Page 117 of The Alpha's Bullied Rejected Mate

Her chest rose with a shaky inhale.

“I love you, Marcus Vale,” she repeated.

His name sounded like a vow on her lips as she looked down, too flushed to meet his gaze.

But Marcus leaned in and cupped her face with his hands, raising her chin before he dipped his head and kissed her. Deeply. Desperately.

A kiss that told her everything his words couldn’t. A kiss that apologized, that begged, that promised, that thanked.

A kiss that rewrote the ache of their past and sealed something truer in its place. Their bond.

And she understood it all.

Because she kissed him back in the same fervor, with everything in her.

She loved this wolf.

Her arms encircled his neck as she drew closer against the solid warmth of his chest.

Her magic flared from her fingertips as sparks of white light danced around the room like fireflies.

Their mate bond was awake now, roaring through their veins like wildfire. She felt his wolf closer now.

It wasn’t just their love.

It was fate.

It was their soul bonding in perfect assurance.

They were mates.

He was hers.

She was his.

She slid one hand down from Marcus’s neck and placed it on his chest, her palms still illuminating a white glowing light.

Nothing was more assuring than that.

Athena lay on her side, her head pressed to Marcus’s chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart.

But even that rhythm couldn’t calm the tension rising inside her as she recounted an important detail from her earlier battle with the demon.

“The demon I fought earlier…” she began, her voice as her interrupted the silence of their night. “I don’t think it was acting alone.”

She felt Marcus shift beside her; the arm that circled her shoulders was retrieved in an instant, and she turned to face him.

He sat up slightly as he scrunched his eyebrows in confusion.

“Tell me more,” he demanded.

“I read about it sometime ago,” she continued. “Some demons bind themselves to higher ones in a bid to become more powerful. But it comes with a cost—they give over their will, their thoughts. Simply put, they become weapons and pawns for the higher entity demons.”

He fixed a curious gaze on her, like he was anticipating her conclusion.

“I felt it,” Athena continued. “Like something was controlling it. It was bound to something more powerful.”

“It wasn’t a pure demon,” Marcus concluded smartly.