They all paid her generously for her services, but honestly, she would have done it for free. The open acceptance she felt from everyone at the Estate was worth far more to her than money.

  The only problem was space. For the past several months, she’d been using one of the upstairs suites for her appointments. She made it work the best she could, but it was frustrating not to have the proper equipment.

  She and Xander had talked about her opening her own shop, but she just didn’t have the funds for it, not yet anyway. With her basically non-existent credit, no bank was going to give her a startup loan, either. Still, she and her mate had discussed it at length when planning for the future, and she’d told him she wanted to call it Mirror, Mirror because everyone deserved to feel like the fairest in the land. It had been fun, and she loved that he’d been as excited about it as she was, but they’d just been pretending.

  She never imagined the fantasy would become a reality.

  Xander pressed against her back and wound his arms around her waist. “Do you like it?”

  She could barely breathe, but she forced the words past the tightness in her throat. “It’s amazing.” And it was only twenty minutes from the Council Estate. “How did you even find it?”

  “I’ve been looking for a while. When I saw this place, I knew it would be perfect.”

  “It is, but…can we even afford it?”

  “Actually, it’s a gift, sweetheart, from the Council. I guess you made quite an impression on them.”

  Sasha hiccupped as she fought back a sob. Several of the Council members were clients of hers, but she’d never expected this. “I don’t know what to say.”

  Xander kissed the top of his head, then rested his chin there as he rocked them from side to side. “As long as you’re happy, you don’t have to say anything.”

  Sasha sniffled. “I’m happy. More than I ever thought possible. Thank you, Xander.” Turning in his arms, she arched up on her toes for a kiss. “I love it. Almost as much as I love you.”

  “Sweet talker,” he teased, tilting her head back to deliver a proper kiss she felt all the way down to her toes. “You are my everything, Sasha Cole. I couldn’t love you more if I tried.”

  They weren’t exactly married, not in the traditional, human sense. Their bond went so much deeper than that. After their mating ceremony, however, she’d insisted on changing her surname to shed the last reminder of a past she’d been trying to escape since the day she’d been born. Yet, no matter how many times she heard her new name spoken aloud, it still made her heart swell with love and joy.

  A lot had changed since that night in the clearing, and she wasn’t the same person she’d been even a year ago. God, she still remembered that first week after her abduction. At the time, she had thought she’d been holding it together pretty well, but in actuality, she’d been a complete wreck.

  Despite Xander’s assurances that she wouldn’t be interrogated, her “sessions” sure as hell had felt like that. She had been questioned by four different Council members, often for hours at a time. Then, they’d asked her to identify the men who had abducted her, those who had held her prisoner in the fishing shack, the Alpha, Jaya, and basically anyone else she could remember from the pack.

  As for the investigation itself, it had taken just two days for one of the Enforcers to crack and spill everything. Sasha could only guess how Keller had gotten the wolf to talk, but she imagined it had involved a lot of pain.

  Somewhere in the middle of all the chaos, the Council had dropped the bombshell that it had been Ian Cole who had contacted them about the disappearances. Apparently, this had been a big surprise to everyone. Since Sasha had never met the male, she’d had to take her mate’s word that such altruism was uncharacteristic of his brother.

  Naturally, Xander had a lot of questions for his sibling, but he probably wouldn’t ever get the answers. After his meeting with the Council, Ian had left the Estate, and no one had seen or heard from him since. Before disappearing, however, he’d left them with a parting gift—the location of the missing human women.

  The Council couldn’t be sure exactly how many females had been abducted, but Wardens had found four of them in the basement of an abandoned farmhouse on the outskirts of the town. They’d been half frozen and nearly starved, but thankfully, they’d been alive.

  Their testimonies, combined with Sasha’s, had pretty much sealed the fate of Alpha Marcus Cole and everyone else involved.

  Even now, Xander wouldn’t tell her what their punishment had been, only that they’d never hurt anyone again. Her imagination had no trouble supplying all types of gruesome torments, and in the end, she’d decided she was probably better off not knowing for certain.

