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.

my phone is still sitting cracked on the pavement of Yorba Linda.

of Griffin’s absence. I knew that

slower, so I threw myself into one of the few distractions |

sharp criticism kept my mind

can’t seem to land a punch today?” Ivan asked, his accent sharp and harsh. He held

to move it anyway. “You look like

too.”

a couple of sessions with him, Ivan’s comfort level with me seemed to dramatically

I wasn’t going to tattle to Griffin every time he offered a little

I feel like I’m half-asleep,” I said,

Ivan asked, raising an eyebrow, “Are the

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

He was about the

me, afraid they’d

rolled my eyes, “It’s these…well,

“What is ii

you’re mated, right?”

before?” I

I was going with this line of questioning. “A

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

did you deal

he was remembering something awful. “It is… not easy,”

of the mate. You must simply

have…nightmares?” I asked. I wasn’t sure why I was

just felt like I

pity. Or, at least, the closest

of my mate dying in odd ways,” Ivan confessed, a pained look in his eye,

Sometimes in

just in a mundane way,

not just me. Is this just a

part

the mate bond.

Ivan continued, “But eventually, I

“The source?”

he explained, “It’s the bond’s way of trying

to leave your mate’s

and then he asked, “What is it

he’d been truthful to me. I could to

I said, “Getting killed.” When

talking. Every anxiety

that I’d experienced over the past few days spilled out of me. “I know that it probably wouldn’t

and Alpha Chapter

it still keeps me up at night. The scene replays

head.”

“The moments together are euphoric. Addicting. Yet it only

all the more

call that withdrawal, which isn’t usually a good

bonds? Their view of love is heavily skewed,” Ivan sneered, and

want, but I can tell

a business trip. Human love is very different from the way werewolves love.

like being independent. They don’t feel the overwhelming