Hunting Ember (Pride of Alphas #1) - Milly Taiden Page 0,35

to believe his words. He had said he was a lion shifter, and there his lion paw was.

So would he really lie about the mate stuff?

Probably not.

Ember needed to do something to regain control. If she had been in the kitchen, preparing a particular difficult pastry that was refusing to behave, she would pull up the recipe on her phone and go through all of the steps until she spotted the issue.

There was no recipe for dealing with men who could change into animals. Especially not when said men claimed to be your mate.

On a whim, and following a tiny voice in the back of her head, Ember walked right up to the bed, took Kai by the cock and squeezed. She felt unhinged, out of control. Kai hissed out a breath, his erection straining against her hand.

Maybe she could hold the appendage like a lie detector.

Not because she wanted him again — even though she did.

“Is this a ploy to fuck me?”

“Of course not.” He seemed genuinely insulted by the idea that he would use her.

“So, if I met another shifter, they would confirm the mate stuff?”

“Absolutely.”

“And we’re made for each other?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t accept this. I hope you know that.”

He gulped. “Okay.”

“If we’re mates, that means that we can date. Like a normal couple, and things will just — work out.”

Kai studied her carefully. “If you want to put aside the shifter side of me and the fact that we’re mates to date like humans do, that is what we will do. We will date. That is what mates do, anyway. The bond just gets stronger after the mating.”

When Kai explained what that was, Ember felt so dizzy, she could have passed out.

Could that be why she wanted the imprint of his fingers on her legs? Could that be why she had scratched him hard enough to leave a mark? Because somehow, her soul recognized him as her own?

It was entirely probable, but she wasn’t going to say that. No. She wanted to date Kai and fall in love with him the regular way. Not because his biology decreed it.

“It takes all the romance out of it,” she explained further to him once she had voiced her concerns. Did it? Or was she just scared by the intensity of her feelings?

“I understand. So, we will date. Not as mates, but as man and woman. Two people who enjoy spending time together.”

“Okay.”

“Okay,” he repeated. “Ember,” he whispered. “You’re still holding my cock. Do you plan on doing something about it?”

She pretended to frown at him. “Like what?”

He didn’t use words to answer. Instead, he pushed her back down on the bed and proved once and for all that though her heart wasn’t his yet, her body sure was.

Chapter Twelve

Kai

There was nothing like waking up all tangled up with his mate. Kai should have known that there would be nothing like it, but he would never have expected to feel so happy, so complete. Even his lion was a big purring kitty in his mind. There was no urgency to get out of the door and off to work to knock another day off the calendar.

He was content exactly where he was.

A very naked Ember turned to face him. His arm was draped over her waist. He had kept her tucked close to him all night. Her smile was bright as she leaned up to kiss him.

“Morning,” her sleepy voice was raspier than usual. It was cute. Yet another little thing he had discovered about his mate.

“Morning,” he repeated.

“We should get up and head to the studio. I don’t want to be late.” She stretched against him. He reveled in the feel of her body on his.

There were so many things he wanted to do with her, but there was no time. Ember was right. They had overslept a tiny bit, and they needed to jet off to the studio to make it in time to start filming. Some of the other contestants were being kept in hotels, as they were from out of town. Kai was happy his mate was from the same city as him. It made things so much easier for them, and it also meant she got to be in her space. Or more accurately, he got to be in her space.

It was intimate to wake up in her arms, in a bed which her scent permeated. Now his smell was there too, marking the territory. He had come so close to marking her during their wild