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.

sure my phone is still sitting cracked on the pavement

wallow in the anxiety of Griffin’s absence. I knew that moping around would only make the

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

kept my mind focused on

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

hardly seemed to move it anyway. “You look like

too.”

couple of sessions with him, Ivan’s comfort level with me seemed to dramatically increase. I’m pretty sure

to Griffin every

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

raising an eyebrow, “Are the king’s quarters

learned that was

days. He

tip-toe around me, afraid they’d

I rolled my eyes, “It’s

“What is ii

you’re mated, right?” Ivan’s

you guys ever been separated before?” I

Ivan’s face — he knew where I was going with this line of

was in my prime, I occasionally went on missions to settle

you deal

face twisted, like he was remembering something awful. “It is… not easy,” he said, “There

the mate.

asked. I wasn’t sure

Maybe it just felt like I was admitting something vulnerable about

paused, looking me over in what it looked like pity. Or, at least, the closest that Ivan could

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

Sometimes in Chapter

just in a mundane way, like of

me. Is this

haunting nightmares being part of the package when everybody

the mate bond.

long nights,” Ivan continued, “But eventually,

“The source?”

the bond’s way of

to leave your

silent for a moment and then he asked, “What is it you’re

answering Ivan, but he’d been truthful to me.

Alpha Liam and losing,” I said, “Getting killed.” When Ivan didn’t immediately reply, I

talking. Every anxiety

over the past few days spilled out of

Alpha

the victor. But it still keeps me up

head.”

bond,” he said, “The moments together are euphoric. Addicting. Yet

all

that withdrawal,

bonds? Their view of love is heavily skewed,” Ivan sneered, and then after a moment, he added, “No

want, but I can tell you

trip. Human love is very different

They don’t feel the overwhelming need to be possessive over