“When I woke up and you weren’t there, it fucking shattered me. My animal lost his mind.”
“I’m sorry you were scared.”
“Are you kidding? I’m sorry you got taken in the first place.”
“Well, you came for me. That’s what matters. That...and the fact that Sid is getting ripped apart right now.”
“Good,” Luca says. “Him getting taken out by his own pack members is the only thing that’s keeping me from going back there and killing him myself.”
“I still can’t believe that you guys found Karina. How’d you manage that?”
Luca shrugs. “I’m not sure. I’ve been talking to the enforcers, and I know they’ve been working on it. They must’ve just found her right when you got taken. I know Hugo’s been gone all day today with some of them. They probably followed a lead and got lucky.”
“I hope she’ll be alright.”
“She seems like a fighter. Like you,” he tells me before his lips curl up into a smirk. “So...a plunger, huh?”
I raise a finger at him. “Do not make fun of me. It was the only weapon I had at my disposal.”
He holds up his hands. “Hey, no teasing here. But let me just…” He digs into his back pocket and then grabs my hand, squirting out cold, slimy liquid from a bottle.
Surprised, I frown down at it before the sharp astringent hits my nose. I laugh and rub my palms together. “Where did you even get hand sanitizer?”
“Lafe handed it to me. Makes sense now.”
She groans. “Good Gouda. News spreads so damn fast around here.”
“Yep,” he says with a grin.
“Thank you,” I tell him soberly. “Not for the hand sanitizer, but for coming to get me.”
“You don’t have to thank me. You’re mine, and I’ll always take care of you.”
Little heart butterflies take off in my chest.
“How’s your rat?”
“She’s okay,” I assure him. “I can already feel the Forestall wearing off.”
“I fucking hate that he drugged you.”
The emotion in his voice pulls at me. “Me too, but pretty soon, this will all be behind us.”
He stops me on the quiet dark road and looks down at me. “I thought I lost you, Reese.”
I swallow past the thick emotion threatening to clog my throat. “You didn’t.”
“I know. But I made a promise to my animal when I woke up and you were gone.”
“What promise?”
“That I would tell you the truth—that the next time your heatwave comes, I won’t be fighting the mate-call. I am answering it, Reese,” he says, eating up the space between us. “I’m answering it, and you’re going to be mine forever because I fucking love you.”
My eyes widen. “Luca...”
“We’re mates. You know it. I know it. Since the moment I first met you and you stole from me,” he says with a smirk. “Since you chewed through the sanctuary wall to get to me. Since your rat kept sneaking into my room and stealing my boxers. Since you tackled me during your heat and kept trying to bite me. I should’ve answered that call right from the start. I should never have suppressed it. I won’t make that mistake again.”
I swallow hard, my heart pounding in my chest. My fingers go to the string of shiny metal around my neck.
“You ended up in that pet shop for a reason. Fate literally brought you here so that I could find you. So that you could try to bite me as soon as you saw me,” he says with a smirk. “You’re going to be my mate, Reese. Because I fucking adore you and your cute ass rat.”
“Majestic,” I choke out.
“Yes, you are,” he rumbles before pulling me into him and claiming my mouth.
He kisses me like he’s tying his life to mine. With every turn of his tongue, I can feel him assembling the knots one after another, until I’m completely bound to him, and he’s bound to me.
“So, Mousey? What do you say? Do you want to be my mate?” he whispers against my mouth.
“Yes!” I jump, flinging my arms around his neck, and he catches me just like I knew he would.
“Good. Because I’m not ever letting you go,” he says as he starts to walk us back to his warehouse. “But real quick—why is your ass soaking wet?”
Oh, right. “I fell into a toilet.”
He falters for a step. “Huh. Wasn’t expecting that. Definitely gonna need more of this, then,” he says, reaching back to pull out the bottle again.
I laugh and smack it away. “You are not using hand sanitizer on my ass!”
Laughing, he resecures