It makes me want to forget everything else around me and stay here, in his arms and in this moment. Nothing more important than him and no-one else existing in our little world right now.

His hand brushes my hair with a gentle touch, searching for my eyes. His smile blooms into something heart-stopping when he finds them, his own eyes shining with so much love and affection.

“Mate. My Mate.” He smiles, his voice still a little breathless, the huskiness of it reminding me of him in my ear moments ago, sending shivers down my spine. He notices, a larger grin forming on his lips.

“You’re perfect, Rhys. Every goddamn beautiful inch of you.” A warm look dances between us, his eyes telling me every word is sincere. A blush heats my cheeks as a smile spreads across my face, the warmth in my chest overflowing from me with every second that passes in his tender embrace. A peace settling in me that I never knew existed, a feeling that what I had before was lacking, was missing something until now, a piece of me that wasn’t fully whole. And that this was it. He was it.

My breath leaves me, my eyes opening wide as I rub the small spot on my chest above my breasts, trying to calm my racing heart. Jace’s hearty chuckle pulls me from my thoughts as he pushes back the chocolate brown curls that have fallen on his face. Then he brushes my messy and loose red strands behind my ear, his eyes beaming a warmth as deep as the ocean as he looks at me, a look of almost reverence and awe within them. Was he feeling the same way I was?

Just as I open my mouth to speak, we hear a person clearing their throat behind us.

Lucien leans against a bookshelf just feet from us, a dark and amused glint in his eyes.

Jace’s eyes widen, taken aback by his sudden appearance, before he quickly flips us, pulling me behind him and placing himself between me and Lucien’s dark gaze.

A deep growl rolls from his throat as his teeth extend to sharp points, gold flooding his irises as he glares toward the intruder before us. Lucien’s grin grows darker.

I place my hand on Jace’s back, trying to calm his wolf.

I notice my trousers on the floor and move to get them when suddenly Jace pulls me back and behind him again. I narrow my eyes toward him as a rumble pours from his chest.

I get that he didn’t want Lucien to see me and that he was being protective, but I needed to get dressed. Wouldn’t that actually help all this?

I point to my clothes strewn across the floor near the desk. “Jace, my clothes…”

He eyes them from the side, not moving from covering my bare body, his gaze still set on Lucien.

I sigh, my tone becoming firmer. “I need my clothes, Jace.” I could understand his protectiveness, but I couldn’t stay behind him forever.