Page 206 of Marked By His Hunger

---

Sweetheart. My darling.

But when I told him?

He’d tilted his head, that quiet intensity settling over him.

“It means more to the Draugen,” he’d said.

My heart had practically exploded.

Because the second I learned about fated mates in class—really learned about them—it clicked.

Not a maybe.

Not a possibility.

A certainty.

Whatever else I learned here at the Asgarheim Runevald Institute…

Raven was mine.

And I was his.

The bond didn’t just say it.

It demanded it.

With him, I felt better than I ever had before.

Stronger.

Clearer.

Alive in a way that made everything before feel like I’d been walking half-asleep.

And the sex?

Yeah.

Fantastic didn’t even begin to cover it.

The fact that he had been a virgin before me?

Complete bullshit.

There was no way.

Raven knew my body better than I did.

Not in a creepy way.

Not in a practiced way.

Instinct.

Pure, terrifying instinct.

Like he could feel what I needed before I did.

---