Mate

Serena and Koen retreat to Serena’s room. She promises Koen she’ll have the progesterone shot tomorrow to prevent Estrus. She explains that she doesn’t want to have sex with anyone but him and doesn’t want him to compromise his position in the pack.

Koen presses himself against her. He offers to pleasure her but insists he can’t orgasm. After Serena orgasms, she feels sorrowful that she and Koen won’t get to be intimate again. He reveals that he’d throw everything away for her if he could.

Serena finds Amanda and Saul having breakfast in the kitchen the next morning. They tease her about Koen, but she swears nothing happened. Later, Koen heads out to handle another Vampyre issue at the border. Serena goes with him so that he can drop her off at Layla’s. Beforehand, they share an intimate conversation. Koen explains that the celibacy covenant is more complicated than she understands: It’s not just about sex. It is meant to prevent Alphas from forming intimate bonds of any kind. He fears breaking it because it would mean the destruction of the pack he worked so hard to reunite.