Page 99 of His True Mate

I craned my neck to look past them.

“He’s back,” I whispered.

“Who? Clay?” Ruby asked.

I nodded. “I can, um, sort of feel him.”

Sydney smiled. “That’s normal as your bond strengthens.”

“Oh, whew. Thanks for letting me know that. I thought it was weird. It feels weird.”

“You get used to it after a while,” Kate assured me.

Clay walked in, still in his fur. His head whipped back and forth towards all the women present, and then he just walked away, right into the bedroom. Thirty seconds later he asked for me.

“Winnie, can I talk to you for a moment?”

I swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

“Wish me luck.”

“You don’t need luck, Winnie. That man is crazy about you,” Ruby assured me.

I bit my lip and nodded before hesitantly walking to the bedroom.

“Um, hi,” I said, feeling suddenly shy.

He still didn’t look happy.

“I just need to know. Are you leaving just because you think I don’t want you?”

Tears pricked my eyes as the pain of his rejection came flooding back and I slowly nodded.

“Baby,” he said softly closing the gap between us. “How could you ever think I don’t want you? I’ll always want you. I never meant to hurt you. I just didn’t want to take advantage of you. You were so drunk that I wasn’t even sure you’d remember it.”

“It hurts,” I whispered.

“What can I do to make it up to you? What can I say to make you stay?”

“Is that what you really want? For me to stay?”

“More than anything.”

“Don’t you want to think about it?”

“No. I love you, Winnie. I can’t even imagine my life without you in it. Stay.”

I gasped and tears streamed down my face.

He loves me?

The pain that had settled into my chest lifted.

“I don’t want to leave,” I told him honestly.

He started to relax.

“Thank God!”