you now. But, the reason I brought it up is that she had a theory that his human side did die that day, leaving only cold reason and the beast."
"I've never heard of anything like that," Vander said, his eyebrows drawing together.
"Think about it," I said, getting more excited about my theory, waving my empty fork a bit for emphasis. "Let's say that his human side sort of died, but he did not die entirely. Just enough that whatever sets our bonds got confused about my paring, treating him like he was both alive and dead, giving me a second chance while my first was still, in part, alive."
"I've never heard of anything like that, but I've never heard of anything like us, either. Maybe there was a glitch," he mused.
"Exactly. Being bonded to him felt strange, Vander, like nothing else I've ever experienced. I know mate-bonds are different than pack bonds, that's not it. He felt different than anyone else. Cold and empty. I know he thinks, but the only time I ever felt any sort of emotion from him was when his wolf got worked up enough to come out. Like he runs on programming without a conscience."
Vander glanced at the mark on my shoulder. "Do you think it will be safe for me to mark you, Kylie?"
"I don't know." True mates could mark a wolf who was marked by someone else, and a rejected mark would fade. "I regret not rejecting him before I left. I wish it were fading."
"How did you escape?" He took another bite of omelette.
I wondered if my method would upset him. Maybe not if I explained everything first. I began from the beginning, explaining the slaughter, and how he had taken me to his home. I paused, wondering how much I should tell Vander, but I decided he should know everything. "And, I guess I should tell you in case you didn't guess already, I'm not a virgin anymore. Sorry."
"Neither am I." He crooked his mouth in a half-hearted attempt at levity. I could see through it.
"I'm sorry," I repeated.
His chair scraped as he moved closer to me. "I'm not upset at you. He's the problem. How long did he give you between slaughtering your pack and taking that from you?" I could feel his temper building.
"Not long," I admitted.
"That bastard. I really am going to kill him, and I hope you can forgive me when I do."
"There would be nothing to forgive. But I don't want you to put yourself at risk for revenge."
"For justice. And I promise not to do anything reckless. I don't want you to have to go looking for a third chance." He winked at me.
I tried to get back on track of what I had been telling him. "Anyway, I managed to convince him to release the prisoners, except there were nine he wouldn't let go. So I drugged the guards and let them out. Five died, four escaped. Of course, he realized what I had done, so I was locked in his room. I was already pregnant and I refused to let him touch me after he killed more of my pack, even though I asked him not to."
This was the part that hurt as badly as the slaughter of Glenhaven. "And, while I was locked up, he started cheating again, and I lost the baby from that."
Our food forgotten, he pulled me onto his lap and wrapped his arms around me. I rested my head on his shoulder. Through my tears, I kept talking. "So, I didn't have anything else to lose, so I smashed the mirror in his bathroom and used a shard to hold myself hostage. I forced him to give me supplies and a car, and a better knife, and I drove away. That's the last I saw of him. But I should have rejected him and I wouldn't be suffering now."
Vander shook his head. "Maybe, if your theory is correct, if you broke the bond he wouldn't have had a reason to let you go alive at all."
I sniffled. I had wondered the same.
He tightened his arms around me. "It's just good that you got out of there, Kylie. I'm glad you're safe, and with me. I wish I'd known you before so I could have saved you from all that."
I wiped my tears on his shirt, and then I craned my head back to look at him. Like always, I could get lost in those eyes, they swam with emotion. I leaned forward, and brought my mouth to his, and those warm sparks danced between us, sizzling in the air.