Aaron
Iwake up to her warmth, her scent, and the weight of her on my chest. That’s everything I’ve been missing for a whole goddamn week. The ache that’s been sitting inside me finally quiets.
Mara stirs in my arms, a small shift, her cheek brushing my collarbone, and I tighten my grip. Some terrified part of me is convinced I’m dreaming, that she’ll be gone if I don’t hold on tight enough. I press a low hmm into her hair and pull her closer, breathing her in.
“Are you alright?” she murmurs.
“I am now.” The words scrape out of me.
I’m nudged between her breasts and I’m not moving. Not for anything. The world can burn. After a week of falling apart at the fucking seams I am whole again, and that’s the only fact that matters right now.
She starts to pull herself up and away from me, and that’s when my eyes snap open.
“Wha—“
The loss of her body off mine is painful. I press a kiss between her breasts, soft, then slide my head up the column of her neck and crash my mouth to hers in a kiss that has been building.
“Aaron—“
She tries to say my name and I take it from her, my tongue stuffing into her mouth, my hand moving to her breast through the thin fabric of her nightgown.
I roll her nipple between my fingers and she gasps and arches up into me, and fuck, I am gone.
I slide on top of her. Her tail comes around and brushes the back of my head, and her body heats up under mine.
“Aaron—“
Her legs spread under me and I grind down into her, hard, and the words spill out of me. “The shield is gone. I learned my lesson, baby.”
I kiss her cheek, her neck, my hand traveling down her chest. I have forgotten everything. All I know is that I need to be inside her, to put a cub in her right now and make sure she can never leave me. My fingers find the lace edge of her panties.
“We can start making our cubs now—“
She pushes against my chest. “Aaron. Wait.”
I stop.
Every cell in my body is screaming to keep moving and I stop. The effort it takes nearly breaks me. I groan and roll off her onto my back, and my dick is pointing at the ceiling along with my stare. I let out a long, suffering breath.
“Is this about the cabin?” My voice is rougher than I want. “Because I need to talk to you about that.”
She sits up beside me and her tail comes up between us and floats over my dick like a goddamn punishment for breathing, and before it can do anything truly sinful she slaps it away. I smirk at her, though the gesture feels tight on my face. She blushes, and it makes something squeeze low in me.
“You want to get straight to it,” she snaps, “instead of working out our issues.”
“Weren’t our issues about me withholding our ability to make a cub? Plus the cabin?” I’m trying for casual.
She huffs and sits up further, and I try to push myself up to follow her and a headache slams into the back of my head like a door closing on me. I groan and put a palm to my forehead.
“We are in big trouble with our king,” she reminds me.
“I don’t care about that. I care about putting a cub in you and fixing what I broke.”
She scoffs, and my fingers dig into my temple.
“Your mother told me I’m not a good communicator to you.”
I go still, tension locking every muscle in my body. The thought of what my mother might have said to her while I was unconscious makes my stomach turn.
“She said I’m confusing you.”
I don’t answer. My mother’s right and we both know it. But my mate just spent her first night home with me in a week, and I’m not saying that out loud. The thought feels like betrayal.
Mara’s tail falls limp on the bed.
I turn onto my side, facing her, and put my hand on her thigh. “Baby. Don’t do that.”
“Am I a bad mate?” Her voice wavers, and the sound of her uncertainty destroys me.
“No.” I say it before she finishes, fierce and immediate. “You’re not a bad mate.”
She doesn’t look at me, and the distance feels like miles though I could touch her with the slightest movement.
“But.” My head is still pounding and I push through it, knowing this moment matters more than my comfort.
“We do have communication issues. And that’s not yours alone.
What I did was terrible. I should have spoken to you about it first. I would have learned quickly that you were fine with carrying a cub while you finished your teaching degree at the Academy.
It was wrong of me to take that from you.
” I make her look at me. Her amber eyes are wet and she’s trying not to let me see it, the pride of her lion battling with her hurt. “I’m sorry.”
The words feel inadequate for the magnitude of what I’ve done, but they’re all I have.
She relaxes back against the pillows and her tail comes around to me, tassel curling around my wrist, and I smile.
“See? I’m not so bad.” The joke falls from my lips.
She gives me a flat look, but there’s a softness under it that wasn’t before.
“Your lion still loves me.”
“I still love you too, Aaron,” she snaps.
I grip her and pull her into my arms, my movements desperate and clumsy. She protests for half a breath, but I can’t let go, not now.
