After his dad’s death, he’d felt adrift, like he was the wrong kind of shifter and the wrong kind of human. But he wasn’t. There was nothing wrong with the pack he wanted—the pack he had—and there was nothing wrong with him.
Which was good, because he wanted to give her his whole life. He wanted it to be as good of a gift as possible.
Now he just had to figure out how to explain mates.
“When shifters meet the person who’s right for them, they know. And as soon as my eyes met yours, I knew. I asked you if you wanted to be my girlfriend, but—basically, I was trying to play it cool. You’ve already seen me in reindeer pants, though, so that’s a lost cause. What I really wanted to say was that you’re my mate, Aria. You’re the person I’m going to be in love with for as long as I live. When shifters bond, it’s forever. I love you. You’re perfect for me, and I’ll happily spend my whole life trying to be perfect for you, if you’ll let me.”
She was silent for a moment, and worry stabbed through him like a shard of ice.
Had he been wrong about what she needed? Had he said too much too soon, and rushed her?
He wanted to explain that he knew it might not be the same for her, that he’d be totally happy to wait while she sorted out her feelings...
But Aria was pulling off to the side of the road.
“Aria?”
She put the car into park.
And suddenly she was kissing him, her mouth even sweeter, her kiss even fuller, than it had been when their lips had met in the kitchen. She seemed to be trying to breathe him in, like she thought she could live off just him and didn’t need oxygen at all.
Colby felt the same way. He didn’t care about the pressure this was putting on his sore ribs or the fact that the seatbelt was getting in the way. He just kissed her, savoring the taste of her—the taste of his mate.
He wanted to taste her everywhere else, too. What had he been thinking about being perfectly happy to wait? He wasn’t even sure he could wait until they got to the safe house. He wanted to touch her, taste her, everywhere, right here in the car.
Her lips had the faint flavor of blackberries now, like she’d stolen a few off the top of the salad bowl before they’d left the house. The sweetness of her was as rich and intoxicating as some kind of priceless liqueur.
Something he could never afford, but had been amazingly, astonishingly lucky enough to have been given.
No wonder he was willing to give her everything he had in return.
Only the fact that he knew she was in danger if they stayed here too long made him break away.
Any tracking Eli did over the highways would be slow and faulty, sure, but that didn’t make it a good idea to linger out here where they were completely exposed. They were just making their scent stronger in this spot, and that wasn’t good. The farther they got from where he’d last seen them, the safer Aria would be.
Waiting for Eli to come to them would only work if Colby was healed up enough to take him down. The sooner he could get to Aria’s first aid attentions, the better.
“I’m sorry,” Colby said.
He traced the shell of her ear and the soft, silky border between her skin and her curls, almost unable to fully believe that she had accepted him and that he was allowed to touch her like this. Totally unable to believe how she leaned into that touch, her long eyelashes falling down as she sighed in pleasure at the way his fingers moved over her.
That sigh made a wave of desire sweep over him so strongly that he doubled down on the apology.
“I’m really sorry. Unbelievably sorry. But we’re sitting ducks right here. I’d be seriously surprised if he could get it together to come after us again tonight, after what happened with his brother, but I don’t want to risk it. Not by staying around this close. And I don’t want to build up our scent here.”
She tucked her face against his neck for a second, and he felt the warm exhalation of her breath.
“I know,” Aria said finally. “And believe me, I don’t want another werewolf attack any more than you do. But you just turned my whole life upside-down, and I felt like it had to be acknowledged.”
“I can relate,” Colby said solemnly. “Trust me. But it’s my job—and my privilege—to protect you.”
That put a small smile on her face.
As she pulled back onto the road, Aria said, “Wolves mate for life. That’s always been one of my favorite things about them. I guess even before you told me that all shifters were like that, I was hoping maybe you were.”
“I am,” Colby said quietly. “I think I would be even if I weren’t a shifter.”
“Then no matter how scared I’ve been of Eli Hebbert, all of it’s worth it. Because I got to meet you.”