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I give her a long look. “Are you certain?”

She flops back down on the bed. “I don’t want to sleep alone, Cedric. Not tonight.”

“Alright.” Tugging off my shirt, I climb into bed with her. Without wasting a second, Leanna curls up against my chest. Her small frame presses into me, and my arm tightens around her waist. When she looks up at me, I smell something sweet and fragrant. “Have you been drinking?”

“Just a little.” She beams at me. “Just enough.”

“Enough for what?”

She shrugs. Her fingers start ghosting over my chest, and I feel my cock stir. My hand comes to cover hers, and there is a warning edge to my voice when I breathe her name. But she simply pulls her hand free and continues.

“Leanna, how much did you drink?”

She shrugs once again, clearly unwilling to answer. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Leanna drink before. I didn’t see any alcohol on the table. She must have drunk straight from the bottle and tossed it.

“I missed you,” she finally murmurs. “I missed sleeping next to you the most.”

Her finger is drawing circles on my chest and it’s getting incredibly hard to control myself. “Leanna.” I grab her hand, stopping her. “You are going down a dangerous road.”

Her brow furrows. “Why? You’re my mate.”

As soon as she says that, she pulls her hand away and shifts her body so that she is now suddenly straddling me, her hands planted palms down on my chest. My cock hardens instantly.

My hands settle on her small waist. “You’re drunk.”

“I’m not that drunk,” she protests.

“You wouldn’t be doing this if you weren’t.”

She blinks at me. “Why not?” She leans forward, her arms now resting on my chest, her face ridiculously close to mine. “I missed you, Cedric. I missed the way you held me at night. Do you know how hard it was to sleep without you? Even now, after eight years have passed, I find myself reaching for you in the dark.”

I go still under her. “What do you want, Leanna?” I ask quietly, my hands tightening on her waist. “I won’t do anything till you tell me.”

She sighs. “Since when did you get so careful? You always used to take what you wanted before.”

My heart tightens. “When I realized that I could risk losing you.”

Her fingers trace my cheek and then my nose. “I want my mate back. Things are fine between us now, so why are you still—”

I curl my hand around her wrist. “Living without you was worse than losing you. I will do whatever it takes, become whomever you need me to, if it means keeping you by my side.”

This time, Leanna’s eyes tighten. “I don’t want you to be anybody but yourself. I want my mate. Stop walking on eggshells around me. If I don’t like something, I’ll tell you.”

I can sense her frustration. “If I take you, Leanna, my wolf will mark you. You should be prepared for that.”

“The mating mark.” She’s beginning to sober up.

“Yes.”

I expect her to say something, to react, but instead, she straightens up and pulls off her shirt. She’s not wearing a bra, and her generous mounds stare at me.

“If you give me the mating mark, that means you’re all mine.” I hear a hint of dark possessiveness in her voice now. “Whatever happens after this, you cannot be with anybody else. I don’t care if it’s for the kingdom or for revenge. You’re mine.”

She leans closer, and I feel my cock harden even more, if it was possible, at her next words.

“And if you even look at anyone else, I’ll kill you myself.”

Chapter 25

Leanna Avery

The last couple of weeks have been stressful. It’s been one thing after another. Cedric coming back, clearing up our misunderstandings, trying to figure out my next step…It’s been hectic, and I haven’t had one minute to myself. But with Finn out of the house and Cedric having returned to the North to deal with some emergency, I have the chance to sit alone with a bottle of wine and think, grieve the friend I lost, and consider the changes in my life.

I won’t ever truly get over the guilt I feel for George’s death. But with Cedric providing me the means to financially support his family, I am relieved. George’s death also opened my eyes to something else, something far more profound: my own mortality. My future. I want a new life with my mate and my son. Suddenly, this house feels like less of a home and more of a temporary abode.

In the silence, loneliness creeps in. I’m always on the go, tiring myself out so that I don’t have to think about the emptiness within me that throbs and aches. Even now, as I’m patching things up with Cedric, I can still feel a chasm between us. He’s holding himself back. His words are careful, as are his actions. When he touches me, he treats me as if I’m the most delicate thing in the world.

I don’t like it.

I understand that he has changed. Of course he has. We both have. But it feels like he’s deliberately keeping some distance from me.

I know things won’t automatically become perfect between us, and we both need time, but impatience is brewing within me. Especially tonight.

I miss Cedric.

With each glass of wine, the feeling is reinforced within me.

There is no anger or hurt any longer. Just loneliness. My wolf is miserable, and so am I. Tonight, I want the comfort of Cedric’s arms. I want the safety that only his presence offers. I want to lose myself in him.

The only problem is that, with the way he has been treating me, I don’t think he’s going to make the first move. That is why I have to seduce him. Or be brave enough to tell him what I need.

Which is where the alcohol comes into play. Glass after glass.

There’s a well-cooked meal on the table for us, but he never comes. I throw the wine bottle away, tired and aching inside.

All the online blogs suggest feeding him and then getting close to him. None of them accounted for the fact that I would pass out after drinking an entire bottle of wine, though. Of course he shows up when I’m passed out. It’s his scent that wakes me up. I don’t know where I get the courage to convince him to come lie next to me. My body moves of its own accord when I straddle him.

And when the words come out, I can’t seem to stop them.