Page 48

Kylie

The way Maximus poured his heart out to me made my eyes water. Then, when he hit me with accepting the bond and reversing the rejection, I wanted to scream. I still didn’t know how to feel about him even being here, and now he had reversed the rejection!

My lycan came to the surface and howled in victory at the feeling of the bond snapping into place.

Our souls stitched together like they had before, and the waves of his thoughts and feelings crashing into me almost made me scream.

I covered my mouth with my hands as tears rolled down my face, feeling everything he felt.

His despair at hurting me. The way he wanted to hold me but didn’t think I would let him. His hatred of himself for rejecting me in the first place. And then, his quiet contentment as our son rested against his chest.

Maximus’s breathing was uneven, ragged. I was sure he was feeling the same things I was now.

That’s why he did this in the first place.

It would give me access to how he felt, so I would know he wasn’t lying about any of it, even though my instincts told me he wasn’t lying. But now I could feel the truth.

“Max…” I didn’t know what to say. How could I? I had just spent this whole time telling him how I wanted him to show me he was sorry, and he wanted this bond…

And he did.

But I still needed to know what he knew about Zephyrine’s curse. How did it fit in with my pup? She wouldn’t tell me a damn thing, and if Maximus knew something about it, then I needed him to tell me.

“Do you really feel this way? The bond can’t lie to me, right?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No. You have access to everything that is me. I won’t even put up a wall, so you can have access to me anytime and know I am not lying to you,” he said with a small smile.

“I won’t let you walk away from this, Kylie.

You are mine. I’m sorry it took so damn long for me to see that. ”

I bit my lip and waited for the feelings to come through the bond regarding his lie, but they didn’t come. He was telling me the truth. If I couldn’t trust this bond, which I knew couldn’t lie to me, then I would be wasting his time.

Even if I wanted to reject it, I could see and feel the agony he was in right now. He wanted to do everything he could to make me happy. With my confusion affecting him, he would love nothing more than to prove to me that he wanted this. It was all too much.

With the bond in place, the yearning to feel him, touch him, and solidify the connection became unbearable.

It was like when we first met again, and I wanted to put up a wall so he couldn’t sense how much I desired it.

The internal struggle of wanting to complete the bond and reject it was overwhelming.

But if he wanted to fight for this bond, I should allow him.

That’s when the baby started to fuss again.

Maximus stood up and went to the changing table.

He quickly changed him and then swaddled him back up in his blanket.

When he was satisfied with how tight it was around him, Maximus walked over and handed him to me.

When the back of his hand grazed my skin, a fire ignited inside me, and I wanted to beg him to touch me all over.

I shoved that feeling down and positioned myself to nurse.

Maximus didn’t say a word but sat down on the bed and moved the blankets off me to grab my foot, starting to knead his knuckles into the bottom of my feet. My eyes nearly rolled back in my head from the sensation, and I tried to suppress the moan escaping my mouth.

“What are you doing?”

He lifted a brow at me. “Taking care of my mate.”

That surprised the hell out of me. He wanted to take care of me?

Instinctively, I reached out through the bond and felt how much he wanted to do this—and more—to help me feel relaxed.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about it, but it was too difficult to tell him to stop.

If he wanted to take care of me and show me he valued this bond, then I guess I should at least let him try.

This relationship needed to be a two-way street, so I needed to put in work, too.

The nurse walked in and told me that there hadn’t been anything concerning, so I could go home now. With Maximus here, I wasn’t sure if that meant I would be going back to Charlotte and Nathaniel’s or…

“You are coming with me.”

The way he said it felt more like a command, and it made me growl at him. “Do you really want to start this relationship off with a command?”

He smiled, which was not at all how I expected him to look at me. “I kind of like this new attitude of yours.”

That smile and that line did something to me. The heat in his eyes ignited a warmth that started in my chest and spread all the way to my core. I tried to keep it to myself, but I knew he felt it through the bond.

Maybe I should put up a wall in the bond.

