Declan was pacing the confines of my bedroom when Inarus ported us back to the Compound—the fortress that housed the Pacific Northwest Pack, or at least, most of them.

I was thankful he'd ported me to my room within the Compound, instead of the basement we'd left, but I wasn't thrilled with what, or rather who, was waiting for me.

Declan’s eyes were wild and his muscles bunched with his movements. The tension was evident in every line of his body. I tried to care about his plight. I really did. It couldn’t be easy being rejected by your mate, and then having your mate abducted by your rival and handed off to her psychotic mother. But I never asked to be his mate, and I had enough shit on my plate. His overprotective urges weren’t something I cared all that much about at the moment.

I staggered when Inarus stepped away from me. A port always left my insides feeling like Jell-O. Declan rushed forward before Inarus could help steady me, and I found myself wrapped in Declan’s warm embrace.

A small part of me sighed in relief. His touch was gentle, yet firm as he pulled me flush against him. For a brief moment, everything felt right. And then I remembered how he’d betrayed me. How he’d rallied the Pack men to court me and planned to manipulate me into a relationship for the sole purpose of using my abilities as a weapon.  But then I'd almost died, so he'd forced me into a mate bond and claimed me himself. All to keep from losing his precious weapon.

Dying or not, I'd never consented to be his, and I wasn't falling for this little act that he cared about me. We weren't a couple. Whatever he was feeling were likely shifter urges. Not love, not real concern for me as a person. No, it was just Declan responding to his tiger’s need to rescue and protect.

I heard my bedroom door open and close and cursed Inarus for leaving me alone with Declan. Jerk.

I was cold. My clothes and hair were soaked, and I felt dead on my feet. Declan wrapped his arms around me again but pulled back just enough to look at me. My body swayed.

“I’m too tired to fight with you,” I said.

“Good. Because I’m taking care of you whether you like it or not.” I wanted to give him a snippy response, but my brain was too fuzzy to come up with anything.

Inarus had spent the last hour going over some of the basics of telekinetic control with me after I’d purged. I wasn’t sure how I was even still standing.

I hadn’t realized how different telekinetic abilities were from my own. All psykers had some form of psychokinetic power. During today's lesson, I realized they were in no way related to one another.

I wasn’t prepared for the mental exhaustion I was feeling. Inarus had me focus on breathing and precision techniques, something he’d spent his entire life mastering. He made it took so easy.

I’d dropped rocks into the lake one after the other and somehow, the weight of the stone affected the weight in my mind as I moved it.

I was mentally drained and chilled to the bone in my soaking wet clothes, my cotton shirt clinging to me like a second skin.

“I’m cold,” I said. Good one Aria, that really let him know that you were still pissed. I was disgusted with myself. So what if I had just taken the polar bear plunge in a lake that left me feeling frozen. I was a pyrokinetic. I could warm myself up. I didn’t need him.

The thought of calling my fire terrified me though. What if something else decided to come with it?

Declan led me to the attached bathroom. I was too tired to fight him on it. My feet were like blocks of cement weighing me down, and I struggled to keep my eyes open. It felt like tiny anchors were attached to each one of my eyelashes.

He sat me on the toilet seat as he adjusted the hot and cold water handles for the shower before pulling me back to my feet and gently removing my soaked shirt and pants with so much tenderness that irrational tears welled up in my eyes. His gaze caught mine, and I looked away. He didn’t comment but took a moment to swipe a tear that had fallen onto my cheek with his thumb.

When Declan was done, I was left standing in a sports bra and underwear, feeling more vulnerable than I could ever remember feeling in my entire life.

He pulled his own shirt over his head and quickly discarded his belt and jeans, leaving himself in a pair of black boxer briefs. I tried not to appreciate the ridges of his abdomen or the light dusting of blonde hair that arrowed down from his navel to disappear beneath the waistband of his briefs.

He pulled me toward him and carefully helped me into the shower. The warm spray hit me, and I hissed before my body adjusted to the heated temperature. I leaned back against the hard planes of Declan’s chest, my head tucked just beneath his chin, and tried to focus on breathing. The hot spray beat my sensitive skin like a thousand tiny needles, but for a moment, I allowed myself to sink into his embrace.

I lost track of time, and the next thing I knew, Declan was massaging shampoo into my hair, the scent of citrus wafting through the enclosed shower.

He helped me rinse my hair, and when I turned to face him, I saw heat in his gaze. I gulped and stood still as he carefully lathered my arms and then my stomach with citrus scented soaps. I couldn’t remember ever mentioning that I loved the smell of citrus, but how else would he know to have them in my bathroom?

Eventually, the water grew cold. Declan turned the shower off and helped me out. He wrapped me in a large fluffy towel and wrapped another towel low around his own waist.

