Bonus Chapter 7

***Cedar***

I let the silence hang just long enough to watch my beautiful mate squirm, wringing her hands like a guilty puppy. Then I flash her a smirk. “Wow, was that an apology and a desperate plea?” I chuckle. “You must really miss me. Alright, alright—I’ll come home. I’ll grace you with my presence again.”
I can tell by the glare in her eyes that she wants to rip my head off with her bare hands. Yet, as her shoulders drop ever so slightly, I also spot her relief.
“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?” 
“For you,” she mutters, looking to the window to avoid my eyes. 
Oh, dear mate. One part of me definitely got hard watching you walk over here and growling with jealousy at Julie. 
My mate is so feisty!
After what she told me yesterday, though, I just want to turn her over my knee and spank that naughty bottom. And I sure as shit will do that to that perky ass when she stops this nonsense of avoiding our bond.
Fuck, my dick is already hurt. I need to stop thinking with my second head.
“Ah, Cedar! I forgot to tell you.” Julie hushes quickly back into the house. “You’re invited to dinner at my house! We can talk, and I can explain in more detail about—”
“He’s not going!” Violet declares with a voice razor-edged, glaring at Julie. Then she smooths her expression into something almost diplomatic—if you ignore the way her knuckles whiten. “I mean, he’s not going to rent this place. He’s going back to the packhouse.”
“Oh... okay,” Julie says, her friendly smile fading. “Well, dinner is still on if you want.”
Violet narrows her chestnut eyes at me, then she looks away to the window again, her head tilts back slightly as her arms cross in a silent huff. Her tempting red-painted lips purse into the tiniest, most stubborn pout as she refuses to look at me.
I walk up to Violet and don’t miss the way she shivers when I get close.
I love that.
Her scent wraps around me—dark chocolate and sweet raspberries. A fragrance so heady I can almost taste it.
“Thanks, Julie. But maybe another time. Give Penny my thanks,” I reply as I place my hand possessively on my mate’s hip. And no one is more surprised than me when she doesn’t shift into her gorgeous wolf and bite my hand off.
On the contrary, she suddenly leans just a little bit closer to me.
“Oh...” Julie’s gaze goes from my eyes to my hand around Violet’s hip, realization dawning in her eyes. No one knows that we’re fated mates besides our family. I thought it wouldn’t be fair to Violet to let everyone know something she hasn’t even accepted yet. Julie then replies before leaving, “I see. Hmm. See you guys later then.”
My lips graze her ear as Julie’s footsteps fade. “Mmm… someone’s prickly. Is that jealousy I taste, sugar?”
Violet immediately flinches back, but her breath hitches. “Don’t flatter yourself.” She puts a full step between us, taking with her the scent I so desperately want to explore.
My mouth quirks upward despite myself. I tsk. “Liar. You keep saying words you don’t mean, sugar. But you *hated* how Julie looked at me.”  
Chin lifting, her stunning eyes spark. “I *hate* you right now!” Violet fires back, yanking her purse higher on her shoulder with a violent clank of metal straps. 
I trap her against the shiny countertop and murmur. “Funny how your ‘I hate you’—“I mock her voice—“sounds a lot like ‘Kiss me now.’” My eyes drop to her red-painted lips. “Admit it, sugar. You’re just mad I haven’t kissed you senseless yet.”
I hear her heartbeat speeding up. “I don’t have feelings for you!” With her arms crossed over her chest, all she does is make her breasts more enticing. I have to look away from them before I look at her again when Violet goes on, “You’re delusional!” She uncrosses her arms and presses her index finger into my chest with each word. “I’m. Not. Jealous!” 
“Aren’t you?” I can’t stop the grin that crosses my face. 
“Of course not! And stop smiling!” She glares at me like she wants to skewer my balls. 
I have to cover my laughter with a cough. Her anger is adorable, but if I tell her that, she will definitely pull out one of those sharp knives coated with werewolf anti-healing that I saw inside her purse and stab me.
“You’re very bossy, sugar.” 
Her mouth drops open. Fuck. Her red-painted lips are too much tempting like that. I have to control myself to not think about what I want inside that mouth. Then Violet’s cheeks flush, her brown-colored eyes sparkling. “I am not bossy. And let’s go! Now!” 
Jesus Christ! She is gorgeous when she is in a temper. 

