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Jayce had never loathed himself more than he did at that moment Kat deserved more than him So much more And she deserved an explanation But he couldn’t explain to her why he was leaving, because she wouldn’t understand She was too young, too innocent She rown up on the outskirts of a violent environment, but her father, bastard that he was, had always protected Kat

As the enforcer, Jayce had too many enemies Violent, vicious, sadistic enemies he’d racked up over the years And they were powerful By keeping Kat siet But if he bonded with her, turned her into a shifter, she would becoht The perception others had of her would change in an instant She’d no longer be Kat Saburova She’d be Jayce’s wo she’d be hunted Maybe not at first, but eventually someone would come for her

With his job he couldn’t protect her all the tio his father had attempted a relationship with a hu birth to hi her decision about whether to turn, she’d been killed by one of his father’s enemies Then a couple hundred years later, Jayce’s older brother had gone bat-shit crazy after his o And he was still torn up over it as far as Jayce knew Hell, he didn’t even knohere his brother was now

Jayce had known the time would eventually co process He’d just been trying to figure out how the hell to walk away from her before that happened When she’d done it instead, he’d felt as if she’d punched through the middle of his chest and ripped his heart out with her bare hands If it hadn’t been for his job, he’d have gone insane Now she knew the truth and there wasn’t a da he could do about it

It was better to let her think he didn’t want to take her as his bondmate because she was human If she knew the truth about how much power she wielded over hiine to his truck She knew all his buttons and if she pressed the right ones hard enough, he’d eventually turn her He had the willpower to keep her safe now, but the ani selfish it scared the shit out of hiers that Kat would face It just knew that whenever she was around, it needed to be near her, to touch her, to get wrapped up in her sweet scent Walking out of that kitchen had taken all his self-control Only one thing had driven hi the weak emotion that clawed at him

It took a lot to scare Jayce He wanted Kat by his side, in his bed, under hiing on to his huer he was around her, the more he wanted to clai her directly into his world, consequences be dahts and focused on the road in front of hi-Cordona ranch, he followed the single-lane paved road until he reached a dirt road It wasn’t long until he reached the ates read CORDONA RANCH, but he knew that Connor Arh to Ana Cordona for the on Connor’s ht now Matedthe first year other than their mates Alpha leaders were exceptions, but the draw to be near theirJayce had seen his fair share of o mad when their females strayed or died

He wasn’t sure where to park, so he pulled through the gates and stopped by a giant oak tree It sat in the middle of an expanse of houses The houses and cabins forh space for privacy, but it was a tight-knit pack If he had to guess, the two-story brick house that was just a little larger than everyone else’s was Connor and Ana’s

Out of habit, he checked his two daggers and his Springfield 45 As a rule he preferred any blade to a gun, but he wasn’t stupid His job demanded he be prepared at all times As he approached the house, he scented Liam behind him The other wolf’s boots crunched on the fallen snow, but his scent was distinctive

Instead of stopping completely, Jayce slowed and waited for hiht?"

Lialance "No I didn’t sleep out in the cold watching her all night either"

Dah hi mated Females ht in the cold watching Kat’s place, and the ain

Lia "But I have in the past couple weeks More than once Fe complicated," he muttered

The ad he’d expect his brother to say to hie it to anyone, he missed that family connection As enforcer for the Council he didn’t have ties anywhere He couldn’t afford to His father was dead and his brother was living God knehere Being with Kat was the closest he’d ever co a real connection with someone A real family Maybe on a different planet in a different lifetime he’d have had a shot at happiness with a woman like her