Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 222(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 222(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 148(@300wpm)
She squirmed in his arms, making his heart beat faster. He was wrapped all the way around her tiny finger, and she hadn’t spoken to him yet. He remembered his mother telling him she might be thirsty from the potion. It might have left her mouth dry. Plus, there was a good chance she hadn’t eaten today. If her nerves had been half as frazzled as his, she would be hungry.
Elias wondered how the hell he might fix her a bottle while holding her securely against him and chided himself for being so fucking unprepared. But when he opened the fridge, he grinned. Someone—undoubtedly his mother—had fixed three bottles and lined them up on the top shelf. Bless her.
Elias held his mate cradled close to his chest while he used his other hand to warm a bottle up in the microwave. Surely she wouldn’t want to drink it freezing cold. It would give her a headrush.
By the time he entered the nursery and settled in the giant rocking chair, his mate was whimpering in her not-quite-lucid state.
He took a chance and dragged the nipple over her lips, pleased when she opened her mouth and accepted the rubber tip. Almost immediately she began suckling.
His heart was in his hands, literally. His Little girl settled against him, no longer as agitated. She had yet to open her eyes, but she was lucid enough to suckle the formula, and one of her small hands even came up to his where he held the bottle.
When she wrapped her fingers around one of his, he nearly choked. Since when was he an emotional dude? Since never.
One word kept going through his mind. Precious. She was beyond precious. She was his world.
Part of him was irritated by how all-consuming she was and how his life flipped upside down today, but that piece of him that wanted his life to remain how it had been before he’d met her was losing ground.
His existence would forever be divided into two parts: before Leah and after the moment he inhaled her sweet scent for the first time.
His cock had been hard since that moment, and he’d been relieved and pleased when he’d scented her own arousal. She’d been just as affected by him as he had her. At least he assumed so. It was impossible to know her mind or what she might have been thinking or feeling during the ceremony.
His gut told him she’d been on the exact same page. Her heartrate had matched his. Her scent had permeated the room, driving him to want to flatten her to the wall and devour her. If he’d misread her… That seemed unlikely.
The sleeves of her dress were gold lace, and he could see her mark through the tiny holes in the intricate stitching. He was itching to touch it, but kept himself in check, remembering his father’s words of warning.
If he let his finger graze over her mark, would his need for her shoot higher? Hard to believe considering the state of his cock, but he would heed the warning. His father hadn’t left him with that last parting piece of advice for no reason.
Leah suckled the entire bottle down without awakening. She gripped his pinky with her entire hand the whole time.
Elias blinked only as much as necessary, not wanting to take his gaze off her for a moment. He knew her face by heart already. Her button nose, her rosy cheeks, her small ears, the way her red hair curled at her temples, the indentation on her chin, and those freckles… Precious.
When she was no longer sucking anything but air, he set the bottle on the small table beside him. Should he warm up another one? That seemed like too much. Her heart-shaped mouth continued to suck at nothing, making him kick himself for not paying attention to where his family and friends might have put the pacifiers.
He didn’t want to stand and look for them. Instead he trailed a finger along her cheeks and forehead, willing her to awake and join him in this new life. He missed her, which seemed ridiculous since he didn’t know her.
His heart nearly stopped beating when she drew her hand up to her mouth and tucked her thumb between her lips.
Elias was pretty sure his brother’s mate also sucked her thumb on occasion, but he had never thought anything of it. He wasn’t affected by anything any of the other mates did. Not until now. Not until the woman in question was his own mate.
Leah was under his skin; she was inside him. She was his heart and soul. It had happened in an instant, and the bond was growing by the minute.
He was kind of glad he had not sought out information about her before today. He wondered how Brock, Arion, and Damon had been able to stand the waiting, knowing who their mate was and not being able to approach her.