Finding Home

Chapter Forty Eight-Paige

"Not a joke, he's actually here."

Paige froze in the hallway. Nathan was standing on her doorstep. He looked like shit. He was wearing the same clothes she'd seen him in the last time, they we're disheveled and his hair was a mess. It looked like he'd run his hands through it a million times. The dark circles under his eyes made his face look sunken and shallow.

"What are you doing here?" she asked quietly, not quite believing he was actually here.

"What do you think?" He stepped into the apartment. "Did you really think I would just let this go like that? Let you go, without saying goodbye?"

"It's what you did last time," Lennette mumbled under her breath.

"Lennette," Paige said in warning.

"Right, I'll just take a walk down to the pub or something. Call me if you need me." She gathered her coat and purse and left, closing the door behind her. They stood staring at each other, saying nothing. Their eyes were locked on each other. The hurt in Nathan's eyes made Paige's heart ache.

"Why Paige?" Nathan asked. "Why leave like that? Why spend the night and then disappear the next day? Why didn't you talk to me? Were you trying to get back at me or something?"

"No, I wouldn't- I wasn't- I just-" She couldn't find the words. She turned back to the living room.

"You couldn't what?" He followed her. "Paige, just talk to me," he pleaded.

"I CAN'T!" she yelled. "I can't talk to you because I'd look in you eyes and get lost and I know I'd stay with you forever."

"But I didn't ask you to stay, I told you I wouldn't."

"I know you didn't. You didn't have too. If I stayed another two months, I would have fallen even more in love with you and if it didn't work..." She trailed off. She took a big breath to steady herself, the last thing she wanted to do was cry. Crying would hurt Nathan, it make him stay until she stopped. She needed to make him accept that this wouldn't work and leave so she could fall to pieces in private.

"If it didn't work I wouldn't be able to leave. The mate bond would fade and you'd find someone else and I can't watch that. I can't watch you fall in love with someone else."

"I wouldn't do that. I love you Paige. Only you. I would never leave you."

"You would!" She yelled. "You wouldn't have a choice! I know how the mate bond works. The minute you see someone new you'll completely forget about me. I can't go through that. I can't lose you like that."

"So what? You just run away? You write me a letter, hop on a plane to fly around the world and pretend like the last month never happened? Did you really think I wouldn't follow you?" She didn't say anything. That's exactly that she thought. She never in a million years thought that Nathan would follow her.

"Paige, I love you. Only you. I meant it when I said I give you all of me. I am in this forever. I don't care that your wolf is asleep. I don't care that you'll never shift and mark me. I love you. I want you," he said emphatically moving closer to her. The words warmed Paige's heart. She was trying hard not to give into her feelings. She just wanted to go to him, to feel his arms around her. To feel safe and secure. To feel home.

"Tell me you don't want me Paige." He took a step toward her.

"Nathan," she pleaded.

"Tell me you don't want me. If you don't want me I will go." Another step. "But if you do. I will stay. I will stay with you forever."

"But the pack."

"Screw the pack."

"Nathan," s said again. The tears she tried so desperately to keep away started falling now.

"I'm serious. I'm nothing without you. I'll be weak and I won't be able to protect them. It would be better for someone else to be Alpha."

"There is no one else. You don't have any other siblings or children. Who would lead them?" She tried to make him see reason. To see beyond the mate bond. "This is just the mate bond talking. If you stay you'll regret it in two months." She wiped the tear from her cheeks as even more fell.

"I won't." His voice was firm. "My love for you is more than the mate bond. I have loved you since that night in Sydney. I loved you when you told me off in Auckland, and Borneo, and Chang Mai. I think I loved you before I ever met you. I don't think it was a coincidence we kept running into each other. I think this was meant to happen. I think we were meant to be. We're endgame."

He stepped to her now, reaching to cup her face in his hands. She leaned into his hand, loving the tingles she felt where the connected. "Nathan." He used his thumbs to wipe her tears.

"I love you Paige." His voice was soft. "Tell me to go and I will."

"Nathan." Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Do you want me to go?"

She closed her eyes and gave her head a slight shake, moving softly in his hands. "No," her voice was horse, she cleared it and said again, "No Nathan. I don't. I want you to stay," she took a shaky breath, "With me. Forever."

He grinned at her words before leaning down to kiss her. He was hesitant at first, not wanting to scare her off. Paige appreciated this but as soon as their lips met she wanted more, needed more. She wrapped her arms around him and deepened the kiss. He met her with equal passion, he moved a hand to the back of her head and angled it up more to have more of her. His other wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

Paige felt as if her entire body was lit up, as if every nerve was reacting to him all at once. Sparks burst from every place they touched. He broke their kiss and leaned his forehead against hers. She struggled to catch her breath. "I'm yours Paige." He said, trying to catch his own. "Wherever you go I am yours. I don't care if we stay here in London, or if we go back to the pack, or if we go somewhere else entirely. I never want to leave your side again. I'll follow you anywhere and everywhere. I'll even follow you to the moon if I have to."

She chuckled slightly at his exaggeration. "Right now, I only want you to follow me to the bed room." She leaned away and looked at him with a smirk. Taking his hand, she lead him out of the living room. With a smirk of his own, he followed her, just as he said he would.