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Instead, I listen to the wolf—which is really just another facet of my own soul—and grasp him closer.

“I want it, too,” I murmur against his lips. “I want you.”

Chapter 22

Rowan

I’m not entirely sure I’ve heard her.

She lies beneath me, coffee-brown eyes even darker than usual, cheeks flushed, and breaths coming fast.

I want you. That’s what she said to me.

“Alina,” I breathe. I think I’m shaking.

“Just don’t hate me,” she continues, eyes wide and voice trembling. “If I ruin you, please don’t…whatever the consequences are, I’m willing to face them, but only if you promise you won’t hate me for it.”

I press a kiss to her throat, choking back a moan at the hot rush of blood singing beneath her feverish skin. My Mate, my Mate, my Mate. The bond is howling at me, loose threads that have been singed short for so long yearning to be tied tightly together again.

“I could never hate you,” I promise with every fiber of my being. “I’d sooner die.”

With my mouth pressed to her neck, I part my lips and nip at her delicate skin. The breath rushes out of her in one shaky gasp, a silent encouragement. She wants me to mark her, to leave behind an imprint, proof that we have chosen each other, and I don’t hesitate to answer that craving.

I suckle on her skin, then bite down lightly. She presses me closer, and I have to clench my fists to keep myself from losing control right here and now.

“Rowan, please.”

I lift my head and kiss away her tears one by one.

Then, with a stuttering inhale, I press into her.

It feels so fucking good that I drop my head into the crook of her neck, biting her collarbone gently. She whimpers as I sink in just a couple of inches, then pull back out.

Alina is warm and wet and ready for me, our bodies made to fit together without question. Still, I am gentle with her as I thrust deeper, knowing that I’m larger than what usually might be comfortable for a woman who hasn’t been intimate with anyone in a long time.

When I bottom out, our bodies deliciously flush against each other, I pause to kiss her. Her grip on me is so tight that I wonder if she’ll ever let me go.

I start moving again, picking up the pace. The bed creaks softly, but I don’t hear anything except Alina gasping and crying my name.

It doesn’t take long for the rejected bond to respond. My wolf side growls with delight as the tattered tendrils of the bond snake out of their hiding places and tether themselves to Alina’s soul once again.

She tosses her head back and whines with pleasure when the bond snaps into place. It’s even more euphoric than the first time. Now, we are older and stronger and more capable of understanding our desires.

Now, there is no going back.

Because I will never reject her again. She is mine now, just as she has always been mine, and she will be mine for the rest of our lives.

Fuck the prophecy. Fuck Kseniya. Fuck anyone who dares suggest that Alina belongs anywhere other than right here in my arms.

“Rowan…oh, God…”

She climaxes with a sound that resembles a relieved sob, and I think I might be crying, too. The way her heat pulses around me, squeezing so beautifully tight, sends me over the edge. Two more thrusts and I’m spilling into her, and it’s only in hindsight, as I collapse beside her on the rumpled duvet, that I wonder if I should have pulled out.

But Alina seems to be thinking the same thing, laughing lightly as she glances down between her thighs where my seed is seeping out of her.

“Well,” she sighs. “Noah has been hinting he’d like a sibling…”

With my face pressed into the pillow, I let out a full-bellied laugh.