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“I’m literally just sitting here!”

“In my lap,” he pointed out, his voice dropping to that dangerous register that made my toes curl. “Smelling like mate and magic and everything I want to claim.”

“That’s—that’s not fair,” I stammered as his lips found that spot behind my ear that turned my bones to jelly. “You can’t just say things like that when I’m trying to read about… about…”

“About?” he prompted, clearly enjoying my struggle to form coherent sentences.

“About whatever’s in these very important books that you’re making impossible to focus on!”

His laugh was pure sin. “Would you like me to stop?”

“No,” I admitted, letting my head fall back against his shoulder. “But you’re still terrible.”

“The worst,” he agreed, pressing a kiss to my temple. “Now, shall we actually look at these books? Before my brothers return and accuse me of corrupting their mate?”

“Pretty sure we’re past the corruption stage,” I said, but I opened the ancient tome anyway. The pages were filled with elegant script and detailed illustrations of wolves and pack dynamics. “Oh, wow, this is…”

“Our family’s private collection,” Marcus explained, his chin resting on my shoulder as we looked at the pages together. “Passed down through generations of Stone alphas.”

“And now being used as props in your seduction technique?”

“Is it working?”

I elbowed him but couldn’t help smiling. “Shut up and teach me about wolf stuff. I have questions that need answers before you completely derail my brain.”

His answering growl suggested ‘wolf stuff’ might have to wait, but I was determined to at least try to understand what I was getting into. Even if his mouth on my neck was making that increasingly difficult.

“The Stone Pack has protected this territory for generations,” he murmured against my skin between kisses. “Since before the town was founded.”

“Fascinating,” I managed, torn between genuine interest and the distracting things his tongue was doing to my pulse point. “Tell me more about… mmm… historical stuff. If you can focus long enough to actually teach me anything.”

He chuckled, the sound vibrating through me. “Trying to challenge me with pack history?”

“Is it working?”

“Not even close.” His teeth grazed my neck, making me shiver. “But since you asked… our bloodline carries ancient power. The first wolves weren’t just shifters—they were something more.”

I tried to focus on his words instead of his mouth, genuinely wanting to understand but finding it increasingly difficult with every touch. Marcus Stone giving a history lesson while basically wrapped around me was an exercise in futility. “More how?”

“Different kinds of magic,” he said, one hand sliding under my shirt to trace patterns on my skin. “Different bloodlines bringing unique abilities. The Stone brothers have always appeared when powerful mates were needed.”

“That’s… interesting…” I gasped as he found a particularly sensitivespot, my quest for knowledge rapidly losing to pure sensation. “Very educational… oh God, do that again…”

“Later,” he said, voice dark with promise. “I’ll teach you everything about pack history. Every detail. Every tradition.” Each word was punctuated with a kiss that made coherent thought increasingly difficult. “When you can actually focus on more than what my mouth is doing.”

“That’s your fault,” I accused breathlessly. “You’re the one turning study time into seduction hour.”

“Guilty,” he agreed, not sounding sorry at all.

Time became a blur of Marcus’ touch, snippets of pack lore that I was definitely too distracted to properly retain, and the growing heat between us. I vaguely registered the sun shifting through the library windows, casting shadows across the ancient books we were definitely not reading anymore.

“We’re back!” Caleb’s voice carried through the manor, followed by the sound of multiple footsteps and what I assumed was my stuff being hauled in. “And our mate better be exactly where we left him!”

“Library,” Marcus called back, making no move to release me from his lap. If anything, his arms tightened slightly.

Derek appeared in the doorway first, took one look at our position, and growled. “Really, Marcus?”

“I’m teaching,” Marcus said innocently, though the way his thumb was stroking circles on my hip suggested his intentions weren’t entirely educational.