Page 295 of Incompatible

Bring me back to life, Alex.

Only you can do that.

Put me back together,

make me whole…

Once more.

Only you, I adore…"

Slowly, I lift my hand and find the little aluminum tab from a soda can on my neck. It is still there.

Bay’s eyes focus on it.

"You know, for years I went through that diary over and over. The power of your love, saturating the pages, fueled my hope and my will to fight. I refused to give up," I say.

Bay closes his eyes. "There’s a second part to it. I never stopped writing about you, Alex."

I raise my hand and touch his face.

"Will you let me read it?"

"It’s full of depression and misery…"

"It’s stillyou."

He slowly nods. "If you want, you can read it."

My fingers lightly skim over his chiseled cheeks.

"I dreamed of this moment for years, wanted it with everything in me. You were always the only man I desired. There was never anyone else, Bay. It couldn’t have been otherwise. We are True Mates. That’s why I couldn’t touch anyone else, couldn’t lust for anyone else without a feeling of discomfort and wrongness."

Bay smiles softly.

"Yes. I’m happy you understand it. I knew you were torturing yourself over this unnecessarily. I wanted to tell you the truth that day when they attacked you in the park, but you said no, don’t break the role. Then I wanted to tell you the truth when your first heat started, but again you said no… I thought you needed me to stay in the shadows, never materialize, never bring the pain and the loss again."

My fingers glide up his temples, my gray skin contrasting with his pale complexion, the kind that people with red hair often have.

"That was next-level mental gymnastics for me, but I fell for the role, for the game of shadows, tricking my own mind. It waspainful, but it also strangely kept me alive. I could keep going without needing another alpha, and I never wanted anyone else. So I’m grateful for you… for your ghostly presence. For giving me what I needed, even when you weren’t fully here."

Gently I trace the shape of his brows, the arches of his jaw, and those beautiful full lips. Bay closes his eyes, surrendering to my touch as if the movement of my fingers hypnotizes him.

I hear his breath and the beat of his heart.

Slowly my fingers slip down to his marked glands.

"Now I get why those marks never faded. We were fated mateson hold, but still True Mates."

Softly, I keep brushing my fingers along his lower lip, and I can see that it tickles him. Finally, it’s time for more. I press my mouth to his cheek, but with a gentle turn of his head he shifts, and our lips meet again. His are soft and wet.

"You know, that might sound strange, but I liked how you surrendered to my alter ego. That hunger in you, Alex… that powerful hunger you once had… I saw it still burning in you, craving, desperately waiting to be fed…"

I move my lips over his more firmly, giving in to exactly that hunger.

Our kiss deepens, our tongues touching, licking, curling around each other, sliding deeper into each other’s mouths.

At the same time my fingers move restlessly over his dark green tank top, demanding contact with his skin.