Page 11

I was so fucking fucked.

I did not mean that literally. Even though, technically, yes, I’d just been actually fucking fucked. And Jesus, it had been wonderful. Better than anything else ever. Hands down.

But I still tasted Jezebel’s blood on my tongue as I held her through every tremble and aftershock of her orgasms.

Yes, there were plural.

Demon growled deep in satisfaction, and I felt our matebond surge and swirl around us before I raised my head from where I’d buried it against her throat.

Holy fuck. But it was beautiful. Green and blue swirls of light danced around our bodies, wrapping us up like Christmas presents. I was so stunned, I could hardly think.

And when her bright blue eyes opened, I didn’t know what to expect. But I knew the second she saw them, too.

Only, Jezebel wasn’t mystified like I was. Nor was she caught up in the magic of it all. The surprise. The beauty.

No, my sweet Angel looked scared.

Terrified, really.

She pushed against my chest, her lips twisting in a frown, and I felt her fear stab into me like a knife. I lifted off her, allowing her to scramble backwards till her back hit the headboard.

“Angel, honey, calm down,” I murmured in what I hoped was a calming tone.

“D-do you see it too?” she whimpered, clutching the sheet against her beautiful body.

“Jezebel, please don’t panic. I can explain,” I tried again, but she was shaking her head.

“Y-you have black fur. Green eyes and black fur. The wolf dog. The one I’ve been seeing. It’s you!”

I froze. What was she talking about? Had my sweet Angel been watching Demon as he stalked her at her place every night?

Was she afraid of my beast? My chest shook with the force of my growl, and I worked hard to staunch the sound as her eyes went even wider.

My Wolf was a prick, but he would never hurt Jezebel. I knew that like I knew I couldn’t live without her. Just then, he pushed words into my mind, echoing the sentiment.

Never hurt her. Mine. Mate.

“How do I know you won’t?” she whispered, tears flowing from her eyes.

“You heard him?” I asked, shocked.

I sat back on my ass as Jezebel nodded.

This was impossible.

How could she know?

She was human. I was sure of it. She shouldn’t be able to see these things. She definitely should not be able to hear Demon. My heart was pounding, and I didn’t know what to do.

Talk. Mate.

“Angel, I don’t?—”

“Please, just don’t lie or say I’m crazy. Just, I-I hear a lot of things. I hear him. The black wolf. What does he mean when he says mate? ”

I scrubbed my hand over my face, my eyes on her as she raised the sheet to her chin, holding it tight between her small fingers.

“Angel, I won’t lie to you. Not ever. I promise. And I will never, ever call you crazy. There’s just something I haven’t told you. Something about me,” I hesitated.

My thoughts were running wild, and it was all I could do not to freak the fuck out.

How the fuck was I supposed to tell this woman that I was a monster?

That Demon was what I called my Wolf.

And that he was a goddamn beast who went and claimed her as his mate when I’d been buried deep inside her sweet body.

“I think you just did,” she whispered, eyes wide.

“Did you read my mind, Angel?” I asked stunned.

Jezebel nodded her head slowly.

“I do that sometimes,” she whispered.

“Yeah? What else can you do?” I whispered, dying to know.

She shook her head.

“You first. Explain the wolf, please.”

“Okay, okay,” I murmured, raising my hands and inching closer to her.

She nodded her head, and I moved until I was seated beside her.

“First, I’m sorry I bit you without your consent. That wasn’t right of me, but Demon, well, he never bothers to ask for permission,” I explained and rubbed my hand over my face again.

“Demon?”

“Jezebel, what do you know about Shifters?”

“Shifters? Like Shapeshifters?” she asked, eyebrows raised.

I nodded.

“Um, nothing. I mean, I thought they were just make believe.”

“I see. Well, they’re not. I mean, I am one. A Wolf Shifter, that is.”

“A Wolf Shifter? Like a Werewolf?”

“Sorta, but not really. I mean, it’s not like the movies. I don’t turn into a mindless half beast at the full moon or anything. Shifters are dual-natured creatures.”

“Dual natured? But he’s separate from you,” she said.

My mouth went dry. She understood. This tiny human actually fucking understood, and my chest heaved with emotion.

“It’s not always like that for Shifters. But for me, yeah. Demon is autonomous, but I swear Jezebel, neither he nor I would ever hurt you.”

“But he bit me,” she said carefully.

“He marked you. Claimed you as ours,” I murmured, watching carefully for her reaction. “That bite claimed you as our mate, Jezebel.”

“Oh,” she replied, dropping the sheet as she stared at me with those luminous blue eyes.

“You could say that,” I grinned, moving slowly, letting her see my intentions in case she wanted me to stop. But she didn’t, so I just kept on coming at her until I had her wrapped in my arms, sitting on my lap.

“I did say that, but Emmet, what exactly does it mean?” she asked, placing her hands on my shoulders to balance herself.

“It’s big, Angel,” I said, the growl in my throat softly building.

With one hand, she used her fingers to lightly trace the tattoo that curled up my chest and onto my throat, pressing down harder where the growl was stuck in my throat.

“Is that him?” she asked.

I nodded slowly, unable to speak. The profundity at what was happening had rendered me mute. But this woman was really something else. She was precious. Special. Perfect.

Mine.

Yes, mine , I answered Demon.

