Page 25 of Mane Attraction
“Lev,” she gasped, her voice trembling. “What… what was that? It burns.”
He stared, his mind struggling to catch up. Then he saw it. On the smooth skin of her hip, claw marks welled with tiny beads of crimson blood. The marks were precise and deep.
His mate mark.
His lion had surged forward in the climax, and in his lost, primal state, he had unintentionally marked his mate.
“Xelene,” he breathed, horror and guilt rushing through him.
He had just bound her to him forever, and he hadn’t even realized he was doing it.
Shit.
The word ricocheted through Lev’s mind like a bullet, sharp and unforgiving. His lion, moments ago triumphant and sated, now cowered beneath the weight of what had just transpired. In thirty-seven years of existence—through countless women, endless nights of passion, and a lifetime of carefully maintained control—he had never once lost himself so completely.
Not once.
The mate bond settled into place with the finality of a steel trap snapping shut, its golden threads weaving through his consciousness. He could feel it, permanent and unbreakable, connecting him to the woman who was scrambling off his lap with wide, frightened eyes.
What have I done?
Xelene’s gaze dropped to the precise claw marks on her hip, her face drained of color. The scent of her blood mixed with the lingering musk of their joining, creating a cocktail that made his lion pace restlessly.
“What just happened?” Her voice carried a tremor that cut through him like a blade.
She moved with jerky, panicked motions, gathering the black fabric of her dress and pressing it against the marks to stem the bleeding. The sight of her trying to clean away his claim made something primal and possessive roar inside his chest.
“I accidentally gave you my mate mark.” The words felt like gravel in his throat. “I unintentionally completed the mate bond.”
“What?” The single syllable cracked like a whip. “What does that even mean?”
Lev ran a hand through his disheveled hair. The weight of his mistake pressed down on his shoulders like the crown he wasn’t ready to wear.
“My mate mark—given during the peak of...” He gestured helplessly between them. “It completes the mate bond. Permanently.”
“Well, I didn’t agree to that.” Her voice rose, sharp with betrayal. “I thought we were just having sex.”
The accusation hit him like a punch to the gut. “We were just having sex. My lion surged too hard, and I didn’t realize—” He stopped, forcing himself to meet her eyes. “It wasn’t intentional, Xelene. I feel like hell about it because I didn’t ask for your permission, but I swear on my father’s grave, I didn’t do it on purpose.”
Something in his raw honesty must have penetrated her panic because her shoulders sagged slightly. The mate bond hummed between them now, a live wire carrying the fullspectrum of her emotions—confusion, fear, anger, and beneath it all, a hurt so deep it made his chest ache.
“What does this mean now?” she whispered.
Lev’s hands clenched into fists on his thighs. The Alpha in him wanted to claim victory, to pull her back into his arms and promise her everything would be perfect. But the man knew better.
“It means our souls are bound together forever.” He forced the words out, each one feeling like he was signing his own death warrant. “But you still have a choice. You can walk away from me if you want to, and honestly, I would understand if you did. I made a huge mistake.”
Her face cycled through a dozen emotions in as many seconds, and through the mate bond, he felt them all—a chaotic storm of feelings that made his head spin.
“Why can I feel all your emotions now?” Her hand pressed against her chest as if she could physically push the sensations away. “It’s like you’re inside me.”
“It’s the completed mate bond.” His voice was barely a whisper. “It connects our emotions and thoughts. We can even communicate telepathically now.”
Her eyes widened. “I can feel your regret. Your fear. Your hurt.” She stared at him intently. “So I know it was truly an accident. But still—I didn’t sign up for this.”
Lev’s lion whimpered at her words, but he forced himself to nod. “I was hoping this would go a smoother way. Not this messy, complicated disaster. I was hoping you’d get to know me more, choose the bond willingly.”
“Well, that’s not what happened.” Xelene’s voice carried the crisp efficiency he recognized from their first meeting—her armor sliding back into place. “No sense in playing the could’ve, would’ve, should’ve game.”
