Chapter Twelve

You are safe and protected, omega.

My omega in my arms cured everything. I soaked it all in. The feel of his soft skin next to mine. His scent, unlike anything I'd ever smelled before, complicated in its layers satisfied me so simply. His warmth. The rhythm of his breaths. I wanted all of this to brand me so deeply that no movement, no breath I ever took, would be absent of his presence.

Even if I had to let him go.

"How are you doing that?" he asked, looking up at me with warm, brown eyes.

"Speaking into your mind?" I asked.

Hutch nodded.

"My beast has never done that before. It's…dragon shifters can only speak to their mate through the mind-link."

"I knew I was your mate. But with everything going on…" Hutch spoke the words as if being my mate wasn't a plague he was tormented with.

"You're not disgusted, omega? You're not running for your life at the thought of being my mate? I wouldn't blame you if you did."

"Disgusted," he scoffed. "Why in the world would I be disgusted by my mate?"

My dragon rumbled, warming up my body with his heat to better comfort our mate. Hutch responded by burrowing deeper into my hold, pressing his nose against my chest and inhaling.

"Because I'm a killer. A murderer for hire. Someone almost as evil as the ones I am told to end."

He paused for a moment. I kept my hand on his back, rubbing circles there. Touching him for as long as he would allow it.

Before he came to his senses and realized he was mated to a monster.

"Maverick, two things kept me alive when I was with those alphas. You want to know what they were?"

"Of course." I clung to every word my mate said. He didn't mince words. It was one thing to have someone share their good with you, but a whole other intimacy to listen to their horrors, their monsters, glimpses of their terrors. He trusted me already, no matter how much he shouldn't.

"I knew that if I failed, if I didn't keep the house clean enough, or if my dinners burned or didn't taste good, someone else would take my place. By giving my best and surviving whatever abuse they doled out, I somehow saved them from my fate."

Not able to help myself, I pressed a kiss to his temple. He leaned in to the gesture and accepted my affection with closed eyes and a sigh. "You are so brave. Others wouldn't have cared and some would've done badly on purpose so they wouldn't suffer anymore."

"I never thought of it that way." My mate shivered.

I pulled him closer, sharing my warmth with him.

"What else? You said there were two things."

Hutch nodded. "I scented you at the breeding house."

My heart seized. I didn't think he had sensed me as well. "You did?"

"I did. The team swept me and the others away before I could follow my instincts to you, but my wolf knew. He sensed his alpha right away. That glimpse into a future I never thought I could have kept me breathing. And the hope of you coming to find me, coming to save me, kept me alive, Maverick. I would close my eyes at night and make up fantasies of you barging in the front door and taking the alphas out and rescuing me. Taking me into your arms, carrying me out of there."

"I had no idea. I'm sorry I didn't get to you sooner."

He leaned up and kissed my chin. My heart would need a shock after this beautiful moment with my mate. "You saved me, Mav. You kept me alive. But I have to confess something."

"What?" I asked, hanging on his every word.

"I'm not sure I'm ready for mating yet." Yet. He knew what I was and what I'd done and still had hope to one day be mine?

"I would agree with that, Hutch." His smile faltered, and the scent of disappointment swirled around me. "You are going to need time to heal inside and out. Rest. Food to get your body strong again. Time to expunge all the wrong done to you."

"But?" Hutch prompted. When I didn't answer right away, he put his hand on my chest.

"You also need to think if you want a mate like me."

"Explain." His voice lowered.

"You know what I am and what I do. I live a life of insecurity. I'm always watching my back when I'm not here at the compound. I always have to cover my tracks. I get called in the middle of the night to kill people. Being with me would make you unsafe, and I won't have my mate live a life of uncertainty." I'd made a spiel that would surely make him regret ever meeting me, but my conscience required I drive the point deeper. "I'm no good for you, Hutch."