Chapter 25 - Kane

How the hell do I explain this? The question ran through Kane"s mind over and over as he held Miley in his arms.

After having made love, he was more certain than ever. She was his fated mate. There was no doubt about it. But how could he possibly explain something like that to her when she was just barely getting her head around being a damn werewolf?

If someone had come to him trying to explain such things so shortly after he had been turned, he would have laughed in their face. And the thought of Miley doing that made him feel sick.

What made him feel even worse was imagining that he might actually scare her away if he were to tell her the truth. What if it was too much for her?

His grip tightened on her instinctively. Just having her lie on his chest, feeling the warmth of her body against his own, was the best thing he had ever experienced. Every experience with her was the next best one of his life. He had never imagined it could be this way.

His entire body tensed when Miley started to struggle up out of his arms.

Did she already regret what they had just done? It didn"t bear thinking about.

"What"s the matter?" he asked, barely daring to ask when she looked down at him with a quizzical expression.

"Does…does it always feel like this?"

She averted her gaze, her cheeks growing red as if she were embarrassed. Kane hated that she felt that way in front of him.

Reaching up, he slipped his fingertips under her chin and urged her to look at him. "What?"

"Wolf sex, is it always this…intense?" Miley asked, closing her eyes for a second and breathing deep before asking, "Is sex in general always this intense?"

Kane breathed a deep sigh of relief. Maybe she wouldn"t be so confused after all.

"Don"t get me wrong, sex is always pretty…great," Kane said, shivering. "But never like this."

Miley"s eyes fluttered open then and she looked down at him with clear surprise in her green gaze. "Really? I feel foolish. I have nothing to compare it to."

Again, she averted her gaze, rubbing her arm awkwardly.

Kane sat up then and grabbed her, forcing her to look at him. "You are no fool, Miley. You are beautiful!"

She blushed at that, smiling innocently, her lip quivering a little.

Damn, she wasn"t just beautiful, she was drop-dead-gorgeous. And somehow, she had ended up in his bed, in his heart.

"I"ve had sex, Miley. I"m ashamed to say, a lot of sex," Kane admitted, and he bit his tongue when a little pain flashed through her gaze. He gripped hold of her face in both his hands then and forced her to meet his gaze as he added, "It has never felt like this before."

"I…I thought maybe I was just being young and dumb," she said, biting her bottom lip in a way that made him want to take her again right then and there.

"Well, then I must be young and dumb too, but honestly, who believes that?" Kane said, laughing. He was pleased when she laughed, too.

"You feel it too, then?" she asked, blinking at him with those big, round green eyes of hers. He could have drowned himself in those eyes, happily.

"Yes," he breathed, leaning forward to kiss her delicately. He pulled back again and said, "There"s a term for it among the werewolves."

Miley raised a brow. "What term?"

Kane"s stomach twisted. His throat constricted and he struggled to speak. "Fated mates."

He prepared himself for Miley"s reaction, waited for her to begin laughing. But she never did.

Instead, she tilted her head and asked, "You mean like humans bang on about soulmates?"

Relief washed over Kane. Fated mates were so much more than mere soulmates, but if that was what it took to make Miley understand, so be it.

"Sort of. Fated mates are way more powerful than that, though," he said, gripping hold of Miley's hands. "When a wolf meets their fated mate there is no keeping them apart. They can feel each other, sense each other's emotions, and practically become one. They know when the other is hurt, and if one of them should die, well, let"s just say the other doesn"t usually last for very long afterwards."

Miley"s face grew pale. "So if I had died in transition?"

Kane"s insides twisted in an unbelievably painful manner. Just the thought of it cut him deep. He reached up and stroked Miley"s cheek. "I couldn"t have borne it."

She placed her hand over his, looked him in the eye and smiled, "Then it"s a good thing I made it."

Kane nodded in agreement.

For a few moments, they merely sat, gazing into each other"s eyes. Then Miley asked, "So what does that mean for us now? Where do we go from here?"

Kane"s chest tightened, his heart skipping a beat. He had spent so long taking one day at a time, putting one foot in front of another, concentrating only on the task at hand, that he wasn"t entirely sure how to answer that.

But it came to him quickly. He cleared his throat and said with a shrug, "Well, your parents wanted a wedding, and we are fated mates, so I guess that means the next logical step is to get married?"

Seeing her expression, he started to panic and added, "I mean, would you consider marrying me? The pack would take you in, and we"d keep the promises made to your parents. I would anyway, even if you didn't want—"

Miley glowered at him. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Kane, is this some kind of lame ass excuse for a marriage proposal? Because if it is, it really does suck."

Kane gritted his teeth. There was the fiery, stubborn, kickass Miley he had come to know and love. She was even more so now that she had her wolf to back her up. He could feel the beast just rearing beneath the surface of her skin and saw them both staring back at him from her eyes, offering a daring challenge.

One that he was all too willing to accept. Getting serious, he jumped off the bed and dropped down on one knee.

Before she could say a word or offer a protest, he grabbed her hand and asked, "Miley Peters, will you do me the grand honor of becoming my wife?"

His heart hammered so hard in his chest it felt like the repeated kickback of a gun, so much so that it was actually painful.

Miley scowled at him, her gaze thoughtful. And the longer he remained there, the longer he was certain she was going to reject him.

He couldn"t blame her even if she did. What did he expect, after all she had been through? She had every right to deny him when she had been forced into so much already. Fate had a funny way of doing things if they had always been meant to be, anyway.

"No," she said simply, and just as Kane"s heart started to shatter into a million tiny pieces, she said, "But I will be your fated mate and your wife."

"Miley Peters, you are a real bitch, do you know that?" he growled angrily yet with true and total affection.

Leaning over the bed until her breasts hung like enticing little pillows against the mattress, she gripped his face in her hands and smirked, "Yes, but it appears I am your bitch, Kane, so will you have me?"

She looked him deep in the eye then, her gaze so tenderly intense that he couldn"t even speak. And so, he kissed her instead, urging her back onto the bed.

She welcomed him on top of her, just as she had before, wrapping her arms around his neck to hold him to her.

It was only when the kiss broke and she whispered, "Will you?" that Kane was finally able to speak.

"Yes," he breathed, "Always."