His Love Was Never Only Mine

The first time my childhood sweetheart’s werewolf traits awakened, his friends called me to help calm him down. But what they didn’t know was that I heard him say:

“I really don’t want to waste my first time on her. A werewolf’s love is for life. Whoever we mark first becomes our only mate. When Chloe gets here, I’ll have to resist, even if she begs me to let her help.”

But he waited and waited, and I never came.

What he didn’t know was that his older brother’s bodyguard had been blowing up my phone.

“Miss Hayes, the young master marked you as his mate a long time ago. Please, I’m begging you, can you come and kiss him?”

It turns out, five years ago when I died in a skiing accident, his brother saved me. He performed a blood bond, giving me half of his own werewolf lifespan to pull me back from the brink of death.

That night, I wrapped my arms around his brother’s neck, my voice a low, seductive whisper. “Come on, Matthew. Don’t hold back. Tell me… how many years have you been secretly in love with me?”

1

My childhood sweetheart, Leo, comes from a family of werewolves. After their twentieth birthday, every full moon sends them into a powerful heat. And according to their ancient laws, the first person they mark becomes their one and only mate for life.

I always thought that when the time came, Leo would choose me.

So when his friends called me on the night of his first transformation, telling me he was in agony and needed me, I rushed over without a second thought. But as I reached the door of the private room, I heard Leo’s voice, tight with frustration.

“God, I really don’t want to waste it on Chloe.”

“I want to go after Isabelle, the most popular girl in school, but she’s not the easy type.”

“Not like Chloe. She’s like a pathetic little lapdog who comes running whenever I call.”

“When she gets here, I’ll have to resist, even if she begs me to let her help. The last thing I need is to be shackled to her for life after one mistake. She’d have me wrapped around her little finger forever.”

I stood frozen outside the door, my mind a complete blank. I couldn’t believe it. The boy I’d grown up with, the boy I adored, saw me as nothing more than that.

His friends, all of them the type to kiss up and kick down, burst out laughing.

“So, she’s just a toy to you.”

“Should I call and tell her not to come? Save her the trouble of trying to climb into your bed and trap you. Honestly, man, you get what you pay for.”

But Leo stopped him. “No, don’t,” he said, his voice strained with discomfort. “If we tell her not to come now, how would that make her feel? Even if she is just a toy, she’s one I’ve cared for since we were kids. I don’t want to hurt her.”

He let out a ragged breath. “When she gets here, I’ll just… see if I can hold back. I don’t want to spell things out for her, but maybe this will finally make her understand.”

In that moment, I wanted to storm in there and scream at him. You don’t want to hurt me? You call me a dog in front of your friends and...