I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so nervous. I tried on almost every shirt I owned and hated all of them.

I eyed the clock warily. I didn’t have time to go shopping, not that I would know what to buy even if I did. I was never a girly-girl, and I didn’t know the first thing about dressing sexy to catch a man’s attention. The thought of even trying to be sexy made me flush with embarrassment. Where would I even begin?

My daily wardrobe consisted of yoga pants and T-shirts. Not exactly the most alluring attire.

I threw a dagger at the wall and frowned when, instead of sticking, it bounced off to clatter to the ground.

I was seriously off my game.

The door opened, and I whirled around to see Declan standing in the doorway. God, he looked good.

He’d changed into a clean pair of faded jeans and a forest green thermal shirt that accentuated his emerald green eyes and hugged his broad chest and shoulders.

I wanted to take the damn shirt off of him and explore the hard ridges of his abdomen that I knew lay hidden beneath it.

I had to physically shake myself.

Come on, Aria. Get it together and stop drooling.

“I’m not ready,” I told him. I looked down at my outfit and suddenly felt self-conscious. I’d put on the only pair of jeans I owned without any rips or tears and paired it with a long sleeved V-neck cotton tee that hinted at a bit of cleavage. I wore my black leather boots, the only shoes I currently owned. None of my ensemble screamed date-worthy.

Declan’s eyes roved over my body. “You look beautiful.”

Before I could think about it, I stepped forward and kissed him on the cheek.

“Thank you.”

A brief flash of surprise crossed his face before a wide smile took over, making him appear much younger than his thirty-three years.

“Do you need a coat?” he asked.

I pulled away from him to grab my leather jacket and retrieve my dagger from the floor. I sheathed it at my waist beside its twin.

“All set.”

Declan reached out and laced our fingers together.

As we walked down the wide hallways of the Compound, we caught the attention of several shifters whose eyes strayed to our interlaced fingers.

Outside, I climbed into the waiting Pack SUV and turned the heater on high. The air was brisk and took a few minutes to warm.

We drove in comfortable silence into downtown Spokane, a short twenty-minute drive from the Compound.

I’d lived in Spokane, Washington the last ten years, but it still didn’t feel like home. I’d spent most of my childhood in Iran. My father was Persian, born before the Iranian Revolution in 1979, so while growing up in Iran was all I knew, he had never once called us Iranian. We were Persian, and he was proud.

He’d met my American mother while she was traveling through the Middle East during summer break from University, and as he always told it, it’d been love at first sight.

They married less than six months after they met and decided to stay in Iran. I was born Iranian, not that not that I’d call myself anything but Persian in front of my father, and we stayed in Iran until I was twelve.

It was difficult for my mother to adjust to Middle East culture. After my grandparents passed, there’d been nothing holding my father to his home country, so she got her wish, and we moved to the states.

I missed the Norouz celebrations, and I missed running down the cobbled streets with my friends.

I never really connected to the west.

I sighed wistfully. Maybe one day I’d take Declan back to visit the home of my heart.

“Are we going to Kendall Yards?” I asked, recognizing some of the businesses we passed.

Declan nodded. “What better place for brunch than The Yards Bruncheon?”

I smiled. I hadn’t been to The Yards Bruncheon since they’d opened a little over a year ago. A small, local eatery, they were known for pairing breakfast and brunch dishes with cocktails.It was my kind of place.

Declan parallel parked in one of the metered parking slots in front of the restaurant and jogged around to open my door.

I lifted a brow.

“Chivalry isn’t dead,” he said. He took my hand in his warm calloused one and led me inside.

Vintage diner seating greeted us with retro booths and checkered flooring.

It was open seating, so we stole the booth in the far back. I slid into the seat that faced the front door and placed my back against the wall. Declan frowned. He must have realized that if he sat across from me, his back would be exposed.

He slid into the booth beside me instead.

A waiter appeared immediately. “Hi, I’m Jack. Can I get your drink orders?” I peeked at the drink menu and ordered a mimosa. It was rude not to order alcohol when their claim to fame was great food paired with alcohol, right?

“I’ll have the same.”

Jack nodded and left to place our drink order. Declan rested a hand on my knee and casually stroked it as he looked over the menu.

I tried to ignore the heat pooling in my stomach at the mere touch of his hand on a part of my body that shouldn’t feel like an erogenous zone and focus on my menu.

Declan gave me a knowing smile I chose to ignore.

Something about having brunch in such a suburban part of town without anyone trying to kidnap or kill me was refreshing.

Our waiter returned and placed our mimosas in front of us, then pulled out a small notepad and pen from his apron.

“Are we ready to order?” he asked.

I looked up from my menu and smiled at him. “I think so.” I skimmed over the selection one last time before saying, “I’ll take the wild huckleberry pancakes.” I reached across Declan to hand him my menu.

“That’s one of my favorites,” he said. “And for you, sir?” He turned to Declan, who was still staring intently at his menu while his hand drew lazy circles on my leg.

“Huevos ranchero, breakfast fajitas, and the ham and cheese omelet.” He offered the waiter his menu, who didn’t bat an eye at such a large order.

“I’ll put your order right in.” He turned on his heel with a flourish, leaving Declan and me alone.

Declan’s hand slid higher up my thigh as I turned my body to fully face him.

“This is nice.” I glanced down at his hand caressing my thigh and heat crept into my cheeks

He slid an arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer. “It is.”

Feeling flustered, I bit my lower lip and searched his face for clues to what he was thinking.

His eyes honed in on my mouth before quickly darting away, his eyes sparkling with mischief.