🐺 🐺 🐺 
***Violet***

Once again, I wake up in a panic. First, my mouth opens with silent, suffocating screams of all the times Jordan and I had sex. If I had known he wasn’t my fated mate, I would never have let him touch my body. Or mark my skin. Then my voice comes out, and I finally scream in despair. When will these fucking nightmares stop?
He ruined me!
Suddenly, my bedroom door opens wide abruptly, and Cedar enters. A second later, he is by my side as I try to calm my racing heart.
Cedar settles me on his lap like he did the first time he caught me having nightmares. I can’t control the tears that won’t stop coming. My eyes are hurting so much.
“Easy, Vivi. Take a breath. Come on, now. Nice and slow.” Cedar’s words slowly penetrate, worry creasing his forehead. 
“I’m sorry. Goddess, I’m sorry.” I don’t even know why I’m saying that.
Maybe it’s because, as *cruel* as it was, what Lily said to me was true. 
I should have recognized that something was wrong with him before. 
I should have asked Ian for help. My brother received a curse in my place, of course he would have been on my side. 
Even if it wasn’t right away, I should have realized the fake bond and avoided spending more than ten years by that monster’s side. Letting him touch me. Begging him for his attention. 
Lily was right. She did deserve better. 
I wronged myself. I wronged her. 
Oh, Goddess. And now I’m wronging Cedar, too. 
*I’m like a machine gun locked and loaded—except my bullets are mistakes that I fire on repeat.*
“Keep breathing nice and slow. It’s okay. There you go. Calm down for me, Vivi.” 
“I want this to stop,” I tell him. My breath speeds up, panic clawing at my throat. “I’m so tired!” 
“I know, Vivi.” He holds me tightly. “Easy, baby. You’re safe here. I have you. We’ll work on that. Together.” 
I take a shuddering breath and tighten my hold on him. *Together*. Goddess, I don’t deserve him.
“You need rehydrating.” Leaning without letting me go, he reaches the nightstand and grabs the glass of water I left there every night. But instead of handing it to me, Cedar holds the glass to my lips. 
It is the sort of thing that I thought I shouldn't like, but I do. 
I thought I would never have my mate taking care of me in small ways like this, and here he is, showing me again what I’ve been missing. After I drink my fill, he draws the glass away and sets it down. 
“I need to watch that you’re drinking enough,” he mutters almost to himself. “And eating.”
Cedar tightens his strong arms around me. 
“I’m sorry for what I said. I really am,” I say against his neck. Drawing back, I cover my face with my hands. “These nightmares...” 
“Tell me about them, Vivi. Take away his power over you.” He infuses his voice with a firm command.
A command I find it hard to resist. 
“They’re all the same.” I shiver, and he runs his hand in circles over my back. 
Goddess, damn him. 
“The way he touched me, the way he talked to me, treated me, blamed me...” I blink hard. “His constant betrayal marks on my skin.”
“Fuck. I wish I could have had my time with that asshole... How dare he touch you!” 
I touch my forehead on his broad chest. “I hate him so much...”
“What else, sugar?” 
“Do I have to say it?” I tense, trying to shift away from him. “I don’t want to bother you…”
Moving his hand from my back, he squeezes my bottom. 
Hard. 
“Tell me.”
I squeal and glare at him. “He said I demanded too much from him, that nothing was good enough for me, even though I was just asking for the bare minimum. When the marks of his betrayals darkened my skin, he’d just laugh and call me ‘dramatic,’ even as I pressed his hand on it so he couldn’t look away or deny it while other females' perfume still clung to his clothes. And the kicker? ‘You push me away, then cry when I leave,’ like it was my fault that I didn’t have his love.” Tears run down my face. “He ruined me, Cedar,” I whisper.  
“That’s not true. I could never stop wanting you, Vivi! These last few months, I’ve been so fucking worried... The only reason I never went to New York and dragged you back here is because... Never mind. But you aren’t ruined.” 
“I don’t want your pity.” My gaze slips to his shoulders as I chew nervously on my lower lip. 
He tugs it free. “Eyes on me,” Cedar orders as his hands shift to grab the back of my neck. “Well, I’m not turning away from you. You’re perfect. I would never ask you to change anything about yourself, sugar. Because I want you just the way you are. In fact, every day, I think I want you more.” 
Before I know it, I let out a moan.
“No escaping me now, sugar,” he murmurs before lowering his lips to mine. 
I resist at first, but Cedar doesn’t let that deter him, sipping from my lips, licking and cajoling until I relent and let him in. 
‘Mate!’ Roxy pants in my mind as I taste his lips. He drags me against him, holding me tight with his arms and squeezing my ass with his hands. His hold firm and unrelenting. I feel a surge of relief coming from him, and I melt, moaning. 
There is no way I can deny this, no way can I tell him I don’t want him as much as he wants me. 
Holy fuck! We are finally kissing. Except, I’m not sure that kissing is the word to use to describe this. Because I’m not certain I’ve ever been kissed like this before. 
I feel this buzzing of excitement. Kissing has never been my favorite thing. At least not with tongue. 
Not before Cedar.
Jordan never kissed me like this.
He’d sigh whenever I openly admitted I wanted him like my hunger for sex was an inconvenience. He always said that I was too needy, as if desire was something to apologize for. So, alone and with my fingers, I’d retreat into fantasies with someone who’d use my need instead of shaming it. It was always a faceless male and never Jordan’s face.  
But now, with Cedar’s hands on me? I realized my imagination was cowardly. Not even in my wildest dreams did I conjure someone who’d look at me like this.
Reaching a hand up, he cups my breast. I’m thinner than I’d been four months ago, but he doesn’t seem to mind. A shudder rushes through me as he tweaks my nipple. 
“Christ, I want you,” he whispers against my lips. I can feel his promise in my skin that he won’t let me go anywhere. “I want to strip you naked and lick every inch of your body.” 
A flush creeps over my cheeks. 
Oh, Goddess!
As though he doesn’t have control of himself, Cedar says firmly, tightening his grip on my body. “Don’t push me away, Violet. Don’t deny what we have. Don’t deny our mate bond.”