I fell into Finn's bed, looking up at the ceiling as I sighed at the softness of his mattress. His warm sheets felt heavenly against my skin, especially as Finn leaned over me to pull the blankets up to my chin.

His sweetness made me grin as I asked, "what are you doing?"

"Tucking you in." His lopsided smile pulled in my heartstrings.

"Without you?"

"Dangerous territory, 8-Ball." Finn said, clenching his jaw. "You need to rest, sweetheart."

His dark eyes only made me shake my head and ignore the twist in my stomach. "I want to cuddle with you, nothing else. Come be with me; I've been away from you too long."

That was all it took for him. Finn jumped onto the mattress, making me squeal with laughter. He propped himself up on his elbows over my body, one hand resting on my waist and the other hand at my cheek. He gifted me with a soft, delicate kiss before pulling back to rest his head against my chest. "You don't know how much of a mess I was without you. Not being with you... that felt like an eternity."

I ran my fingers through his hair, kissing the top of his head as I took a breath. "Why didn't you tell me? About mates?"

Finn lifted his head, sky blue eyes meeting mine. "How could I? How could I have told you any of it without just making our relationship worse?"

"You thought that saying we were soulmates would make everything worse?"

"Yes, especially when I'm claiming that a woman who has never met me and doesn't love me belongs with me for eternity." Finn scoffed, "you would have beat me over the head with that pool stick and then I'd never have stood a chance with you after that."

I gave him a weak smile, "alright, you're probably not wrong about that."

"You're my mate, darling." Finn said, tracing his fingertips along my lips. "You're the love of my life, the only woman who will ever make my existence colorful, exciting, and worth living. You have all my time, energy, and attention; you always have even from the first moment I saw you. You have all of me, and I couldn't tell you that when we met in Ultrona despite how badly I wanted to."

"You really... thought all those things?" I said, almost speechless at his words. I sat up and Finn did as well, our bodies so close to each other that I could feel the heat radiating off his skin.

"Wolves only have to see their mates and they know who they belong with. For me it was smell; Matilda had your scent all over her, and it nearly drove me mad because you were there but not in the way I wanted you to be. I wanted to see you, touch you, and claim you as mine all at once, but when I finally met you, I knew that you'd claimed me instead without even knowing it. Kate, you didn't know me and you were with Leighton. I couldn't just insert myself into your life that way and make you unhappy."

"So you didn't say anything?" I asked, "you didn't want to make me unhappy? Finn, you make me the happiest person in the world."

"I didn't want to force myself into your life, so I restrained myself and all the need I had for you." His fingers traced down the side of my face, making my skin tingle. "I wanted to mark you so badly, to give you all of myself. I didn't want you to feel obliged to be with me, to feel stuck with me. A lot of wolves just abduct their mates from other packs as they see fit, but I couldn't do that to you. I wanted you to make your own decisions, no matter what you chose or where you decided to go. Your life and your future is your choice, and I'd have let you go to live a life without me if it meant that you were happy."

"You'd have let me go, even though you knew that I was..." he nodded his head, a cloudy haze forming in his eyes just at the thought. "What would have happened with you?"

Finn shrugged, "I don't know, Kate. Come on, we should be talking about you. You've been gone, and Felix... hurt you. I want to be here for you if you want to talk about that instead."

"I don't care about that as much as I do about us. Yes, Felix did things to me and that was..., but Finn, I want to know about mates and wolves and you. I don't want you to have to restrain yourself around me because you think that you'll be too much for me."

"I will be too much for you." He replied dryly. "No one's ready for the strength of a mate bond, and if you thought I could be jealous before, you haven't seen anything yet."

The thought made a shiver run up my spine, but something else interested me, "what's a mate bond?"

Finn brushed a strand of hair behind my ear, moving the locks to the side to touch the curve of my neck. "A mate bond is what seals wolves together. It's a powerful connection between mates that binds their souls into the deepest form of a relationship. It allows them to sense their mate's emotions, to be joined with them in a more intimate way even further than the body."

"Are we bonded?" I asked him, my question only making him chuckle with amusement.

"No, we aren't." He said.

"Then why aren't we?"

Finn took a breath, "mate bonds are eternal, Kate. Once you create that bond, it's forever. In your culture it's like a wedding except deeper, more intense then anything you would experience in a marriage. It's something you have to think about, not rush through unless both know they need the other person."

I rested my hand on his shoulder, "but I do need you."

"Are you really saying you're ready to be married to me, Kate? To be my partner for life? To give me access to all your thoughts and emotions for eternity? That is the most serious commitment in this universe."

I paused for a moment, reflecting on the words he was saying. Was I really ready to be married? To reveal myself so intimately even if it was to Finn?

