Page 139 of Eclipse Sector

“Sorry,” I muttered, doing my best to tame my inner animal. “Lorcan’s goading me.”

“You kind of deserve it, though,” she replied, causing my eyebrows to lift.

“Do I?”

She nodded. “You should have claimed me during my heat. Instead, you chose to wait. So yeah, you deserve to be goaded by your friends. In fact, I’m rather pleased they’re goading you on my behalf. I think they should have been doing this for years.”

I gaped at her. “You’re a sassy little traitor.”

She shrugged, the picture of false innocence. “Just being honest.”

“Hmm,” I hummed, leaning down to nip at her mouth. “I’ll remember this later when you’re begging me to let you come.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“You heard me, my darling, sassy Omega.” I nipped at her again, then slowly crawled off of her. “I’m going to teach you a lesson in delayed gratification.”

“Because six years didn’t already drive that lesson home?” she shot back without missing a beat.

Gods, I loved this female. “You’re making me want to forget the journals and fuck you instead, Ivana.”

She snorted. “Then maybe you need to give yourself that lesson indelayed gratification, Cillian. Because I no longer want your knot.”

I laughed. “Your slick cunt says otherwise, Omega.”

Her nostrils flared as she shoved her way off the couch, her hands landing on her hips. “I am not slick right now,Alpha.”

Another laugh escaped me. “And now you’re lying to me.”

“I am not.”

“You are,” I assured her, catching her by the waist before she could even think to escape me.

A shocked gasp left her as I palmed her pussy, my fingers pressing into her alluring heat.

“Even through your jeans, I can feel you, Vana.” I leaned down to place my lips at her ear. “And I can smell you, too.” I gently bit down on her earlobe, my hand massaging her through her pants. “You’re so fucking wet that you’re going to have to change clothes.”

I ground against her, ensuring she felt my responding need.

“Don’t worry, Vana. I want you just as bad, perhaps even more.” I licked a path along her neck, my teeth skimming her raging pulse. “Gods, I can’t wait to be inside you again. Tobiteyou. I want to do it now, say to hell with everything else.”

Mark her as the most important being in my life.

Prove to her that she’s my priority.

Make her mine.

“No,” Ivana breathed, her palms landing on my shoulders as she tried to push me away. “We have to find Ashlyn.”

I sighed. “Ivana?—”

“No, Cillian.” She pulled back and clasped my face between her hands. “I want you to put me first. I realized that the moment you left me to go to Kieran. So I can admit that much—I was wrong before about what I needed from a mate. You were right when you said I deserve an Alpha who prioritizes me.”

“Which is what I’m trying to do right now,” I told her. “I?—”

She gently placed her fingers over my lips, silencing me.

“I wasn’t done,” she softly chastised. “I know you want to put me first, and I love you for that. But this is about who we are as a mated pair, Cillian. I just want to be included in your process, to know that you respect me enough to tell me what’s going on. I want you to let me support you. So let me show you what that looks like. Let me show you who we can be.”