The Alpha King's Human Mate novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: House Rules

His fever broke at dawn.

I felt it go under my palm, the heat draining out of his forehead.

I was sitting on the edge of his enormous bed, with my boots off and my braid coming apart, and I had not slept in thirty hours.

Haldane opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling.

Then he turned his head and looked at me.

"You stayed."

"You had a line in your arm and a poison in your blood. I'm not that kind of vet tech."

"You're a very odd human."

"I get that a lot."

He tried to sit up, and I put one finger on his sternum, and he lay back down.

I noticed that and tried not to enjoy it.

"Tell me about this bond," I said. "Because I'd like to understand what's in my way."

He was quiet a moment.

"It is a pull," he said. "From the first scent. My wolf walks toward you whether I tell him to or not. If you stay away from me, it aches, like a tooth."

"And me?"

"A human feels none of it. That is why the Seal laughed."

"So I could kiss you or not kiss you and it wouldn't be the bond making me do it."

"Yes."

"And you wouldn't ask."

His pale eyes held mine.

"I will never ask you for a yes," he said. "It is the one rule my wolf and I agree on. If you want me, you will say so, and if you don't, I will carry it."

"That's a very noble speech for a man who can't sit up."

"I practiced it in the truck."

I laughed.

I hadn't meant to, and it came out of me, and he smiled, slow and real, the first full smile I had seen on him.

It did something unfair to his face.

I stood up fast and went to the basin.

"I need to change your dressing."

"Then change it."

I peeled back the gauze while he lay with his arm up behind his head, and I tried to be a professional.

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