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“Yeah, you have.” I step closer, inching my way between his legs. “Because that’s what you are to me. You’re my Honeybee.”

“Why?”

It’s cute how confused he is.

“Because you smell like honey to me, and I love honey. Honeybees need to be protected. They are an important part of the ecosystem, and they fly, like you.”

“I’m not important to the ecosystem,” he mumbles, playing with the drawstrings from his sweatpants. “I’m just a pilot who crashed on his first fucking day of work.” He rubs his temples; the stress pouring off him is so much that even Glenn and Soren take a few steps back so they can breathe. “I don’t even know what I’m doing here! I don’t even know you guys! I don’t even know you!” He raises his voice at me, the panic twisting his vocal cords.

“You’re an important part of my ecosystem.” I tilt his head up, needing him to look at me. “I don’t think you know just how important you are, and that’s my fault because I’ve been terrified since the moment I scented you in the forest.”

“We’re going to give you guys some time. We are going to do a perimeter sweep and see if there are any more signs of the hunter. We’ll be back.” Soren opens the door, and Glenn gives me a nod before heading out first. “Everything is going to be okay, Leo. I know it’s a lot to take in, but you’re safe here.”

The door clicks shut, leaving me alone with my mate, with the truth hanging between us.

I don’t know what is wrong with me. I’m typically good at handling shocking news, but I feel like this situation is a lot different.

Even with Soren’s cliff notes on the whole vampire thing, I’m not really wrapping my head around it. And I think I’m more upset that Alaska almost died. After the feelings I’ve experienced over the last few days and wanting to explore them with him, the opportunity was nearly taken from me.

“Come here.” He wraps his massive bear-like arms around me and pulls me to his chest, right where the arrow was just a few minutes ago.

The moment my cheek presses against his heart, and I hear that slow pounding, I completely break. I sob so hard, I clutch onto his arms, digging my nails into his skin.

“It’s okay,” he whispers into my hair. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

I lean back and flinch. “You can’t promise that. Something just did happen to you!” I stand from the barstool and point at the blood puddle on the damn floor. “You almost died, Alaska. You…you were dying, right? I mean, look at all of this blood. I’ve never seen so much of it before. How are you standing? And how am I your mate? What does that mean? And are you sure you’re okay, because you don’t seem healed yet? The wound still looks like it hurts.”

My fingers lightly brush against the small, pink, welted flesh where the arrow was. “This terrified me,” I admit with a hard bob of my Adam’s apple. “I don’t think I was that afraid when I was crash landing. Why? I don’t even know you.”

“But your soul does,” he rushes to say. “I need to go back to the beginning, and I wanted to do this under the northern lights. I wanted to ease you into it. I didn’t want this.” Alaska points to the crime scene.

“You were going to take me to see the northern lights?”

He chuckles. “I mean, when I got the nerve to finally ask you out, yes. It’s why I was coming inside the house before…” he trails off. “I heard you talking to yourself about asking me out, and I wanted to beat you to it.”

“You wanted to? You don’t anymore? You got my blood and want to cut and run?” I smirk at him, trying to hide the underlying truth to what I just said.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt more unsure about anything before.

“I was already dying when you met me, Helios. I had around six months or so to live because I was turned into a vampire almost two hundred years ago. We have⁠—”

I hold up a hand to stop him and stand up. “You’re dying in a whole other way now? After…” I run my fingers through my hair, my feelings a fucking mess. They are tangled and webbed, sticking together, and I don’t know how to voice my thoughts without sounding like an asshole.

“After you’ve changed everything for me! Everything! The way I planned my life. The way I feel. The way I think and dream. Everything about me has changed. You changed them! And now, you’re sitting here telling me you’re dying, anyway? When all my thoughts and feelings and…and…everything in between are consumed by you. I can’t…” I gasp for air and shove his chest, but of course, he doesn’t move. “I can’t breathe knowing something could happen to you.

“I can’t breathe,” I repeat. “You make me forget how to breathe, and I can’t make sense of it.”

“Then let me remind you to catch your breath.” He grabs me by the back of the head and pulls me so close; his lips capture mine.

His lips force me to inhale, my lungs expanding to their fullest at last. Alaska’s lips are way softer than I even dreamed of. I thought they would be firm or unsure. Alaska kisses with the confidence of a man who knows what he wants.

They press against mine, soft and sweet, taking his time with every motion.

Alaska’s other hand finds my hip, gripping it for a second before his arm wraps around my body.

He makes me feel so small, and I love it.

Alaska possesses me. The world and worries fade all around us. All I sense is him, his touch, how it wanders up and down my back, stopping just above the waistband.