I stumbled on my way to my bed, and Declan was right there to catch me.

“I don’t forgive you,” I told him and instantly regretted the words.

Pain flashed across his face before he was able to mask it, but I’d already seen it. Guilt tore viciously at my chest. “I don’t need you to forgive me.” His voice was cold and hollow. “Right now, I need you to shut up and get in bed.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Get out. I can take care of myself.” I jerked away from him and nearly fell on my butt. Again, he was there to catch me.

“Stop being so stubborn. You need my help, so suck it up and let me help you.” I scowled at him, but sat on the edge of the bed as instructed and watched as he rummaged through the dresser for dry clothes.

I quickly turned my head away when he stripped off his towel and wet briefs, but that hadn’t prevented the glimpse of firm buttocks and muscled thighs I’d gotten. Or the heat that crept up my neck.

When I turned back towards him, he was wearing a pair of grey sweats that hung low on his hips and had a large white shirt in his hand.

“You keep clothes here? I thought this was my room.”

"You're my mate," he said as if that answered everything.

"You have your own room," I grumbled. He didn't respond. Instead, he pulled me to my feet and used my towel to dry me off with gentle, but efficient strokes.

I stood there like a statue, unsure of what to do with myself. But when he reached for the waistband of my underwear I snapped to attention.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I said.

Declan had the nerve to look taken aback. “I’m helping you get dressed.”

I jerked the T-shirt away from him. “I can get myself dressed.”

He folded his arms across his chest and stared down at me. “Fine. Get dressed.”

My cheeks heated. Did he expect me to strip right here with him staring? Fat chance.

“Get out.”

“I’m not leaving you alone in your condition.” The expression on his face was smug. The bastard was enjoying this.

"Turn around then," I growled.

Declan took his time turning himself slowly until his back faced me. “I don’t see what you’re so worried about. It’s not like I haven’t seen you all but naked before.”

I stripped as quickly as I could without falling and threw the white shirt on over my head. It came down to my knees and covered me well enough, though I’d need to find a pair of underwear eventually. Why hadn’t he bothered to grab those? I eyed the dresser across the room with disdain. I didn’t think I could make it that far on my own.

I wadded up my wet undergarments and threw them at Declan’s back. He turned to look over his shoulder, one blonde eyebrow raised.

“I don’t care if you’ve seen me nearly naked or not. You’re not going to see me entirely naked. Not now, not ever,” I told him.

He eyed me up and down, a sly grin slowly spreading across his features. “If I remember right, you didn’t have any problem shedding your clothes with me before.”

I glared at him and tried to ignore the memories that flooded my mind.

Declan’s hands on me. His palm cupping my breast. We’d come so close to sleeping with one another. I could still taste his kiss on my tongue.

I shivered. “That was before I found out what a bastard you were. I suppose I didn’t have much of an issue when I thought there might be a chance of this,” I indicated the space between us, “actually working out. I didn’t ask to be tied to you, but hell, I was willing to maybe give it a try before I found out that you’d used me.  That all you wanted was to turn me into your precious little weapon.”

“Aria, you’re being unreasonable." He took a step forward and reached out for me. I sidestepped away, then put a hand on my forehead when the room began spinning.

“Unreasonable?” I ground it, “You asked men within the Pack to court me. You wanted to tie me to the Pack so you could use me.” I was practically yelling at him now. Maybe I wasn’t too tired to fight with him after all. This confrontation had been a long time coming.

“That was before …” he trailed off.

“Right,” I scoffed. “Before you bit me and tied me to you. Before you decided this little mate bond between us somehow made me your soul mate. Now you care about me as a person, is that it? But before I was just a tool for you to use and somehow I should be okay with it? I should be flattered that Declan Valkenaar, Alpha to the Pacific Northwest Pack, has picked me to be his mate? Is that what you’re telling me?”

I blinked hard as tears threatened to spill. Dammit, why did he have such an effect on me? I rubbed the ache in my chest and turned away from him.

He didn’t say anything for several long minutes.

I climbed into my bed and tucked myself under the covers as silent tears spilled down my cheeks.

The mattress dipped, and Declan slid into the bed beside me.

“Go away,” I choked out.

He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled my back flush against his chest.

“I’m a bastard.”

“I know.”

“And I don’t deserve you.”

“Glad you’re finally realizing that.”

I swiped at the tears on my cheeks and tried to pull away from him, but his grip was iron tight.

“But I love you.”

I sucked in a breath. He—what?

I froze, suddenly unable to form any coherent thoughts or words.

He didn’t say anything else, just settled in beside me with his arm wrapped tightly around my body and his legs now tangled with mine. I listened as his breathing slowly evened out and realized the exact moment when he fell asleep.

Declan told me he loved me. The bond that connected us flared to life at his words, and I suddenly realized, I believed him.