“Are you sure you want to stick to the no-sex rule?” he asked.

I licked my lips. “Why? Are you experiencing some self-control issues?”

Gold flecks danced in his eyes as he leaned in close to whisper into my ear. “Not at all. I’m the epitome of self-control. It’s you I’m worried about.”

I pulled back and frowned. “Me? How so?”

Declan chuckled. “You’re already having a hard time keeping your hands off of me.” Declan eyed my hand suggestively. I rolled my eyes when I realized I’d placed it on his leg when he’d leaned in.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable?” I pulled my hand back and set it demurely in my lap.

Declan grabbed my hand and placed it back on his leg.

“Not at all. I just want you to know that should you change your mind, I’d be a willing participant.”

I laughed and didn’t bother fighting the grin that tugged at the corners of my lips.

Our waiter returned with a tray piled with plates of heavenly smelling food.

He placed a heaping stack of golden fluffy pancakes in front of me and managed to make Declan’s three orders fit on our small table without dropping anything.

"Is this how much you normally eat?" I took a bite of my wild huckleberry pancakes as I stared at the pile of food in front of Declan. Butter and sugar danced along my taste buds.

I moaned and closed my eyes, savoring the deliciousness of my meal.

When I opened my eyes, Declan was staring down at me, a perplexed expression on his face.

“What?” I brought my hand up and wiped my mouth just in case I’d managed to smear huckleberry syrup on my lips.

“If you expect me to follow your no-sex rule, you are not allowed to moan like that. Or lick your lips. It has me thinking of other ways to make you moan and other places I want your hot tongue …” he trailed off suggestively.

I sucked in a shocked breath and nearly choked on my food.

When I finally regained control of myself, Declan had already worked his way through his ham and egg omelet and had moved on to his huevos rancheros.

Thinking I’d better change the subject, I asked, “So, how did you wind up becoming Alpha?” I knew some of the basics. That he’d ruled the pack for the last nine years and that he was the youngest shifter to ever become a Pack Alpha at the age of twenty-four.

In nine years, Declan had also gone unchallenged, which was virtually unheard of. Having been living in the Compound for the past several months, I knew Declan was a well-loved Alpha, but it was still surprising that no one, not even a shifter from an outside Pack, had ever bothered to challenge him.

Declan set his fork down and leveled me with a serious gaze. “You don’t know?”

I shook my head. Shifters were secretive, and while the how of Declan becoming an Alpha was probably public knowledge within the Pack, it wasn’t information that would have been openly shared with outsiders.

“You’ve probably never heard of the Alpha before me since it was before the Awakening, but Bram was one hell of a sick fuck.” He paused and clenched his fist. “My father was Alpha before Bram took over.”

I worried my lower lip. When a new Alpha took control of a Pack, it usually meant the former Alpha had been killed.

“Bram challenged him?” I asked.

Declan shook his head and scrubbed a hand over his face. “No. He didn’t have the balls for that. He ambushed my father, his own Alpha, on a hunt. It was four on one. My father never saw it coming.”

Anger radiated off of Declan in waves. I placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Bram led the Pack for two long years before I was dominant enough to challenge him.”

“How did he gain control of the Pack in the first place if he never issued a formal challenge?” I asked.

Declan’s anger and frustration emanated through the bond and filled me with sorrow. Our food now forgotten, I stroked Declan’s back and waited for him to continue.

“He lied. He came up with an elaborate story that my father had attacked him, and that the challenge was issued during a confrontation. The shifters who’d helped ambush my father backed up the story. Bram was feared. He’d done horribly cruel things to those who opposed him in the slightest. We all scented the lie, knew it was an ambush, but there was no one dominant enough at the time to challenge him and win.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said, knowing my words weren’t enough to ease his pain.

"And your mother?" I knew she was dead as well but hadn't heard the circumstances.

“She died three months after we lost him. It’s difficult for a shifter to carry on when a mate is lost. The broken bond—” he shook his head, “it isn’t something most can ever recover from.”

I sucked in a breath at the unsaid implications. Had I rejected him, had I been able to break the mate bond as I’d wanted to at the beginning … I didn’t want to even think it. Declan mattered too much. To the Pack, to me.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

A sad smile lifted the corner of his mouth as he looked down at me. “You haven’t accepted the bond.”

My heart burned in my chest. I rubbed absently at the ache.

“I’d survive if you walked away.” He looked away, and a part of me wanted to reach out to him. To reassure him that I wasn’t going anywhere. But something held me back.

“Physically at least,” he said, almost as an afterthought.

I suddenly realized that I’d allowed Declan to slip past my defenses and my need to keep everyone at arm’s length. He had risked his life for me more times than I could count.

Sure, he was overprotective to a fault, but he also trusted that I could take care of myself. He stood up for me to the Pack and had shown me every kindness possible. But most importantly, he had handed me his heart.

Declan had come to mean so much to me in such a short time.

I knew in my heart that I would be devastated if anything happened to him. And that admission left me shaken to my core.

We didn’t know each other. Not really. We hadn’t dated. We’d only been in one another’s lives for the past six months.

Was that enough time to fall in love? To make the decision to spend your entire life with someone?

I reached out and kissed Declan, unsure of how else to reassure him that I wasn’t planning to walk away.

His lips softened beneath mine, but he didn’t deepen the kiss.

I pulled back, and Declan touched his thumb to my lower lip.

“I don’t ever want to lose you.” His voice was a whisper filled with so much emotion. It vibrated through the bond and filled me with hope.

“Then don’t.”