The Alpha King's Human Mate by HC Dolores

The Alpha King’s Human Mate

Chapter 71

Chapter 71

“Romantic love is an addiction. A perfectly wonderful addiction when

it’s going well, a perfectly horrible addiction when it’s going poorly.” )

Helen Fisher

The hollow feeling in my chest never dissipated.

If anything, it only seemed to get worse the farther Griffin got from me. Every time that I thought about him – which was

quite a lot – the claiming bite on my shoulder pulsed. Like it yearned for Griffin’s touch.

Deep down, I knew it was the mate bond making me feel this way. It had to be. As little attention as I paid in my werewolf

education classes, I’d remembered that. Once you completed the mate bond, it became stronger. It got harder to spend

time apart.

But hearing about in a classroom couldn’t compare to how it actually felt. As cheesy as it sounded, it felt like Griffin had

packed my heart into his suitcase. \”)

And even thinking that felt embarrassing.

Even with the mate bond, I’d hardly known Griffin more than a month. Amonth – that’s all the time it had taken for him

to burrow his way Chapter 71

into my soul like he’d always lived there.

You survived eighteen years without Griffin, surely you can stand another month.

So much for wanting to be independent.

The worst part was the nightmares that started a couple of days after Griffin left.

I dreamed of Alpha Liam and Griffin in a stand-off, like one of those old Western movies. Instead of guns, their claws were

unsheathed.

I always woke up at the same part ~ right when Liam sliced Griffin’s head clean off his body. I usually woke up gasping in

a cold sweat too, and it would take me a moment to realize that the dreams weren’t reality. That was Griffin was still alive,

and had he died, | would’ve known. Not only would the castle be in an uproar, but I was sure that I would’ve felt it

through the mate bond.

Suffice to say, I wasn’t sleeping that well these days. There wasn’t even a reliable way for me to contact Griffin either. He’d be traveling, meeting with Beta Williams, and possibly walking into a fight. That didn’t leave a lot of time for casual

texting, although it’s not as if I had a phone to text him on.

cracked on the pavement of

of Griffin’s

of the few distractions |

criticism kept my mind focused on something besides

you can’t seem to land a punch today?”

seemed to move it anyway. “You

too.”

Ivan’s comfort level

to Griffin every

that’s probably because I feel like I’m half-asleep,” I

Ivan asked, raising an eyebrow, “Are the king’s quarters not

I’d learned that was just him. Brash with no filter. Maybe it

didn’t mind it these days. He was about the only person currently in the country

afraid they’d offend their

eyes, “It’s

“What is ii

right?” Ivan’s eyes narrowed.

you guys ever been separated before?” I asked, “Like,

I was going with this

I was in my prime, I occasionally went on missions to settle pack disputes. I had to leave my mate to do

did you deal

twisted, like he was remembering something awful. “It is… not

of the mate.

you ever have…nightmares?” I asked. I wasn’t sure

just felt like I was admitting

over in what it looked like pity. Or, at

in odd ways,” Ivan confessed, a pained look in his eye, “Sometimes

in

just in a mundane way, like of

it’s not just me. Is this just a mate

being part of the

the mate bond.

nights,” Ivan continued, “But eventually, I

“The source?”

bond’s way of trying to force you back together.

to leave your mate’s side

silent for a moment and then he asked,

debated on answering Ivan, but he’d been truthful to me. I could

said, “Getting killed.” When Ivan didn’t immediately reply, I

talking. Every anxiety

experienced over the past few days spilled out of me. “I know that it

and Alpha

keeps me up at night. The scene

head.”

of the mate bond,” he said, “The moments together are

all

that call that

know about mate bonds? Their view of love is heavily skewed,” Ivan sneered, and then after a

you want, but I can tell you that most humans don’t

is very different from the way

They don’t feel the