“Make my mate’s mark on me as large as possible.” I wanted everyone to know I belonged to her, heart and soul, from across the room. Fuck that, from the other side of moon. Mine. She was mine.

Scribe cackled with glee and got to work.

“Cormac!” Abby protested. “Doesn’t that hurt?”

I grinned back at her as Scribe started on the second letter. When he was done, Abby walked to me and placed her palm over her name. Well, over some of it. Her small hand was not big enough to cover it completely. “I love you, Cormac.”

The crowd who had been cheering and shouting encouragement went silent. My mate seemed to have that effect on everyone and not just me.

Abby turned away from me and looked out at all those strange faces. “What? You never hear anyone say ‘I love you’ before?”

Clear as a bell a child shouted back, “Not to him!”

Gut wrenching pain sliced through my happiness like a blade through water. How had I forgotten my place here? I was the monster they all feared. Their killer. Their assassin. Their protector. They needed me. They feared me. They did not care for me.

With my face heated and dread a pit in my gut, I waited for my mate’s reaction. I had warned her what I was to my people. What I had done. She was young and vibrant, filled with life. I was too old, had done too much killing.

Abby removed her hand from my chest and it took every ounce of self-control I possessed not to react to the loss. When she stepped in front of me, hands on her hips, I had no idea what was going to come out of her mouth.

“Shame on you. All of you!” She shouted at my legion like a mother scolding small children. “He protects you. He kills your enemies so you can sleep at night and not worry about your children. He has to be big and scary and mean to take care of you. All of you. How dare you treat him like an outsider?”

The silence stretched and Styx stepped forward to announce our mating feast.

Abby snorted, turned around and grabbed my hand. Pulling me off the stage she asked Harper to point in the direction of the food. Beneath her breathe she mumbled.

“Idiots.”

Shock turned my mind to sludge as she dragged me toward the door. Then…

I burst into laughter. Loud. Carefree. Not caring who watched, I pulled her into my arms and kissed her with everything I was. My heart was hers. My soul. My happiness.

“I love you, Abby. My heart is yours.”

Abby leaned close and I bent to give her my ear so she could whisper to me.

“Right now, lover boy, I want food. And then we are going to forget about all of these stupid, ungrateful people and get naked.”