"I don't expect an answer anytime soon." He said softly, "it's a lot to process especially if you don't feel the same things that I do."

My eyes met his, "What do you feel?"

"Love for you." He said without hesitation. "Complete, utter belief in us. I don't have any doubts that you're the woman for me, Kate; it's just something wolves know. If you felt the same then I'd mark you in my bed right now."

Even though I didn't understand the marking, the words made my heart beat faster in my chest. "What is marking?"

"For us to be bound together, I'd have to bite you right here in the middle of sex." He placed his fingers on the groove of my neck where it met my shoulder. "You'd bear my mark, and that would solidify our bond. Then I'd be yours and you'd be mine."

I blinked, overwhelmed by both desire for him and the smallest bit of worry. "A little bite?"

"A deep one." He replied, his kind expression nearly making me overlook what he'd said. "It will hurt, and I'm sorry about that. It has to be deep to make a wound that will become my mark." Finn seemed to read whatever expression was on my face as though I'd opened a book for him. "That's why we aren't doing this today or tomorrow or anytime soon. You aren't ready for me that way and there's nothing wrong about that. You'll know when you're ready, sweetheart, and that's what I want. I want to be with you when you're just as excited as I am. I don't want you to regret anything."

"I'd never regret you, Finn." I said, cupping his cheek in my hand. "Never. I love you so much."

He leaned forward, his lips brushing against my own as he kissed me softly. When he pulled back, those cerulean eyes looked down to the bed. With that he relaxed into the bed, lying on top of the sheets beside me as I rested my head on his chest. He held one of my hands in his, taking a deep breath as he let his eyes close.

"You really want to go to sleep right now?" I asked with amusement.

"I haven't slept well without you." He confessed. "And you need to rest too, so I intend to be respectful."

"But I like your bad intentions." I said, kissing his shoulder blade. It made Finn tense as he took in a breath.

"You aren't helping." He muttered, "and you're being quite unfair considering you know that I can't resist you. It's not in my nature."

Another thought ran through my brain as I lifted my head to look down at him, "so Cybele..."

He began before I could even finish, "Cybele and I were never together in anyway. I was confused at the time when I first met her because I could feel Nocen's calling to her. We never had sex then or any other time like in that damn movie they made up for you. You were my first and hopefully my last."

His words warmed my heart, but he hadn't answered the question I'd been warming up to. "I believe you, but that wasn't the question I was asking. I wanted to know the situation between the three of you. You told me that you couldn't forgive him." I took a breath, "he told me that he watched you die, Finn. Is that true?"

He was quiet for a minute, eyes still closed but not with the softness of sleep. They were now pinched together as if the memories were replaying inside his head. "Yes, it's true. He was there."

"Do you want to talk about it?" I whispered, placing a kiss on his cheek. "Your brother's back, Finn. You're going to be seeing a lot of him, especially considering he helped save my life and I want to know him better. He's your family too."

Finn's eyes flashed open, now dark and tingling at the edge of gold. He sat straight up, drawing in a breath. "I'm still angry with him. He's done me a service I can never repay by saving you. But I don't think I've forgiven him for the rest. I know that I should, but it's so difficult."

My mind reflected back to his past, at least what he'd told me of it. His brother had left him to endure his own offenses, and Finn had suffered, been tortured for almost all of his first life. That was something that couldn't be easily forgiven.

"He let me die, you know." Finn said softly, the words making a pain shoot through my chest as I rested my chin on his shoulder.

I wrapped my arms around him, lying against the curve of his back. He felt so warm, and all I wanted to do was hug him until he felt better.

"The demon, Marcus Shax, who you have yet to meet, was the man who ended my life. I remember all of it, Kate. They were hunting Cybele, and I'd found her one day in the woods. She'd been thrown off her horse, and I made sure that she was safe from the other wolves who didn't take too kindly to outside guests. I told her that I'd help her get away because I thought that I was in love at the time when all it really was was Nocen's feelings for her. The demons came faster than we thought, and when Nocen went to grab a hold of her, I shoved myself into the middle of it. They were on me in seconds, and I was weak from Rufus and the others. Shax broke my spine, and I remember him standing over me when I was on the ground. He looked at Nocen and asked him if he should finish the job. My brother didn't even say a word, and the only thing I can remember after that is my chest being split open. Then it's all a glowing haze until I came back with wings."

I blinked, feeling tears rising in the corners of my eyes. "I'm so sorry, and that doesn't even begin to cover it. Oh Finn, you deserved so much better, so much more than that."

"Hopefully this time around something better will come from it." He replied softly, and we laid back in bed together to spend the rest of the evening in each other's arms after such a long time apart.