“You tried to kill my father, Aaron.” Her voice vibrates against me.
I press my lips to her forehead, shame and defiance warring inside me. “I did. I needed you to come home.”
“Aaron—“
“Didn’t your father try to kill me?” The memory of broken ribs and blood in my mouth rises unbidden.
She opens her mouth, but I continue before she can speak.
“You crossed the territory line without permission. Twice.”
“I’ve been across that territory line before. You are my mate.” I reach up and brush my fingers along her claim mark. Her eyes flutter closed and her head tips back against my arm.
A low sound escapes her, primal and wanting. I could take her right now and she would not stop me. But I’m not building our mate bond on her being too dazed to refuse. When she’s ready for cubs she’ll let me know.
She pushes herself up before I can get too pleased with myself, and the loss of her warmth leaves me cold.
“We aren’t fucking right now. I want to know what is going on. Your mother said she didn’t know where you learned that kind of magic.”
She climbs off me and I sit up, wincing again at the headache. I hold my hand out and let blue-gold pulse from my fingertips.
“Well. My magic seems to have a mind of its own sometimes.” I close my fist and the light flickers, then sparks back to life. I grin. “Like your tail.”
On cue, her tail comes up and brushes my cheek. She scowls at it.
“I don’t fully understand my magic,” I tell her. “But I know I don’t have to study spells the way Ma and my sisters do. I just need to be in close proximity to a witch or warlock. My magic does the work.”
Her brow furrows. “Your magic steals from other witches and warlocks?”
I shrug and let my hand drop to the blanket. “That’s a good way to put it.”
“Ohh.”
She watches my hand drop and stays fixed on it. I clear my throat and pull my knees up and press my palm to my temple again, the pain a welcome distraction from the conversation.
“Do you want me to get you some coffee?”
“No, baby. Stay here a minute.” The thought of her leaving, even just to the kitchen, sends a spike of panic through me.
I close my eyes and breathe through it. She’s quiet beside me. Her tail still flicks soft against my chest.
“I understand why you left me.” I open my eyes and look at her, letting her see everything I’m feeling, all the fear and regret and desperation. “What I did, shielding myself and not giving you a say in our future for children, was selfish. Let me fix this, Mara.”
“And fix things with King Amir,” she reminds.
Irritation flares, but I don’t argue. She holds every card right now and I would sleep on the porch for a year if that’s what it took to be near her.
“Mmhmm,” I murmur.
“And my father, too.”
I look away, swallowing the scoff in my throat. When she shifts like she’s about to slide off the bed, I whip my head back so fast my headache punishes me for it.
“Yes. Of course, baby.” I’ll agree to anything if it means she stays.
I grab her tail mid-swing, pull the tassel to my lips, and kiss it. She glares at me, but her tail falls limp on the bed. Her lion is submitting to me.
I reach for her thigh and squeeze, needing the connection, the warmth of her skin under my palm. “I have demands of my own too, Mara.”
She stills, watching me, wary.
“When things get tough. When I do something stupid that makes you so angry you want to claw my eyes out. Don’t leave me.” I move closer and cup her face in both hands, my voice dropping. “I’d rather you just claw my eyes out.”
She tries to look away. I don’t let her, my hands gentle on her face.
She meets my eyes and lets out a long sigh, something in her yielding.
“Okay, Aaron.”
I lean in and kiss her, relief making me clumsy, and the headache flashes white behind my eyes and I wince hard against her mouth.
She pulls back, concern replacing the wariness. “Now let me help you.”
I nod. She slides off the bed first and walks around to my side and helps me up like I’m an old man, and she doesn’t tease me about it, which is its own kind of kindness. Her tail wraps around my forearm to steady me as I get my balance.
I study her face, trying to memorize every detail in case she’s taken from me again.
“Mara.”
“Hm?”
“This week. When you were home. Did you feel it?”
She doesn’t pretend not to know what I mean. Her tail tightens around my wrist and she looks up at me and her amber eyes do a small thing I have not seen before, a flicker of something that is not quite guilt but is in the same neighborhood.
“Of course I felt something. The mate bond pulled at me the whole time.” She pauses. “I was about one more day from coming back.”
One more day. That doesn’t feel right.
I have been ricocheting around an empty suite for days with every object in the room floating because I couldn’t hold them down.
And she had one more day in her.
She has gotten used to being away from me.
Fifteen years apart trained her. Built her some kind of tolerance I don’t have.
I keep my face still.