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.

sitting cracked on the pavement of

want to wallow in the anxiety of Griffin’s

so I threw myself into one of the few distractions | had:

else, Ivan’s sharp criticism kept

a punch today?” Ivan asked, his accent sharp and harsh. He held

seemed to move

too.”

comfort level with me seemed

Griffin every time he offered a

I’m half-asleep,”

is that?” Ivan asked, raising an eyebrow, “Are the king’s quarters not luxurious enough for you?

sarcastic, but I’d learned that was just

mind it these days. He was about the only person

me, afraid they’d offend their

eyes, “It’s these…well, can I ask you

“What is ii

mated, right?” Ivan’s eyes

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

was going with this line

to settle pack disputes. I had to leave my mate to do

did you

something awful. “It is… not easy,” he said, “There

the mate. You

asked. I wasn’t

felt like I was

pity. Or, at least, the

odd ways,” Ivan confessed, a pained look in his

in

a mundane way, like

not just me. Is this just a mate

remember vivid, haunting nightmares being part of

the mate bond.

for some long nights,” Ivan continued, “But

“The source?”

of

leave

was silent for a moment and then he

but he’d been truthful to me. I could to the

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

talking. Every anxiety

out of me. “I know that it

Alpha

be the victor. But it still keeps me up at night. The scene replays like

head.”

said, “The moments together are euphoric. Addicting. Yet it

apart all the

call that withdrawal, which

is heavily skewed,” Ivan sneered, and then after a moment,

can tell you that most humans don’t get vivid nightmares

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

feel the overwhelming need to