“Could you please come to my cabin? I made sure to get one here so I could be close by and work on things, remember? How can we work on things if you’re in a different cabin?”

It was my turn to raise a brow at him. “By you coming over to Char and Nate’s house?”

He made an annoyed face but then smiled and shook his head. “If that’s what you wish, then I will learn to deal with it.”

Huh… That’s not at all how I expected him to react. Was this the same guy?

“No. I’m not the guy I was before. If I want you, then I need to fight for you. I won’t force you, though.”

Fair enough.

“Okay. We can go to your cabin. Under one condition.”

“Whatever you want.”

I looked down at the baby nursing on me, and I was tired of him not having a name. I didn’t know what to name him, so we needed to figure one out before we left this place.

“You name the baby.”

He did not expect that. His jaw dropped as he stopped massaging my foot, nearly jumping off the bed. He kept looking at me like I had just dropped a bomb on him. Was this really that unexpected?

“You want me to name the baby?”

Through the bond, I sent him some reassurance that I wasn’t trying to trick him.

“Yes. I came from a pack of people who allowed my abuse to happen and didn’t once try to stop my father or his girlfriend.

Then my father…” I looked away, stopping myself from letting the tears fall.

I wouldn’t cry over the man who never wanted me.

“You know more names than I do and probably know one that would suit this little guy better than I do. So please, name him.”

This was something big, clearly, but it was also a gesture of my desire to work on things. If I wanted this to work, then we needed to trust each other.

The baby stopped suckling, and I heard his small snores.

It was a good thing he was such a good baby because if he had cried or fussed while Maximus was here, I think I would have lost my mind.

Maximus walked over and sat on the bed again, this time higher up so he could see the baby’s face.

It took a few moments, but then I could see a smile spreading across his face.

“He kind of looks like my dad. I don’t think I deserve to have a junior, given the way I treated you. So, how about we name him after a great king instead?”

“Titan?”

“Yeah.”

I looked down at my son and had to agree. I’d seen photos of Titan, and I did meet him once when I was very young. He did look a lot like Titan. There were moments I could see a lot of Maximus in him, too, but I was happy with the name.

“Titan… I like it.”

***

It amazed me how easy it was to walk around now.

Ever since I connected with my lycan, things had become much easier.

I had completely healed from the surgery, and even taking care of Titan didn’t faze me much.

However, I also wasn’t allowed to do much for him from the moment I walked into the cabin.

Maximus had taken over everything.

The most I was allowed to do was feed him, and that was because I had the breasts.

I knew that if Maximus could, he would feed Titan, too, just so I wouldn’t have to do a thing.

Outside of caring for the baby, the only thing I was allowed to do was cook.

Maximus didn’t know how to cook much, yet he somehow stocked the house with everything, including some of my favorite snacks, like potato chips.

There were a dozen bags across the countertop, and I had a hard time choosing at times. But I constantly told him thank you and did my best not to fall over the edge into loving him, even though it was easy. He made it easy.

How he was at the clinic was the same way he was here.

Anytime we sat down, he would move to where he could grab my leg and rub it with a gentle touch or even massage my feet and legs after a few bouts of Titan not wanting to fall asleep.

Each time he touched me, it felt like my body was on fire.

It intensified my need to feel those hands all over me, and I had to stop myself from begging for it.

Then, he would be sure to kiss me on the forehead or cheek whenever he could.

Through the bond, I could feel his desire to do more than that, but he stopped himself each time he got close to giving in.

His lycan was a demanding one. It was pushing Maximus to complete the bond with me again, but he held his lycan back when he told him no.

Maximus wanted to show me they could be incredible mates to me and make me desire the bond to be completed before he would do it.

It was too easy to fall into this bond, and I still had to know what this curse could do to Titan. But every time I asked, Maximus would tell me he didn’t know what I was talking about.

“Max, Zephyrine said you purposely kept it a secret from me. Then she said you may have broken it when it was too late. What the hell does that mean?”