While Aria had been a champ through her heat, I was feeling terrible. I couldn’t believe she had to go through something like that while she was basically a human. When she started crying halfway through, my heart almost broke, and I felt Drake howling sorrowfully as well. As excited as I was to finally, finally mate with her, I was conflicted because I could see how she was suffering. Her body was covered with love bites and bruises from where I got carried away. I wasn’t sure how any human person could withstand days of intense s****l activity with a dominant werewolf and walk away in one piece. Then again, maybe her magic protected her somehow. According to Serena, my mate was powerful—very powerful.
I knew I was handling her with kid gloves since the end of her heat and I wanted to ta
