The term mate both disgusted and excited her at the same time. She hated it. The cord she’d felt snap into place when he’d met her eyes felt like a chain, trapping her, not a tether to keep her safe if she were to fall. She was pretty sure there was supposed to be some happy glow or joyous chorus happening inside of her, but instead, her head was pounding as she focused hard on rejecting the mental connection, something that was unique to the mate bond between the werewolves. The skin he’d touched was raw, as if the nerves were exposed. Tenia knew that touch was huge to the Canis lupus. Perhaps this new bond had her flesh crying out for his touch, but her own disgust of what he was a part of made her skin crawl at the mere memory of his hand on her arm. She despised the conflicting emotion