“So, I keep seeing Demon because he lives inside you,” she said.

“Sometimes we switch skins, and he is me,” I whispered back.

“H-has he been coming to the house? Watching me from the woods?” she asked.

I nodded again, faster this time.

“Why?”

“Because you’re mine, Angel. You belong to me, and to my Wolf. He might be separate at times, but he’s still me. And you are mine to watch and to protect. Mine to cherish,” I said, dropping my head to nuzzle her cheek.

“Will I become one too?” she asked, touching my throat with one hand than using her other to touch the claiming bite I’d given her.

“No, it doesn’t work like that. But that bite marks you, so everyone else knows you’re spoken for. They’ll know you’re mine.”

“Okay,” she said, lifting her face to look at me.

“Okay?”

“Okay. I’m yours. And that means you’re mine, too, right?”

I nodded, helpless to do anything else, or so it would seem.

“So then I can do this,” she said, stealing a kiss as she turned in my arms.

It took a little maneuvering for her to straddle my hips and press her dripping sex against my hard length. My cock throbbed, dying to sink inside her.

But I was still reeling from the fact she’d said yes. Her voice echoed in my head on repeat, beating in time with my thundering heart.

“Okay. I’m yours.”

“I’m yours.”

“Yours.”

I licked my tongue into her mouth, savoring the spiked hot cocoa flavor of her, and committed our first kiss as mates to memory.

Demon watched from inside me. His ever present growl resonated with a deep, primal approval as I claimed the woman we both had chosen. The one fated for me and my Wolf.

The connection between us pulsed like an electric current that sent shivers through my veins. Our matebond was tightening and growing with every shared breath, every touch of our lips, and brush of our skin.

I never had a mate before, so I did not know what to expect. But right then, I felt Jezebel seep into my very soul. This bond was forged in the depths of our beings. I felt her in my bones, in my blood, in my fucking marrow.

I was tethering myself to her with every second that went by.

No, I was not the broken Wolf anymore. I was something more.

I was hers.

“Mine,” she whispered, and the sound of her breathy voice sent shivers down my spine.

Jezebel pulled me to her like gravity. I knew she was dangerous the first time I met her. But I didn’t know how quickly she’d earn the fealty of my Wolf.

Demon’s growl rumbled louder, reverberating through me like thunder.

I felt his hunger rising, matching the feverish desire that simmered beneath my skin.

She was intoxicating. Breathtaking. Heartbreaking in the way she submitted to me. I lifted her hips, placing myself at her entrance and let go, allowing her to sink down and take me at her own speed.

Fuck, it was beautiful.

She was beautiful.

Mouth open, she gasped as I filled her and I clutched her to me, needing to touch her everywhere I could reach.

It wasn’t just bodies coming together, it was our spirits intertwining. Every heartbeat synchronized in a rhythm that felt ancient and right.

So fucking right.

“Goddamn, Angel, look at you. That’s it. Let me in. Let go, and let me in,” I grunted, taking over the pace.

I flipped our positions, pushing her legs wider with my body as I slammed my hips into hers.

Fuck.

“Emmet!” she moaned my name, scratching at my shoulders, her blue eyes, wide and lust-glazed, and so damn pretty.

She was so warm.

So soft.

So mine.

“Need you to come for me, Angel. Come for me so I can claim you again. This time with you looking right at me,” I growled long and deep, more beast than man.

“Oh God. I-I’m coming,” she mewled, and her eyes widened, and that was when I struck.

My fangs sliced through her soft, pale skin like a hot knife through butter. I sipped from her life’s blood, and drank her deep, sealing her wound with my saliva as I licked the marks.

A primordial sense of pride filled me, knowing she would carry the scar of my bite on her forever.

Oh, this woman was mine.

Broken or not broken. It didn’t matter. I had a purpose now.

Jezebel was my reason. She was my everything. Demon snarled at the rightness of that statement, the Wolf building bridges between our souls faster than I could wrap my head around it.

Tonight, I was claiming something, someone , for myself.

Tonight, I was going to worship Jezebel’s heavenly body with every bit of mine.

I was going to prove to her that I meant this claiming down to my very soul. That long since under used muscle began to thump steadily inside my chest as I breathed in her delicious, sultry scent. Her arousal was fucking intoxicating.

She didn’t understand, could not possibly know, what this all meant. Caught up in the myth and magic of it, in the pleasure we conjured with every kiss and caress. The way she looked at me, as if I was something good and worthy of her, sent my pulse racing.

Oh, we’d talk in the morning. I would tell her all of it. My past. My problems with Demon. But not tonight.

Tonight was for showing my sweet Angel what it meant to belong to the Wolf.

Tonight was for breaking barriers and building bonds.

Tonight was just for us.

No one else existed in this bed we made together.

“You ready for me, Angel? Can you take me again?” I growled the question, my hand closing over her throat as I angled her head where I wanted it.

I kept her gaze, my dick still inside her, growing hard as I watched her blue eyes spark with lust-filled heat.

“Yes. Oh, yes,” she murmured, lifting her head the little bit my hold would allow, and licking into my mouth as she wrapped her arms around me.

Fuck me .

She was perfect. And I was falling for her hard and fast. This was more than claiming. This was loving.

Tonight, the rest of the world could go fuck itself. Right here, right now, it was only about me and mine.

Mate.