The male followed her lead. They wrestled. Tumbled each other to the ground. Playfully bit, licked, and clawed. Then he mounted her, biting her nape. Claimed her as his mate just as his human had. The male wolf understood there should be a mating bond. Was confused that he didn’t feel it. Urged his human half to find it.

As Ryan and Makenna returned to their human skin, sprawled side by side, he promised his wolf he’d clear whatever jammed the frequency of the mating bond. Nothing got to stand between him and his mate. Nothing.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Ryan wasn’t on duty the next morning, but he still woke at his usual hour thanks to his internal clock. And there was his mate. She always looked young in her sleep. Deceptively harmless.

The claiming bite on her neck caught his eye, filling him with a masculine satisfaction he doubted could ever be equaled. It was official now. Makenna Wray was no longer the person he was trying to convince was his mate; she was his mate. There was no going back, only forward.

It bothered him that she still didn’t believe they were true mates. But nowhere near as much as before, because it meant she’d chosen him—not because fate paired them, but because she cared. From Makenna’s perspective, she’d forsaken her true mate to be with Ryan, to claim him and allow him to claim her in return. A person wouldn’t do that unless they cared deeply.

If the situation were reversed, he would have done the same. Like he told her, she was all he wanted, all he’d ever want. He couldn’t imagine anyone else fitting him the way she did.

He wasn’t lacking in self-insight. He knew he was so emotionally disconnected that he depended too much on facts. He knew he could be much too serious and didn’t know how to enjoy himself. Makenna balanced him out. Made him see the emotional connotations of situations, allowing him to look at things from different perspectives. She forced him to play, to joke, and to not take things too seriously.

Just the same, Ryan balanced her out. Makenna could be so blinded by emotion that she didn’t always consider things from outside the box. By pointing out the facts, he pushed her to do so. Also, although Makenna’s playful and mischievous nature wasn’t a bad thing, those traits manifested themselves into a need to provoke and antagonize whenever she was annoyed. Ryan made her consider the consequences of her actions—the lesson was slow going, but he had hope.

Additionally, whereas Ryan felt little empathy, Makenna felt way too much. So much so that she put others first, living more for the shelter than she did for herself. Ryan would never allow that. He would force her to see her own worth, just as she taught him to see his. He’d always felt like he had something to prove, that he needed to earn his worth. She never made him feel that way. Never complained about how tactless he was or how few pretty words he gave her. Nor did she criticize or judge him for being so emotionally disconnected.

They complemented and strengthened each other, fit too well to not be true mates. The rest of the pack agreed. They hadn’t been at all surprised when he and Makenna went for dinner last night, claimed and mated. But they had been shocked as all shit to hear there was no mating bond. It was fiercely bothering the females.

Makenna’s eyelids fluttered open, and it was only then he realized he’d been circling her claiming mark with his thumb. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”

She snuggled closer to him and pressed a kiss to his collarbone. “Go back to sleep.”

Ryan slid his hand down to rest on her ass. “Can’t.” But he’d stay with her, watch over her while she slept.

“Sure you can.” The words were whispered against his skin as she petted his chest. “Try. For me.”

Purely to indulge her, he closed his eyes and enjoyed her petting and stroking him. Her hand soon went limp and her breathing evened out. Ryan just lay with her, content and relaxed while he had the scent of his mate in his lungs, her skin beneath his hands, and her—

His eyes snapped open. He’d almost dozed off. Actually, if the bedside clock were to be believed, he had dozed off. For over two hours. He rolled onto his back, grabbed his cell phone from the small cabinet, and checked the time. It seemed the clock wasn’t lying.

Makenna hummed, having woken at the loss of his warmth. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s eight o’clock,” he said, disbelieving.

She frowned. “So?” Realization then dawned. “You fell back asleep? That’s good.”

He grunted, returning to her.

“And it’s nice to wake up and find you here. You’re usually gone.”

Something in her voice made Ryan frown. “That hurts you.”

“Hurts? No, I know your job is important. But imagine if every time you woke up, I’d already left. It would be nice to have me here for a change, right?”

Ryan scowled at the thought of her gone each time he awoke. He liked that she was the first thing he saw when he woke up each morning. Liked being able to kiss her before he left, even if she were asleep. “I’ll change some of my shifts around.”

Makenna blinked, sure she’d misheard him. “Say what?”

“I don’t need to do the early perimeter run six days a week. I’ll reduce it to two.”

“I wasn’t trying to guilt you into changing your hours.”

“I’m doing it because I want to.” And because anything that even minutely upset her wasn’t acceptable to him. “Just like you’re going to reduce the amount of days you work at the shelter a week. You don’t take a single day off.”