Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 113406 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113406 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Shocked, words failed her for a moment. “To you? You can’t be serious.”
“I’m deadly fucking serious.”
“I have my pride, Bracken. I don’t want to be finger-fucked again as a favor.”
Looming over her, he frowned. “You think I made you come as a favor?”
“You would never have touched me that way if it hadn’t been for the touch-hunger,” she insisted. “Never. In light of that, you’re not the person I’ll be calling if I need—”
Eyes flashing quicksilver, he gripped her jaw. “Hear me, Madisyn. If you let another guy touch you while my mark is on you, I’ll snap his fucking neck. I will, and I won’t even care. So I repeat: when the touch-hunger flares up again, you come to me.”
Madisyn hissed. “You’re not being rational.”
“That’s not a rarity these days.” Softening his hold on her jaw, he breezed his thumb over her plump lower lip, regretting that he hadn’t left an imprint of his teeth there. “Me, Madisyn, you come to me.” With that, he released her and headed to the front door. Just as he opened it, she spoke.
“And if I don’t?”
He glanced at her over his shoulder. “Be prepared to live with the consequences.” Stepping outside, he said, “Lock up behind me.”
Crossing to the door, she watched as he headed to his SUV and skirted around it to reach the driver’s side. Then he looked up. Met her eyes. And she saw the warning there not to ignore his—
Tires screeched as a vehicle slammed into Bracken, sending him sailing into the air. Heart leaping, she raced down the path and onto the road, where he was sprawled on his back, eyes closed, head bleeding. “Oh God.” Part of her wanted to chase the offending car hightailing it out of there—especially when she saw Leanna leaning out the passenger window, smirking—but Madisyn instead dropped to her knees at his side. “Bracken? Bracken!”
Even through the ringing in his ears, Bracken heard the female voice. It dragged him partially out of the fog, and he forced his eyes open. Everything was a blur. Fuck, his head hurt. The pain was blinding. All he wanted was to sleep. But that voice kept him where he was . . . like an anchor.
“Ally, you have to come to my—Oh, thank God! Please hurry.” Madisyn pocketed her phone. “Bracken, you keep those fucking eyes open! I called Ally. She’s already on her way—she had a premonition or some shit.”
He double-blinked to clear his vision, and stormy blue eyes locked with his. Sucked him right in like a Hoover until they were all he could see. Everything else around him just faded away. There was a wrenching sensation in his mind just as raw sexual need slammed into his system, rushed through his veins, and sent his thoughts spinning. The urge to take and possess and claim beat at him mentally, physically, and emotionally.
His head, already pounding, hammered even harder, making his skull feel like it would explode. And then, as if his brain just couldn’t take the intensity of the bond’s tug right then, the pull disappeared—like it was snapped back on an elastic. He blinked, vision darkening around the edges as sleep began to drag him under.
The raw need was gone. The tug of the bond was gone. But the knowledge was there.
Mate. Madisyn Drake was his true mate.
It was the last thought he had before his world went black.
CHAPTER THREE
Bracken’s eyes fluttered open, and he gazed up at a white ceiling. He wasn’t in his bed. In fact, he was lying on a sofa in a living area he didn’t recognize. But he knew where he was, because he knew the scent that permeated the room. And that scent had a whole new meaning to him now. Belonged to someone who was part of him.
His wolf let out a low growl of contentment, pleased that he was in his mate’s lair, pushing Bracken to go find her. Needing no urging, Bracken sat up. He scowled as he replayed the car accident in his mind. Someone had rammed their car into his side. Deliberately. Pitilessly. If it hadn’t been for the pack mate he could hear talking in a low voice somewhere in the house, he’d be in a bad way right now. And if it hadn’t been for the fact that he’d just discovered Madisyn was his mate, all he’d be thinking about was hunting the bastard. His priority right then was finding and talking to his little cat.
If Bracken knew her like he thought he did, she’d be freaking out—in her head, if nothing else—about the fact that she’d found her mate. Madisyn was good at surface interaction, but she wasn’t necessarily social. Didn’t really befriend people. In that sense, she was an emotional loner. She even seemed to like the lone shifter lifestyle. Having a mate—especially one who was part of a pack—would change everything. And when that male was an absolute wreck like him, she’d have every reason to be anxious about what would come next.