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“Tell me what happened in your dream, beautiful,” I whisper.

Her breath stutters on an inhale. She places her hand over mine where it’s resting on the curve of her hip and guides it further down her thigh. I let her take the lead, swallowing a growl when she moves my hand between her legs, and I feel how slick her skin is. She is soaking wet for me, and I think I might be losing my mind.

Is this real? Is this a dream? Is the Mating bond finally gaining sentience and taking over my perception of reality?

Do I even care?

Despite the chilly night, Alina is hot between her thighs. Even hotter when I brush my fingertip against her clit.

Her reaction is instantaneous. She cries out, slumping against me and dropping her forehead onto my shoulder.

“P-please, Rowan. Please.” Her voice is shaking. I think I’m shaking, too.

I tilt my head to press soft kisses against her throat as I shift the angle of my wrist and plunge a finger inside her. She lets out a sound that’s somewhere between a moan and a sob. My other hand strokes up and down her spine, soothing her as she whimpers and whines through a rapid, immediate orgasm.

“Don’t stop,” she begs.

“I wasn’t going to,” I assure her.

I slip a second finger inside. She’s so tight that it turns my thoughts to little more than useless radio static. I need her. All of her. If I don’t have her, I think I might die.

But I can’t have her like that. Never again. It might heal the Mating bond, and even though that sounds like the best possible outcome right now, I know that it would fuck everything up.

She hates me, I remind myself. This is just the Luna–the wolf queen–inside her rearing its head, and I am happy to appease it.

I’ll give her anything she asks. There’s no point in denying it. She could refuse to come home with me to Greenbriar territory over and over, and I would still come crawling back for just a morsel of her attention.

Screw the prophecy that claims she will ruin me. I would let her.

Alina grinds her hips against my palm, fucking herself on my fingers with such unapologetic disregard for the fact that, just hours ago, she was snarling in my face down in the kitchen.

My erection is painful at this point, but all I care about right now is her pleasure. That’s what coaxed me awake, after all. My Mate needed release, and the bond urged me to help her.

When a second orgasm barrels through her, Alina melts into me and grows still, save for her panting breaths and the raucous hammering of her pulse. I remove my hand from between her thighs and rest it on her leg, still rubbing her back with my other hand.

Several minutes pass until she comes back to life again. With lazy, languid movements, she sits upright in my lap and stares down at me. Her lower lip is swollen where she’s bitten it too hard, and her brown eyes have turned an inky black in the star-speckled night.

“Do you want to come inside?” she asks, so quietly that I’m not sure I’ve heard her correctly.

Yes, howls the wolf within. Yes, you do. Go inside. Take her to bed. Claim her again. Heal the bond.

But, just like the first time, the prophecy bellows louder than my instincts.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I breathe.

Deep down, I know if she says yes, I’ll go with her. Right now, I’ll do whatever she wants.

But Alina blinks in confusion. Then blinks again, as if coming out of a daze. Her gaze slides down to where our hips rest against each other, then back up at my face. She tips her head back and frowns at the moon.

When she finally meets my gaze again, her scent has dulled, and I know it’s over.

“Maybe it’s not a good idea,” she murmurs.

I nod. “Maybe not.”

“But, you…” She trails off and, in explanation, brushes her fingertips against the zipper of my jeans.

My head drops back painfully against the siding at just that barest touch. I want her to touch me so badly that I know it’d take nothing at all for me to beg on my knees for it.