His words are so sincere, his eyes to truthful, that I know he means what he’s saying.


    He steps back and I immediately miss the heat andfort of his touch.


    “About the sex ss,” he says, turning and running a hand through his hair. That wayward curl falls right back into ce over his forehead, as if it’s the only part of his body that is defiant and it insists on remaining so out of spite.


    “I want to be the best possible partner that I can be when I meet my mate. I want to know that no matter who she may have been with before me that she’ll never have regrets about me being herst or question that I am her best.”


    Wow.


    He chuckles, looking down. “My parents set a high standard, and they’re not fated mates. My father’s fated mate died after my half- brother was born. My mother never found hers. But you would never know it to see them together. They are so in love, and I have a much better understanding of what their love life entails now that I’ve been through the Academy.”


    He turns to look at me. “I want what my parents have. I want that kind of love and devotion from my mate and I want her to know that she’ll always have that from me. I want to be her best kisser, her best lover, the best person to make herugh, the best person to hold her when she’s down, the best person to father her pups. I never want a day in her life to go by where she questions that I’m not the most perfect man


    for her. So yes, I did everything I needed to do, learned everything I possibly could in the sex ss so that I can be the best possible man and lover to my mate.”


    This time I say it out loud.


    “Wow. Set high standards much?” I say, a bit overwhelmed by his deration. I wonder if my mate will evene close to wanting to be all those things for me.


    Mo


    He chuckles. “My parents taught and my sister that mates should be treasured. They are gifts sent from the Moon Goddess herself. My mother says that even though my father had a fated mate before her, she still feels that he’s a gift from the Moon Goddess. She says she can‘ t imagine him loving anyone more than he loves her. And she’ll tell anyone who listens that she couldn’t love anyone more than she loves my father.”


    “You don’t seem bothered that your mate might have had other lovers. I was under the impression that Alphas wanted their mates ‘pure‘.”


    He chuckles again. “Well, that would be quite the double–standard wouldn’t it? I wasn’t a virgin when I went into the Academy, and I certainly wasn’t one when I came out. My mother has always been very clear in her stance that double standards against women won’t be tolerated in our family. She’s actually the one who fought the Council to allow female Alphas to have their own sex ss.”


    He smiles. “She won, of course. My mother is quite a force to be reckoned with.”


    “I’d love to meet her someday,” I say, thinking about how different Christian’s parents seem to my own.


    “I’m sure you will. Not only will they want toe see me, but I will


    120413


    invite them to your eighteenth birthday party, along with several other important Alphas, and of course, eligible unmated Alphas,” he says


    “You’re already nning my eighteenth birthday party?” I ask, frowning.


    “It’s less than a year away, Enya. Whether or not you go to the Academy, young Alphas will want to know if you are their mate.”


    “And what about you, Christian? How are you going to find your <b>mate </b>while you’re here babysitting me and Shane for two years.”


    —


    –