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“Fine. But only because you asked so nicely. Don’t expect me to follow commands like a trained dog just because you gave them.”

His chest rumbles with a chuckle between us, and I can feel the smile on his lips as he presses them closer to my skin.

“I wouldn’t dream of it, little bird.”

Those inquisitory lips of his make their way down the side of my face and don’t stop until they find mine. Pressing soft but firm with a greedy tenderness that makes my knees go weak.Thankfully, Hunter is holding me, or I’d make a fool of myself by falling to the ground at his feet. The kiss deepens, his tongue brushing against my lips and then stroking inside. He tastes like bacon and coffee.

My body tingles and burns with desire, my nipples hardening to stiff peaks, which rub shamelessly against Hunter’s hard muscles, causing him to groan into our kiss. His cock thickens against my stomach, only making my desire grow, my panties getting damper by the second.

The kiss goes on until there’s a knock at the door. I don’t know how long we stood there, but the spell is broken the moment Ginger’s loud and demanding voice booms from the other side of the front door.

“Open up, you horn dog. I can smell you both, and I’d rather not walk in on anything involving my brother's naked ass.”

We both laugh, and Hunter only releases his hold on me after another small peck on my lips. His erection tenting his sweats in a very obvious display of his response to our little make-out session. Gripping his cock through his pants, he adjusts himself, tucking his hard length up so it at least isn’t an arrow pointing directly at me and what we were leading up to had she not interrupted.

Turning to the front door, he calls out to his sister. “No one is naked, you perv.”

He opens the door and waves for Ginger to enter. She does so with the flourish of a spring chicken. Dressed in another of her fashionable outfits with thigh-high russet suede boots that almost perfectly match her hair and an ivory sweater dress that flares from her narrowed waist. Her high fashion ensemble is out of place among my flannel pajamas and Hunter's sweatpants.

“Hello, darlings. Everything tucked away?” she asks haughtily as she saunters into the cabin, travel coffee mug in hand.

Hunter grins and shakes his head at his sister, stepping through the open door behind her.

“Be good, Ginger, and stay put. I’ll text you when I know something.”

With a longing look filled with blatant carnal promises, Hunter backs out of the cabin. Leaving me flushed and horny while his sister looks on with amused mirth.

“So, Hunter finally told you he was your big bad wolf, huh?”

I roll my eyes at her but chuckle. Hunter is never going to live that down.

~

“Okay, so let me get this right,” Ginger and I have been sitting for over an hour now discussing things, primarily mate things but also about Hunter being an alpha, and I think I have it all figured out. Maybe. “So, mate bonds are formed differently for each type of non-human that can have mates, but for shifters, it starts with a smell?”

“Yes. Smell and scent are very important to shifters; it’s our first indication of a mate pull.”

“Okay, so you smell this person, and they smell like extra super awesome. Then if you touch that person, the mate pull increases, making you, like, extra horny and sensitive to their touch?”

That would explain why Hunter was so adamant about not touching me. He was trying not to get turned on or further progress the mate bond. I wonder why I can feel its effects as well? Because of my non-human ancestry? From what it sounds like, I shouldn’t and don’t have any non-human attributes other than a lingering blood connection to a long-dead great-great-grandfather or grandmother. I shouldn’t be affected in the sameway he is. For now, I keep that to myself. At least until I learn a little bit more about their world.

“Basically, yes. Or so I’ve been told. I haven’t experienced it myself,” Ginger confirms.

She is way too excited about all this, and I’m not sure if it’s because I am—or used to be—a celebrity, because she’s my friend, or because she just really likes watching her brother squirm.

“Okay. After the touching thing to solidify the mate bond, we, or the couple, would have to . . .” My cheeks redden as I recall what comes next. “Mate under a full moon, and during climax, the male will bite the female to complete the bond.”

“Not the male specifically but the more dominant partner, sometimes that’s the female. But either way, yes. The chase builds the desire and anticipation. Chasing is a bit of a kink for shifters.” Ginger winks at me conspiratorially, and I think back to when I asked Hunter to go on a run with me. Does he think I was propositioning him? Was I?

Ginger continues, completely ignoring my wide-eyed stare.

“Once they chase and fuck the mixing of DNA and essences, it connects the two on a biological and magical level we don’t quite understand. We know that once the bond is made, the one with the shorter life span gains the life span of the other.”

Right, because shifters live hundreds of years, as I’ve just learned. And others, like the fairies, can live for thousands. Non-humans also age slower than humans, which is why Dottie looks the same age as her son even though she’s eighty-freakin-five years old. I’m thankful to learn Hunter isn’t older than he appears; he actually is thirty, but Ryder, on the other hand, turns out to be fifty-five. Damn, I wish I aged like them.

I suppose if I mate with Hunter,I will.

That’s a thought that’ll stop you in your tracks. Mated to a wolf shifter and able to live for hundreds of years. The idea isn’t unappealing. Although scary, it is still intriguing.