Alpha King’s Wolfless Mate by Scarlett Higgins
Chapter 72

Chapter 72

**Nora POV

The day at the shop was slow enough to allow me to finish most of my plans for the festival. There had been a rush just at the end of the day, which left me feeling just a little frazzled.

Christian had insisted I head home and let him close up for the night, so I did leave on time, but I was feeling a little tense. I decided to go for a run before heading home.

It was refreshing to get my blood pumping and fill my lungs with fresh air. I got a little lost in thought and ended up in an area of the city that I wasn’t familiar with. I had to stop for directions, but luckily a kind older man was able to direct me back toward the castle.

This all meant that I was a lot later, and sweatier, than I had hoped to be when I arrived back home.

Blake was waiting for me at the top of the stairs as I headed to our rooms. His brows knit in confusion as he looked me over.

“You’re late,” he said simply.

“I went for a run,”I explained.“I wanted to clear myhead a little before I came home. I got a little lost, so it took longer than I wanted.”

He looked unimpressed with my answer. Something in the way he was staring at me made him seem concerned, but I wasn’t sure why he would be. I didn’t think that I’d given him any reason to worry. Could something have happened in his meeting with Maisi e that had worried him?“Is something wrong?”I asked softly. I wanted totread carefully, so that I wouldn’t make things worse.

“I’m just a little stressed out,” he said dismissively.

Blake had been under a lot of stress lately, but he’d been doing a good job hiding it. This seemed different. There was a tension at the corners of his eyes that I hadn’t noticed this morning and his muscles looked tense and rigid.

“Are you sure that’s all it is?” I asked.

His shoulders fell and he crossed his arms defensively. His eyes flitted over me quickly and he shook his head a little.

“No,”he admitted.“I’m worried about you. You’veseemed off lately, like you aren’t quite yourself.”He seemed conflicted about whether he should say more.

My eyebrows rose and my shoulders stiffened at his words. I thought that I’d been doing a good job of keeping my uncertainty to myself, but Blake could see right through me. I shouldn’t be surprised, but I was.

I bit the inside of my cheek as I tried to figure out what to say to him. We had discussed my fears about the ritual before and Blake was adamant that nothing could tear us apart. If I admitted that I was still scared, would he question my loyalty to him? Or worse, would he think that I didn’t trust him?

I didn’t want to cause him any pain or additional stress, but it really was eating away at me. He did ask, so shouldn’t I be honest with him? I looked down at my feet and sighed. I had to level with him and let him know what had been on my mind. Evenif it was hard to say.

“I’m scared,”I said softly.

“Of what?”Blake asked. He moved forward andgently brushed my hair from my face.“What could you be frightened of that you wouldn’t come to me about?”

The open concern on his face made me feel guilty. I didn’t mean to upset him by hiding what I was feeling, I had only meant to spare him the additional stress. It didn’t occur to me that holding onto the fear and letting it fester might make things worse.

“It’s the ritual,”I muttered nervously.“I can’t getover the fear that going through with the ritual will destroy everything that we’ve built together. I don’t want to give up Clara, I miss her terribly, but…”I bit my l*p in an attempt to reel in my emotions. It didn’t work. My voice was water y when I spoke again.“I can’t bear the thought of losing you.”

“Darling,”he said softly. He pulled me into his armsgently.“Why didn’t you tell me this was still bothering you?”He stroked my hair comfortingly and I melted into his embrace.

“I didn’t want to add on to what you’re alreadydealing with,”I replied.

I hugged him tightly and sighed. I felt so silly for not being able to get past this. The goddess’s will would determine who my mate was, and there was nothing I could do to impact that.

Maybe it was because my first mate had turned out to be such a mistake that I was afraid to try again. Jeremy had hurt me so badly and he was supposed to be the one I was destined to be with. I didn’tknow if I could handle the heartbreak if I was let down like that again.

“So you tried to carry the burden all alone?”heasked incredulously.“We’re supposed to be a team. We’re stronger together, aren’t we?”

I nodded and tightened my g rip on him. Blake and I did work well together. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him to help me manage my fears. I didn’t trust myself.

“I’m worried about it too,” he admitted softly.

I looked up at him in surprise. Blake had sounded so confident about the ritual whenever we’d talked about it. I never would have imagined that it was weighing on him. He looked down at my shocked face and smiled bitterly. I could tell that he was frustrated with himself for the way he was feeling.

He k*ssed me quickly and smiled.

“But, I’ve thought it over and I stand by what I toldyou before. I love you, and regardless of how things turn out, I’m confident that we will find a way to make it work. You and I will be together for as long as you want me,”he said seriously.

My heart fluttered at his words. It was hard to let go of my fears about the mate pull forcing us apart. Blake seemed so certain, though.“Even if we have different mates?”I asked skeptically.

I remembered what he told me the last time I had expressed this fear, when I had first returned home after the fight with Helen. He told me that fated mates didn’t matter to him. If what Graham had told me about the men in his family not finding their mates, then it was easy to believe Blake really didn’t care about the mate pull either.The fact that he was opening up about these fears meant that he must really trust me.

There was a flash of unknown emotion in his eyes and he sighed.“Yes, even if we have different mates.”His tone was so firm and confident that I didn’t want to question it.

I stood on my toes and k*ssed him. Blake pulled me closer and returned my k*ss enthusiastically. In moments like this, it was easy to believe him when he said that everything was going to turn out for us. Being in his arms felt so right.

I pulled away from the k*ss reluctantly. I wanted to hold Blake and reassure both of us that the connection we shared was strong enough to withstand anything, but we couldn’t work out all of our insecurities with S*x. The idea was appealing, none the less.

Blake took my hand in his.“We should get some rest,”he said.“We can go over the festival plans in the morning.”

I nodded. It was late and a shower and sleep sounded like just what I needed. I held Blake’s hand as we made our way to our bedroom. It would have been easy to cling to the comfort of Blake’s reassurances, but I couldn’t get over the look in his eyes when I had mentioned the risk of us having different mates. He’d looked so conflicted and almost resigned.

Blake had the same fears I did about this and I knew he was just trying to make me feel better. And that fact made my stomach tw ist uncomfortably.

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