  Too traumatized by their ordeal to return to their old lives, the kidnapped women had been offered sanctuary with the Council. The last Sasha had heard, they were all adjusting as well as could be expected, but their psychological wounds might never fully heal. Some of them still had nightmares about their captivity, while others hadn’t spoken a word since the day they’d been rescued.

  Sasha’s heart ached for those women, but she was also grateful that Xander had spared her from the same fate. He had completely changed her life, and while she could never fully repay him, she intended to spend every day trying.

  “Do you remember when we first met, and you said it was okay to be scared?” As she spoke, she eased out of his arms and took a couple of measured steps away from him.

  “I do,” he answered, cocking his head to the side and frowning at her.

  “You told me I could run,” she reminded him, taking another step back, then another.

  “Right. I did say that, but I also remember telling you that I’d chase you if you did.”

  Her grin stretched so wide it made her cheeks burn. “That’s what I’m counting on.”

  Turning on the ball of her foot, she sprinted for the bungalow, bounded up the steps, then cut to the left, following the porch around the side of the house. She knew she couldn’t outrun her mate, and even if she could, she had nowhere to go. That wasn’t the point of the game, though.

  So, when she rounded the corner, only to be lifted off her feet and spun around so that her back pressed against the siding, she wasn’t too upset about it.

  Fisting his hand in her hair, Xander pulled her head back and bent close to nuzzle against the side of her neck. “I believe I also told you I’d catch you.”

  “Every time,” she panted, echoing his words from that long-ago morning.

  “Every time,” he agreed.

  Sasha adopted an innocent expression, her eyes wide and beguiling. “Now that you have me, what do you plan to do with me?”

  He hooked one finger into the collar of her blouse and tugged, popping open the top button. “Whatever I want.”

  Arching into him with a soft moan, Sasha offered herself willingly. Wherever he led, she’d follow. Whatever he wanted, it was his. He didn’t even have to ask. He was her new beginning and her happy ending, all wrapped up in one, insanely gorgeous package.

  “Mine,” Xander growled as he popped open another button on her blouse. “You are mine, Sasha Cole.”

  “Yours,” she agreed, tugging at the waistband of his jeans. “And you, Xander Cole, are mine.”

  “Always.” His expression softened as he stilled her hands and leaned in for a slow, heart-wrenching kiss. “You never have to doubt that, sweetheart. Not ever. I love you.”

  Tears welled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks, but she pressed her hand over his heart and smiled. “I know, and I love you, too.”

  Her journey in life hadn’t been an easy one, but even if she could go back, she wouldn’t change a thing. Every seemingly random choice she’d ever made had led her on a winding path to that rain-drenched clearing where she’d been claimed by her wolf. She would endure a thousand group homes and fight a hundred she-wolves just for the chance to stand right where she was, bathed in the morning sun with Xander.

  Because after a lifetime of searching, she was exactly where she was meant to be.

  In her mate’s arms, she was home.

  Thank You!

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  More from Kali Argent

  3013: The Series

  3013: MENDED

  3013: ALTERED

  3013: ASYLUM

  3013: REVOLUTION

  3013: OUTLAW

  3013: BROKEN/3013: TRINITY

  3013: REMEDY

  3013: FEVER

  City of Hope

  Heat Rising

  Star Falling

  Night Calling

  Storm Raging

  City of Hope Boxed Set Vol. 1

  Fang and Fur

  No Harm, No Howl

  Off Limits

  His Brat

  Pandora

  Timeless

  Boundless

  Serendipity

  Lean on Me

  Stay with Me

  The Revenant

  Shadow Soldier

  Dark Moon Rising

  Dead of Night

  Watchdog Security

  Devil Within

  About the Author

  argent.kali@gmail.com

  Born with a silver tongue and a pen in her hand, Kali spends her days crafting scandalous romances filled with flawed heroes and kick-ass heroines. When she's not writing, she can be found curled up in her favorite chair with a good book and a steamy cup of coffee.

  Self-proclaimed introvert and supporter of the selectively social, Kali currently resides in North Texas with her insane family, including two lazy dogs and one tragically misunderstood cat.

  Seriously, though, the cat is evil.

  For More Information, Please Visit:

  www.kaliargent.com

 

 

  Kali Argent, Bitten

 

 

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